#Red Sea Culture Center

[azzayofchaos]

Since my other Nether worldbuilding post was received pretty well... I'm back on my bullshit!

This time featuring zoning and biomes of the Neath: Lore below cut

Nether (noun): the formidable hellscape straddling the boundery between the Fragments of the Overworld and Death's Realms.

Derived from Beneath -> Neath -> Neth -> Nether.

The Nether is most easily accessable through outer regions of the nether, regions that are comparatively closed-off, and lacking in biodiversity compared to the Deep Nether where most Neath civilizations are centered.

The Neth is divided into three primary zones, distinguished by altitude and general climates.

The Calfactory Zone: the largest and most icon of the three, the Calfactory zone is blisteringly hot and bone-dry, it's most prominent features are its abundant seas and lakes of magma, and the massive Supermagmas atriums that are common above the magma. In the largest of these atriums, the ceiling may be so high above as to be completely invisible from the ground, obscured by an ever present smog of toxic vapor and minerals formed in the self-generated micro-climates that are generated from the rising heat of the lava that begins to cool at a higher altitude.  

In the Basalt Deltas and other biomes around the edges of these lakes, massive pillars of rock and crystals bulwark the more-visible ceiling. 

The most common of this zone’s biomes is the Crimson woods, home to hearty thermal-philic fungi and plants that grow on the minerals and vapors of the lakes. Many are carnivorous in their lack of access to water or sunlight, and these forests contain many sub-biomes and ecosystems of flourishing life. 

The Wastes are perhaps the most desolate regions of the Neath, irradiated deserts of red-rock, brimstone, and sharp sand. Even the vast majority of nether-folk avoid these deserts due to the leftover radiation that rots and destroys anything that waits too long. The only forms of life are particularly robust lichens and bacteria that are happy to sit by the pools of boiling pools of sulfur and mud and toxic sludge that dot the landscape. Growing within the rocks themselves are colonies of amorphous fungus, called geocorpus molds that get their spores into cracks in the soft netherack and slowly feed on it, a delicacy in nether cuisine. 

The Temperate Zone: Cradled in the heights of the Neath’s atriums and sat bellow the roof is the temperate zones, the rising heat of the zone below begins to cool and forming distinct weather patterns in this zone and leaving it, while still sweltering, a cooler though much more humid climate.

The main biome are the luminescent warped-fungal rainforests that collect the high-rising minerals and odd moisture from the lakes. Liquid is actually precent here, though if it’s not safely filtered through the innards of the various plants and fungi, this water is usually aggressively corrosive, and it is best to shelter from the  acidic precipitation to avoid chemical burns. The nether folk and ender local to these rainforests are suited to deal with these conditions and the ender especially do not have trouble with the extreme pH of the water here like they would in the overworld. The zone is lit almost exclusively by the biolumincense of the organisms there and have often been described as false-stars.

In the Deep Nether, the ceiling may give way, allowing one to pass onto the plateaus of the Nether Roof and the yawning void above. The bedrock of the nether roof is jagged and layered in huge slabs, sometimes broken up my mazes of pillar-like structures and shallow, thermal pools of crystal-clear liquid. The kind you don't want to touch of course. fogs may hang low to the ground, but when its clear, or above the fog, the entire universe seems to spill out into the sky. The nether roof was culturally significant and a source of much knowledge and inspiration in the early days, but I'll get more into that in a later post 0.0

The Rime Zone: Plunge deep enough and one might find themselves bellow the lava beds. Here, where the heat can't quite penetrate, the temperatures will drop rapidly to sub-zero.

Namely, the Rime Zone is made up of the soul valleys, flat steppes of cinder and clotted sand, you can imagine it almost with the blindness effect, a fog that pools by your feet, and a heavier darkness hanging from the sky, it feels massive and endless and claustrophobic all at once. Frost collects as crystals on the irradiated, soul-soaked barrens, and the bones of the massive nether wyrms lie fossilized, breaking up the landscape. The sands are also split with patches of crazing on the ground and vents of blue fire that spills out and sets the sand ablaze.

These same wryms can be found sometimes, ancient things that dig through sand and soft rocks and the magma lakes, far and few between and treated with both fear and reverence.

And in the deepest pits of the Neath are the glowing frozen lakes that are colloquially and rightfully called the Gates to Death, glowing blue from beneath their surfaces. Indeed, any further down and you pass into limbo, the edge of Death's Realms.

Extra Notes??:

Soul sand/soil is tread on carefully or not at all, is one form of remnants from the apocolyspe. Like the general radiated rubble present through the Nether, it's a fault of nuclear fallout. Unlike other areas of radiation, its also been infused with the souls of those who didn't survive the joining of worlds.

This infused quality is also precent in Nether Debris, resulting in a material that takes magic particularly well.

Iron cannot be found in dense veins and crystals like gold or quartz in the nether, but it's a pretty rich mineral a lot of netherack, giving it its ruddy coloring.

Sorry for this massive rant that no one asked for. If you have questions please feel free to send an ask, I may not have an answer yet but I'll certainly come up with one if I can.

I'm also hoping to do a pass on my headcanons about history and culture in the Nether and then we might start talking about character headcanons since this is also an actual AU.

If you read this far, here's some notes on striders and ghast

[windser]

okay but imagine being one of the remaining lemurians alongside rafayel. someone who wasn't just the core of your society, but your center of gravity since the moment you two were brought into the world.

from the beginning the two of you had been inseparable. growing up together. spending your early days racing through the currents and your adolescents strategizing ways to evade the scholars and you studies. it was still too early to tell, but it felt so palpable that you two were destined to be bonded. a god and his centering sea star to always guide him back home. 

until the fated night when one current pulled rafayel too far out, the rivets of water too strong for you to hold him tight.

you think maybe sometimes, ages later that maybe if you hadn’t let go, if perhaps you had just let the current take you both then rafayel would not have ended up stranded on the shore. at least not alone. you don't know how the two of you would have figured things out, but it would have been together. it might not have been a perfect rescue story, but eventually, somehow you would have managed to lead him home. 

but that was not how the story went. instead, you had sped back to lemuria in a fit, frantic cries reaching anybody and everybody to raise awareness and action. but by the time the god of the sea had returned, it had been too late. 

for you both. 

now lifetimes later, fate has a funny way of stringing you along. 

gone are the corridors that used to be filled with laughter and mirth, replaced with barren and sands. the endless blue becoming a torrent red abyss. the series of changes were chaotic and traumatic, never the same but just as destructive. 

but one thing that never altered was her. the other force that never stopped pulling rafayel from your orbit, despite your own desperately trying to keep him in place. you keep yourself afloat thinking that at least as long as you were around, what was left of the lemurians would never truly lose their god. 

because while fate had given him a heart, you would still remain as his beacon guiding him back home. 

because despite everything, you've always been the most consistent figure in his life. 

its a shame that you just can't be the center of his affections. 

just maybe it might have been a different myth. 

asdfghjkld i just kept thinking about now how in the modern timeline, you both are in linkon city. where he’s an artist and you’re a historian. he preserves your culture through his paintings while you try to keep the actual artifacts of your home intact. i think over time, it feels like the two of you are just like this old married couple (though not really), but it gives the impression of an aged out loveless marriage. unable to escape each others orbit, though despite it all neither of you want to. rafayel can never seem to keep the mc close and you never seem to find anyone to bond close to your heart. maybe because you already gave it away and never got it back. idkidk im still trying to lock down the dynamic but god rafayel’s timeline is confusing. but the angst is immaculate. (im literally working on a piece thats giving faking dating dynamics)

[batmanisagatewaydrug]

reading updates: august 2024

the good news is that I did a lot of reading this month, the bad news is that honestly? I think that my birthday month has had the biggest percentage of literary letdowns, duds, and outright bullshit than any other month of this year so far.

but at least there's plenty to talk about, so let's get going!

Unlearning Shame: How We Can Reject Self-Blame Culture and Reclaim Our Power (Devon Price, 2024) - uh oh gamers, we're starting on a doozy! I've enjoyed both of Price's previous books very much, but with Unlearning Shame I couldn't help but feel like I couldn't quite shake the feeling that I wasn't getting what I had signed on for. the issue, I think, could be corrected by an adjustment to the title, which seems to be promising a very broad tackling of the concept of shame and is therefore making some pretty big promises. in reality, the book is much more narrowly focused than that, interested primarily in the shame that arises in the activism-minded when they feel overwhelmed by the sheer amount of awful things in the world and their perceived inability to do anything about it. fairly early on Price introduces an apparently relatable anecdote about himself and a friend having mutual breakdowns in a grocery store because they were both so paralyzed by the conundrum of trying to buy the most ethical groceries possible, and I realized this book was maybe not really for me or my particular experiences with shame. I think this book will be really helpful for a lot of people for sure, would love to pass it on to a lot of my freshmen, but overall it did not live up to the expectations I brought to the party.

A Separate Peace (John Knowles, 1959) - so I wanted to reread this because someone on here sent me an ask about, I don't know, my favorite required high school reading or whatever, and I said it was A Separate Peace but then I realized it's been over a decade since I read the book and I had to go see if it still actually held up. and god, does it EVER. this is such a brutal and heartbreaking novel, beginning in the last carefree summer that best friends and roommates Gene and Finny will experience before their final year at their boys' private school and their seemingly inevitable draft into WW2. although Gene is seethingly jealous of Finny's seemingly effortless charisma, popularity, confidence, and athletic prowess, the two boys are also inseparable - until a tragic injury changes the course of Finny's life forever. this book is a mess of unspoken pain, from the looming end of innocence on a global scale to the intimate ache of loving your best friend so, so much and having no healthy way to express it because you're a repressed little rich boy in the 1940s.

Deep as the Sky, Red as the Sea (Rita Chang-Eppig, 2023) - Chang-Eppig's debut novel follows the career of Chinese pirate Shek Yeung, also known as Zheng Yi Sao, immediately following the death of her husband, fearsome pirate Sheng Yi. you've probably seen a post or two about her floating around on this very hellsite, calling her a pirate queen and accompanied by this image:

Chang-Eppig isn't interested in portraying Shek Yeung as any kind of heroine or feminist icon; over and over again it's acknowledged that she's simply a woman who has survived massive hardships and will do whatever she needs to do to survive. manipulation? spying? extortion? torture? murder? you name it, she's done it, and she does not feel remorse. while the novel wasn't a knockout for me either in terms of plot or prose, it's nice to see an entry into the trend of "retelling" stories from history and mythology centered on women that isn't determined to justify every step a maligned woman ever made. Shek Yeung is what she is, and her story makes for a gritty, bloody adventure.

Victim (Andrew Boryga, 2024) - this book is pure sleazeball fun; if you've ever wondered what I consider a romp, this is it. Victim follows our manipulative king Javi Perez as he builds a writing career for himself by turning in one essay after another about racial discrimination that he never really experienced, inventing stories of hardship caused by racism and poverty from his college application essay to his school newspaper to the story that finally brings the whole lie crashing down when he stretches the truth too far. the novel is written like Javi's apology in the wake of getting #canceled, and while I do sometimes feel that this premise makes some of the writing seem a bit implausible (why would you admit that!!!) it's a fun setup for a scandal that would have been a bloodbath on the twitter of old. come get your mess!!!

Bad Girls (Camila Sosa Villada, trans. Kit Maude, 2022) - this is my first time reading Sosa Villada's work but OH BOY, do I need to seek out more. this is a skinty little novel following a dramatized account of the travesti (or transgender) women who live and sell sex in Córdoba, Argentina. the women build an unsteady but beautiful and magic-infused family under the protection of the ancient Auntie Encarna. the protagonist (who is named Camila Sosa Villada, no relation I'm sure) watches as her unconventional family grows, changes, and frays over time, struggling to find ways to stay afloat in a world that see them as disposable. Sosa Villada's turns of phrase are brilliant and searing, and she weaves fantastical elements so nimbly into her narrative that it's utterly believable to see women becoming animals and courting headless men in the streets of a modern city. strongly recommend for fans of Kai Cheng Thom's Fierce Femmes and Notorious Liars.

Talkin' Up to the White Woman: Indigenous Women and Feminism (Aileen Morteon-Robinson, 2000) - this book serves as a scathing literature review indicting Australia's white women anthropologists and feminist scholars for the ways in which they've dehumanized and discredited Aboriginal women, stripping them of the right to be authorities of their own experiences and barring them from a white-centered feminist movement. Moreton-Robinson's account is excellent, contrasting the wok of white women academics with the accounts of Aboriginal women to reveal exactly how massive the disparities in understanding are. as a USAmerican previously aware of Australia's colonial history but unfamiliar with the specifics, it was jarring to discover exactly how similar the mechanism of colonial violence are between my country and Australia, with countless genocidal parallels to be drawn. one particular highlight of the book comes via my purchase of a 20th anniversary edition, which includes a new post-script by Moreton-Robinson in which she dissects and responds to various criticisms of the book at its time of release, taking several critics to task for the belittling tone they used to describe her work and the tools white feminists use to absolve themselves of blame in the face of critique from women of color. fascinating and thorough articulation of Moreton-Robinson's point, and deservedly blistering. I love when academics call each other out by name.

The End of Love: Racism, Sexism, and the Death of Romance (Sabrina Strings, 2024) - so the thing about this book is that there are really good PARTS. Strings is still an excellent historical writer, and I found a lot to appreciate in, for instance, the segments on the history of Black American pimp culture and the analysis of Playboy and Helen Gurley Brown's Sex and the Single Girl. the more personal segments, where Strings contorts herself to fit her own failed relationships into the narrative she's building, are decidedly less consistent in their quality, with some feeling like they would have been better off staying between Strings and her therapist. there's a long and convoluted digression about Sex and the City, and a strange anecdote towards the end in which String recounts a phone call with a friend's college-aged son who, String believes, was masturbating during the call. a yucky experience, to be certain, but I'm not sure it justifies Strings filing a police report against the youth and his mother, who she accuses of having groomed her on the son's behalf. she also casually drops in the same chapter that she considers herself pansexual because she's attracted to trans men in addition to cis men? idk man!!! this book was so uneven that I found myself genuinely questioning whether Strings' first book, Fearing the Black Body, is actually as excellent as I remember it being. I'm pretty sure it is, but god it sucks to get shaken so hard that you have to wonder!

The Diary of a Teenage Girl: An Account in Words and Pictures (Phoebe Gloeckner, 2002) - another book that I had to read for class, years ago! I read Diary of a Teenage Girl in one of my gender and women's studies classes in my undergrad, for a class with a title along the lines of Girlhood Stories in Fiction and Film. Gloeckner's novel (though heavily informed by her own life, she insists that it's a work of fiction) sees its young protagonist, Minnie, navigating a great deal of sex, alcohol, drugs in 1970s San Francisco. I started thinking about the book because I was listening to a trio of episodes of You're Wrong About in which Carmen Maria Machado guests to talk about the pervasive sham that is Go Ask Alice (great series, check it out) and I started thinking about Diary, which is so much less preachy and didactic and is, you know, actually drawn from a real teenage girl's diary, unlike Go Ask Alice, and lacking Alice's preachy didacticism. as a diary based on a real diary this book is largely lacking in any particular plot (the most consistent through line is Minnie's ongoing and tumultuous sexual relationship with her mother's 35 year old boyfriend), but if that's not a turn off then you'll find yourself rooting for Minnie to find her way all the way to the uncertain but ultimately optimistic conclusion.

One and Done (Frederick Smith, 2024) - okay, so. this is a romance novel that I picked up because I saw a review talking about how it's an incredibly realistic depiction of working at a university. now that's obviously an insane thing to look for in a romance novel, but I like romances, ESPECIALLY gay romances, and I work at a university, so I figured sure, I'll bite. spoiler alert: it's not great. I posted some examples of the prose here, and even if the two protagonists talked like actual human beings it wouldn't make up for the stale-ass plot or devastating lack of chemistry they have going for them. more like One and Glad to Be Done With This Book That Isn't Very Good, am I right, ladies?

Seduced (Virginia Henley, 1994) - guys, I'm gonna be so fucking real with you. this is the most batshit novel I've ever read, period, let alone the most batshit romance novel. this book was the winner of a poll I ran on patreon last month in which my wicked patreonites got to nominate romance novels of their choosing for my next reading project and voted amongst themselves to crown a winner, and against all odds and my own light attempts to sway the voters, Seduced won it all. this book has everything: a historical setting, a bold young lady disguising herself as her own brother, wildly unchecked orientalism, a murderous cousin, high society scandal, and some of the most torturous sex scenes I've ever encountered in my life. truly this write-up cannot do justice to what I have experienced; I've already promised by patreonites that I'll have to do a little youtube live in order to fully express the extent of my dissatisfaction.

and that was the month of August, babey!!!

[charmwasjess]

My tiny mountain town is a blue dot swallowed up in a sea of red. Our statistically-irrelevant town went for Harris. The larger counties around us all went for Trump. Here’s what this election looked like in the southeastern Appalachian on the front lines of that cultural divide: 

Outright unprosecuted voter intimidation: in the few blocks walk from my house to downtown, I can see a prop skeleton dressed as a Harris supporter hanging from a noose, and Harris yard signs slashed with a knife, others just ripped down to the cardboard.

Gerrymandering - years ago, these little-known poorer districts were redrawn around population centers in ways that give likely Republican strongholds more weight, particularly in rural areas like mine. Republican lawmakers literally have opened prisons in rural counties in my state to artificially inflate population numbers with people who can’t vote due to their felon status to tip the scales.  

Of course, the Electoral college, where US votes are decided by weight of a state’s respective collective population and importance rather than just the counted individuals votes

I’m not making excuses. I echo the rest of the world’s collective disgust and horror about the outcome. I am literally sick with my country. People will die because of this. People who don’t live here, people who didn’t get a choice or stake in the US elections, and who probably wish they’d never heard of the place. And people in my own community. 

Yet it is so easy to picture this election as the ultimate triumph of laziness and inattention, particularly in “ignorant hillbilly” places like where I live, which generally go for Trump without any fight - at least not one that shows up on an election night map. But the Republican right has been working for decades to put the legal, economic, and societal pressures that lead to this in place here. 

We fought hard. Grassroots campaigners, our organizers of LGBTQIA+ groups, leaders in our communities who showed up despite the fact that it put a target on their backs if shit went bad. Teachers fighting Republican-led mandates of ignorance and racism to choke out any thinking that might interfere with their political goals for their ideal voter base. Librarians who get death threats for having kid’s books dealing with gender or queerness in the public libraries. 

These are not imagined examples, these are things that happen to real people I know in my tiny blue community. And the violent, right-wing party, the party that promised to make this second Trump term one of revenge and retribution, knows who those people are too. 

The Charlottesville “Ignite the Right” attack happened in my backyard. I had friends on that street when a self-described neo nazi drove into a crowd and killed Heather Heyer and injured 35 others. Trump was president when it happened; he called the alt-right who invaded Charlottesville with guns and armor and torches that day “good people.” 

I have no faith in my party now. It feels like we’re still trying to play a game we lost years ago, while the other side is busy winning a new game, one where they get to make up all the rules. 

I realize that there are greater global trends at play - incumbents being ousted, a swing to the right, post-pandemic economic scrambles - larger issues than the difficulties of voter suppression in my rural American communities. I'm not in a great mindset to consider them this week. I've been politically active since I was old enough to vote, and it feels like we always build so much momentum and then slam facefirst into this fucking invisible wall.

Honestly? I’m so tired and depressed and anxious, I feel like I can barely function right now. At the same time, I’m disgusted by my own despair and whining. What gives me the right to stop trying now, when so many people across the globe are facing the same anger and exhaustion? When so many people are in more active danger, with less options than I have?

Anyway, I wanted to write something out about the election, maybe just to let go of the words and get them out of me. I'm a queer politically active liberal in a Republican-dominated rural space. Next week, I'll read all the posts about hard work and hope and building support networks. This week, I just need a fucking minute on the floor.

[serpentface]

Ok I have been repeatedly asked about maps and I cannot provide any that are anywhere NEAR up to date enough but I can provide this (still WIP and missing most of its lesser cities and virtually all of its towns LOL) map of the Wardi Empire.

(Note- don't take the exact paths of rivers and coastlines too seriously. The broad details are accurate but I'm mostly drawing squiggles here)

Key:

Red area: lands nominally claimed by Wardi imperial rule. It is less territorially contiguous than this map would suggest, but this is broadly accurate. Lavender area: lands of major tributary states/other conquered entities/contested areas (many all at once). Lands that are either self-governing but tributary to the surrounding empire, or heavily contested and in conflict against imperial land-grabbing. Light blue (within red/lavender boundary)- nominally claimed as Imperial Wardi land, but either largely wilderness or otherwise effectively self governing. Most of central Wardin is sparsely populated grassland and savannah, with dry scrubland to the south. Star: A central city-state Dot: A major city.

Key city-states:

Godsmouth - Religious center of Wardin, center of commerce and capital in all but name. Given its proximity to the entrance of the inner sea, it is the most critical port and center of trade.

Wardin- the original city-state from which the Wardi empire emerged. 'Wardin' is used interchangeably for this specific city-state and the empire itself, context depending. Home of the imperial family. Fed by agricultural lands around the Brilla river.

Jazait - city on the White Sea, important river trade route.

Erubinnos- city on the eastern White Sea, another important trade route. Close historical ties to Lobera via the Kannethod river.

Lobera- city-state at the head of the Kannethod River, eastern extent of the Wardi empire.

Erub- City-state along the Yellowtail river. It is currently experiencing a localized collapse due to catastrophically falling water levels.  Named for the same historical figure as Erubinnos and the Erubin river.

Ephennos- the breadbasket of the Wardi empire, key agricultural land.

Tiberrich- Bears a name of an ancient royal Dain king, one of the most culturally diverse city-states with populations hailing from around the Viper.

Finnerich - recently conquered tributary state that fell into civil war, its new leadership is hostile to the Wardi Empire and is currently engaged in a protracted war for independence.

Some points of interest:

The White Sea- large sea to the south

The Viper- narrow inner sea to the north. its ends connect to the Inner Seas and the White Sea, its western tip ends about 55 miles from the ocean. Many have attempted and failed to bridge this gap with a canal, to the point that 'digging out the viper's tail' is a common expression that communicates an exercise in futility.

Sons of Creation - a strange, circular mountain range with a lake at its center and an island at the center of that. Believed to be the site of God’s sacrifice and the world’s creation. It is a prehistoric impact crater.

Jaquin’s Boot - a peninsula, claimed territory of the Wardi empire but functionally independent. The location of the sole native elowey population of the region. 

Yellowtail river: originates from two separate rivers in Greathill, and dies out in the central savannah. Seasonal and periodic flooding extends its length dramatically.

Kannethod river: the largest river in the region and the most sacred, defines most of the eastern borders. Key trade route.

Erubin river: the largest river in the Greathill region

Black river: large and densely populated river mostly fed by the Erubin

Cholemdi - ‘the salt wastes’, a great dry lake and surrounding salt flats. Some condemned criminals are sent here, and the whole land is believed to be haunted. 'Saltlanders' live on its borders. Very, very rarely, seasonal rains and flooding of the Yellowtail river refills the lake. 

Oaklands - largely undeveloped oak forests, source of a few major rivers.

Odatoche- The highest peak in the region, a long dormant volcano

Greathill - montane region. Source of several great rivers. Land of the Hill Tribes. 

The tooth - a peninsula in the waters of The Mouth. Contains a port city Od-Koto.

The Tongue- lower Godsmouth. 

[diamondperfumes]

Culture is a central aspect of Dany's arc. As such, it is a central feature of interpretations of her character, whether such interpretations are positive or negative.

The majority of ASOIAF fans dislike Dany's relationship with culture. What I find interesting, however, is that ASOIAF fans end up rejecting Dany's place in every culture she's part of.

Dany was born on Dragonstone, and immediately fled to Braavos when Rhaella died. When Viserys and Daenerys were forced to leave the Sealord's Manse, they traveled through the Free Cities: Lys, Myr, Tyrosh. Dany speaks Valyrian with a Tyroshi accent/dialect. Six months before the events of AGOT, Viserys and Daenerys land up in Illyrio's manse in Pentos.

Dany unequivocally adopts Dothraki culture as her own. She worships the Dothraki Horse God, speaks Dothraki fluently, wears the hrakkar when she wants to be comfortable, prefers her Dothraki riding leathers, painted vest, and medallion belt to the Meereenese tokar (and wears such an outfit when she wants to project strength), wears bells in her hair, considers Dothraki funeral rites for her own eventual death, loves horse riding, and sees herself as part of the Dothraki land. She is a Khaleesi of her own Khalasar, and also foreshadowed to be the Stallion who Mounts the World.

Dany spends time in Qarth, recovering from the perils of the Red Waste, figuring her leadership style out as a beggar queen, before she is kicked out of the city. There she meets Quaithe, who recurs as an ambiguous guide and mentor in her arc. She also receives various prophecies from the Undying, before they try to devour her. Xaro becomes an ally, and then enemy, and she learns important lessons from him. She gets her three-headed dragon crown, wrought in jade, ivory, and onyx, from the Pureborn of Qarth.

Dany conquers Slaver's Bay, moving from Astapor, to Yunkai, to Meereen, before ruling Meereen as Queen. She tries to free slaves and abolish slavery in each city. She wears the Meereenese tokar, speaks Ghiscari in court, marries Hizdahr zo Loraq in the Meereenese fashion, re-opens the fighting pits, trains her child hostages as cupbearers, and tries to be the "queen of rabbits." The bulk of the exploration of her leadership style and ideology is in Slaver's Bay.

Dany wants to reconquer Westeros on behalf of the Targaryen dynasty, and idealizes Westeros as a beautiful land. She names the habitat Drogon carves out for himself as Dragonstone.

Dany longs for the house with the red door and lemon tree. The two places she admits to being happiest in are Braavos (the house with the red door) and the Dothraki Sea. She once wanted to be a sailor. She has dreams of living a simple life with Daario. She also wants to be queen.

Dany speaks Ghiscari, High Valyrian, Tyroshi Valyrian (and likely other Valyrian dialects, like Pentoshi Valyrian), the Common Tongue, and Dothraki. She worships both the Faith of the Seven and the Dothraki Horse God. She has a connection to R'hllorism. She's lived in various Free Cities, the Dothraki Sea, Qarth, and Meereen. She's been through the Red Waste, Vaes Dothrak, Astapor, and Yunkai.

ASOIAF fans reject every one of Dany's relationships to these locations and cultures.

She is considered entitled, and imperialistic, for wanting to reconquer Westeros. Most theories of her dying center around the futility of conquest, the violence of House Targaryen, the selfishness of holding on to its name, the fact of her exile, and even that she is "foreign" to the land and culture. Many point out that she doesn't know "anything" about Westeros, that her father was Aerys II, that her family are "oppressive conquerors," and that her family lost the throne. Some will come up with convoluted reasons to claim that Jon Snow or Young Griff are ahead of her in the line of succession (so the throne belongs to a Targaryen, just not her). She won't "respect" Northern independence, Dornish independence, Ironborn independence, etc.

She is considered violent, tyrannical, and a threat to Westeros because of her connection to the Dothraki. She is accused of being an enabler of slavery and rape for being Drogo's wife, and then a she-Khal. The stallion who mounts the world prophecy is used as "proof" that she will go mad, or that she will burn Westeros to the ground in her conquest. She is accused of romanticizing Dothraki culture. She's blamed for what happens to the women of the Lhazarene village, particularly Mirri. Phrases such as "she is a white woman whose arc is propped up by the suffering of women of color/characters of color" are usually located here.

Dany is accused of not really caring about slavery because "she didn't do anything about it in Qarth," and stayed in Xaro's manse as a guest.

At the same time, Dany is seen as a white/Westerosi character "imposing her foreign/Western values" upon Essos. She is accused of "trying to civilize" Dothraki culture and "appropriating/mimicking" it. The phrase "white man's burden" is usually thrown around here. She's accused of raping Irri, her arc being built on Irri and Jhiqui's suffering, and the Dothraki being painted as "savage" for her own trauma. She is mocked as naive and ignorant for not appreciating the beauty of Qarth and wanting to return to Westeros in spite of being there, accused of being unfair toward Xaro in expecting an alliance from him, accused of being a cultural imperialist for burning down the House of the Undying.

Her time in Slaver's Bay receives the lion's share of the critique. She ruins its political economy. She destroys the region. She profits from slavery while claiming to be antislavery. She causes the freedmen to face poverty, violence, murder, rape, and suffering. She doesn't do enough against rapists and looters. She chooses fire and blood over the Meereenese peace, which is seen as a negative. She colonizes Slaver's Bay. She is like the US in Afghanistan or Iraq––invading for selfish reasons and then leaving, causing a rightwing insurgency to grow. She commits war crimes by torturing the wineseller's daughters and crucifying 163 Great Masters of Meereen, leaders of the city.

Yet the irony of this is captured in how people criticize her presence in Meereen: she is accused of ruining the city as an imperialist and is then criticized for wanting to sail away to conquer Westeros. So essentially, she has no place in Meereen, but she is also a bad person for wanting to leave it for Westeros.

As a Targaryen, and a Valyrian in general, her presence is seen as oppressive to both Westeros and Essos. Westeros because of the Targaryen conquest, Essos because of the legacy of the Valyrian Freehold. She's criticized for being "allies" with Illyrio Mopatis, a slaveowner, and people theorize that Braavos will hate her for being a Valyrian with dragons. Yet she is also criticized for not resettling in the house with the red door (presumably in Braavos, no?) and instead wanting to conquer Westeros. She is "too stupid" to appreciate how "beautiful and advanced" Essos is, and too focused on idealizing Westeros, but she is also too Westerosi/white/foreign to Essos.

In other words, for ASOIAF fans, Dany does not deserve to belong to any culture. Seeking a place in Westeros means that she is entitled, selfish, privileged, and oppressive. Being a Dothraki Khaleesi means that she simultaneously romanticizes slavery and is trying to civilize brown people. Conquering Slaver's Bay is an act of imperialism from a Western tyrant seeking resources, but leaving Slaver's Bay is an act of imperialism from a Western tyrant fleeing a war they started. Staying in Qarth means that she romanticizes slavery, but not fitting in there and idealizing Westeros means she is like an American tourist in the Global South, who cannot appreciate the real value of where she is in favor of a backwater Global North (Westeros). Being Valyrian means she is inherently responsible for slavery, and thus does not belong in Braavos or Westeros, but if she lives in Qarth, the Free Cities, or conquers Slaver's Bay to abolish slavery, she is trying to make Old Valyria rise again. She ruined Meereen and will burn Volantis, but she will also burn King's Landing and maybe even Sunspear.

If I ask ASOIAF fans what culture she belongs to, or which continent she should be part of, doubtless I will get multiple answers. But those answers will end up contradicting themselves. The reality is that these are not scattered rejections––the people rejecting Dany's place in each culture will, at different times, reject all the places Dany occupies in said cultures. Someone who on one day says Dany is a backwater white person who can't appreciate the beauty of Qarth will on the next day claim that she is reviving the violence of the Targaryen dynasty upon Dorne and the North by planning to invade Westeros. Someone who will wax lyrical about how she is a white woman whose arc is built on the suffering of women of color, and thus that she is a Nazi, or white supremacist, will on another day call her a rape enabling slave profiteer for being Drogo's wife and a Khaleesi.

Perhaps this is the natural conclusion of a character who is intentionally written as stateless and homeless. A nomad, an exile, a diasporic teenage girl, who longs for various "homes" and has different ideas of "home" in her head. But what does it say about ASOIAF fans that they reject her relationship with every culture? They don't want her in Essos or Westeros. We don't know what's west of Westeros, as we never hear the outcome of Elissa Farman's voyage. Doubtless the same fears people have of Dany living and thriving in Essos or Westeros would apply to any lands west of Westeros too. So where do they want her? There is an answer to this, which only a few ASOIAF fans are honest enough to admit: that Dany should have died in childbirth, or on the journey to Braavos, or on the Dothraki Sea, as Illyrio intended. Sadly, most ASOIAF fans are not brave enough to admit that their rejection of Dany's various cultural "places" is actually just a disguise for their dissatisfaction at her existence in the narrative.

(Whether or not that dissatisfaction is merited, whether or not it is motivated by genuine, "progressive" literary reasons, is another conversation. ASOIAF fans are indeed free to be upset about her presence as a character, or to theorize that she will be a villain because of her cultural statelessness. Right now, though, this post focuses on the question of "what culture could Dany be a part of without being a threat." The answer, for most ASOIAF fans, seems to be that Dany, child of storm, was born a threat to the entire world of ice and fire).

[haggishlyhagging]

The goddesses of ancient Greece also displayed the characteristics of flesh and blood menstruants: Medusa, her hair writhing with vaginal snakes, had an ability that was also imputed to menstruants in some cultures: she turned living things to stone with her gaze. She is the menstruant naked, out of control, without protective cosmetikos. Gaia, the earth, was a chasm guarded by a great python. Long-tressed Demeter was also the earth, and her daughter Kore, or Persephone, the maiden, was portrayed holding the menstrual pomegranate. Kore disappeared and her mother went to look for her—a common menarchal drama for some peoples. Hera was "the bride," dressed austerely in long gowns. Hecate was the dark moon, portrayed as an old woman. At Sumer, alabaster statues of the large-eyed moon goddess Ningal were dressed, fed, and washed; even the urbane goddess Inanna was portrayed in one statuette holding a scratching stick, adorned with the cosmetikos of a temple courtesan.

Frequently ancient figurines portray two women together, sometimes melded like Siamese twins, side by side. Often these "dolls" wear skirts, eye and lip makeup, and hoop earrings. Frequently they are stained red. Similar dolls are still made for girls to play with in North Africa, India, and parts of the Middle East. Some of the modern dolls are of a man and woman side by side. My guess is that the paired icons were originally two sisters, representing synchronous flow. The dolls, I was told vehemently by the import shop clerk, have nothing to do with lesbianism, and I'm certain that in any current patriarchal religious system, that is true. But in more female-centered older societies, the Andean, for example, and in many parts of Western society, homosexual relations have a rightful, appropriate, and even sacred place. It thus seems significant that in the south of India, among goddess-worshiping Tamils of the Untouchable caste, a name for lesbian lover is "sister-sister."

Many goddess mythologies feature two creation sisters. Pele, the Hawaiian volcanic fire goddess who creates the earth's surface, has a sister who is "Sea Mist." Among the Pueblos, sister goddesses Naotsete and Uretsete create objects under a blanket they hold between them. Sometimes one sister dwells in the world below, "in the shade," the place of the dark moon, while the other rules above, as with Egyptian Isis and her underworld sister Nepthys. The oldest known menstrual narrative of the meetings of two such sisters is the Sumerian poem, "The Descent of Inanna to the Underworld," whose metaformic meanings I will decipher later. A Caribbean proverb summarizes an ancient attitude of female "flow": "When a woman loves another woman, it is the blood of the Mother speaking."

-Judy Grahn, Blood, Bread, and Roses: How Menstruation Created the World

[tiredofthehumanlife]

Star sign? Opinion on trans rights?

Feelings on making out in a goth bar bathroom?

Barbie dolls:Klaus Hargreeves x gn!goth! Reader

Word:1k

Summary: Klaus thinks you're hot and you guys dance

Warnings:you're goth (including the political views), mentions of homophobia, it's the 60s and I didn't research the 60s for this shit, Klaus is a poser(kinda) and gets terminology wrong, you make out in a bathroom, Klaus kinda talks bad about himself, huuuuuuuuuuuuuuuhhhhhhhh go read I'm sleeping with my eyes open get out of here

Request: we have to work on roommate boundaries because you're really pushing it

Listen, Klaus didn’t hate the 60’s but he didn’t really like it either. Stonewall wasn’t set to happen for another 10 or so years. Homophobic slurs were thrown his way frequently. Maybe it was the way he dressed or stood. Whatever it was, it was dampening his experience. Despite all of the complaints from Ben, Klaus decided he was headed for a goth bar. The one and only in all of Texas.

He really wasn’t sure what he was doing in a goth bar. He wanted a safe place, where he could stand how he wanted and not be worried about how people felt about his sexual desires. He just lingered by the bar, sipping his drink from his straw. Klaus was enjoying the music, lightly swaying his hips. Ben was sat on top of the bar, swaying his legs back and forth.

“This is your idea of fun?” Ben asked. Klaus wished he couldn’t hear ghosts when the living people around him were loud. Klaus kept his straw in his mouth and glared at Ben. Shut up. Ben rolled his eyes and looked over at the dancefloor. Klaus followed his eyes. It was a dark-lit building, as much should be expected for a bar. Even in the dark, his eyes were drawn to you.

It looked like the red and white spotlights were all trained on you. You were even in the center of the dancers. It should be impossible to see someone in the center but just by the looks of it, Klause was pretty sure you were a god. Your arms were waving in the air, your black clothes waving around with you.

Klaus definitely was not deep into the goth culture but he was pretty sure that dance was called ‘webs in the air’ or something like that. Klaus didn’t need to know what the dance was called all he knew was it was alluring. He felt like he was on a ship and he just heard a siren's call. Klaus set his drink down, leaving it on the wooden bar. He didn’t need a drink, just looking at you was enough to get him inebriated.

He weaved through the dancing people, swerving his head when hands shot out. He assumed you must’ve felt him moving towards you with your magical god powers or whatever. You turned your head, meeting his eyes. Klaus felt his heart skip a beat, surely you were a siren the way your arms beckoned him into the sea of black fabric swirling around you. He was finally standing in front of you.

“Hey,” Klaus said, just barely above the sound of the loud music. Your hand settles on his shoulder, tilting your head at him.

“Hello. Libra?” Klaus reeled back, letting out a shocked laugh. You smiled at him nodding.

“Yeah, how’d you know that?” You gave him a one-shouldered shrug. Klaus smiled, reaching his hand out for your bicep.

“How do you feel about trans rights?” You asked over the music, basically yelling. Klaus smiled brightly.

“Yeah, Yeah. Love ‘em I think they’re great.” Your smile brightened and you pulled his hand down from your bicep to your hip.

“Great. Wanna go make out in the bathroom?” You asked, still bobbing your head to the music. Klaus smiled, nodding his head rapidly. You latched onto his hand, holding your hands above everyone’s heads as you pulled him through the crowd.

After a long few minutes of clashing tongues in the bathroom, you eventually took him back to your apartment. He grew on you very quickly, he had what felt like thousands of years of experience. He liked having the personification of a bat as a partner.

Months and months later, he found his family again and dragged you to meet them. You liked the weird one with the Kennedy obsession and the one big buff dude. Eventually what looked to be a 16-year-old wandered into your group, pausing when he saw you.

“Right, and who’s the vampire?” You glanced at Klaus, silently asking who this dickhead high schooler was. Klaus scoffed, pulling you to his chest.

“Leave my amazing and beautiful partner alone you dickhead.” Klaus said, glaring at the teen. Your arms hung limply by your sides, used to Klaus’ dramatics at this point.

“Ah, well it makes sense now.” You raised a brow at the teen. The knife brother pointed his finger at the teen.

“Listen, Five, okay dude. I’ve only known them for the last five minutes but in that time, I’ve decided that they are amazing and perfect. I will knock you out if you keep running your mouth.” Diego said, furrowing his eyebrows. You hummed, pulling away from Klaus. You still held onto his hand for support.

“Thanks, Diego. I too have only known you for five minutes but I have decided that you deserve at least two of your favorite desserts.” You said, pulling Klaus’ hand up to your mouth and kissing the back. Klaus pulled your arm to his chest, hugging it tight. He batted his eyelashes up at you.

“Aren’t they just the sweetest?” Klaus asked, dropping his head onto your shoulder. You hummed and kissed the top of Klaus’ head. Diego gave you a short nod. Luther tilted his head back and forth. Allison hummed in a neutral ‘eh I guess’ type of way. Viktor shrugged and Lila snorted. Five glared at you.

“I don’t think he likes me.” You whispered to Klaus. Klaus hummed.

“You just have to make him coffee and he’ll love you forever. I mean I’m a pain in the ass and he still tolerates me.” Klaus said, tilting his head up. You shook your head, kissing his forehead. You let your lips linger on his skin.

“You’re not hard to love, it’s quite easy actually.” You said, focusing back on the group. Klaus whined and hid his face in your arm. Luther gave you a small smile.

“Oh you two are disgustingly sweet, I’m going to hurl,” Viktor said, turning his back to the group. You awed at him. Even after you found out about the apocalypse and the one after that and the plenty more to come, you were still glad you danced with Klaus all the way back in the 60s. Loving him made all the worries of the world you both had disappear.

[vancedis]

I don't really draw anything, so I'll show you the concept of a shield created in the likeness of a Calabrass, the first idea about it appeared 3 or even 4 years ago, but I took up the implementation only now....

DON'T COPY/USE IDEA (or I'll eat you...)

The red lines indicate the positions of the eyes of the seven seas

I'll show you the initial concepts below

The shield consists of plates layered on top of each other, its abilities are still in development, but here's what I've come up with at the moment: The sharp protrusions on the shield extend and slightly shift into an angle, creating blades like a shuriken.

This was created specifically for the Eye of Aria, when activated, one of the abilities just pushes out these protrusions and forms a stream of air that spins the shield, as a result of which you can send it flying and / or cause damage

One of the abilities of the Eye of Beru allows the shield to attract water to the inside, the owner can stand on it and travel across the sea without a ship or any other means of transportation

Blaze - shoot fire from the center of the shield - basic attack

I think with Desert, one thing will be like Zack's, like the shield will be covered with stones, strengthening its strength

And at the end I'll leave a list of what inspired me to create the shield:

1. Calabrass

2. The Wheel of Holy Death (Aztec culture)

3. Flyboard (thanks to the Fog)

I would like to say a special thank to my friend @freedomgolden for help in several details regarding the shield

[luxudus]

Here's my celebration of 2023's femboy day! back when i was first drawing out the celebration in 2022 i was originally intending to use one of these guys, but due to time constraints and a bit of motivation I went with the sophonts seen in last year's celebration. This time i brought back those original concepts and fixed up their designs Some where slight tweaks and other complete redesigns. Lastly for reference they're all around 1.8 meters / 6 feet tall

The Mm-Kca't't are a sophont species of crustacean-like centaurs from a world named C'tok-Uur.

A blue moon orbiting a jovian world. Despite it's sheer blueness, C'tok-Uur has no major oceans but dozens of seas and lakes, it is dominated by savannahs and deserts where plant life takes on a deep blue hue. The dominant form of fauna are 4 limbed crustacean-like invertebrates with a single compound eye stretching across the face.

The Mm-Kca't't are heavily derived from that group, the "upper body" is actually an elongated head with the brain at the base, with their arms evolved from a pair of mandibles and the mouth is located at the center of the chest, males have large megacerops-like horns while females have a flat disk head. They are competitive obligate herbivores native to the savannahs of C'tok-Uur, males will spar with each other over potential mates. The motion dazzle camoflage helps their herds become indistinguishable to predators. They communicate through hums and clicks, and live in hierarchal herds, and living such social lives and with such surprisingly dexterous arms paved way for sapience

The Mm-Kca't't are somewhat advanced, they had just invented nuclear energy and are experiencing an atomic revolution as and are just beginning the construction of the first satellites. A popular facet of their culture involve male Mm-Kca't't denouncing their "masculinity" by cutting off their horns, modifying their diet, and present themselves more femininely while still identifying as "male"

The Hsh'shhh are a sophont species of mollusk-like flyers from a planet known as Sss'Shaa

Their homeworld is a humid superearth with an incredibly dense atmosphere and 6 moons. The planet has a wide axial tilt, coupled with the dense atmosphere, allows heat and light to distribute evenly across the planet. Giving ideal conditions for plant life of all photosynthetic processes to evolve and thrive, giving the surface of this world a "rainbow" hue. Fauna come in the form of external gilled, 4-eyed, slug-like pseudovertebrates that established an aerial ecosystem stretching into the clouds.

The Hsh'shhh evolved in the emergant layer of Sss'Shaa's rainforests. Descending from a line of "bipeds" that evolved their external gills into a set of wings. They eat with a radula located through the slit on their chest. Their red-pink facial disk act as ears while the blue fans act as a nose and rudders. They use their entire head and neck as a single arm to manipulate their envrionment, and their middle "finger" isa derived from a genital sheath. Their extremely vibrant coloring and black stripes help break up their outline when flying over the multicolored landscape, and their countershaded underbellies blend in with the sky. They live in order-less flocks and communicate through hissing.

Their society is surprisingly advanced given the higher gravity and greater air resistance of their home, but through the construction of several heavy duty space elevators and the establishment of 2 dozen space stations built for construction, they were able to bypass the limitations of their homeworld and colonize the rest of their star system, effectively becoming a kardeshev type 2 civilization comprised of independant nation states occupying different worlds. Their society is egalitarian and environmentalist and are currently terraforming their nearest interplanetary neighbours.

The concept of "femenine" males has been a cultural staple across Hsh'shhh history, and the idea is so prevelant that they and "masculine" females are categorized as their own entire genders

And the Vonzullt are a sapient species of mammal-like hexapods from a cold planet named Toiazuul.

Their homeworld is somewhat earthlike and is the only one supporting a breathable atmosphere. The major difference is that all landmasses are converged into a single supercontinent, and the planet is in the middle of an ice age that freezes any part of the planet 30 degrees away from the equator. flora on this world is yellow in color and technically wam blooded. The dominant fauna come in the form of jawless segmented vertebrate-like hexapods with 4 patches of layered photoreceptors that act as eyes.

The Vonzullt evolve from a family of mammal-like hexapodal carnivores that recently took an upright stance to watch out for apex predators. To make up for the lack of jaws, they and all other hexapods evolved a pair of chelicerae to hold onto food and "chew" on it. They live in hunting packs and evolved in the southern seasonal forests. Their intricate pack bonds and hunting strategies kickstarted their sapience, and eventually civilization as a whole

Unlike the previously mentioned civilizations, the VonZullt are far less developed, they experienced an industrial revolution a generation ago, are currently rediscovering the rest of their planet, and the concept of democracy has just developed and begun to spread.

surprisingly, the concept of feminine men is held with high regard among many Vonzullt societies, and in the case of the most prominent society, a somewhat militaristic empire. They are even given positions of power as they are seen as selflessly giving their strength to their brothers rather than hording it to themselves.

[nyamadermont]

The Veil Over My Eyes

@flashfictionfridayofficial

Avatar: The Legend of Korra

337 words

Breathing forcefully, breathing harshly, breathing defiantly, Lin Beifong turned her back on her now former companion. Lover. Boyfriend. 

Whatever. 

It didn’t matter anymore. 

As she turned her eyes away from the red, orange, and yellow robes that surrounded her, turned her face to the grey skies and turbulent waters of the bay, she could almost feel the colors melt away from her vision. 

If you lose your soulmate, is it as though you never knew love at all?

Now she knew. 

The sun was white in the sky, not yellow. 

The fruit she ate every morning was grey, not orange.  

The roses in the Peace Officers Memorial Gardens were black, not red. 

Her wardrobe dwindled, month by month, to white sleeveless shirts and black trousers. Muted greens and greys paired adequately with black. The art came down from her wall, save for the one last watercolor Aang had given her before he died. 

He had painted her, training with Kya, Katara, and Toph. “My four favorite women in this life,” he had said. And Katara had poked him. 

“No more jokes about Tai Min or Rangi, if you please.”

And there had been laughter. 

Back when she could see colors. 

When the Cultural Center blew up, the fire was so bright it almost blinded her. But she gaped in amazement because it was not entirely white. She could see hints of yellow and orange and red, as if brushes had been rinsed and reused, ghostly residue of hues bleeding across her vision. 

When they broke into the Red Lotus’ hiding place under the mountain, Bumi’s form stood out in the dim light of the cave. His clothes stood out from the sea of robes she knew to have been made from the same linens, soaked in the same dyes.

She lifted him, his arm over her shoulder, and asked him what hurt.

He frowned at her, bravely claiming that he had never felt better.

But when she frowned at him, he gasped.

“Lin, are your eyes green?”

[stardustizuku]

So, I’m not gonna tag this. Mostly because I don’t want to blow this more out of proportion than it was.

For starters and some context, I am Latina. I am not considered white by the standards of the country I’m living in. But I am considered white in the country I’m from. So I am acutely aware of how racism diverts itself from culture to culture. What you consider the “other” varies from the culture you are speaking from.

I have stated, I am not Asian. The context of what I know, entails as racism in Japan and how it presents its extremely limited. I have read books, watched documentaries, done research but it’s not empirical and that’s something that drastically changes the quality of information I could give.

We have three ways of framing any given analysis of racism - one, using my cultural context of dissecting the “other” (which would consider religious background, skin color and class). Two, the cultural context of the author’s background, in this case Japan’s (which would consider skin color and nationality). And three and my least favorite, American cultural context, which places an uncomfortable amount of emphasis on skin color.

The reason I don’t like talking about a piece of media through the lenses of American Cultural Context is because that on itself is a form of American Imperialism (from my humble point of view as a Latina who suffered from American Imperialism).

It’s a way for Americans to position their own racism problems in the center of the conversation. Forcing everyone to comply to what their idea of “white” and “black” means.

And unfortunately, for everyone here involved, that’s the lense through which half this site uses as a default.

So you would understand my exasperation, when I see someone: not explain the cultural context through which they’re analyzing racism, explain little to nothing abt said cultural context, and ranting off more about the morality of the text than actually discuss any of these points with any nuance.

In my mind, I have my own cultural background at the forefront. Unfortunately, I have the American cultural background jammed in the back of my mind too. And suddenly you insert the Japanese cultural background handfisted in with the grace of a red eyed bull in a glass shop.

I get fed up, I don’t understand what’s going on, I make an untagged post criticizing the PERSON’s analysis skills (which I’m sorry if I’m mean, but it sorta is bad).

I never said or implied “this work of fiction doesn’t contain problems”, I just said I wished the people who criticized it had the skills to properly explain their point.

Which, by the way, part of that writing skills needed is understanding that your interpretation is not gospel.

Cause like, I had a COMPLETELY different interpretation on Lanzenave. And the country to me, has never come across as a villain.

Like, let’s look for a second MY cultural context, and you’ll understand why I was very confused by the original post.

I genuinely 100% thought Lanzanavians were being portrayed as the GOOD guys.

For starters, the “dark-skinned” comment comes in Part 5 Volume 5 where it comes from being compared to royalty - which may I remind you WE HATE. Like at this point the Royals have been portrayed as incompetent buffoons who have done nothing more than fuck up their country.

To me, this was less of an indicator of racial profiling, and more of “they are different from the awful royals”.

Which, in my mind, made them better.

A way to say, whatever crimes the royal family has committed, it bears nothing of the actual intentions and wants of Lanzenavians.

Thing that is sorta supported by the rest of the narrative.

Lanzenave was once a country with no King. Then a King came from a magical place across the sea. But as he became more and more useless, they decided to send him back.

It looked, to me, like Lanzenave was a colonized country, that used their King’s greed to get rid of him. It’s stated that many people who came from Lanzenave weren’t just ‘natives’, but nobles.

In my country we have a term “malinche” which refers to anyone who thinks “first world countries” are better than your homeland. A cheap attempt to replicate it and discard your country for the sake of false status - is considered a laughing stock.

Which makes obvious why, the way I interpret it, people who wanted to leave Lanzenave for Yurgenschmidt never registered as actual Lanzenavians. To me they were malinches. Actual Lanzenavians were those who stayed in their country, those who embraced technology and rejected mana and feystones.

In my eyes, Lanzenavians were always smart, hardworking people being exploited and colonized. Who managed to expel the poison. The closing of the gate to Yurgenschmidt wasn’t a punishment. It was freedom. A guarantee that their colonizers wouldn’t return.

The people who invaded, were always that. Colonizers. Nobles. Rich people who think they’re better than poor people.

To me this was Latinoamerican culture in a nutshell. A place where, where you consider yourself to be from, carries way more meaning than skin color or appearance. If you say you’re Mexican, you are Mexican. It doesn’t matter what you look like. But if you renounce your heritage and call yourself “American”, you get mockery and contempt. Cause Americans won’t take you in, they don’t think you are part of them. But you’d rather not be a part of them, than be a part of us? Then follow their rules, and whatever punishment follows - it’s rightfully deserved.

So you would imagine my surprise, when I see someone with a different perspective. Noting something true that I hadn’t realized - this is a Japanese story. Applying the lenses of your own cultural context isn’t how the story is meant to be interpreted.

But instead of anything productive to be had in a conversation, I’m met with…well. People picking a fight.

They genuinely don’t consider or want, to be honest, any sort of different perspective. What they want is to complaint.

They’re Angry that some of us enjoy the story. That we have different things to enjoy out of a story. That we aren’t focusing enough on the problematic aspects of the text. Reading untagged posts and forming a convoluted opinion off two or three sentences I make. Going into huge tangents that completely miss the point.

I think it’s important, if you wanna actually talk instead of throwing buzzwords around, to lay groundwork of what want.

Again, I’m not criticizing wanting to discuss the issues of racism and xenophobia that exist - but I am sorta criticizing your ability to convey a message.

I’m not saying AoB is particularly progressive. But the books do criticize royalty, generational power, the patriarchy and systems that oppress women, the Sakoku Period, inequality in education, restriction of information and censorship…which are issues that I very rarely see tackled in this G E N R E (bcs obv if you switch to other genres and books you will find it. But shoujo isekais that talk abt royalty are rarely ballsy enough to directly criticize the power fantasy they’re writing for young women).

This is honestly a very toxic mentality. I made this for the few ppl who might be following this thing - to me Lanzenavians were always very cool.

[rivensdefenseattorney]

Nabu Character Profile

(WIP)

Basic Information

Name: Nabu Zaman

Race: Halfling Merman

Age: 21

Gender: Male (He/Him)

Height: 6'3 (191 cm)

Unique Features

Purple engravings all over his body

Long Locs

Has Scales, Gills, and Webbed Fingers/Toes when wet

Skin glows when dark and wet

Education & Background

Education: Red Fountain Polytechnic

Year: Exchange Student

Specialty: Spellcraft & Enchantment Practical Applications

Subspecialties: Tactical Combat & Field Operations | Magical Artifact Creation & Studies

Favorite Class: History of Magical Practices

Birthplace: Kingdom of Mare, Andros

Occupation: Apprentice Wizard

Relationships

Family

Mother: Zilina (Deceased)

Father: Nazir Zaman

Step-Mother: Yazmin Zaman

Elder Half-Brother: Naveed Zaman

Friends

Timmy/Helia (Specialist Best Friends)

Stella/Tecna/Musa (Winx Best Friends)

Love Interests

Aisha

Personality Traits

Confident and Patient: Nabu exudes confidence and patience, traits honed through his solitary studies and dedicated practices.

Kind and Sincere Despite his isolation, he carries a genuine kindness and honesty, fostering genuine connections with those he meets.

Philomath: He harbors a deep love for learning, a passion driving his explorations in magic, history, artifact crafting, and academic pursuits.

Intelligent and Knowledgeable: Nabu exhibits a strong intellect, especially in wizardry and studies, which gains recognition from mentors and peers.

Reserved and Thoughtful: He appears to be introspective and contemplative, choosing his words carefully and showing consideration for others' feelings.

Supportive and Reliable: Nabu acts as a dependable friend, offering support and guidance to those close to him, like Aisha, and being there when they need him.

Dutiful and Responsible: Nabu is dedicated to his studies and responsibilities, as shown by his commitment to apprenticeship and learning from his master.

Adaptable and Open-Minded: While committed to his studies, Nabu seems open to new experiences and learning from different cultures or places, as he's willing to explore beyond his homeland.

Skills & Abilities

Prodigy Wizard

Enhanced Vision, Hearing, and Strength

Expert on Magic History and Theory

Fast Swimmer

Can Breathe Underwater

Excels in staff-centered Martial Arts

Can communicate with Sea Creatures

Hobbies & Interests

Swimming

Reading

Visiting libraries, museums, and monuments.

Collecting and creating artifacts, jewelry, and gems.

Trying new foods to document in his travel journal.

Quirks & Habits

Follows a pescetarian diet

Doesn't understand a lot of surface traditions

Ties his locs into a different style every morning

Can recognize over 1,000 spells by memory

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Winx Rewrite Master Post

[astarab1aze]

➥ Cat Town, Æfre

Located on the northeastern coast of the valley Duchy of Æfre, close to the Chimerian border, serving as a sort of fishing, trading and entertainment hub in the remotest corner of Æfre.

Cat Town, otherwise more popularly known as Purrna, is an old fishing town that was overtaken by an influx of formerly enslaved shapeshifters desperately looking for a place to set down roots following the end of the 2nd Era and the beginning of the 3rd. These shapeshifters were predominantly feline in nature, thus best suited for the Cat Town's way of life and primary available work - fishing, entertainment, and trade - given their naturally keen eyes, mercantile & speechcraft, dance & song, among plenty of other, extra things; And, so, they assimilated very well, despite some of their more generally animalistic behaviors. Harmony was achieved between the human inhabitants and shapeshifters, though some humans did leave upon the initial arrival of the shapeshifters; Many aspects of the local culture adapted to both its original and additional populations, negative opinions and violence fading away the more they understood each other.

The town was built on an ancient, crumbling Eimadran ruin used as its foundation and guiding layout. It's small, spanning a single mile across and back from the sea, though there are extant hamlets here and there nearby. The whitestone is well-cared for, intricately carved, and cleaned daily, inlaid with green marble not unlike Lufian. Cat Town is often decorated with strands of flowers and witchlights, flags donning the Duchess' crest, carefully kept barrels of fish, wagons of fish or flowers, ancient Eimadran reliefs, Dustveili trophies, Kavasti furs, Miraglasian sculptures, a fountain in town center, shades, flowering trees, shrubs, artistic murals, and plenty more. It's a unique, quaint little town that would look more natural if it were settled along a mountain river or lake, but it's quite homely in its own ways. A mostly comfortable place for its permanent inhabitats, and for those visiting.

Now, it's very well known for its fishing. Fortunately, Purrna was built along a relatively safe stretch of the Dife Frèt, its waters mostly devoid of dangerous marine life and full of fish aplenty. Gentle giants, corals, schools of little fish, big fish, a dolphin or two, and perhaps a once in a lifetime sighting of a mermaid-- However, though it's primarily known for its fishing, it's also known for its entertainment. Over the years, attitudes toward sex became exploratory, open-minded perhaps, and the establishment of a local brothel resulted from that, such that the oldest brothel in all of the Æfrean Duchy is the Red Rose at Purrna's town center - built in the last century of the 3rd Era, standing now for over 500 years. It's also the only brothel in Purrna, and only open to those who possess the right amount of coin; It's rather expensive, but this can be explained by the (somewhat new) Proprietress Sortia Morgana's commitment to quality and elegance, outfitting it with accommodations that would make even Lufian pale in comparison since she laid claim to it; and the folk they employ, many of which garnering much attention from international visitors. The Red Rose does also occasionally 'loan out' some of its employees (the most popular of which being Faith Miris in the present), as a sort of early escort service, though this is limited in range to Æfre.

Sortia Morgana, while beautiful and fair, exudes a particular air that'd frighten any would-be trespasser, thug, murderer, or worse away. Truthfully, she acquired the Red Rose in an attempt to glean travelers, soldiers, and the like for information, motivated by her search for the mythical magic item, the sanguine star. She's an uncompromising businesswoman, but understands that having happy, healthy employees will get her what she wants so she's significantly less heavy-handed here than she would be ordinarily, given a mostly hands-off approach at the micro level. But, who knows, really?

Trivia

Purrna is sometimes called 'The Town of Fish and Flowers' due to...all the fish and flowers, but also because it's known for fishing and 'providing sailors/travellers with a kind of entertainment'

Purrna was originally known as Cat Town as a joke among children when humans moved in, given that they fished so much they 'felt' like cats

It is some 200 or so miles from Lufian

They get their mead from Lufian, in which merchants there in turn import it from the Bear and Bee Meadery in Mjødjord, Norhaven

The Red Rose is the best and highest quality brothel in a 200 mile radius, rivaling even Lufian's Blue Rose - they are sister establishments, and both function more like grand hotels with optional sex features

Purrna is popular among travelers, sailors, merchants, hunters, monster hunters, witchers, drifters, criminals, wealthy folk, and plenty more

It is a very long-standing town, built long before the end of the 2nd Era, perhaps even the 1st, when the Eimadra ruled over the majority of the continent

Most people won't bat an eye at illicit business unless violence is involved, in which case the aggressors will be arrested and jailed, or killed depending on the circumstances - they really don't like murderers or rapists, though they believe in 'innocent until proven guilty' as a principle like most of Æfre

[cain-e-brookman]

🐎OC Smash or Pass Tag 🎯

thanks for the tag @topazadine! despite being a great dude, i did have to pass on Uileac. he's not missing out on me, though, because he's got a great husband!

alright, he lost the popularity poll the last time so you'll all have to hear about him now. he's here, he's queer, he is the drama

Hesperos vi Galanis

picrew source

Age: (Mage ages are weird. probably around 60-ish chronologically, but basically just barely considered an adult by Mage Standards. and i mean barely. human equivalent would be 17-20.)

Sexuality: bisexual

Height: 6'1" (~185 cm)

Race: Sky Mage

Overview: Hesperos was born in the mountainous north of his homeland of Pelyra. as part of the Galanis clan, his magic is claimed by Khrou, Goddess of Lightning, though all Sky Mages can call upon the Sky God or any of his children (mostly.) He was exiled from his clan at a young age for a reason he refuses to speak about, cast off of a Pelyran boat on the open sea. But chance, a trade lord of Vizia came across his boat on a return ship from Crescaeya, saving young Hesperos from certain death, and eventually taking him in as his ward. Hesperos has grown alongside a culture much different than his own, the carefree worship of Water Mages clashing with the strict discipline he lives under in his attachment to his patron. This has caused him to pull back into himself where his faith is concerned for most of his young life, rarely discussing his own heritage. As he grew into adulthood, though, he picked up the mantel of his name, donned his clan's colors, and claimed that even if his people shunned him, he was still a servant of his Goddess, and wouldn't be made to feel ashamed of his faith.

Above all, Hesperos is a collection of warring paradoxes. He loves flashiness and bright colors, but hates being the center of attention. He loves theater and preforming, but has terrible stage fright. His feelings towards his homeland and his people is rife with mixed feelings and heartache, but he's proud of his name.

Why you should smash: Despite being charming and flirty, he is a loyal friend and lover who never strays. When he falls, he falls hard and would do anything for the person he's with. He's not quick to anger, speaks softly, but isn't shrinking or shy. Would show you off to every person and make you feel like you're the only one in the world to him. And he's also as generous in other places wink wink. He's also a very powerful Mage, as his Goddess demands complete devotion. All in his clan are trained until they can house the complete power of their patron, and take on some of her physical characteristics, namely bright blue eyes and white hair

Why you should pass: Main red flag? He's a lush. Secondary red flag? About every 3rd thing he says is a lie, and every 4th is a joke. He hides from himself and everyone else, is never not preforming, even when he's the only one in the room. And he will never, ever, truly trust you.

So what do you say?

tagginggggggg @eternalwritingstudent @spideronthesun @illarian-rambling!!

[steliosagapitos]

~ "Nabataean Goddess Pendant, 1st Century AD. This disc pendant, made of gold with garnet and glass inlays, depicts Atargatis, the chief goddess of northern Syria and surrounding areas in Classical Antiquity. Primarily she was a goddess of fertility, but, as the baalat ('mistress') of her city and people, she was also responsible for their protection and well-being. Nabataeans were an ancient Arab people who inhabited northern Arabia and the Southern Levant. Their settlements in the 1st century AD, gave the name of Nabatene to the borderland between Arabia and Syria, from the Euphrates to the Red Sea. Their loosely controlled trading network, which centered on strings of oases that they controlled had no securely defined boundaries in the surrounding desert. Trajan conquered the Nabataean kingdom, annexing it to the Roman Empire, where their individual culture, easily identified by their characteristic finely potted painted ceramics, became dispersed in the general Greco-Roman culture and was eventually lost." ~