#HOW COME LIKE ALL OF THEIR NAMES ARE CONNECTED TO ROMAN CULTURE

[anthurak]

The Surprising Similarities of Little Red and Odin

So this was originally going to be another ‘how Ruby could be an Odin allusion’ post, but in the process of brainstorming, I ended up landing on what feels like a more fun broader topic:

Namely the very interesting similarities in the stories of Little Red Riding Hood and Odin, and the fun potential overlap these two folkloric figures could have when writing fantasy stories.

First off, there are a lot of surprising similarities between the two.

Little Red Riding Hood is a girl known for wearing a hooded cloak (a ‘riding hood’) who wanders through the woods to visit her grandmother, and is menaced and potentially eaten by a monstrous wolf.

And funny enough, basically all of these traits can be found in Odin in one way or another:

For one, Odin has a well-known penchant for wandering Midgard in disguise, as a mysterious hooded figure. Indeed, a hooded cloak is one of Odin’s most well-known visual traits. And just like Little Red, Odin is ALSO menaced by a monstrous wolf in the form of Fenrir, who likewise devours Odin during Ragnarok.

Even Red Riding Hood being a girl has some surprising overlap.

See, we often think of Odin as being this wise, old bearded patriarch of the norse gods, but in reality a lot of that image is the result of more modern depictions attaching elements of Zeus and the christian God to Odin, who doesn’t have nearly as much of those elements as many modern depictions would have you believe. For example, Odin is way more of a loner and trickster archetype who’s often off questing for knowledge.

Fun fact actually; basically our only pre-christian written source we have on Norse mythology comes to us courtesy of the Romans and the contact they had with the Scandinavians via trade routes. Specifically one General Tacitus, who wrote an ethnography in about 98 CE of the Germanic peoples Rome was trading with, which includes some descriptions of the gods they worshiped, which is again pretty much our earliest written source on the Norse pantheon.

Now the thing to remember here is that in these accounts, the Norse gods are referred to as various Roman gods. This was a thing the Romans did with basically every other culture they encountered as a means of cultural assimilation; conflating that cultures’ gods with whichever of their own gods the Romans thought were similar enough, basically saying ‘your gods are our gods’. For example, the accounts seems to refer to Tyr as Mars (aka Ares), likely due to both being war gods, and Thor as Hercules, probably due to both being super strong and giant slayers.

What’s interesting is that the account seem to refer to Odin, the leader of the pantheon, not as Jupiter/Zeus, but rather as Mercury, aka HERMES. A tricksy traveler who among other things, shepherds the dead to the afterlife. I mean if that doesn’t tell you that comparing Odin to Zeus is pretty far off the mark, I don’t know what does.

So with that tangent out of the way, most interestingly for the purposes of this discussion, Odin has a surprising number of feminine traits. Odin seeks and takes the council of women (in particular the Nornir, from whom he learns the prophecies of Ragnarok), something noted to set him apart from the other male gods. And he even learns and practices the art of witchcraft, something practiced specifically by women in Norse mythology. There is at least one instance of Odin even being specifically called a witch, or at least a ‘male witch’, again a specifically feminine term. Plus there’s the fact that Odin is often noted as not being as much of burly fighter like most of the Norse gods, and is instead much more of a crafty schemer.

So taken all together, I think we can really start to see the similarities.

In fact, I think it’s not so hard to believe that the original folktale of Little Red Riding Hood could have some folkloric connection to Odin. As in, if we followed the tellings and retellings of Little Red Riding Hood back through the generations far enough, we might arrive at, among other places, people telling stories of Odin and Fenrir.

BUT, this post is not about making conspiracy theories about folklore, mythology and European oral history.

It’s about pitching fun and interesting ideas about the potential of blending together Odin and Little Red Riding Hood.

Obviously I’ve already talked a fair bit about the fun allusions and parallels Ruby Rose has and could have to Odin; cool and mysterious hooded cloak, use of a spear-like weapon, a character journey with a major emphasis on a pursuit of knowledge and answers, defiant refusal to accept any kind of ‘fate’ of the world (see her contrast with Oz), death symbolism, and of course the possibility of getting a sick eye-patch in the future.

But even outside of RWBY, I think there’s so much fun potential for more general fantasy stories with twists on fairy tales:

I mean everyone’s always re-imagining Little Red as some huntress or ranger with an affinity for or some other connection to wolves.

But just picture a take on Little Red Riding Hood who, in addition to the red hood, penchant for wandering the woods and a complicated relationship with canines, also happens to be a nerdy, goth trans girl who practices witchcraft and has a sick eyepatch and a pair of pet ravens and uses a walking stick that turns into a badass magic spear and she’s also a crafty schemer and a bit of troll and also might sometimes be plotting a war crime or two.

I mean if you ask me that sounds pretty sick. :D

And finally, if you happen to the kind of LOTR fan who remembers that Odin was one of the main inspirations for Gandalf, then yes this means there IS in fact at least a bit of mythological precedent for Big Naturals Gandalf XD

[anniflamma]

so…I spent like hours thinking hard on this and I can’t believe I came up with this..mind you this is my own Crackhead theory so don’t take anything I say seriously but it goes.

me and my aunt were eating dinner and talking about mythology and I told her about a really Christian man coming up to me and saying “because you don’t believe in god and Jesus you will go to hell” and my Pegan but said “cool ima go pet a three headed dog” and then my aunt told me “well Christianity doesn’t really makes sense to me because where the hell did it come from because the first prominent religions were ones such as Greece and Roman beliefs”

and that got me thinking, so I decided to do some thinking.

and I got some connections so Chaos is like the lord right? The very first and most powerful, and he created the primordials, that created the titans and so on, and then Zeus came along and screwed everything up right? Then a few hundred years later Persephone or what mortals at the time called her Core, and after our lovely goddess of spring starting taking care of all of the mistakes, such as taking care of the rejected children of Zeus and others, so I was like who the hell is her dad because she has the power of nature from Demeter but where did she get her chaotic power from? Her father can’t be Zeus because she doesn’t have any power of the sky, and it can’t be Posiden because she has no power of any body of water..

then I remembered Demeter prayed and begged for a daughter..and the fates are directly tied to Chaos so Chaos gave Persephone to Demeter..CHAOS IS PERSEPHONE DAD!! It makes sense to me when I think about it really hard..

and I also realized because the oldest version of Persephone was so feared..but because of *cough* Christian writers a lot of those stories changed because of that. Sadly I don’t think a lot of people know that.

I DO NOT HATE THE CHRISTIAN RELIGION BUT YA’LL BE CONFUSING AS HELL, and also please understand THAT NOT ALL WITCHCRAFT IS BAD I SWEAR I HEAR THAT ALL THE TIME.

okay enough of my rant I hope that shines Al title light in my head.

That is an interesting take and connection! To be honest, syncretism and the evolution of religions and cultures are my biggest hyperfixations. Well, I grew up Christian and now hyperfixate on the Bible with a more historical and cultural perspective. So I'm not really as confused when it comes to the Christian religion. If you have any questions, just ask, and I will try my best to answer them!

The thing with European religion is that almost all of them stem from Proto-Indo-European mythology. And that includes the Abrahamic faith (which makes many people feel very uneasy). This is why the planet Venus is almost always female and the sun is male, and so on and so forth! Many people don't know that the Hebrew Bible starts off as henotheistic (believing that many gods exist but worshipping only one of them, while it is acceptable if other people worship other gods). Then it rapidly becomes monolatristic (acknowledging that many gods may exist but only worshipping one of them, and it is not acceptable if other people worship other gods) and then ends with being purely monotheistic. Of course, the Bible has been edited and changed to make it fit more with the monotheistic view, such as removing acknowledgments of the existence of other Canaanite gods. And removing the goddess Asherah, God/Yahweh's wife, and replacing her name with "the grove" or just the Holy Spirit. And the Christian faith did get syncretized with Roman/Greek pagan faith. There is no hell in the Bible, but there is an underworld! It's called Sheol, the "land of gloom and deep darkness." But there is no deep dive on what Sheol really is or how it was in the bible. It was just the underworld where all the dead people went. However, Sheol pretty much got paired up with Hades in the New Testament because both of them were the name of the underworld, so it just made sense, right? But the Greeks also had Tartarus, which is the place in Hades where you get tortured for eternity. And that is where the Christian hell pretty much stems from, it's just Tartarus but with Satan....

This is just a rough generalization, and the whole thing is more complex than what I have brought up here!

I don't think, though, that it was the Christians who changed Persephone. Kore (Persephone) was already really old before Christianity became even a thing. It's a really young religion compared to the Greek gods. 😅

But the concept of Christian saints was created in a way so it would be easier to convert pagans. Instead of removing the traditions, ceremonies, and celebrations, the god they worshipped was switched with a saint that could fit the description of that said deity. So Saint Sebastian is pretty much just the Christian version of Apollo. A twink God of archery, sports, healing, plagues, and gayness was replaced with the twink saint of archery, sports, healing, plagues, and accidental gay awakening. A COINCIDENCE? I THINK NOT!! This is my crackhead theory!!!

And about witchcraft. Even the Bible thinks that not all witchcraft is bad. What I understand is there is good magic and bad magic. Necromancy is one of the bad ones. King Saul performed necromancy and brought Samuel's soul back, and that pissed Samuel off so much that he cursed Saul's whole family. But then we have good magic, like I dunno Jacob makes some weird unclear stuff with his sheep, and they become really healthy. I think the only thing Jesus said about witchcraft was like: "yeah, you can use your magic for good, and that is a good thing, but you don't need it if you already believe in my Father"!

There is a whole weird rabbit hole on Christian syncretization with the Greek gods....

Then we have the ancient history of where exactly God/Yahweh comes from. There is this popular theory that scholars think Yahweh most likely comes from the ancient Mesopotamian pantheon. And around the economic collapse during the Bronze Age, the worship of then Yahweh became isolated, which created the ancient Hebrews. Essentially, it started with an ancient warrior-storm god that became a god of the whole world. And I'm not even going to start with Gnosticism! What is like Christian Polytheism but with steroids!

I'm gonna stop here! Sorry I kinda derailed!

[blueberryforestelf]

Russian Influence in Moral Orel:

Okay so a while ago I just finished watching Moral Orel and I noticed that there were some connections between it and Russian culture. I also noticed that the show had just become popular in Russia and there are dubbed episodes available on VK. Even though Moral Orel is an American TV show and the creator of the show is of Greek descent, here are some connections on the show that linked to Russian culture and social cues:

The heavy alcoholism on the show: Clay and most of the people in Moralton are straight-up alcoholics, and even Bloberta was an alcoholic before she met Clay. Of course, alcohol is a significant part of Russian culture and the country has the highest consumption of alcohol in the world. Not only are alcoholic beverages are consumed in high amounts, but is also very much socially accepted and encouraged. Even underaged children are encouraged to drink. In the episode Maturity, Orel thought drinking would make him “wise and mature” like his father and in Help young Bloberta stated that drinking alcohol “makes us better people”.

There’s a city in Russia called Orel.

Orel means “Eagle” in Russian (and other Slavic languages). So in the Russian dub Orel’s name is Eagle.

Ms. Censordoll loves pickled eggs and keeps a jar full of them in her library. Russian cuisine consists of a lot of pickled foods, including pickled eggs, cabbage, potatoes, fish, watermelon, etc.

If you notice in the Puppington household, you’ll see an oriental carpet on the living room floor. Oriented carpets are very common in Russian households and are often on floors or hung on walls.

Clay’s reckless driving and Russia is famous for its many reckless drivers and very frequent traffic accidents (I just had to add this to the list lol)

Clay’s car looks like a Lada (a Russian brand of cars).

The “depressing”, conservative, perfectionistic, and collective culture of Moralton is quite similar to that of Russian culture. The entire town is centered around a church which literally controls everything in the town and how it operates. The people are fed Christian propaganda and are not allowed to think differently or do things differently than what is socially acceptable, otherwise they would be outcasted and have to face harsh consequences. This pretty much relates to Russia’s Soviet/Communist Era of when housing, stores, businesses, etc. were all controlled by the government and not the people. People were not allowed to solely own their own property or businesses, and if they were to speak up about problems and issues facing their economy or speak out against propaganda or the government, they would would face the harsh and legal consequences (i.e. prison camp or deportation). Moralton is quite similar to that, except it’s in the United States where people have more freedom to do want they want and express themselves.

Many people in Moralton tend to be “cold”, reserved, strict, and cynical, which is a common stereotype among Russians.

The townspeople’s love for classical arts, music, and theatre, like in the School Pageant episode. Also Bloberta comes from a family of choir singers/musicians and her singing voice is similar to that of an opera singer. Russians are known for their love for classical and opera music as it is a very significant part of their culture. I’ve met many Russians who come from a family of musicians, are talented musicians outside of their occupation, or happen to own a musical instrument in their homes.

Moral Orel is a satire that explores the hypocrisy of religious and social institutions with a touch of dark humor and irony, which is similar to the works of Russian authors like Fyodor Dostoevsky, who used similar techniques to critique religious and social mores.

Moral Orel is a stop-motion animated series and Russians are very fond of stop-motion animation as it has a rich history in Russian media and cinema. Famous Russian animators such as Roman Kachanov, Ladislas Starevich and Ivan Ivanov-Vano were pioneers of stop-motion media during the Soviet Era. Many beloved animated films and shows made during the Soviet Era were stop-motion animated. Also a lot of stop-motion animated media known today (such as Coraline, Corpse Bride, Isle of Dogs, etc.) are becoming very popular in Russia. Also, Orel loves making little stop-motion movies!

Thanks for reading! 😁

[littlechaoticwitch]

Winx Club Rewrite: Season 4

I understand this is me being very late to the party, but that's pretty on-brand for me at this point lol

A few years ago, I started to work on a possible rewrite for Fate: The Winx Saga but it soon became this monstrous project of rewriting the entire franchise. Because while this series is one of my beloved childhood series, it is also very messy with its world-building and plotlines, as well being done dirty over and over again by its countless reboots. As much as I would have loved to create a full-on alternative universe like the ones I've seen on tumblr for years, it just took up so much of my time that could have been spent on other projects and it was starting to feel more like a chore than anything else. Eventually, I did create some fashion boards for how to translate their outfits from the show into real life, and wrote up some concept ideas for their live-action costumes, which led to me just writing up the notes I had for the rewrite to share them with y'all.

Some of these ideas were inspired by other people's rewrite of the series, some of these ideas came to me while writing this up, and a lot of these are my attempt to make sense of Winx Club's fucked-up lore. While these were originally written with a live-action reboot in mind, these could also work for an animated reboot targeted for teens/young adults.

This is probably the extent I'll do for any sort of Winx Club rewrite, but it was still fun!

-Roxanne "Roxy" Hensley is the last fairy on Earth, whose mother was an escapee of Tir Na Nog but had her wings ripped off by Grey's parents. A Native American girl who is fully into the scene culture, she is a rebellious loner who has a better time connecting with animals than with people, which is a result of her mother dying when she was still young. She is quite close with her father, who runs an animal shelter right next to Gardenia's main beach. When meeting the Winx Club, she refuses to believe magic is real but after seeing the girls trying to defend her from the Hunters, she ends up getting her own wings when trying to help out. After Morgana's death, the Hunters try to manipulate her into joining their ranks and even use the Black Circle to corrupt her fairy form, but she goes on a vengeful rampage instead, killing two of the Hunters before Bloom is able is calm her down. Once she comes back to her senses, she is allowed to keep the White Circle to remember Morgana, but the High Ladies let her keep the Black Circle as she understands the extent of its true power. She is a short lesbian with maroon-brown hair done in a wolf cut and grey eyes (which turn green when transformed), and she has a service dog named Artu.

-The Hunters consist of Grey, Dane, Sebastian (Fate!Sky), and Roman (Fate!Riven). The last members of a cult which tried to destroy all magic on Earth, but unlike their ancestors, they wish to control humanity using alchemy. Grey is the leader, with the power over water but he focuses on blood magic, whether it's using his own to heal himself to take control of someone's body using their blood. Sebastian is the second-in-command, with the ability to control a destructive blue fire to burn anything in his path. Dane acts as the spy for the group, as his control over the air allows him to have super sensitive hearing, as well as the ability to create supersonic soundwaves, turn invisible, and move as quick as the wind. Finally, there is Roman, who has the power over the earth and acts as the muscles of the group, using his super strength combined with his preference of using rocks to create fatal punches.

-This season focuses on Bloom coming to terms with being aromantic-asexual. Her relationship with Sky was a result of being caught up in the fantasy of a fairy-tale romance (which she loves reading about), and she admits to Flora that a major reason she was unhappy in the relationship was because she was forcing herself to have romantic feelings.

-This season also focuses on Bloom still grieving over Sky's death. While she no longer loved him romantically, she still cared for him and even after they had broken things off for good, she saw the potential of their friendship being rebuilt. She blames herself for his death, believing he should have stayed in Eraklyon where he was safe, but with time and the support of her friends, she learns to accept his passing in a healthy manner. Later on, she uses her experience to help Roxy overcome her own grief with losing Morgana, which helps bring the younger girl back to her senses.

-Morgana is NOT Roxy's mother, though she does come to care for Roxy like a daughter and see her as a worthy heir to her throne. Though she is angry at humanity for their sins and being so eager to chase magic away, she does understand humans were being brainwashed by the Hunters and she took her people to Tir Na Nog for safety. Unlike the others, she chooses to leave the realm in order to defend the girls from the Hunters, turning her into a mentor figure despite the fact outside of her realm drains her magic. Sadly, in the end, she sacrifices herself to close a portal which threatened to kill her people.

-The Major Fairies are known as High Ladies, with each one being in charge of a different season. The High Ladies had their magic taken from them by the Hunters and trapped in a deep slumber in their own palaces, which is why Morgana needed help from the Winx Club. Diana (Fate!Aisha) is the High Lady of Spring, Sibylla (Fate!Flora) is the High Lady of Fall, Aurora (Fate!Stella) is the High Lady of Winter, and Hestia (Fate!Musa) is the High Lady of Summer. Unlike in the cartoon, the four do not have active roles besides their connection to the Hunters, helping the Winx in the final battle, and after Morgana's death, deciding to rule Tir Na Nog as a group.

-Nex returns, and his friendship with Musa continues to grow into something more, beginning when she asks him to do her shoulder tattoo. After finding out she is a fairy, Nex comes clean and reveals his own secret; his family has been cursed for centuries, with the males destined to become werewolves, but they have learned how to handle it and became protectors instead of mindless creatures. Despite her originally wanting to break the curse, Musa learns to accept it and after spending more time together, the two decide to start a relationship (especially since Musa feels ready to start looking for love again)

-The other love interests (Brandon, Timmy, Nabu, and Helia) do not appear in this season, as they all have graduated and went straight to working. Both Nabu and Brandon are preparing themselves for their roles as king consorts, Timmy decided to stay at Red Fountain to become its potential headmaster one day, and Helia has gone back to pursuing her art career, where she has started to teach at a school.

-Bloom works at a normal pet store, Stella works at a small clothing store, Flora works at Vanessa's flower shop, Tecna works at a video game store, Musa works at a bartender, and Aisha gets a job as a yoga studio

-Things which shall be excluded from this season: The band plotline (except maybe one episode where the Winx pretends to be a band to lure the Hunters, but Musa is the lead singer while Bloom plays guitar), Love & Pet store, the extra wings, the Ethereal Fairies, the Gifts of Destiny (Sophix is used as a design for Diana's followers, Lovix is used a design for Aurora's followers, & the Black Gift is used as inspiration for Roxy's corrupted form), and all the bad romance subplots (Mitzi starts off as a shallow mean girl before working with the Hunters, Jason Queen is just a potential manager who acts more like a paternal figure to Musa, and Nabu does not have to die for the sake of a bad plot)

-Enchantix is not useless against the Wizards, but due to Earth's odd magical system, the Hunters do have the advantage of being more unpredictable. Despite fairy forms not existing on Earth, Believix was created from Roxy's magical core interacting with the Winx's magic, but each girl still has to earn their form by having someone from Earth believe in magic. The form grows in strength when more people believe in the Winx Club, but it also grows when the girls believe in themselves, each other, and their own magic; unfortunately, Earth is the only realm in which the girls can use this form, as it would be useless in the Magical Dimension.

-Believix takes on a more traditional Japanese "magical girl"-inspired look, with the girls still having different styles but with uniformed pieces and different-colored hair. Bloom earned hers through Roxy, Musa earned hers though Nex, Tecna earned hers when helping a young genius named Naoki, Stella earned hers when helping a young girl named Terra, Flora earned hers through Macy, and Aisha earned hers when helping a young man named Matt.

-As an Earth fairy, Roxy would have been born in her "transformed" state (pointed ears, sharp teeth, pupil-less eyes, wings that grow with age, etc.) but due to her half-human status and being exposed to the Winx's magic, she does gain a fairy form. Her magic is connected to animals (making her the "Fairy of the Wild"), as she was born to a Spring Court Fairy. Unlike in the show, her design is closer to that of an Enchantix fairy.

-The beginning starts off with Bloom taking up a teaching job at Alfea while her friends are working hard towards their own dreams, as she feels suddenly directionless in her life. After almost three years, Bloom asks Faragonda why Earth is a forbidden place for magic and Faragonda explains that centuries ago, Earth was a magical place, but a cult of anti-magic users hunted down those with gifts. As a result, fairies hid themselves away in Tir Na Nog while witches and wizards hid themselves among the mortals, hoping for they could proudly show off their magic in public. That evening, as Bloom is doing an obstacle course with her class, a strange woman appears and Bloom defends her from four men known as the Hunters, leading to the woman revealing herself as Queen Morgana of the Earth Fairies… and she needs help finding the last fairy of Earth.

[my-pjo-stuff]

Hey I saw your south german-american Thalia and Jason grace post and I wanted to ask if you had any more headcanons around it? I've always loved the German American Grace family headcanons but there's not a lot of content with it

(btw I'm not German but I find it really cool)

Thanks a lot! I'm glad you enjoy the headcanons ^^ Now to be quite honest, I don't really have much more on them. Mostly because at this point I prefer my german-american Luke headcanon. Though if I had to come up a few it's probably just a lot of angst from Jason. I mean...Thalia at least had some time to know her german side. She knows the basics of the culture and speaks the language. The "Servus" from the original post for example being a friendly greeting in south Germany which I think she would use. But Jason? He may aswell not be German at all. Besides some light language tics like a hard "R" or throaty "such" he has nothing. Not even his own name remains as it was supposed to be, having been changed to the English pronunciation. He's Roman, not German. And I think that would so, so tragic. Especially on top with his whole identity issues caused by the amnesia. Just imagine having to find out that not only did you lose your memories, but you also had a whole facet of your identity stolen from you. Thalia would be fine if she got dropped in Germany tomorrow, Jason would be completely lost. He doesn't even know the language. Just imagine Jason finding out he's partially German and attempting to learn it, only to fail horribly. German is a complicated language and frankly said, a torture to learn (if the tales of my friends with German as a second language). Or Jason trying to somehow connect to the culture only to find himself as a complete loss. German culture is multifaceted and very catholic in the south. Someone raised at CJ would probably have his troubles really understanding it. And this isn't even mentioning that in the very old traditions and communities, Jason most certainly would feel like an outsider. Would be an outsider, considering how most people would have partaken and been in these communities ever since they were born.

[fallstaticexit]

List 5 facts about a favorite sim of yours, and send this to simblrs whose sims you adore 💜

Thank you for the ask :) I always get sooo excited when I get an opportunity to answer one of these!

Since next COTF update is a bit Noa centered plus I've been playing with him in game the past couple days (and he's my little bb) I'll blabber about my favorite ex-pirate. 🤭💖

Noa was born in Selvadorada - there's a lot Noa doesn't know about his past. The little he does know are the very blurry early memories he had before he was taken in by pirates as a toddler and the little bits of information he was able to scrape up over time from his crewmates or the Freudian slip from his caretaker/Captain, Knox during one of his passionate drunken rants. He had no idea his mother was a witch until he after he had Adie and we actually learn in the coming update how he finds out about his Aunt Nora (via flashback). His way of connecting with his birth home is by embracing Selvadoradian culture by opening his failing restaurant, A Taste of Selvadorada.

Noa was raised by pirates - After the death of his mother when he was a toddler, Noa was taken in by pirates. Before he met Orion and the Briars, the pirates was the only family he ever knew. His captain, Captain Knox, was the closest thing he had to a father even if they had a rough relationship where it often felt like Knox resented Noa. He also considered Knox's son, Roman, as his brother; their relationship wasn't all that great either, especially as they got older. He grew up around liars and thieves and for his whole life that's what he had to become in order to survive. Even though Noa is no longer a pirate, he still has the instincts of one and is constantly having to shake away old habits.

Noa is still besties with Orion's ex - When Orion was 14/15, she dated the Sulani Chief's son, Sione. Sione is a really nice guy but he and Orion just wasn't a match plus her heart was destined for Noa whether she knew it or not so their breakup was inevitable. Noa and Sione both share a trauma of losing someone close to them which is how they ended up being friends. Years have past and they still talk often and consider each other soul brothers (and yes, Orion was a little annoyed at first but she's used to it lol )

Noa was named after his Aunt Nora - (did anyone figure this out yet? 🥹 ) Nora is not impressed nor pleased by this fact. Quite frankly, she doesn't particularly care for Noa at all. It's complicated...which leads to Fact 5:

Noa doesn't trust Nora - we get into the why next update but Noa can always tell when someone's lying to him or if he needs to keep his guard up. It's a trait you pick up when you're a pirate, it's how you survive. And all the bells are ringing when it comes to Nora.

[littlesparklight]

How the thing with roman and greek mythology works? I know that is not the same, that the roman gods aren't the greeks ones with another name, i know that, but is true that there were a syncretism of deities and many of the myths and gods were conflated, or just adopted to the culture (that the case of Apollo, who doesn't have a roman god to be syncretised with...)

But for others gods like Diana and Latona for example, they're still be Artemis and Leto, at least before the conflation, because they were protagonists on the Leto and Artemis' myths in greek literature, like the Niobe's one.

So i know they're diferents gods, but after the sincretism i believe they became to be the same, or just an equivalent... Is a bit hard to understand it well

Hi, anon!

I don't really feel competent to answer this - it's confusing to me as well. You might be better off trying to find some academic-but-written-for-popular-understanding books on Roman mythology, to be honest. Or at least someone here on Tumblr better versed in the Roman side, too, because I'm really not.

All I know in terms of what might be relevant for the evolution of the intermingling is that the Greeks were trading and then settling in colonies in Sicily and southern Italy from... 1000/900 BCE or something like that? Maybe a little later. And at that point cultural things start to transfer, especially to the Etruscans.

And obviously, as soon as something like that has come into a new culture and gets adopted/kept, its developed its own life.

(There were even some Mycenaean settlements in south-eastern Italy in the Bronze Age, but I doubt that would have much of any bearing on the intermingling of myths and such that happen later. I just think it's neat that the connections have been there for so long, if not consistent, perhaps!)

[felixravinstills]

would be interested to hear about how you come up with character names! (for the Ravinstill family and other OCs) i'm a big fan of the thg canon naming cultures and when i see a fic writer going for some of the ancient roman deep cuts i'm excited about that haha

You know fun fact I was just talking to someone about this! @persephoneprice, hope you don't mind the @ but while some of this is a rehash of what I told you already, maybe some of the other stuff/examples can help you out!

Anyway, the first step is always to figure out the main things about the character! Since thg characters generally have pretty on the nose names for a lot of the characters, then it's useful to know what their purpose in the story/their character trajectory is.

A lot of the time, I play a weird game of word association. If I need multiple names, I usually try to stick to a theme. If the theme isn't really strong, or I can't think of one, then I try to pick whether I want the name to be Greek or Roman (this is specifically for Capitol names).

The best way to illustrate how I come up with names is to just provide examples:

My Ravinstill Naming Convention

With the Ravinstills (the family tree post), Felix having a name meaning "fortunate" and not being lucky at all (in my interpretation) influenced how I named his grandfather, Albanus. He's named for an alternative way to refer to the city of Alba Longa which in myth/the Aeneid is the city that Ascanius founds as a precursor to Romulus and Remus founding Rome. It's meant to be ironic in that Maximinius prioritizes the Capitol to basically the detriment of everything else ultimately, and Aeneas in the Aeneid does the same thing leading to the foundation of Lavinium -> Alba Longa -> Rome. But also the idea of Alba Longa as a precursor to the founding of Rome (essentially saying it comes before Rome, and Rome as metaphor for HG's Capitol) <- when I said naming was a game of word association. This is what I meant.

I named Felix's father Ascanio (which obviously comes from Ascanius) to draw a stronger connection between him and Albanus than his other siblings, but gave him the Italian version of the name to differentiate him from his family.

I try to name the rest of the Ravinstills after pre-Roman Republic inspired names (although some names have some overlap like Junius and Tullius). A couple of them are also named for Trojans (Creusa and Kassandra), or Aeneas' connection to Aphrodite (Cythera). Sabina is named for the territory of the ancient Sabine people who bordered Latium.

Felix's mom (Metaneira) is named for a queen who accidentally stops her son from becoming immortal and is the only one besides the Ravinstills who survive the Dark Days to have a name that isn't related to the Aeneid/pre-Republic Rome in some direct way. In a way, her different naming convention also sets her apart.

Marius and Gnaeus are named for Gaius Marius and Gnaeus Pompey of the Late Roman Republic, because in my mind, I was comparing Snow to Caesar and wanted them to be named for Roman politicians/generals who rose to power and fell from it around the same time as Caesar, and people always talk about Marius and Pompey before getting to the Julius Caesar history class section. Also Coriolanus is sometimes thought to be called Gnaeus Marcius Coriolanus (but Gnaeus could also just be Gaius), and I think the similarities in name are fun, because those two were always meant to be tbosas' Coriolanus' (one-sided) political rivals before I decided anything else for them.

Other Thoughts

The Capitol also seems to have a tendency to have either simple surnames (typically words) or fancier/surnames.

Simple: Snow, Price, Creed, Moss, Click, Trinket, Crane, Fling

Fancier: Heavensbee, Ravinstill

There's also the average American sounding surnames: Anderson, Breen, Canville, Phipps (?)

Fabrica What-Not seems to be an outlier in the surname department, but she does prove you can go wild with them if you want, but if you don't want your OC standing out with their surname, then you can try to come up with one that fits those above categories. If you're not making a Capitol OC, then I recommend just comparing the common conventions for surnames (or also first names) and trying to follow those in whatever District or location you're OC is from.

Or if you don't mind making your OC related to a canon character, you can just steal their surname (thank you, minor character Satyria Click for your service to my OCs).

I've rambled about my other OC names in author's notes on my fics, but if you don't want to dig through those author's notes (they're long and there a lot of them), feel free to ask about specific ones!

Thanks for the ask! I hope this is coherent!

[beloved-of-storms-and-sands]

Hello!

I'd like to ask if you're willing to share anything about how you honor and/or work with Eilistraee?

I'd like to learn more about her in an pagan/spiritual context as I keep coming back to her as I explore my own path.

Hello-hello! Thank you for your question.

While you asked how I personally work with Eilistraee, most of my answer will be what, where, and who you can look into to build relationship with Her. The reason is that my practice is personal and obscure is some ways. I use a lot of UPG, syncretism, astrolatry and other things, that for most people won't be the way. I will mention some of it in this post, and, if you still be interested, you can send me another ask and there I will talk only about my experience and associations.

With that out of the way, let's start.

First thing you can look into is her fandom page. This page about Eilistraee was one of the best in whole fandom site and there was a reason for it. The reason I love it so much, because people made fantastic work and put together Her history and ways drow honour Her. First of all, you just need to read it to get acquainted. And there are sections about rituals and how She helps her followers. We'll focus on rituals. Most of them are fantasy, like, for example, hunting monsters, but it will be useful to know them, they can be somehow transformed into a modern style or for a person personally. There are also more realistic ones, like, for example, hair care, and you can do them right now.

The second source to look at is Artemis and Diana. The authors admitted that they were inspired by Artemis when creating Eilistraee, and since Diana is Artemis's Roman counterpart, you can also look at her. Only, I will say that in my practice I look more at all aspects of Artemis-Diana except for the natural one. In particular, hunting, the Moon and moonlight, and freedom.

Eilistraee has other aspects besides those of Artemis-Diana. We will talk about them here.

Hunting, look at other Deities associated with hunting animals and monsters.

Freedom. A very vague concept, can be understood as both running through the forest, as well as fighting for your rights. It all depends on how you perceive it, I think Eilistraee will not be against both.))

Beauty, you can look at any Deities associated with beauty. Just remember that Eilistraee is the Goddess of beauty, but not love.

Dancing, singing, playing instruments, and I attribute all other art to Her, you can look at the Muses and the creative aspects of such Gods as Apollo, Het-Heru, Bragi, and others.

Blacksmithing, look at Hephaestus and Vulcan.

Moon and moonlight, look at any Moon Deity.

Swordwork. This is something unique that I haven't seen in other Deities, but as the name suggests, look at everything that has to do with swords. History, how they are made, how to care for them, how to use them, types, and all that sort of stuff.

It would be good to look at Her family and relationships with Them. I honor Her father, brother, and nephew before He was turned by L/olth. It would be helpful to look at Her allies, enemies, loved ones, and unloved creatures. Also look at the history, culture, and life of the drow, both underground and surface. I have a special connection because of My DnD character.

I use Astrolatry in my practice, so if you're interested in that, you can check it out too. The planets that I associate with Her are the primary Moon, obviously, and the secondary Venus and Mercury.

My personal gnosis includes aspects of all art and also light, both in spiritual and physical terms.

That is all for now. If you have any questions, let me know.

[witchofthesouls]

Hi there! I wanted to ask about the Rudis ask, if you could comment more about the TFP-Soundwave option? All your fic ideas are lovely! Have a nice day :) !!

When it comes down to it, I just really want to delve down into the mythos that the Aligned universe gave us.

TFP in general seems to pull a lot of influence from Ancient Greek and Roman culture and mythos as well as pulling from Judeo-Christian roots.

I mean, there's so much going on, and yet... It feels undersold or fallen wayside. Even though it's all right there!

The War kicked off exponentially when the High Council named Orion Pax as the next Prime

The Autobots on Earth fell apart without Optimus

Questions about the role of the Matrix of Leadership: Is Orion Pax and Optimus Prime completely separate entities?

The Primal Artifacts and their immense power (and Megatron's willingness to desecrate a Prime's corpse)

Smokescreen getting worked up when Ratchet question Optimus' decision to destroy the only thing that could revive their homeworld

Fucking Unicron sleeping in Earth's core

And this is just the top of my head.

So being a Prime isn't just a leadership position, but has some deeply religious/mythical divine status akin to a mortal God-king.

And the sheer fact that Megatron managed to oppose an actual Prime chosen by the damn Matrix itself, just shows how much of a force of personality and charisma the guy is as well as how much faith he inspired in his own people.

There is so much more that could have been done, especially since people are biting for more lore on Decepticon culture. Like FUUUUUUUU-

There seems to be a fandom take that Decepticons are either atheists or deeply reject religion as opposed to the very pious Autobots. That doesn't seem to work in the Aligned universe.

There should be sects and cults surrounding the Thirteen Primes, especially with the theme of the triads and duos: Prima and Megatronus. Megatronus and Solus. Liege Maximo, Megatronus, and Solus. Prima, Alpha Trion, and Alchemist Prime. (Like where's the rest of the myths and parables? )

Shoot, secret ones!

So hear me out, what if Megatron was the rallying call for the Decepticons because the Fallen was considered the patron of the oppressed? He was the Prime of Chaos, the closest to the Unicron by Primus' own hand, the Undefeated.

It was said that he and Solus were lovers, so is it too much of a step that they were the First Conjunx?

I am the one within all of you, little brother.

From Prima to Thirteen. From those forged within Solus and those that rise from below. In the deep Wilds touched by none and the very spark of our fledgling civilization.

Amalgamous may share the claim to Nature with his beastly shapes, but I am the Shadow to the Light, the unfettered Instinct without Rationality, the Unmaker upon our Creator, the Beast of Madness that dwells within everyone and everything. 

Even you, quicksilver and trickster, cannot deny my Domain. Not even Prima, the Eldest of us all, can deny my power.

-- excerpt of a WIP where Megatronus Prime answers Liege Maximo's questions on his wanderings and leeway to everywhere

Megatron walking away from the High Council would cement his position among his people -the downtrodden, the lower castes, the lost and forlorn -the "Uncrowned Prime." He had purposely invoked the Fallen's name since he needed the ferocious strength to force change in society. Megatronus is the only Prime to remain victorious against all foes; his siblings didn't force him to yield, Megatronus Prime willingly laid down his arms and exiled himself.

It would explain the fanatical devotion and outpour of support against Optimus, the chosen official Prime, especially with the religious angle of Prima slighting Megatronus once more should the Matrix be explicitly connected to the first Prime. And then there's the fact that Prima was a founding father of Cybertronian civilization, so there's the slant of "rebel and tear down the established regime!"

The very name of the Decepticons could have been a hail to Megatronus' companionship with Amalgamous and Liege Maximo, both Primes were mainly tricksters. (In the gladiatorial clades, they were often invoked for victory.)

TFP Soundwave isn't just the Decepticon, he's Megatron's Decepticon. Whatever Megatron wants, he does. Soundwave put down Airachnid when she tried to set the Nemesis off Earth.

I've seen takes where Soundwave is deeply in love with Megatron or the ghost of the old Megatron, and that's why he stayed even when there's nothing left but dust. I've seen a take where Megatron sets fire to Cybertron as a "love song" in a style to mimic how Megatronus and Solus changed Cybertron.

I have yet to see a deeply faithful/religious Soundwave seeing Megatron as a Sign from his chosen God/Prime to hold the match, prep the gas, and start a firestorm. He essentially used his rudis as kindling upon the altar of Megatronus Prime; Wilds and Passion and Madness Incarnated. (And seeing the Decepticons take back cities and planet, Dark Energon zombies, and Megatron's multiple resurrections from the dead or near death, Soundwave's fucking deep in devotion.)

[nothorses]

just some thoughts on the whole "cultural Christianity" thing: i think many people use it to mean something I personally would call more like "Christian normativity", in other words the assumption that everything religious is Christian. Not every dickish antitheist i've encountered was raised Christian and hates all religions now because that's their only frame of reference, some of them were raised fully atheist but still assume that their (usually very stereotyped and not remotely true-to-life) image of Christianity is the only form of religiosity that exists because (white, evangelical) Christianity is the dominant form in the US. The whole "true atheism" movement of the mid-2000s (which was actually just antitheism and Islamophobia repackaged for the post-911 world) contributed a lot to the current popular view of atheists being synonymous with bad-faith antitheist cold takes in my view.

I have to say I don't really understand why atheists OR people of different religions get really into trying to debunk each other's beliefs/practices and I tend to see it as asshole behavior regardless of who is doing it, so this does color my impression of atheists when I see weirdly long twitter threads about how stupid Christianity is because X Y Z reductive descriptions of Roman Catholic theology, but no more so than when I open the Jumblr tag and every third post is complaining about Christianity instead of discussing anything actually relevant to Judaism 🤷🏻‍♂️

Yeah, I really think "Christian normativity" is a good term for it- and I like that it's kind of hard to slap that as a label onto individuals. A person is not "Christian normative", but they might have grown up under Christian hegemony, and the work of unpacking Christian normativity is likely to be long and hard.

But just like other forms of "normativity"- cisnormativity, heteronormativity- this is something everyone is influenced by, including the people who are erased by it. Trans people can still hold cisnormative ideals, and queer people can hold heternormative ideals. In fact, most do! Even after they think they've finished the work!

That doesn't mean they benefit from it, and there is no binary state of being or not being cis/heteronormative. It's something we all have to unpack over the course of our lives; being trans and queer just means it's generally more obvious that we need to start that process, and generally more obvious what to unpack.

Even then, a person with exclusively straight friends who realizes they're gay when they're 50 is probably still going to have a harder time of it than a straight ally raised by gay parents & surrounded by queer people.

Atheists are also not Christian, and there are things about Christian normativity that stick out to us because of that. Christian language in things like the pledge of alleigance, on federal currency, and in government documents, sticks out to most atheists! Mandatory prayer time in US public schools certainly stuck out to atheists, which is why atheists fought to end it.

The things a Christian-raised atheist notices are going to be different from the things an atheist-raised atheist does. Someone raised atheist in connection to a non-Christian spirituality/religion/culture is going to notice different things as well, and someone raised religious but not Christian will notice different things than all the rest.

Culture comes from everything from religion, to community, to family, to friends, to even the media you're exposed to. To imply that there is a binary state in which individual people are either Culturally Christian or Not Culturally Christian is reductive at best. There are trends, there are individuals who claim the label for themselves, and there is a cultural force that needs to be named and addressed.

But ultimately, it's always going to be more complicated than that. There will always be people who don't fit in one of those two boxes, no matter how you draw that line.

Best practice is generally to let other people decide how to categorize themselves.

[historia-vitae-magistras]

I am absolutely stuck on the dynamic between Brighid, Arthur, Alfred, and Jack rn. They're both Arthur's sons, but Jack was hers to raise first and she contributed to Alfred's upbringing too, and they may as well be hers with all the people they're getting from her, and that's happening because of Arthur's policies. And Arthur, for his part, parents them based on vague memories of his mother - but you've said a lot of those are actually Brighid.

Point of all that being, would you mind expanding on the early part of Arthur and Brighid's relationship, before he became a colonizing shithead? What are these memories with her that he's attributing to their mother? How did that relationship influence his parenting (both the things that he's aware were Brighid and the things that he thinks were mum but were actually Brighid?)

Okay so just to preface this so no one starts reading this like they do my more modern things where I can usually have a basis in fairly accepted and confirmable fact, we’re going so far back that not only is this not chronologically accurate, its only archaeologically plausible. This is the literary version of saying, "it's for ceremonial purposes” on the label of an artefact anyone with courage would call a prehistoric bong. There’s a big trend for “History of X in 100 Objects” right now. In my personal collection is a 'History of Ireland in 100 objects.' I’m not saying this is accurate or realistic. However, it is based on historical themes that lend themselves to what is ultimately a historical fantasy as plausible as I can write it. That said, let's crack this can of fuckery.

So, to start out, this is all pre-1066, which is when, after the Norman invasions of England, Wales, and and Southern Scotland, the history of the British in Ireland begins. Before that, we’re talking about a world where Irish raiders are a menace on the Welsh coast, and the Dál Riada is the result of an Irish migration, where the peoples on the Irish Coast brought Gaelic culture and eventually merged with and overtook the Pictish culture already occupying the area. The balance of power is very different in this world. This is not the 18th and 19th century when Brighid is firmly under the heel of a British jackboot and even when the British government was willing to concede slightly on empire, the British army nearly revolted when it was even considered to maybe, perhaps, rein in unionist violence in nineteen-fourteen just months shy of WW1. Winston Churchill was also behind that, in case you need more reasons why he's an allmighty cunt.

I give them all Celtic roots. Brighid is probably 300-500 years older than Alasdair, and then political solidification in Wales brought Rhys along and then Arthur as the reorganization of Celtic Britons in Roman Britain. This might be a hot take, but while the Anglo-Saxon ‘invasion’ in the 400s-500s brought Germanic rule and language to England, the Cumbrians and other Celts were not wiped out. Mostly it's a cultural shift. So he’s born as much a Celt as his siblings and experiences dramatic changes earlier in his life than they do. However, if you get to the root of English culture under all of the bullshit of empire and all the German royalty who built up their legitimacy by reviving Anglo-Saxon memory, history has more Celtic elements than someone might think.

In Northern England, Southern Scotland, Eastern Ireland, and the maritime fringes of Wales, there was an Iron Age tribe by the name of the Brigantes, whose name was taken from the northern goddess Brigantia, which means either ‘the exalted’ or ‘highlanders.’ Either way works for me because it is the root word of Brighid’s name, the Welsh word for prestige, honour, dignity and power, all things connected to fire, power and elevation. As all modern knowledge of her comes from 8 inscriptions and some statuary material, and her name is so goddamn appropriate, I’m running with it. It’s so close to Brittania. According to Strabo, writing about a now-lost account of a Greek sailor and explorer Pytheas, it comes from a feminine name likely from the Celts itself.

In the tradition of Catholic patron saints of specific places, Brigantia seems to have been a goddess associated with lakes, rivers, and coastlines. Saint Brighid, from the same name base, is the patron saint of Ireland, bastard children, babies, children, midwives, sailors and poets. Me, hitting a bong in 2021; yeah, that sounds like mother and daughter to me. Eirian, whose name is a version of the Welsh name for King Arthur’s mother because I’m ✨original✨ ruled her own kingdom directly. She was a queen regnant in a culture that saw that crop up often. She was a product of the Iron Age, a warrior culture where swords and a hierarchy of militancy ruled society. Brighid was her firstborn child, and very much her mother’s daughter, sharing that long, beautiful hibernian gold (think rose gold) hair down to her waist. She was tall and gorgeous, with a head for politics as well as martial talent, but Eirian was as much a goddess of the hearth as the sea and war; she still took her tributes in blood, and treasure. She ruled directly with iron and faith.

Brighid, however, while just as capable of that, had a personality that found early Christianity very appealing. It’s hard for us to imagine now, but 1,500-2,000 years ago, Christianity was, in many ways, a much gentler religion than some flavours of what we now call paganism. And while just as capable at every aspect of ruling as her mother, I do think Brighid has aspects to her personality that were kinder, a bit softer. She was an artist in the scriptoriums, a weaver, all these things in her golden age. And she was grown, or near it, by the time Arthur came along. And the gentlest things he remembers about his mother are usually Brighid. An image of a woman weaving, red hair pouring down her back as her fingers fly over the shuttle and her feet work the treadles. That is Brighid. Another of a woman’s elegant and quick fingers on the spindle, fitting the handle into a clumsy child’s hands, laughing when he gets frustrated. Also Brighid. Picking him up and giving him a raspberry even when he kicks to be let down because he wants to run everywhere, is also Brighid. Teaching him to put his knife into the kidney because he’s young, and that's the highest he can reach? That’s his mother. The two images, his powerful mother and his bright sister swirl together when Arthur gets into a strange mood.

He'll yammer away in Cumbrian and hum the tune of the songs who's words he cant remember. When she died in the 5th or 6th century, they scattered as their various regions expanded and solidified linguistically as Common Bythronic became Welsh, Gaelic, and Cumbrian (Scotland’s native Celtic language is actually extinct, replaced by Irish Gaelic in late antiquity.) England imploded under the pressure of the Germanic migrations, so I picture Arthur kind of wandering through his numerous kingdoms most of the year. Brighid may have, too. It was common for high-status people to go on progress and stay with the nobility from time to time in various European societies. However, I can also see her with her own mini-kingdom inside the Gaelic system of ranking kings, over kings and high kings. Arthur would usually spend the winter with one of his siblings. Usually Rhys, but he would have been welcome with Brighid for a long time, even as the wee cuckoo, half-German bastard that he was. He may have even lived with her for long periods. But once, she was power, and once she loved him and once he wasn't the cause of all the horror of her years. It was a different world before the Vikings came.

[randomnameless]

Faerghus is based on Russia and Adrestia on Rome right? I can't tell why they made the agarthan language Russian. Is it some kinda big brain move to connect them like Ancient Greece and Rome are connected, or was that just a coincidence?

On another note, some nabatean names (among other things) are inspired by Celtic/Irish mythology so their language can even be old Irish.

In the end it depends on who you attribute Ancient Greece to. It could be the original of both of their cultures and they split off and did their own thing? Idk, we just don't know enough...

Eh...

I don't remember where I saw that post (maybe the dev interview from 2020?) but Faerghus's real life inspirations was a mix match between various "northern" "european" countries, idk, Fr-england-ssia or something like this.

While Adrestia has a coliseum and used to rule over "the world" a long time ago, Enbarr's current architecture is closer to the eastern part of the roman empire (that'd later be called the byzantine empire!) who... used way more greek than latin! IIRC in that same interview the devs said Adrestia was inspired by Germany and Italy? Italian inspirations (historical at least) are evident with the coliseum and Enbarr's palace (it has a crapton of mosaics in Nopes!) while the German ones can be spot through names of Adrestian characters and particles, and how squads are called.

I think the first historical nonsense that pissed me was about someone trying to fit ancient greece/rome in the Nabatean/Agarthan conflict - but reading too much about languages and irl parallels, while fun to honeypot, is ultimately a sterile debate when Japan has been known to use several languages/names in various video games because they sounded cool/exotic enough (Jugdral's Sigurd and Deirdre and Chulainn come to mind, but then Granvalle's knight squads made me learn the name of some colors in german!) - even if Agarthan units being named after ancient sages, and their titans - i mean giant robots - having an arte called "titanomachy" is pretty revealing on the aesthetic the devs wanted to give them, which is also all kinds of interesting when you take into account that Rhea is the only one of Sothis's kids who is named in this fashion - from her name we could guess she's an Agarthan, but no, Sothis named her youngest kid the Agarthan way?

Anyways, I thought about it for funsies in the original language post (rather, tags) to be something like aramaic, with an alphabet that would be so different from modern day Fodlan's alphabet that randoms who never thought those symbols might be letters would just, ignore it - but it's basically headcanon land.

If nabatean language came from Sothis, is it like "the blue sea star's language", or are they even communicating in "Nabatean" through words, can this language be vocalised by humans, is it like entish, or was it kept secret and only used between Nabateans like Tolkien's khuzdul?

Or, about Agarthans - maybe they used a certain language before being wiped out and shared it with those lizards and some other random humans, Sothis confined them underground, Enbarrians kept on using the Agarthan language and through centuries of usage it eventually branched to become the Enbarr language - and pissed to speak something even similar to the language of those beasts, Agarthans evolved their original language to the one we can now spot in Shambala?

[thenightling]

The anti-Wiccan ranting among some occultists and Neo Pagans is so self-righteous and all over social media and all their rants about how "problematic" it is are things true in ALL forms of Neo Paganism.

And don't get me started on those that start calling you ill-educated, or stupid for considering Wicca a flavor of Neo-Paganism.

It's like they think the Hermetic Order of the Golden Dawn were doing things precisely the way the Ancient Greeks were. There's a reason that "Neo" is there. It means "new." Whether you like it or not all forms of Neo Pagan religion are cobbled together from scraps or re-invented whole cloth and, whether they want to admit it or not, borrowing from each other.

You'll find Diana worshipers using Gaelic symbolism, Morpheus invocations using the poppy flower as a symbol in the summoning. (Morphine's connection to the God of Dreams is a nineteenth century invention), and you'll find Asatru followers arguing with Greco-Roman Pagans about which religion came up with werewolves first, usually the Asatru insisting their religion is the source (even though the very word lycanthrope comes from the Greek myth of king Lycaon of Arcadia).

It's weirdly fashionable to be anti-Wiccan because of some of the questionable people who have been tied to it like Gardner and Crowley. Crowley's biggest contribution was the spelling of Magic with a k to differentiate between illusion and occult practice. That man has a very questionable history but sometimes not-so-great people come up with good ideas. And a quick visual distinction between illusion and spell casting is convenient, no matter who invented it. "But Wiccans culturally appropriate!" Annnd? Name a religion that doesn't. Borrowing aspects of faith from open religions is not "appropriation."

If it's your faith you believe it to be true, you're not "stealing it." We don't call it appropriation when a scientist adopts another scientist's theory because it has logic that makes sense to him.

Just because it's popular to bash something and call it bad doesn't make it right. I do not agree with attacking aging hippies for following the "wrong" religion.

It's shameful and I think a lot of the people doing this aren't self-aware enough to realize they are behaving like the very oppressive "Christians" that may have once told them that they were Satanic and going to Hell for following the wrong religion.

Yes, Wicca is a "New" patchwork quilt of old folk beliefs but that shouldn't offend you by their merely existing.

I have news for you. This is true with most religions and this is especially true with Neo Paganism. It's part of why there are so many Astru bigots, because the version INVENTED (yes, invented) in the late nineteenth century and later adopted by some World War 2 Nazis was cobbled together by a bigot.

And though it might anger you to consider Wicca to be a form of Neo Paganism, it is. Its conception is very similar to how most Neo Paganism was shaped a century earlier. Most true Ancient Pagan practices have been lost to history. It's all reinvention or borrowings now.

Stop looking for religions to hate. It's like watching the Pagan equivalent of "I'm Protestant and those Catholics are NOT Christians! Look at all the horrible things they've done as a collective. We've never done anything bad ever as a collective group!"

And then in a special kind of cognitive dissonance, you get the ones who don't like Wicca for the "Harm none" rule and think calling them the "Fluffy bunny of Paganism" is the great Gotchya to shame them. It's so strange to me.

[thevampiremarie]

Okay, so, Sandman hc request:

In the comics, we see Morpheus interact with Greek, Roman, Norse, Egyptian, and even Japanese god/s. What other pantheon/tradition do you imagine him dealing with? Which gods/characters in particular? And/or how do you see him fitting into other cultures' pantheons? Based on previous discussions, I'm thinking particularly Filipino or Chinese traditions, but please pick whatever culture/pantheon you like!

OH YEAH THIS IS UP MY ALLEY

(Note: I am not well read on every mythology I mention - I am mentioning some that I don’t know as a way to open up a conversation in the fandom on how we can view Dream (and all of the Endless) in less Eurocentric ways. If I get anything wrong, I can accept it, as long as we can keep expanding all the ways the Endless can be and all the people they can represent ❤️)

Something I always felt was lacking in Sandman was like. I mean this is beef I have with classical studies/classical mythology in general. The ancient world was SO CONNECTED and to view only the Greek/Roman/Egyptian people as connected is a deeply unfortunate retcon

I mean. Lmao treehouse spoilers I guess??? But not really.

I definitely think Morpheus has interacted with Chinese gods, Hindu gods, Sumerian gods, Aztec gods/gods of the Mexica, among others

I also (and this wasn’t included in the scope of your ask but imma do it anyway) firmly believe he has been involved in a variety of urban legends/copypasta, even when he was in the bubble

So going off of his association with Apollo, one of the foremost Greek gods, god of the sun/healing/arts, I think one name Dream could have been known to the Mexica is that of Piltzintecuhtli

Piltzintecuhtli is (according to the internet) the god of the rising sun, healing, visions, medicine plants (like hallucinatory mushrooms). He can be called the Youthful God.

So this is something I’m going to have in treehouse I just decided it but… I believe that to the Chinese people, Dream has appeared in the shape of a blue dragon.

According to legend, we were taught calligraphy by a dragon horse who appeared to Fuxi, a great hero and progenitor of Chinese culture

And dragons in Chinese culture aren’t just beasts. Dragons are gods, they’re spirits of great intelligence, culture, rain, good luck, victory, power, they were the arbiters of the Mandate of Heaven (which granted emperors of old the right to rule)

So I believe Dream would have come to us as a dragon god, one who might have influenced the development of calligraphy, and I will be making him a dragon at least once in treehouse

Lastly, I HC Morpheus as being responsible for The Backrooms™️ creepypasta

“If you're not careful and you noclip[a] out of reality in the wrong areas, you'll end up in the Backrooms, where it's nothing but the stink of old moist carpet, the madness of mono-yellow, the endless background noise of fluorescent lights at maximum hum-buzz, and approximately six hundred million square miles of randomly segmented empty rooms to be trapped in

God save you if you hear something wandering around nearby, because it sure as hell has heard you��

THANK YOU SO MUCH FOR YOUR ASK FRIEND I LOVE YOUUU

[enlitment]

📱🤓 for the ask game!

Thank you for the ask! ^^

📱 - Favourite app on your phone?

Is it considered cheating if I say Tumblr? No honestly, that's where I spent most of my (screen) time. It replaced the Twitter and Reddit app for me, and I have to say, I feel like it's the best one so far. Even just purely mental health-wise.

I also have a love-hate relationship with Duolingo. Need to get back into it...

🤓 - How did you get your name?

I only changed it quite recently! I thought that my old name didn't really represent the content I post here anymore and I was trying to come up with something that would vaguely connect most of my interests.

Enlitment is then meant to be a pun on the enlightenment era which I'm currently obs... I mean fascinated by. It also connects to classics, since the enlightenment was all about references to Greek and Roman culture, and to the French Revolution, as its important precursor.

Plus the word 'lit' means that literature is represented in the name as well. Kind of.