#Maruts

[rrcraft-and-lore]

Armies of the Dead/heaven in myths and epic fantasy - and the magic horns behind them!

One of the most famous armies of dead soldiers? The Men of Dunharrow, the army of the dead from Lord of the Rings who broke their oaths and renewed them finally under Aragorn.

Let's do this!

If you're a younger fantasy reader, or more modern, perhaps your introduction to this idea is in Robert Jordan's Wheel of Time with his magical horn that summons an army and legendary heroes to the field.

Some fans have said this is inspired by the Norse horn Gjallarhorn. 

This is the horn trusted to Heimdallr to be blown to announce the beginning of Ragnarok and summon the Norse gods to the "thing" (thing is used in this case legitimately to mean - meeting, assembly, folkmoot) - in a moment like NORSE AVENGERS, ASSEMBLE! 

This includes the Einherjar, the spirits of Norse warriors of honored dead who fell in battle and reside in Valhalla. But was there another possible influence?

Well, we know RJ was a Tolkien fan, and honestly who wouldn't be back in the days of early fantasy? 

So, what of Tolkien's ghostly army of dead warriors? Well, if you haven't read the books, you might not know that Aragorn too summons his army of the dead with a magical horn (cut from the films). That's right. 

You see, Elrohir (one of the sons of Elrond, also cut from the films) entrusts Aragorn with a silver horn to summon the dead with at the Stone of Erech to deal with them. Tolkien was a Norse buff and loved the old epics as well as poems. 

So he was likely familiar with the stories just like with Gjallarhorn as well. But also, quite possibly the Song of Roland (a French epic poem) in where Roland and his forces are ambushed at Roncesvalles and are going to lose. In final desperation, Roland blows the horn, and the emperor hears the call. But the aid will not arrive in time (unlike the films and more modern stories where the heroes do arrive to save the day - this is cuz we like the just in the nick of time trope) so Roland dies blowing it one last time to hard in vengeance his temples burst (and he ascends to heaven), but...Charlemagne's army arrives in the aftermath and scatters the enemy. But, are there other armies of the dead? In fact, yes. 

The Night Marchers of Hawaii who come with a warm wind, & the smell of sulfur, and the call of a conch shell to herald them. If you come upon this procession with torches in the night, and you are an enemy...time to RUN! Because if you watch them your eyes might be incinerated.

Then there is the Wild Hunt - a shared myth motif present through eastern, northern, and western European cultures. A ghostly army of the souls of dead men (and creatures) usually united under a leader (though this figure changes), Herne, Odin/Woden, Gwyn ap Nudd, Sigurd or Siegfried the Dragon Slayer, Theodoric the Great, onward. Now, they're not summoned by a horn, but in some tales their coming is announced by one.

Now, an Indian cognate of the Wild Hunt and warriors in the service of heavens The Maruts.

The number of them vary from 20+ to over 180, to even more (yay conflicting mythological sources and arguments in ancient texts and interpretations).

But who are they? Companions and servants to Lord Indra, Slayer of the First Born of Dragons, and lord of the heavens and storms! So, fittingly, these warriors are very...storm themed. Violent, aggressive, expert combatants armed with lightning weaponary, and golden chariots to fly through the clouds on. Their war crys and battle sounds are like thunder. Their blows would split clouds (sounding thunder) and would hunt the enemies of Lord Indra and slaughter demons/monsters.

Interestingly they are often associated as the sons (children) of Rudra (the Rig Vedic storm and wind god). However, there is another group that often gets that association (obviously so), the Rudras.

The Rudras are similar in (some) regards to the Maruts but not all. They aid Vishnu in his battles against demons and are clad in lion-skins, and wear serpents around their necks. A crescent moon adorns their foreheads, and they wield golden tridents and carry a skull in one hand they wear necklaces of lightning illuminated clouds (how's that for bling bling?), and are monstrously feral in battle. Lord Shiva can call them with a blow of a conch shell/horn. 

Their overlap, association with the Maruts is because of some etymology and shared functions as they too are a divine/spiritual/demigod group of heavenly warriors to aid the good and destroy evil - demons/adversaries, and the root word in their name means the roarers, thunderers, or the shouters - and this is also mentioned of the Maruts.

Are these all there are for legendary armies of the dead, of gods/heaven to be summoned to the field or aid? No. But, it's rainy, I'm a little messed up (mental health and meds), and tired. 

So I'm going to bow out and read and study for Tremaine 3 and leave this minor comparative thread here for folks into this stuff.

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

The Marut! 12 ft (3.7 m) creatures from the plane of law. Constantly either hunting down those who disrespect death, or enforcing broken contracts with the agreed upon punishment. They can stun people, usually to their base. Fun fact, they can't miss! If they're trying to do something to you, it succeeds, period. If they're trying to hurt you, it also hits the exact same amount. They're a class of creatures known as "Inevitables," so there is no luck with them, no escaping, they ARE fate. If you've ever felt like fate is fucking you over, here's the chance to take that literally!

[pharawee]

Sorry to bug you, but could you give me the cliffs notes on what happened to Best and Chahub and the issues with 9naa? Thank you

Sure thing!

So basically when Best and Chahub's series Check Out first aired on iqiyi it was unavailable to watch in many countries. This prompted the director of the series to give an interview saying that the series was too explicit to show on any other platform such as youtube, and that they were looking into maybe broadcasting it via onlyfans.

Of course, there's nothing wrong with onlyfans and what it's used for, but you could argue that it's a very strange thing to say for a professional director who would probably be better off showing his series on other platforms more suited to traditional longform entertainment (like gagaoolala, the patron saint of queer media 🙏).

Add to that that pornography is illegal in Thailand, and any mentioning of it in an actor's portfolio is probably... not that great.

The director further said that during the filming of the intimate scenes they decided to do away with all protective clothing because it just couldn't be done otherwise (decades of spicy scenes in film beg to differ but ok). The actors were fully naked. They didn't decide this beforehand but directly on set. Many fans have later speculated that due to the stressful and time-sensitive nature of a film set, this might have been coercive and exploitative.

The scenes that were later shown in the series were actually not especially spicy. Certainly not spicy enough to call them "25+". Actually, they were so unremarkable (as far as spicy scenes go) that the series has since been re-released on youtube (albeit probably as a cut version? I'm not sure. I haven't watched it) - the very platform 9naa was so sure would ban them if they even so much as looked at the upload button.

Throughout the whole shock value promotion (because what else could it possibly have been?) the actors themselves stayed strangely quiet. They're apparently on record saying that they value their intimate scenes as art. That's it. There was no further promo. There were no follow-up jobs. Best and Chahub weren't in the special ep (according to mdl Best was but I can't remember him showing up hm). They were either quietly dropped by 9naa or bid their time until their contracts expired.

None of this is especially scummy or even illegal (at least as far as we know). It does leave a sour aftertaste however, because companies like 9naa always have the upper hand over their actors. A lot would have to happen for an (inexperienced) actor to speak up because breaking contracts and NDAs would mean losing their jobs and potentially being blacklisted and/or sued (even Yoon Phusanu only came forward after Y.Ent had already broken contract by not paying him until a set date).

So if a company makes weirdly sensational claims that they later either conveniently forget about or passive-aggressively backtrack on, then that's weird. If they show no interest in promoting their own talent and have a strangely high turnover rate for rookie actors, then that's even weirder.

And this isn't an isolated case. 9naa had a whole series planned with MFlow Entertainment. Beyond the Star was supposed to star actors from both companies, only for MFlow to later finish and broadcast the series on their own due to "differences in vision and work attitudes", editing out as many of 9naa's actors as they could. Weird, don't you think?

And, most recently, Cheque Wacharawee (from 9naa's Venus in the Sky) withdrew from any follow-up projects in a letter posted to his instagram because he had concerns due to work attitudes and couldn't even reach 9naa's lawyer (notice that he too only spoke up after 9naa had already violated his contract). 9naa reacted days later with their own very subdued announcement that has since been deleted. Very, very weird.

Who do you think is to blame here? The actors (most of whom are inexperienced and in Chahub's case haven't really acted since), MFlow (a small but reliable company that makes series that aren't always the most cohesive but at least the actors seem happy 🙏) or 9naa who's at the centre of it all?

Personally, as a fan of both Best Vittawin and Cheque Wacharawee, I've decided to no longer support or watch anything by 9naa. Kiseki Chapter 2 sounds nice and I hope its leads are doing well. Maybe the company has since learned from their previous unprofessionalism but people should at least be aware that they have something of a shady track record.

And if you want to support Best, you can watch his new series Knock Knock Boys which is set to release soon. 💜

[quranindex]

Discover Quran Verses about #Harut and Marut @ https://quranindex.info/search/harut-and-marut [2:102] #Quran #Islam

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Marut: I know every song to ever exist it doesn't matter if it's from the past, present or the future.

Harut: Oh yeah? Then continue this.

Harut: I don't cook I don't clean-

Marut: So let me tell you how I got this ring.

Marut and Harut: .....

Marut and Harut: GOBBLE ME, SWALLOW ME-

[bemybaebaebae]

Chahub

[doeinrosevine]

Mine . .

[thedungeoneddragon]

Marut

This is a Marut I painted a while ago which is a sculpt by Loot Studios.

[bramblebrine-art]

my fucking soul split wild magic sorcerer got GOT so i'm playing.....another splinter of my fucking soul split wild magic sorcerer: halfling bard variant

she was in a fae lord's court until recently and casts bard magic by reciting nonsense rhymes in sylvan like some kind of fucked up slam poet

[the-phantom-author]

engineer!gf!!!!!!!

i see her telling stories on stream how they two met and how shy hasan was at first, like making him blush and shit

he is like 'yeah, murat brought her to a party then i tried to flirt with her and when she started talking in those smartass terms i knew i was done'

and she is just laughing 'yeah... he was scared of me at first'

Engineer!gf has stories, and chat loves a good story time!

I can totally see her being like "yeah, he was terrified of me at first. Still is, to be honest." He can't even argue that point because all you need to do is glare at him and he'll immediately retract his point.

[beelspillowpet]

happy gay month have ur gay dad

[ttrpg-smash-pass-vs]

On the left is the Redcap, murderous little fey born of bloodlust! 3 - 4 ft (0.9‒1.2 m), these are fey serial killers. They die if they go more than 3 days without soaking thier cap in blood, so it's mainly just a "might as well have fun with it" situation. They specialize in knocking people over and have IMMENSE strength, as strong as that of a grizzly bear. They are fine working with other creatures, so long as thier cap stays bloody and it's an odd numbered group (they're very superstitious). The one in the back is one that soaked its hat in demon blood, called a "madcap." They're wild and explode when they die.

On the right, the Marut! 12 ft (3.7 m) creatures from the plane of law. They hunt down those who disrespect death and enforce broken contracts with the agreed upon punishments. They can stun people, teleport them back to their base, and literally can't miss! If they're trying to do something to you, it succeeds, period. And thier strength is cosmically consistent, they don't roll for damage, they just do the damage the decided to (within thier power of course). They're a class of creatures known as "Inevitables," so there is no luck with them, no escaping, they ARE fate. If you've ever felt like fate is fucking you over, here's the chance to take that literally!

[zhaozi]

a rare moment of sweetness in this trash fire of a show

[makowo]

they shouldnt be making me make two characters at the same time. im such a torture thing rn

[blackgirllovesdramas]

BL Fight Club: Because if I can’t ship ‘em, I want ‘em to fight

Let’s let our red flags fly with this battle.

Lian Kilen Wang (Cutie Pie) vs Nine (Check Out)

Kilen: 27 year old CEO

Nine: 20 something year old Photographer

Look, both of these rich boys had no shame in their manipulation game, so it is only fitting we set them up to fight each other. They both went to great lengths to play mind games to win the hearts of their significant others, but can they fight? I don’t know, I kinda don’t care, but I sure as hell would want to watch. No shirts of course.

Winner: Us. This is a draw and we will just look at the hot bodies.

Theme Music

[whitepolaris]

EMPRESS ♡

Wiola Marut