#The Legend Of Acala

[bangjiazheng]

不動明王伝 Fudo Myouou Den Video Walkthrough

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Acala

[milfbius]

honkai souls bosses pt 3

MEI, Herrscher of Thunder:

I loooove love love the hi3 Herrscher of Thunder design and how many cultural references it has. For her appearance in Honkai Souls, she will also have a mixture of Japanese cultural references, but her overall design will be more traditional and god-like.

(Disclaimer: I am by no means an expert on Japanese religion, please let me know if I got anything wrong and I'll correct it.)

Raijin motifs: Raijin is the god of thunder in Shinto religion - one of his other names is 雷電様 (aka Raiden-sama) from which Mei stole her last name. Raijin is almost always depicted with an arc of drums - obviously they have to be very prevalent in the soundtrack.

Lightning is depicted as red in Japanese culture - similar to Raijin, Mei will summon red lighting spears to strike the player in her ranged attacks.

True to her godly inspirations, and as is typical of a fromsoft boss, Mei will be at least three times as tall as the player. Like Raijin, she will have red skin.

Fudou Muyouou (Acala): Fudou Muyouou is the Japanese name for the Buddhist deity Acala. One legend about Fudou has him getting into a fight with a non-Buddhist. Naturally, he changes himself into a flaming sword, but unfortunately his opponent does the same. To beat him, Fudou changes from a sword into the dragon Kurikara (same name as the Herrscher of Thunder's dragon in hi3). He then winds himself around his opponent and starts swallowing them (in sword form!).

Rather than summoning a dragon as she does in HI3, Honkai Souls Mei follows in Fudou's footsteps. The second phase of the fight has her transforming into Kurikara, who takes on the appearence of a more culturally-traditional Japanese dragon. I also think Mei, as a dragon, should vomit swords at the player. To serve as a fromsoftian religious perversion, but also because it would be fuckin sick.

Youkai (Oni/Tengu) motifs: Souls-Mei will have red skin with oni horns and wear giant fucking tengu geta. Obviously.

Hokushin Ittou-ryuu: is the kenjutsu style favoured by the Raiden clan - Mei was tutored in it by her father. IRL, it is a super influential and famous Japanese sword school, focused on dueling and dominating your opponent with an offense-is-defense approach. Mei's 1st phase move-set should borrow heavily from this sword style.

Video demonstration

Other notes on Mei's boss fight:

I want her to be wearing a full set of traditional 17th century samurai armor while she's still in her humanoid form - red horns poking out through the helmet, but her face completely obscured. Long black hair escapes the back of the helmet, and red, clawed hands grip her sword.

Her arena is located in the city of Nagazora - honkai beasts and zombies run rampant. Honestly, just imagine what Nagazora looks like during hi3 chapter 15-17 and add another 200-300 years of dilapidation and honkai corruption.

The full moon shines bright and large over the boss fight, which takes place on the roof of an old high school.

The boss is fairly straightforward in its mechanics - Mei fights honorably, no health regen gimicks. However, it is the first true two-phase bossfight in the game, and she has faster attacks than any previously encountered enemies.

Mei transforms into Kurikara after you deplete her first health bar, after which the fight relocates to what can only be described as a realm of thunder - black clouds, pouring rain pooling at the players feed and forks of red lighting reflecting off the ground and back into the sky. The moon is still visible, but it, too, is blood red.

Upon a killing blow, Mei reverts to her oni/humanoid form, appearing on her knees, reaching vainly towards the moon before she collapses.

Mei drops the Core of Thunder upon defeat. The player can activate it to increase attack speed for a certain duration.

previous boss (SIRIN) // next boss (WENDY)

[daeva-agas]

The Ritual of Lord Taizan 泰山府君祭

“Lord Taizan” (Taizan Fukun) 泰山府君 is one of the lords of Hell, ruler of the dead and a subordinate of King Enma/Yama.

The Ritual of Lord Taizan (泰山府君祭 Taizan Fukun Sai) is a prayer to extend the Emperor’s life. The onmyouji would offer up tributes such as gold  and silk, and make requests to the gods of the dead to extent the emperor’s life. In fact, there was never a narrative where this ritual was used to revive a dead person. How the legend evolved, I don’t know. There was, however, a legend where the Taizan Fukun Sai is used to revive someone who is nearly dead. The narrative is known as “The Crying Fudou 泣不動説話" legend. 

Abe no Seimei was summoned to save the life of a dying priest. Seimei then said, to save the priest’s life, he would need someone to give up their own lifespan in exchange. One young disciple volunteered himself, and Seimei performed the ritual. The priest was saved, but the disciple lay dying in exchange. A statue of Fudou Myou’ou (Acala) happened to be in the room where this ritual takes place. The statue suddenly came to life and began to cry. Fudou Myou’ou declared that he was touched by the disciple’s sacrifice, and restored the disciple’s life. Both the priest and the disciple were then saved from death.

The wraith is later identified as Taira no Masakado. Declared a traitor to the emperor, he was executed. Legend says he was so enraged about his fate that his disembodied head came back to life and flew away in search of his body. This head eventually was entombed and the Kanda Shrine was built to appease his soul. Legends say that if anyone ever tried to lay a hand on the shrine, Masakado will put a curse on them.

Stories about the ghost’s “curse” lasted all the way to modern times. Word has it that Allied forces occupying Japan met with various accidents when they camped in the vicinity of the shrine post-WW2, companies trying to tear down the shrine went bankrupt, and a government office built to replace the shrine was riddle with various accidents and bad luck. 

http://travel.cnn.com/tokyo/play/tokyo-ghost-story-449531/

https://soranews24.com/2015/06/30/japan-is-full-of-ghosts-visiting-the-grave-of-taira-no-masakados-head/

[kuipernebula]

“How long until you make an Issei psuedo-servant?” I hear you all ask, as I am nothing if not predictable

The answer is that I’m trying to decide what deity/object he’s a pseudo-servant with.

Osiris and Thoth were my immediate choices. Fate could use more Egypt stuff, and both of those do fit Issei pretty well, in different ways. I’d lean more Osiris just because I think his moves would be more interesting, though.

I saw someone suggest Acala/Fudo Myou - though he could theoretically be any of the Wisdom Kings, that’s the main one, so the easiest one to pull. And honestly, it would make sense for him to pull from Buddhism - though I dunno how hard and fast I wanna play that, given Rin’s pulling from Sumerian Myth instead of anything from around Germany.

As far as other Buddhist options... I’m only familiar with a few Buddhist figures, mainly the historical Buddha (who is already a Saver) and Guanyin/Kanon (who I know largely because she’s one of the more popular ones and also in Journey to the West.)

Also saw someone make one of him as Anchin from the legend of Kyohime, but I’m not fully sold on it.

I also thought it’d be neat if he got the Akashic Record - being the vessel for the concept/book in a manner similar to how Fairy Tale works.

Most of the options are good fits for Caster, and several are also very good hits for Ruler. Which are both good fits for Issei in general, honestly.

[birbleafs]

I know it’s a Chinese zodiac / Jūni Shi thing (year of the rooster!!) but two days after seeing ufotable’s card and I’m still laughing at how there now exists official art of Sorey literally holding a cock. What a time to be alive lmao XD

But immature dick jokes aside, it’s also interesting to note because the Jūni Shi (zodiac animals) in Japanese Buddhism are tied to Buddhist guardian patrons. The rooster is associated with the patron Fudō Myōō / Acala (in Sanskrit), whose name means ‘unshakeable’ (unwavering?) and 'King of Light / Wisdom King’. One of his duties as a guardian patron is ‘to convert anger into compassion, to cut the ties of negative feelings and demons to liberate us from suffering through self-control’. And the sword he wields is shrouded with the flames of purification, which he uses not only to fight evil, but also to cleave through deluded and ignorant minds, opening them to ‘knowledge’ and ‘truth’.

While he’s commonly depicted to look like a wrathful demon to humans, his true nature is that of a deity of great compassion, who vowed to be of eternal service to all beings and to the protection of true happiness. Sounds similar to Sorey’s role as the Shepherd, if you think about it. Then again, Zestiria has always had more Buddhism-Shinto (kinda sorta) symbolism and mythology to it than the actual Arthurian legend they claim it was based on. tbh, I feel like the only Arthurian thing about Zestiria (besides ‘sword in the stone’+lady of the lake’ moments) are the location names and some of the ruin/ architecture designs which are based off Celtic knotwork. But stylized knot/spiral designs and motifs also do exist in other ancient Eastern cultures, e.g. Sorey’s Shepherd cloak seems to be fashioned to look like white dragonhide (Maotelus?); the black embroidery looks like scales and is reminiscent of the Ainu-Siriki, the spiral and thorn bracket motifs of the Ainu culture.

tl;dr, of course, I don’t actually think there’s any Real Deep™ meaning to the New Year artwork of Sorey holding a rooster, but it’s just interesting to see which Eastern folklore and mythology might have been used as inspiration for Zestiria’s lore/worldbuilding.

Sorey holding a cock though (and a yawning one, at that). ufotable pls.

[ladystylestores]

7 ways to reduce plastic waste with your ISIC card

Single use plastic. The most maligned material of the past decade: everyone is talking about and everyone is trying to reduce it, including the saviors of saving students everywhere over at ISIC HQ! On top of introducing virtual cards, they’ve also secured all these discounts on products that will help your save money AND the planet. Plastic-free props, guys.

View this post on Instagram

A post shared by Sew Good Living (@sewgoodliving)

1. Go VIRTUAL with ISIC

As part of our effort to reduce plastic production waste, we were excited to launch virtual ISIC, IYTC and ITIC cards earlier this year, eliminating the need for plastic cards here in the USA. You can still purchase one of their new kind-to-the-planet virtual ID cards at the normal cost of $20. If you’re a full-time student, under 31 or a teacher, get yours now.

2. Say no to plastic utensils

Sunday hangover got you swiping right to potential food-baes on the delivery apps? Be sure to request NO utensils with your order! If you can make it to the front door, you can make it to the silverware drawer in the kitchen. Plus, never be tempted by plastic utensils during your lunch break by picking up one of these re-usable sporks from Snow+Rock. (ISIC discount: 10% off in-store).

3. Save your coins and avoid plastic carrier bags

While not implemented nationwide, this seemingly small charge on one the world’s #1 consumer products (along with retailers who have implemented their own policies) has helped reduced the number of carrier bags issued in the US. Let’s see that number drop even further by swapping to reusable carry bags.

4. Use your own reusable cup

Don’t be fooled by paper to-go cups, they usually have an inner plastic lining that can’t be recycled, not to mention plastic lids. If you’re running late to class/work/most things and must get takeaway, bring your own reusable cup to your local coffee dealer. Or go to LEON (ISIC discount: 15% off). They’ll pour your life energy into biodegradable, compostable and recyclable cups.

5. Straight from the tap

Tap water in the US is the most rigorously tested in the world, actually making it safer to drink than bottled water. Plus, it’s free! So why not pour it into a reusable bottle from the purveyors of PRETTY MUCH EVERYTHING WE EVER WANTED TO BUY IN THE WORLD over at Hema. Plus, they also do eco-friendly washing up liquid. Legends. (ISIC discount: 10% off).

6. Straws suck, big time

Do the ocean a favor and request no straw with your drink orders. Not a fan of having to lift a glass to your lips (#thestruggleisreal #butisitreally), or paper party straws that go soft in minutes? Invest in reusable straws, problem solved.

7. Rethink disposable health and beauty items

Items like toothbrushes, disposable razors and shower gels all have plastic-free, eco-friendly alternatives. Introducing ISIC’s fave new discount partner, Acala (ISIC discount: 15% off). They’re an all-natural online store with a mantra of plastic free and zero waste packaging. Items range from bamboo toothbrushes and charcoal toothpaste to shampoo bars (hello never-having-to-worry-about-the-30z-liquid-limit at the airport again).

Ready to help save the planet with an ISIC card? Head to our site to buy one, eco-warrior!

Source link

قالب وردپرس

from World Wide News https://ift.tt/2Zn7BP8