#atlantean racism

[meowmeowmeowmeow4x]

Dark Blue Moon and the Suffering Sun Part 9

MASTAPOST

Byleth trembled as the Guard gathered in the barracks later that night. He had been found floating belly up near the top floor after having sounded the alarm.

It wasn’t his fault! T-there was a s-s-SIREN. Right there! In front of him! It looked thin and waspish and starving, and he was sure it was gonna maul him to death right then and there. Did you see the teeth on that thing?! Byleth shuddered. His hand went to cover his gills. Imagine being chomped on the neck by that stuff. The stuff of nightmares.

Unfortunately, or perhaps fortunately, he wasn’t the only one terrified. Well, that was a little misleading. Byleth stood at attention in line with his fellow guardspeople, awaiting dismissal. The debrief was long and agonising, hearing details about how the siren lurked around unnoticed for hours, but most of his comrades were just irritated, or even disappointed. He glanced to the right, where Ableth was nursing his wounds from trying to tackle the little demon, and he wasn’t even fazed! Like, holy shit. If the siren got that close to him, he’d probably shit his pants right on the spot!

No, the one who was terrified was apparently the local administrator, currently having a ‘conversation’ (more like a shouting match) with their commanding officer out of sight, but definitely not out of earshot.

“It was a child! A baby! Do you even begin, begin to comprehend how bad this makes you, and by extension, me, look?! King Arthur will have our heads! Our heads!”

Their commander audibly sighed (which was a big yikes, considering how patient the guy was even on a bad day). “I understand your concerns, administrator, but this guard have done the best they can. The siren child was armed with weaponry the likes of which we have never seen before, and the raids have been tireless besides.”

“Blah blah blah blah do you even hear yourself? Maybe if you had trained these grunts better they wouldn’t have been out-matched by a toddler!” Byleth took offence to that. He’d like to see the office suit face up against that monster!

“Only one man was hurt, and he’ll be disciplined for his recklessness. The child did not set out to attack anyone, he was only stealing supplies, and fled when resistance appeared. It’s the same story as ever.”

“It sounds like your guards are as incompetent as ever!”

“The sirens have no way to access such advance weaponry. Do you understand what this means? If we don’t speak up, what will we do when a proper war band appears, each bearing these weapons? How many towns will they have razed before your dead spirit will be ready to admit the consequences of this cowardice?”

The administrator sputtered. The ridiculous loss of composure, and the raucous laughter of Byleth’s friends helped sooth the abject terror of a hundred more sirens appearing out of the ravines. By Poseidon spare them!

Line breakening~~

With the adrenaline running low, Damian ran on fumes as he twisted through the ravine, tracing back his fin-strokes to the cave where he’d left Phantom. Against all odds, he found it, and almost cried in relief. Throwing his newly acquired loot to the floor, Damian let his body drop like a cold iron, and passed out.

Danny felt pain. Like, all over. Everything hurt. Normally he’d be able to heal any injuries he got while siren fighting, and what a blessing that was. He wasn’t sure just how dense his parents could be, but he didn’t want to test it. The aching agony all over his body reminded him just how little he ate that morning, and man was he regretting it. Stupid Skulker and his stupid hunting dog dolphins. His stupid hunting doglphins. And stupid Damian for making him come close.

Well, that was a little harsh. He couldn’t blame the kid for believing the dolphin propaganda. They had a tight grip on the world, man.

The smell of blood prickled his nose. Danny shot up, fully awake. “Damian where ar-”

There the kid was, collapsed against the rocky floor of their makeshift hideout. Beside him, bags and satchels spilled out with food, bandages and weapons?! Guilt rocked up Danny’s body. Did Damian go hunting for food while he was unconscious? The kid’s tiny body was littered in bruises, and raw patches where the scales barely healed over. His sail was bent at an awkward angle too. Where the hell did he go?! Where did he get weapons?

No wait. Danny came closer and sniffed the loot closely. You had to be kidding him. There were Atlanteans nearby?! Part of Danny very much doubted the idea that the Atlanteans, probably the number 2 siren haters in the world aside from his parents, would just hand Damian a gift basket if he asked them to. So he stole from them?

Jazz would call this catasrophising, but she wasn’t around, so Danny felt pretty justified in panicking a little. Like, what was he thinking?! The Atlanteans would’ve skewered him without a second thought.

A small whimper caught his attention. Danny’s mental disaster train screeched to a halt. Damian was shivering, violently. Oh right. It was like, midnight or something in a deep ocean ravine. The kid was probably freezing. And if he wasn’t healing, that meant he was low on nutrients, and even lower on body heat.

Right, needed to care for the kid. Crap. He was planning on staying near the surface for most of the trip. A blanket was big and cumbersome and he didn’t have much storage space on him.

But goddammit if he let the kid freeze to death on his behalf. Resigning himself to a fate of being bitten once Damian woke up, Danny picked up the tiny, fragile guppy, and tucked him underneath his fins. As Danny began to eat his fill, he wondered just what kind of person he was going to be swimming across two oceans with, to be brave enough to go out singularly into the unknown…

Damian awoke to the sound of chewing, and gentle purring. He missed Alfred the cat. Poor kitty. He probably missed Damian too. It’s ok, Damian can make it up to him. He’ll give the little kitty all the pets and grooming he could ask for.

A weight settled on his hair, and- oh… oh that was so good. He didn’t know Alfred could pet him too. Maybe this was one of the good endings to his life, one where he’d spend life as a kitten, without a care in the world. That would be so nice, just being there and safe and warm. The hand stroked and straightened his hair, and it snaked down to where his ears were and scratched them. It was pure heaven. Damian thought that such a place would be forever closed off to him, but maybe the world had decided to be kind…?

“Woah, you’re actually lowkey super adorable like this.” Alfred said. Why did Alfred the cat sound like a pasty-faced teenage boy? He’d always imagined him like the real Alfred: prim, proper, distinguished.

“You sound strange, Alfred.” Damian mumbled. The hand scratched his ear again, and Damian’s purring intensified. “Please return to your proper voice at once.”

“Dude, I have no idea who that is.”

Nonsense. Damian had named his cat after a very distinguished man, and let him know it every time he saw him. How could he not know his own name?

“That is preposterous. You are Alfred the cat, my esteemed pet and loyal member of the family.”

Aflred the cat snorted. He snorted. “Oh my god that is so gold. I’m going to hold this over you literally until you grow old and wrinkly.”

Damian felt… offended. That was so mean! Why would Alfred the cat say such a thing, to him, Damian, his owner and friend! Damian always made sure to treat his pets with the care and respect they deserved, and this is what he got!?

“B-bad kitty. You will be disciplined.”

And Alfred the cat just kept laughing! Alright, the air of relaxation evaporated as Damian started getting annoyed. He opened his eyes, ready to teach his wayward cat some manners when-

The last 24 hours caught up again. Before him was not Alfred the cat, as he had thought, but Phantom completely healthy again, lying on his back, laughing his heart out. Almost literally, too. Damian watched as Phantom’s still beating heart, and water-filled lungs bounced and jiggled inside his chest cavity with each half-choked laugh. It was mesmerizing, and kind of nauseating.

Suddenly Damian couldn’t find it in himself to be angry, just an overwhelming feeling of relief.

“Phantom!” He cried out, voice almost cracking. Phantom tackled him into a hug, and Damian only put up a token resistance. It just felt so… right. “You are… You have recovered from your injuries.”

“It’s Danny, actually.” Phantom, er- Danny, said, voice soft, quiet. Almost vulnerable… “Danny Phantom. Most people just know the Phantom part.”

Danny… Daniel…. “I was foolish. I should not have ignored your warnings. Forgive me, Daniel.”

“Hey now, don’t you start picking up the Fruitloop’s habits. It’s never Daniel. Just Danny. Daniel’s a randomass human name, but Danny’s mine.”

“It does not change the fact that it sounds like a nickname. I… I do not do nicknames.” Damian said. Normally he paraded this fact as a matter of pride. With Richard, Drake, even Kent. Now, with Daniel encompassing his body in warmth, he felt strangely small.

“And I don’t do self-deprecation. So what about a deal? I’ll forgive you, if you promise to call me Danny.” The older boy said, voice leaving no room for argument. And yet, the playful tone underneath it gave Damian something akin to comfort. The way Richard did in the early days, despite Damian’s barbs and open threats.

“Very well, D-Danny.” Damian forced out. The name felt alien on his tongue. “This is a privilege few can boast to.”

Daniel- no, Danny, chuckled again. “You sound like a kid saying a swear for the first time and they’re really scared of being caught.”

“I am not a child.” He was never allowed to be.

“You are crazy though. And reckless. And that’s coming from me!”

Ah, so Danny figured it out. “You noticed the smell of Atlantean.”

“What were you thinking? They hate sirens. With a capital H.”

“I will not apologise for my actions in there. You needed food. It was my own poor judgement that got you injured, so it was my responsibility to rectify that.”

Danny was quiet for a moment. “I’m really trying to channel that ‘angry because I’m worried about you’ energy that my sister does, but you’re making it really difficult. Now I just feel bad.”

“They posed no threat to me. It was an easy operation.” Damian said. Danny sighed again.

“What am I gonna do with you? Outside of taking you home, that is.”

“For one, you could unhand me.” Damian’s words were hollow, even to him.

“And let you freeze to death? No chance. Now come on. The sun’s about to rise, and you need your breakfast.”

“Have you eaten enough yourself?” It would not do to let this foolish teenager hurt himself for Damian’s sake again.

“Dude, I’m like triple your size and age right now. It’s my job to be worrying over you.” Damian harrumphed.

It felt nice to be cared for again.

LINE BREAK BABY

Bruce hung up the phone. Dick was about ready to riot, and the others were on a wire-thin line too. It was one of the most exhausting calls he’d done in his life, but it had to be done. He wasn’t going to leave his family in the dark, not after Jason.

It wasn’t just he who had potentially lost a son, however. In his hours of maddened searching, he’d glossed over the fact that the son of local siren hunters, the Drs Fenton, had also gone missing. Tim was already on the case, sifting through thousands of hours of CCTV footage to analyse the kid’s behaviour of the course of the last six weeks. Two unrelated boys going missing at the same time. And one boy had been displaying suspicious behaviour for months before hand. Something was up.

And so Bruce straightened his tie. He refused to wear any form of black. Not now, not yet, while there was still hope to be clung to. His trip to Fentonworks was in part to share condolences, and in part to investigate. Wherever Damian was, the clues lay somewhere surrounding Daniel Fenton.

He just hoped Damian had to be ok. If this hope died, Bruce felt like he might die with it.

[southernmermaidsgrotto]

Do you think love and light spirituality is toxic?

Definitely yes.

Now some of you will run away just from reading those two words, let me elaborate: It's not just toxic, it's actively harmful and racist, ableist, it's white cis hetero male supremacist in every way. Completely rooted in naz1 ideas from the very beginning of it. You just gotta look at the history of the whole movement and there's flaming red flags everywhere.

But even if you don't know the history and social context of how it came to be and popularized (which you should, do your research), just by looking at these people and how they move through life you can still clearly see the issues with it.

I have 3 main problems with the whole "love and light" thing that a lot of new age people spread, the first and biggest for me is spiritual bypassing. New Age "love & light" culture is not only completely incorrect (the dark is just as important, real and necessary for balance as the light, really, I'm saying it as someone with 10+ years of experience and a whole family background in ancestral traditions. The dark shit is Important and necessary, to understand all aspects of life, spiritual and not, to grow as a person and as a practitioner, to protect yourself and yours from both material and spiritual things and to fight either if needed.) but the whole "good vibes only" ends up being delusional at best and straight out abusive at worst, many times gaslighting people and denying racism, colonialism, oppression of all kinds, spiritual and physical illness, mental illness, basic history and science, all things that can have very real, physical consequences on people's mental health, overall health, and safety in general, not to mention the wider effects on society as a whole (having people running around with the emotional inteligence of a clam shell, scratch that, even clams are better than that lmao and spreading misinformation and harm like wildfire). The Second big mess is how much it promotes the complete lack of literacy and rational critical thinking. People will learn a new fancy thing and just run with it without knowing the full history and correct use of things and words, without questioning the source and context of the whole situation. Misinterpreting the little knowledge they have, either because it's something they overheard, or read in 1 book and never bothered to dive deeper into it's roots and history and true meaning, having the most shallow and incorrect "knowledge" of things, etc. It goes hand in hand with the 1st problem to create the 3rd issue: straight out willful malicious ignorance. They don't know any better and they can't be bothered to learn any better either. It's not just laziness or disinterest, it's straight out conscious denial of truth, repression of their own feelings and thoughts and identity even in some cases, to just be able to keep this facade of "love & light" that's killing them from the inside, hurting themselves and hurting anyone they come into contact with aswell, all to serve their selfish purposes and their own agendas.

All these three things feed off and enhance each other in an endless loop, that gets even worse in the kinds of conspiracy theory echo chambers these people move in. The ignorance and immaturity combined with someone who doesn't do any introspection at all and is straight out lying to themselves and others, either from a place of delusion, or in the case of most white people, priviledge. It's a huge system that only feeds white supremacy and keeps people of color disconnected from their true feelings and health, personal identity, culture and community, taking people away from any and every possible source of real power. It's keeping the priviledged in power and the disenfranchised in misery while denying the whole situation, spreading misinfo to confuse, divide and put the blame on the victims instead of the actual victimizer.

Priviledged people spread misinformation and lies because they don't know and don't care + actively benefit from keeping you in the dark, all while screaming from the top of their lungs that they have your best interests at heart and will "shine light on truths" while their actions are the complete opposite of that, then hide from the results of anything harmful they do under the "love & light positive thoughts only" thing to avoid conflict and consequences. It's bullshit. Call them out on their bullshit everytime.

[dankovskaya]

WHy bring back the “by the way Atlantis is suuuuuuper racist” thing in full force like this. I mean it never really went away but still.

[creature-wizard]

Looks like it's time to talk about starseeds and the New Age movement again.

Since I'm seeing more starseed content being posted, I'm gonna make another post on why the whole starseed thing and the surrounding New Age belief system are... not good.

So for those who don't know, New Age mythology is essentially a hodgepodge of cherrypicked and distorted myths from various cultures, racist pseudohistory, and far right conspiracy theories. To put it very briefly, starseeds are supposedly here to help Earth resist the reptilians, a race of politics-manipulating, war-starting, media-controlling blood-drinking aliens. For those who don't recognize the tropes here, these are basically all antisemitic canards. The reptilian alien myth as most know it today comes from David Icke, who ultimately cribbed a bunch of his material from The Protocols of the Learned Elders of Zion, a Russian hoax created to justify violence against Jews. He was also influenced by the work of people like Fritz Springmeier, a hateful crank who based much of his work on other hateful cranks.

(David Icke, by the way, also claims that transgender is an evil reptilian conspiracy. You'll never find just one form of bigotry with these people.)

There are supposedly numerous alien races out there, and one of the most prominent among them are the Pleiadians, AKA Nordics. While modern depictions of the Pleiadians give them more variety in skintone, there's no denying that older Pleiadian mythology basically pictured them as Aryans In Space, even associating them with the swastika.

You see what's going on here? "Good" swastika-loving Aryan aliens versus "evil" Jewish aliens? Sound familiar?

Racism isn't just a tangential part of the starseed myth, either. It lies at its very core. It's inextricably tied in with the ancient astronaut hypothesis, which has a history of racist motivation behind it. The TL;DR is that a bunch of white people couldn't believe that non-white people had built a bunch of things they couldn't figure out how to build themselves (EG, the Great Pyramids), so they proposed that the real builders were anyone from Atlanteans to aliens. (Atlantis, by the way, never existed; it was a literary device created by Plato.)

One supposed purpose of starseeds is to help the world "wake up to the truth," which basically just means "convert people to New Age spirituality." New Age believes that world peace is contingent on a majority of the world being converted to New Age belief, and that resistance against their belief system is ultimately the work of the aforementioned reptilian aliens.

To put it another way, New Agers think they understand other cultures' spiritual traditions better than the actual members of said cultures, and think that anyone who disagrees with them is being manipulated by the conspiracy, or is an agent of the conspiracy. This includes Indigenous cultures which are already endangered from white Christian colonialism.

Essentially, endangered cultures cannot speak up for themselves and resist New Agers' efforts at cultural assimilation without being labeled a problem and an enemy. It's basically white Christian colonialism repackaged as "spiritual, not religious."

Again - if you heard from these people that some ancient text or myth describes extraterrestrial beings visiting our planet for one reason or another, you heard misinformation. They twist and misrepresent literally every myth and text they get their hands on. For example, you may have heard that the vimanas from Hindu traditions were actually alien spacecraft. They were no such thing. Or maybe you heard that the Book of Enoch describes aliens performing genetic experimentation on humans. It literally does not. At best, all of the stories they cite just kind of sound like aliens if you ignore most of their content and pay no attention to their cultural contexts.

The starseed movement preys on alienated people, especially autistic people and people with ADHD. You can look up nearly any list of signs that you're supposedly a starseed, and many of them will align perfectly with characteristics associated with autism and/or ADHD, or that people with these conditions commonly report. Some people within the movement even go so far as to claim that ADHD and autism don't even exist, but were actually made up by the conspiracy as a cover to suppress and control starseeds, which is some yikes-as-hell ableism.

So basically, people are being told that if they have these certain characteristics or symptoms, that means it's their job to spread New Age spirituality to defeat the conspiracy and help others ascend to the fifth density.

And what's the fifth density, you might ask? It's supposedly humanity's next evolutionary level, because New Age is also based on biological misconceptions. Supposedly once everyone's DNA "upgrades," they'll essentially morph into an aetheric form. Supposedly, this is preceded by a number of "ascension symptoms," including depression, headache, gastrointestinal issues, and any number of other symptoms that could indicate almost anything, including stress.

What many of these people don't realize is, this prediction has already failed. Back in the 2000s and 2010s, experiencing "ascension symptoms" was supposed to precede ascension to 5D beginning December 21, 2012. One lady, Denise Le Fay, was convinced that the hair loss she was experiencing in 2008 was an ascension symptom. As we can see by looking her up, she's very much still with us on the 3D plane these days, repeating the same tired old scripts New Agers recycle endlessly.

By the way, everything you near New Agers saying today about old systems being dismantled, dark forces being arrested or kicked off the planet, and new economic systems on the horizon? They've been recycling these scripts for years now. Take a look at this page written back in 2012. You got stuff about the complete dismantling of an enormous network of sinister forces," "the arrest and removal of a world-wide cabal," and a "new economic system."

("Cabal," by the way, is a dogwhistle term for "Jews.")

Furthermore, people in this movement are often encouraged to try and access past life memories through dreams or hypnosis, which makes the whole thing feel even more real to them. But the thing is, you can have incredibly vivid experiences about literally anything you put your mind to - the people in the reality shifting having vivid experiences of living another life in the Harry Potter universe are a great example of this. Just because you have vivid experiences, doesn't mean they have any bearing on anything happening in this reality.

So yeah, the starseed movement and the larger New Age movement are both extremely harmful. They promote racist pseudohistory, medically-irresponsible pseudoscience, conspiracy theories that target numerous marginalized groups, and functionally target aliened people with ADHD and autism to convince them that spreading its beliefs is their job.

[namorweek]

NAMOR WEEK 2024

Welcome to the the 5th Annual Namor Week, a fandom event dedicated to our favorite Undersea Anti-Hero! We welcome all new & old fans to the event and hope you can join in this year’s Namor Week on April 24 - 30!

(Art by @pointdotiozao )

Themes

Day 1 - Wings // Sun Day 2 - Prince/King/Emperor // Outcast Day 3 - Alternate Universe // What if...? Day 4 - Piercings/Tattoos // Scars Day 5 - Friends/Allies // Enemies Day 6 - Magic // Science Day 7 - Creator's Choice

The Rules

No sign ups, no checks, just create whatever you feel like creating! Choose one or all of the prompts. Please read and follow all rules to be a part of this event. Types of fanworks accepted: Fanfiction, Fanart, Podcasts, Edits, Playlists, Podfics, Aesthetics, Gifs, etc. you may commission work to be submitted but it must be created for this event, so no reposting an older work for this.

All work must be submitted on the day of the prompt, late works will be accepted up until end of the week. You may add your works to the Namor Week Collection on Ao3 if you wish. 

All Fan Works must be original works created or commissioned for this event and it must focus on Namor or any of his supporting characters in the Talokan or Atlantis universes, examples but not limited to; Lady Dorma, Namora, Attuma, Fen, and more! Choose from MCU or Comic Canon, but it must be a canon character and the work may not use Namor or his supporting characters as background for other non Sub-Mariner characters or fandoms. 

Fanworks must be tagged with #namorweek in the first five tags & tag @namorweek so that it can be featured on this blog by end of day, and unless otherwise stated then fanworks will be linked/cross posted to the Namor Week twitter. If you wish to participate on twitter and post there then simply @ the namorweek account there! All works will be rounded up in a master list.

Tag appropriately! If you have heavy themes, tag what your work contains!

Any fanwork*, ship, canon, canon divergent, or non-canon, romantic or platonic, welcome. However this is a character(s) week so please remember to keep focus on Namor, Atlanteans, Talokanil. *see banned content

Ship and let Ship & Don’t like? Don’t Read is in full force. 

Banned

Racism, hate work (fanwork created to bash on characters), and other forms of hate are not tolerated or accepted. Including Anti Ship or Shipping Wars. Don’t create something just to be a jerk to other fans or shippers. 

Pedo/Incest works are not accepted.

NamorSue, Namor/Susan in a romantic ship are not accepted. (Platonic Namor & Susan Storm is accepted.)

Namor x Reader, x Reader, Character x Reader, all works with x Reader or Character Imagines are not accepted. 

Good Luck with creating and see you in April & if you have any questions please send an Ask! 

[comicavalcade]

Submariner Summer 23

Hey hey everyone its time for #SubmarinerSummer read through, part 23. Diving into Tales to Astonish #90: To Be Beaten By BYRRAH! The cover paints quite the tableau, too. Byrrah, a Golden Age rival of Namor, now makes his Silver Age debut to bedevil our sea prince once more.

On the Title page, we are quickly reintroduced to him just as his long-laid plans to destroy Namor are ready to begin. The fiend! Truly an appropriate antagonist for issues with art by Bill Everett, and I'm sure that's no coincidence. Also dig those Forbush water ballets! 🤭

Fair warning, I'm likely to get a little ranty since this ish leans on a key element of Namor lore that deserves highlighting. Case in point: racism. Namor has faced it his whole life from other Atlanteans, including and perhaps especially from other royal Atlanteans

Being mixed-race has been a challenge he's had to struggle with; his arrogance, insisting on his own worth and excellence, is a *response* to that struggle. He'll show them who's a "mongrel" "half-breed"; and of course, his physical power has been his avenue to that validation.

Of course its no easier for him on the surface; he doesn't even pass for *human*, let alone white (he's typically described as looking asian, traditionally, if he's described in human terms). He is absolutely always an outsider there. So why is Namor so angry all the time? Lol. Rofl. LMAO, even. Why *wouldn't* he be?

ANYWAY, back to Byrrah, blond racist of Atlantis. He's been biding his time, using his aristocratic influence building up trust and influence with people and connections that will help him take control for his own selfish gain

Now he sees his chance, and starts a full public relations campaign, painting himself as peace-loving and Namor as a warmonger, as well as a "freak" who's just dumb and strong because again, metaphorical racism. And it seems to work well as people start to call for a plebiscite

Of course, he's pulling this little Game of Thrones move while Namor is away. Luckily, Lord Vashti comes to let him know. Namor doesn't believe it could work, but Vashti disavows him of that, so Namor returns to Atlantis to try and counter Byrrah.

Byrrah had planned for just that, and takes the opportunity to demand a royal challenge for Namor calling him a coward. This seems counterintuitive, since Namor is more powerful, so Dorma is suspicious, as is Vashti, but Namor is Namor, and Byrrah knows him well...so its on!

Incidentally, this is like the third trial by combat we've seen; seems pretty ingrained in Atlantean culture. Makes for exciting stories of course, but also lends context to Namor solving things by insisting on fighting about it since he sees himself as embodiment of his culture.

At any rate, it doesn't take long for Byrrah to start using loopholes to gain an advantage on Namor. Namor has advatages of his own, of course, but Byrrah was two steps ahead, and doses Namor with a strength-draining chemical applied via saw-fish. Ah yes, oldest trick in the book, saw-fish injection

Now weakened, Namor is unable to take down Byrrah, who takes the offensive and delivers the knock-out blow on Namor. Imperius Rex?

Namor is devastated, of course. But not because of his loss so much as that the people have turned against him and cheer his enemy. Dorma and Vashti try to comfort him, but Namor is worried that all his enemies will now team-up, dooming Atlantis and then the rest of the world!

Call me crazy, but I like the internal Atlantean politics stories, bringing back the racism against Namor that would pop up in the Golden Age and will pop up in future stories, delivered by a Golden Age adversary that's fun to dislike as a low schemer in Byrrah.

The art really works for the story too, Everett hasn't lost a step. The man knows Atlantis, and he adds in little details that remind me of the Golden Age Atlanteans/"submariners", which is cool to see if you've read Namor's oldest stories.

But, our cliffhanger left Namor at this low point, and NEXT we'll see what happens in the reign of Prince Byrrah of Atlantis in Tales To Astonish 91: Outside The Gates Waits Death!

[imperiuswrecked]

Ok, question. In the comics, do Namor's people love him? Like, as a ruler? I'm curious because I've read pretty much nothing of Namor's back catalogue but I've read a lot of Victor Von Doom's, and one of the frustrating parts of Victor being a king, is that authors cannot agree on if he's beloved by his people or holding them hostage.I feel like the two are similar in a lot of ways, especially when it comes to their devotion to protecting their respective people. But I'd be curious to know if Namor's authors have been all over the place like Victor's.

The Atlanteans despise Namor. lmao. Like a lot. Like I can't even explain how fucked up it is that Namor was abused physically, verbally, and emotionally by his grandfather Emperor Tha-Korr, but he still was raised to be the Protector of Atlantis. How Tha-Korr sent him off to wage war alone against an entire surface world at the age of 17/18, how once Tha-Korr humiliated Namor as a child by tying him to the side of an Atlantean spire when Namor asked to see the surface, how much racist bullshit Namor gets from the Atlanteans because he wasn't blue skinned, the bullying from other kids, etc. Namor even knows how bad it is with his people because once he outright states he knows that his people would not live alongside another group of sea people because they are racist. There's some comics that show Tha-Korr in a good grandfatherly kindly light but like you just need to read enough see that he actually hated Namor for being half human.

In the comics the Atlanteans blame Namor like 70% of the time for their issues, or they kick him off the throne or out of Atlantis. There's about 30% of comics where he's actually shown to be beloved, but it doesn't take long for them to turn against Namor. It really depends on the writer because there are always a few people who support Namor but many of the Atlanteans look at Namor with mistrust because he often helps the surface world. But generally speaking the Atlanteans look down on Namor as their "Half Breed Prince" which just again, drives home the point Namor struggles with being biracial in a racist culture. I could pull out examples for like a masterpost someday but just wanted to respond to this quickly, lol. I should make a call out post for Tha-Korr and the Atlanteans like:

As for Namor and Doom, YEAH!!!! I always felt they were similar by the fact they both experienced racism growing up (namor's racism is fictional compared to Victor's real world racism of the Romani people) and both of them were basically outcasts in larger society, rose up to become leaders of their nations. There's alot those two have in common and I always want to explore more with them.

I adore them.

[nightonthemountain]

What's up! It's everyone's favorite party enthusist! That's right, 🌙🏔, is here to interact! So like, keep it chill

I'm Umbrance, a 3rd Year Diasomnia student and I do work study in the library! I'm also the one who will accidentally set off the sprinkler system!

Hi, Archie here. You might see me wearing headphones everywhere. I'll talk if you want.

Next Catacombs Mixer (alcohol, weed): 2 weeks

Next Scarabia Party (sober party): TBD

Next Pomefiore Dungeon Meetup (weed only): TBD

Ooc/Mirlan: welcome to my twst rp blog! I'm the mod. This is a 21+ account, so there will sometimes be adult themes. If you're not comfortable with that, see the warnings about which tags to filter out. I want everyone to first and foremost have a good time.

THIS IS A MULTISHIP ACCOUNT! None of their relationships will overlap or intersect.

WARNINGS: Alcohol, drinking, weed, drugs, occasional dubcon kisses (these are arranged ahead of time and agreed on by both mods)

If that's not your thing, that's okay 👌 no pressure! Filter these tags:

tw alcohol tw weed tw drugs tw drinking

Rules:

-keep NSFW in messages. The most for posts is kissing

-don't spam

-no homophobia, racism, sexism, etc.

Lore compilation under cut

🌙🏔 Lore/Profile:

Name: Umbrance Walpurgis

Year: 3rd, Diasomnia

Age: ???

Birthday: October 31st (Scorpio)

Height: 5' 9"

Eyes: Emerald Green, but they turn red when he's hungry

Description Notes:

-is a half-fire fae and half-incubus, descendant of an old fae court -goes to parties to eat, but refuses to do so on their Favorite Bean. -has a roommate in case he combusts or refuses to eat (both frequent occurrences) -Usually, he feels sick after eating -UM is Night on the Mountain -is super helpful and nice during the daylight hours -Has gotten in trouble for wearing a leather jacket instead of the school issued jacket.... multiple times -Sometimes he spontaneously combusts and it will set off the sprinkler system

Current Relationship Board:

Archie - His Roommate / Best friend he sometimes kisses platonically Lost Anon - dating Castor - Friend Pollux - Engaged Vern - Friendly Rivals...?

Archie Laviathan - The Roommate

Year: 3rd, Diasomnia

Age: ???

Birthday: February 14th

Height: 5' 6"

Description Notes:

-Hair: Short, white hair. Has one strand longer on his right side. It's kept together with a blue crystal hair bead -Eyes: Icy Blue -Markings: Tattoos, a lot of them, and they're all nautical. The only visible ones are on his knuckles with the words "HOLD FAST" on them. (he's gotten in arguments with the professors about them a few times) -UM: Doesn't have his, yet, surprisingly -Uniform: Ditches the suit jacket frequently, but wears the tie, vest, and shirt perfectly. He's usually seen wearing headphones -He is half-fae, half-Siren. 100% Atlantean. Has a beautiful singing voice, just doesn't use it for obvious reasons -Personality info: He's generally very calm and collected, but doesn't talk much. He serves as a voice of reason to balance out Umbrance's impulsive nature.

Current Relationship Board:

Umbrance - roommates / best friends who platonically kiss. Castor - Engaged? Pollux - friends Vern - former roommate / friend

Picrew thanks to @/castaway-achlys

[postsfromadragon]

This is so unfair.

White conspiracy theorists do this to any civilization outside of Europe.

"Ohh, the egyptians couldn't be advanced enough to make a huge pile of bricks with rooms in them" "Woah, so many civilisations made mounds/pyramids in the same shape!!! It must be aliens, or atlanteans, or something! It couldn't be that that's the best shape to make a pile of stuff so it won't fall over, because the people living here had a different skin tone!!!" "What? You found the oldest human-made structures ever discovered??? Göbekli Tepe? In Turkey? Well, we're not gonna give their civilization a name so we can pretend some 'higher beings' made them build it! They were just stupid hunter-gatherers! It's not like the urge to create things and leave a mark on the world is a human instinct or anything!"

Gods, white people have so much internalized racism.

People online (white) will create so many conspiracy theories that just boil down to "Asians aren't complete human beings with their own thoughts and autonomy" like maybe Chinese people are just going about their day to day life. Maybe a video of a North Korean person like chilling is just a person chilling, who isn't going to power down like a robot once the video is over. Stop being a fucking creep.

[topaztalon]

Here is the last character from this batch of descriptions, her name is Zostera and she's a human-Atlantean(?) hybrid. I was really unhappy with her at first, mainly because I thought her face looked really weird (I think its mostly her hair and her "ears" honestly). That, and her armor is just really fuckin ugly, but I wasn't too upset about that because I can always just give her a different outfit. Overall she's grown on me a little. Still not that proud of her but I'm definitely gonna revisit her in the future :)

Here is her description, as soon as I read "aquamarine skinned" I knew I wanted to do some kind of weird fish lady. And as soon as I read "ripped, masculine clothes" I knew she had to be a tomboy. The makeup kinda contradicts that, but I gave her purple accents in her skin to imply that the "eye shadow" is natural. She also has glowing purple blood, because why not. Here are some details about her:

Zostera's name is based off the dwarf seahorse, I planned to make her more seahorse-coded but I literally had zero ideas for that outside the name

She is 5'1" (SHORT QUEEEEEEEEN✨)

She can breathe underwater and on the surface

She has excellent night vision, making her eyes sensitive to light

She is a warrior who aims to unite her two worlds, despite being rejected from both for being a half-blood

She is tough as nails and could absolutely kick your ass

The weird coral stalks on her body are actually sensory organs, and with them she can detect vibrations in the air, sort of like faux ears

When she's underwater, she can use them to echolocate and communicate with other ocean folk

If her coral stalks are damaged, it could cause serious long term brain damage, loss of memory, loss of cognitive function, loss of motor skills, and loss of certain senses. Imagine a concussion but your brain is on the outside of your skull

Her coral stalks can glow, but not that bright

When she was young, everyone in her home village called her a multitude of colorful mean names, among them being "gargler", which is actually a slur towards ocean folk. Dang ol racism

Because she has glowing purple blood, her face also glows purple when she blushes, which doesn't happen very often but you're welcome to try :)

[rjalker]

this racist story (Phalanxes of Atlans, which I'm editing but attempting to not read yet) has introduced a new version of swarthy -- swart. used in "these swart warriors".

it means dark skinned, or at least having skin noticeably dark enough to be dictintly Not White And Therefore Hated by the Racist Author.

Here's a contextless section of the text I read by accident if you want an example of the type of racism rampant in these short stories.

Francis Van Wyck Mason wrote this story. Lucky for the world he died in 1978.

With sharp anxiety, Victor Nelson kept watching the towers of Jezreel rise ever clearer above the great, warm plain of Jarmuth, but, for all that, he noted how distinctly Jezreel differed from Heliopolis. The Jarmuthian capital was predominantly amber-yellow instead of white in color; its towers were flat-topped, angular, hideous structures that compared not at all favorably with the graceful Grecian architecture of Atlantean public buildings.

The populace, he decided, as he strode along in the midst of half a dozen silent guards, were as harsh and graceless as their architecture. Whereas the Atlanteans had been white skinned and uniformly red haired—save for those of Hudsonian blood—the inhabitants of Jarmuth almost without exception were black haired and had dark, olive-hued skins.

"They're the lost tribes of Israel, all right," Nelson decided after a brief sojourn in that savage land lying beyond Apidanus—the great boiling river, whose bubbling and scalding currents had for centuries served as a natural boundary between the two realms. But now the Jarmuthian armies had crossed it and were steadily pushing back the demoralized and despairing Atlanteans with savage energy that heaped the dead in hillocks.

"Their armor," mused the ragged, barefoot prisoner, studying his silent guards, "looks a lot like a Roman legionnaire's, but that six pointed star on their helmets is pure Semitic. Yes, this sure is an Asiatic outfit."

His eyes wandered from one fierce, big-nosed infantryman to another and noted the splendid physical structure of the majority. Evidently hardier, much less refined and luxury-loving than the Atlanteans, these swart warriors disdained robes and other garments. Save for helmet, armor and brief black kilts, they were quite naked.

[creature-wizard]

could you explain atlantis conspiracy theories and the harm they cause a bit more? like is it the same kind of thing as the ancient aliens bs (that is, “a more advanced magical/alien society is responsible for the achievements of ancient people of color” rhetoric), or is there something else I’m missing? I know it’s bad, I just want to make sure I know all of why

Yeah no problem!

So up until very recently, most people understood that the tale of Atlantis told by Plato was fictional. A rhetorical device. Because that was a thing people (including Plato) did. (We all remember how Jesus told parables, right?)

And then in the late 19th century, this dude Ignatius L. Donnelly, who is NOT a scientist, comes along with this book where he proposes that Atlantis was REAL! And of course, Donnelly isn't a geologist, or a linguist, or literate in really anything that would actually be relevant here, so pretty much all of his reasons for thinking Atlantis was real are utter bullshit.

Now of course, it's the late 19th century and race science and white supremacy is very much in vogue, and you get folks in places like the Theosophical Society (which was founded by the extremely racist Helena Blavatsky) proclaiming that Indeed, Atlantis Was Very Real, and they're the originators of all of that Advanced Spiritual Wisdom we associate with places like Egypt, because how could those brown Egyptians just... come up with that themselves???

(Which is fucking wild because Plato's works just fucking preclude this. Egypt was given spiritual wisdom directly from the gods in his story; Atlantis had nothing to do with it.)

People also begin speculating that the Atlanteans were the ancestors of the Aryan people; both in the "this includes Hindus" and "it's white people only" ways. Some Nazis, for example, believed that the Germanic people were descended from Atlanteans, and that's what made them different and superior. You can still find Nazis who believe this today.

However the narrative was spun, it was pretty much always tied into a conspiracy theory about the truth being hidden from humanity, and I think we all know who gets blamed for orchestrating these alleged conspiracies. (Jews.)

Now of course, real scientists eventually start looking into all this Atlantis stuff, and do more research into geology in general, and the more they find, the more they discover that Atlantis just not only didn't exist, it just couldn't have existed. There's no evidence of a sunken island near the Strait of Gibraltar (where Plato said it was), and the big middle-of-the-Atlantic Ocean location proposed by many is precluded by the positioning of the tectonic plates and everything we know about continental drift.

This of course isn't going to dissuade the true believers here, who will claim that all of the "science" is actually part of the conspiracy - the conspiracy they attribute to Jews. The conspiracy theory that we know is fundamentally wrong because it's literally just derived from medieval antisemitism. I just cannot overemphasize how basically every conspiracy theory you know derives from antisemitism. And how if you replace the bad guys in your conspiracy theory with a non-Jewish party, you're still repeating antisemitic rhetoric.

And of course, Atlantis was credited for being behind the spiritual wisdom of every people white people decided to fetishize - like Indigenous Americans, whose cultures New Agers constantly appropriate and misrepresent even while actual Indigenous Americans suffer oppression and marginalization.

There's probably some stuff I'm missing here, but hopefully that sums up a bunch of the essentials. Basically, the only reason people seriously believe in Atlantis these days is because a bunch of ignoramuses and racists decided to make it a thing in the 19th and 20th century, and the narratives they created around it are scientifically garbage and full of racism. Before all that, Atlantis was understood to be fictional.

[ktempestbradford]

At the end of that I went

Wooooow

And it reminded me of discussions I've been having about ancient Egypt and the Ancient Lost High Technology people (ALHT). These are the folks who insist that the Egyptians of the dynastic era -- aka the people of recorded/known history going back to the guy Egyptologists call the "First Pharaoh", Narmer -- did not build or create the megalithic monuments nor some of the objects mostly found in tombs because those monuments and objects show such precision and are made of such hard materials that they couldn't have been made with simple copper chisels and such.

When I was first introduced to this idea, I gave some credence to it. Though I must note that I did not and have never signed onto the idea that the "lost civilization" that allegedly created them was Atlantean or some lost white civilization as most of these people do. I grokked the racism in that immediately, but did not grok the other things wrong with the idea.

To be clear: Atlantis wasn't real, Lemuria isn't a thing, and Mu is right out. I do think there were earlier, advanced in ways our current archaeological paradigm doesn't accept, human-esque civilizations. And, if that's true, they were indigenous civilizations. They weren't influenced by aliens from Sirius or the Pleiades or the Galactic Federation. In the case of whatever went on in Egypt and the rest of North Africa, those peoples were African. Black People in today's way of labeling.

Moving on. I recently found out that one of the pieces of "evidence" the LAHT people give for why dynastic Egyptians couldn't have made these monuments or objects that have such precision and are made from super hard materials is that "it would have taken them too long" and thus no one would have done it.

Yes, I'm serious.

I knew that "evidence" was bunk when I heard it, and videos like the one above are the reason why. There are artisans today that create pigments, objects, decoration, metalwork, younameit, that involve multi-step, labor-intensive processes. Many processes that go back multi-thousands of years. The artisans that do this create things that are very expensive (and I hope they are highly paid for it!) in our time. In times past, artisans would do this work for the people in their society who could afford to "pay" them appropriately for it. Often: royalty.

I put pay in quotes because sometimes it wasn't a wage or direct exchange of money for goods. Those artisans had housing and food and clothing and other necessities provided by society (in some cases what we would call The State) because their job was to do the artisaning for the benefit of The State or Society. In ancient Egypt, that did not only mean the Pharaohs or the aristocracy.

They would not have had a sense of creating or crafting "taking too long" because it took as long as it took. Over time they came up with more efficient ways to do some things, of course. But they didn't have to worry about pumping things out at some fast pace just to get it out the door, like it was a sweatshop or a factory with terrible conditions and a quota. Obviously, things that took longer to make had a high value. But it's a different prospect when you understand not every person was being exploited for it. (Though I'm sure there has been exploitation going back as far as humanity.)

The fact that the LAHT people have no cognizance of a world with values that aren't post-industrial society or informed by capitalism is just one of their many problems.

It also shows a deep lack of curiosity about and understanding of how intelligent and resourceful people in ancient times and even prehistoric times were. One of the reasons I bought the whole "couldn't have been done with copper chisels" thing is because my concept of copper is modern and limited. I used to think of copper as kinda soft and pliable, so it made sense. This was before I understand the tiniest bit of metallurgy and someone explained how the ancients made basic copper much harder and thus more able to do the kind of chiseling they needed it to do.

It was also before I understood the roots of alchemy, which aren't woo woo magical. Alchemy is the materials science the ancient Egyptians developed over centuries so that they could more easily work with the stones and metals available in their area. And if they produced things so precise that it seems to some that only a modern process could have created them, it's not because the "lost technology" is something akin to our modern technology or alien technology. They had the time, they had the mandate, they had the support of their society, and they had hundreds, then thousands of years of knowledge passed down to them on how to do it.

Side Note: I've seen it theorized (and I agree) that these artisans were what we today would call neurodiverse. Hyperfixation is a great trait to have when you're doing this kind of work.

It's so important for people in general to know a bit about this so they don't fall into the nonsense the LAHT people are peddling, even just a little, as I did. Pushing back against nonsense is good in and of itself. There's also the part where I have an even greater appreciation of the skill and knowledge and innovation of our ancient ancestors. The idea that we, today, are so much more evolved and smart is ridiculous. We wouldn't have survived as a species without their skill and knowledge and the science they created. We would be so much poorer in spirit as a species without the beautiful, magnificent, meticulously crafted monuments and objects and clothing and jewelry those artisans were free to spend all that time on.

We still need that, as a species. So:

Pay artists. Support artists. Overpay artists.

Give us the ability to not have to worry every second about the rent and the bills and if we're going to be able to eat.

Honestly, no one ever should have to worry about that. But it does feel like artists and artisans are always treated as if we especially don't deserve it.

Thanks for coming to my TEDTalk.

[notmuchtoconceal]

Saw your rune and incense and skull post. I knew you liked runes, don't try to hide it! Even though I was goofin' that first time there was still an element of it that was simply appealing to what I presumed was a (b?)lat(a?)ent love of the mystic. And it was genuine, even underneath all the jealousy I had for you, too. Come on. You've got some woman of the night shit in you, too! I'm not saying this in a cruel way. Not the Language Demon speaking. Or maybe he's just quietly murmuring in his seal you trapped him in. Either way. I'm just sayin': U know u love it ;)

What does the note say, btw? Not good at reading cursive.

the man u reminded me of would freak the fuck out every time he saw runes cause he assumed they were a defacto white power thing

this is multiple levels of stupid i will now elucidate publicly, for my lovely assistant has so graciously prompted me with an opportunity where we can both look like functional human beings on tumblr.

right, so. not everyone who is a norse pagan or even proud of having european heritage is a white supremacist. first of all, the concept of white supremacy is already something of a plot, for it assumes all europeans are a homogenous mass, which they're certainly not.

sure, maybe this is the fascist proof of alan moore's octopus monster or whatever, that you need an external enemy (or simply the threat of one) to unity fragmentary groups into oppositional unity, but like ~ white people invaded Africa, bro. maybe black people used to have Atlantean magic powers and white people lied and said it was them.

they're real good at that. i don't know.

let's step back for a moment and reconsider that the hunky northmen are themselves an indigenous religion which was pushed to near extinction by an invading colonial power, by which i mean the romans who are the catholics now. white in the American parlance is better understood as WASP -- White Anglo Saxon Protestant. East-coast yuppies. Frat boy supremacy. It's ain't exactly pan-Europa, but the imaginary category of "white people" allows them to claim the krauts, the mics, the dagos, and even sometimes the slavs under the banner, as honorary members, by which i mean trophy servants they can spit on cause they ain't got money or divine carnivore blood, making this a race issue and not a class issue, and not a hybrid reptile-essence infusion issue.

this isn't even considering that the magical properties of norse runes are shared by the letters of the hebrew alphabet, which have their own sets of numerical magical correspondence in the kabbalah, both deriving from the shared Phoenician alphabet, which was a gift of Hermes-Thoth father of all language arts, come on bro. how fuckin stupid can ya, be?

like, don't get me wrong.

racism in america is definitely real, but also if you hyper-fixated on it in real obvious and specific ways, the clever racists who secretly hold the political power can get real good at gaming u.

history matters, bro.

there are real answers. not just what makes you look good.

[namorweek]

Welcome to Namor Week 2023! The 4th Annual Fandom Event for Namor Nation!

So much has happened in Namor Fandom this year with Namor & Talokan’s debut appearance in Black Panther: Wakanda Forever! We welcome all new fans to the fandom and hope you can join in this year’s Namor Week on April 24 - 30!

The Themes

Day 1 - Talokan / Atlantis Will your work be set in the fantastical Talokan or the mystical Atlantis? Maybe have a crossover? Create to your hearts content and expand these worlds!

Day 2 - Mother / Memories Princess Fen is Namor’s mother and a very important figure in his life! Showcase a work that involves Fen or choose your other option and focus on a Memory. You can also focus on mothers or memories of other Talokan/Atlantean characters such as Namora, or Attuma, etc.

Day 3 - Whump / Fluff  Are you here for the most heart wrenching Whump? Or are you yearning for some Fluff? Any topic goes for this theme so long as it incorporates Whump or Fluff!

Day 4 - Alternate Universe  What if Namor was a Pirate? What would happen if Namora was Queen? What if Attuma finds the love of his life? What if? and AU’s are the lifeblood of transformative fanwork and we are ready for your ideas! Choose a Canon AU or make up your own! 

Day 5 - Mercy / Revenge  Every choice has a consequence so what will yours be? To have Mercy for those who have wronged you or to take revenge on your enemies? Perhaps the best Revenge is Mercy. Create a work that centers around these prompts!

Day 6 - Sirens / Mythology Sirens lure their victims to their doom with their haunting songs. Mythology and Sirens play a huge part in folk stories around the world, so create your own work that focuses on the idea of Sirens or choose another aspect of Mythology to work with!

Day 7 - Free Choice Anything goes! Maybe pick a topic you have a lot of passion for, or if you missed a day then share it now! It’s fan’s choice of what to create and we look forward to all you have to offer!

The Rules

No sign ups, no checks, just create whatever you feel like creating! Please read and follow all rules to be a part of this event. Types of fanworks accepted: Fanfiction, Fanart, Podcasts, Edits, Playlists, Podfics, Aesthetics, Gifs, etc. you may commission work to be submitted but it must be created for this event, so no reposting an older work for this.

All work must be submitted on the day of the prompt, late works will be accepted up until end of the week. You may add your works to the Namor Week Collection on Ao3 if you wish. 

All Fan Works must be original works created or commissioned for this event and it must focus on Namor or any of his supporting characters in the Talokan or Atlantis universes, examples but not limited to; Lady Dorma, Namora, Attuma, Fen, and more! Choose from MCU or Comic Canon, but it must be a canon character and the work may not use Namor or his supporting characters as background for other non Sub-Mariner characters or fandoms. 

Fanworks must be tagged with #namorweek in the first five tags & you must tag @namorweek so that it can be featured on this blog by end of day, and unless otherwise stated then fanworks will be linked/cross posted to the Namor Week twitter. If you wish to participate on twitter and post there then simply @ the namorweek account there! All works will be rounded up in a master list.

Tag appropriately! If you have heavy themes, tag what your work contains!

Any fanwork*, ship, canon, canon divergent, or non-canon, romantic or platonic, welcome. however this is a character(s) week and not a ship week, so please remember to keep focus on Namor, Atlanteans, Talokanil. - Original Characters welcome. - Namor x Shuri welcome. (to make it easy since there are multiple tags for this ship, it will be tagged as #nashuri > changed from namuri) *see banned content

Ship and let Ship & Don’t like? Don’t Read is in full force. 

Banned

Racism, hate work (fanwork created to bash on characters), and other forms of hate are not tolerated or accepted. Including Anti Ship or Shipping Wars. Don’t create something just to be a jerk to other fans or shippers. 

Pedo/Incest works are not accepted.

NamorSue, Namor/Susan in a romantic ship are not accepted. (Platonic Namor & Susan Storm is accepted.)

Namor x Reader, x Reader, Character x Reader, all works with x Reader or Character Imagines are not accepted. 

Good Luck with Creating and see you in April & if you have any questions please send an Ask! 

[ittybittytatertot]

@themartianwitch-old :

Back when I thought Kaldur may have actually joined Manta I figured it was because Orin was too soft legally on Oceanmaster, leader of the Purists, when he finally got apprehended because they were brothers, and it made Kaldur question his king's sense of justice, and that Manta convinced Kaldur that Orin and Atlantis's establishment at large didn't care about "impure" Atlanteans... I still wouldn't mind that being Manta's angle to some degree tbh

That would be really compelling and I hope that was the angle Black Manta took. Especially since he could use the draft thing to underline how little the Atlantean elite values the “impure”. Sure King Orin makes them fight in Atlantis’s army but he won’t give them justice in return.