#because I don’t actually have a connection to lugh

[moonlatias]

🍞Blessed Lammas🍞

The holidays are basically showing off my cooking I guess lol

Best homemade bread I ever made, I’m pretty sure. All the kneading made the difference I guess. xD Went perfect with the potato leek soup we made. Yum~

Shared it with the gods and goddesses that brighten our lives, every day. No matter which face they show me, how they present themselves, what new lesson they decide to teach me that day… I am always filled with gratitude and love for them.

Also fulfilled a promise I made a while ago and never got around to (as I don’t drink all that frequently)—I offered mead to Thor, who has been super kind in delaying the constant rain and storms we’ve been getting all month so I can avoid getting rained on or can take a shower before the lightning starts, lol. Haven’t actually done anything seriously like sit down at an altar or anything like that, so I haven’t really had time to communicate deeply. But I honestly feel like he is super chill and fun and easy to reach out to, so I want to set some time aside to say hi a little more formally too! Sometimes I wonder—is it really him, or is it some entity simply answering to the name Thor just cause he’s my favorite storm god? Can I ever really know?

In the end, I feel strongly that all things stem from the same divine source—infinite, multi-faceted, and eternal—so ultimately, my prayers and thoughts and love all finds its way into the universe the way it needs to. I don’t really stress about it because I feel so comfortable and trusting of my gods, and know they want to help me.

It’s very nice to have this holiday happen when it happened, as I’ve been reflecting on the fairly eclectic and complex thing that is my spirituality, and on how I view diety and what my genuine connections to them are. It’s satisfying to want everything to fit into a perfect organizational package, with tidy connections and correspondences and relationships… but much to my brain’s dismay, that’s definitely NOT how my spirituality’s going.

And it’s beautiful. And I’m thankful. ❤️

(Ended up being a bit of a ramble, though it’s mostly cause I haven’t journaled in a while so I have a lot on my mind!)

[egglantine23]

PJO Celtic gods au intro

I can’t believe it’s taken me this long to actually post this au I have been working on it for a long time and probably has the most content out of anything I make. So let begin!

There are Celtic gods, the gods from Ireland, Great Britain, and Gaul. In cannon we know there are not many left and more are fading away. Now the au, due to all the fading the gods have all come to gather under there Irish name the Tuatha De Dahann or children of the Danu, and to the gods that apply they go as either there Irish, welsh, Scottish, or very rarely there name from gaul. For example Lugh is the Irish name but Lugus is the Gaulish name(think Roman and Greek). For simplicity the gods basically fuse there other names together and go by one name now, so the Gaulish god once known as Lugus now goes by Lugh and is the same person as the Irish god Lugh. The gods that appear in the au are Lugh, the Morrigan, Dian Cecht, Cailleach, Aengus Og, Brigd, Manannan Mac Lir, and Arawn.

Not all of these gods are major figures in Celtic mythology and the loss of many major gods is the reason the gods now raise and are very close to and protective of there Demi-god children. Celtic Demi-gods also have not had to deal with monsters like other Demi-gods due to the close relationships between the people and magical creatures. But although they are safer they have to deal with the responsibilities of the faded and older Demi-gods work as or even fully become minor gods. They used to have a school for the Demi-gods and even mortal children to teach them life skills in the mortal world, magic, and other skills, sadly due to there not being enough students it was shut down in 1902 and a small after school and summer day program is used instead that focuses on teaching magic and self defense. The school and program are run by fairies employed by the gods that are also in charge of the seasons but if you have ever seen Ireland and Great Britain they don’t change much.

I introduced the fairies before in the post about porcupine so I won’t go over them here.

Unlike the greek gods who moved to the US the Celtic gods stayed in Ireland and Great Britain since they’re connected to the Irish people and the island itself not western culture. Some Demi-gods do live in the US like Aisling who lives in Modesto California(my hometown because I find it funny) since her ma works in viticulture.

Aisling is one of the main characters in this au along with her family, her dad is the god Arawn. Now in the mythology Arawn has a wife but nothing is known about her so I made her a actual character, Fiona in known as ma to there children, and Mary is known as mum. Arawn and Fiona have been married for centuries and in the late 17 hundreds or early 18 hundreds they met Mary a 40 year old childless widow and all three fell in love and got married turning Mary into a minor goddess and second queen of Annwn. Together they have 4 sons Patrick, Sean, Gillian, and Bart and 1 daughter Aisling. Patrick is the oldest at 24, the twins Sean and Gillian are 22, Bart is 20, and the youngest Aisling is 16.

[all-about-the-tea-parties]

If you ever wanna throw up in your mouth, read literally any Wiccan/new age pagan thing about Irish deities

If I have to read one more article homogenising Irish culture with European culture, under the umbrella term “Celtic” while citing information that is specifically about Irish culture I may light my phone on fire

Listen, I’m spiritual and a bit new to it all, but I’m also Irish and have a degree in Celtic civilisation. The word Celtic itself is a misleading term - no culture in Europe referred to themselves as Celtic. It’s an umbrella term invented by racist Roman and Greek scholars, like barbarian. The Gauls didn’t call themselves this, the Gaels didn’t call themselves this, the Picts and the Welsh didn’t call themselves this. It’s a term that has a complicated history as it’s often used as a shorthand to homogenise very complex (and often culturally separate) societies. It’s only really a term applied to language groups (continental Celtic vs insular Celtic) and social movements (that are much closer to modern times than ancient ones). Tho sometimes historians are also guilty of using the pop culture shorthand to refer to north Western Europe as Celtic (after all the “celts” are technically still a grouping of many peoples, the term is helpful shorthand when discussing it in terms of invasion/encroaching cultures/or simply geographical nods, like Asia and Europe, homogenising for the sake of an overarching point/analysis).

Anyways, I saw somebody (multiple somebodies) refer to the god Lugh as “Celtic” not Irish. And yeah, he may have some connections to the continental god Lugus, who was a Gallic god, but aside from broad characteristics and root name meanings... there’s not much to connect them. But sure, if u accept that as connected, I respect ppl citing the comparisons.

But no comparisons are made. Instead, all of the Irish stories about Lugh, from the spelling of the name, to the mythology, (and the misinformation on said mythology a la the Victorian era), is written about and then termed “Celtic” - it’s like writing about Jupiter, citing every mythology story about him and then due to the clear connection to Zeus, determining that Jupiter is actually Panmediterranean, not a Roman god.

They did the same w/ Aengus Óg and they do this with all the Irish gods. I see “Celtic” and “panceltic” get thrown around. Irish culture is not celtic culture; it’s Gaelic culture (and a bunch of other cultures mixed in due to colonisation).

Look Irish ppl refers to themselves as celts sometimes, and so does the world, and overall it’s grand, it’s fine, it’s due to pop culture latching onto a word that isn’t accurate but ultimately harmless. But when new age religions start doing it it’s a whole other ball game. Non-Irish practitioners have a responsibility to Irish culture and the highly spiritual nature of Irish culture to actually... acknowledge that it’s ours. It isn’t “pan” anything. It’s Irish. It’s Gaelic. You don’t get to generalise it and misrepresent it because you want to tweak parts of it. Most of the stuff I see about “connecting” w/ these Irish mythological figures doesn’t even have anything to do w/ the stories that surround them. You lot keep adding things and making it up, like getting drunk as a sign of celebrating a god, like my guys that’s a freaking stereotype, drinking alcohol for the purpose of celebration (not to get drunk, that’s a Dionysian thing; Irish gods encourage banter, not oblivion) is meant for actual festivals... not just whenever. It’s just... a bunch of non-Irish ppl fetishising Irish culture. With stereotypes and American dreams on what that culture actually is.

Lugh isn’t a sun god! The “celts” didn’t coincide his four week sport games w/ the astrological sign Leo on purpose since the Irish didn’t believe in astrology ! Even if there is correlation it’s not because the “celts” interacted w/ the Greeks - Lugh and that specific ritual of Lugh’s is Irish and Irish alone; it had nothing to do w/ the sun or Leo, it was only to do w/ harvest times and games, pre-Christian Gaels liked to have fun! Lugh is a storm god, lughnasa *is* how we spell it now and it’s just storm season in Ireland. Hence it being named after a storm god. The Aes Sidhe, or Fairies, isn’t the thing you think it is, it’s not that Summer/Winter court stuff you see in fantasy novels.

The word Celtic is a broad term and it doesn’t mean Irish. Gaelic or Irish means Irish. We also call our language Irish. We don’t really call it Gaelic (it’s not incorrect, but we prefer Gaeilge). Celtic Catholicism *is* a thing and it’s specifically about Irish Catholicism. Yeah, I know what I said Celtic isn’t automatically Irish, but hey I didn’t get to name the type of Catholicism. It’s different than Roman Catholicism. We don’t mess w/ fairy trees and honestly I believe that is the remnants of very old laws about respecting the environment.

Words are a larger part of Irish heritage than alcohol. Written, verbal, whatever - language is the beating heart of this country. Stories, songs. It’s all we could retain after hundreds of years of cultural and physical genocide. And for so many ppl supposedly connecting to Irish gods, and Irish spiritualism, to have no sense of pride or importance over the power of these words... to misuse them for the idealised version of these tales... you have to admit at some point that a lot of these Wiccan rituals are modern and made up, and that’s fine! Things get lost over time and they need to be reinvented. But don’t sit there, take something that pertains to somebody’s existing, living culture and misrepresent it. If you aren’t sure of something’s origins do your research. If you have a strong feeling that pears/cherries/nuts are a good offering then go for it - but don’t say that these are traditional offerings and that they represent the gods, they aren’t and they likely don’t! Irish offerings are typically just honey and milk and maybe bread or whiskey if we had it. It’s a country w/ no food culture because we didn’t have free access to food.

Look up the original stories. But not through other non-Irish people’s blogs. That’s just reaffirming your own misinformation.

[breelandwalker]

hey, i have a slightly odd question. you’ve said that you honor norse deities like Freyja and Thor but that you don’t consider yourself a heathen. I was hoping you could elaborate on this a little? what is your connection to these deities like and why don’t you consider yourself a heathen? I hope this doesn’t sound rude or too weird <3

No worries! Just to clarify, there are four deities that I honor - Brighid, Lugh, Freyja, and Thor. My personal pantheon is equal parts Irish Celtic and Norse.

In my mind, a heathen is someone who adheres to Norse pagan traditions and makes the culture part of their life in a regular and meaningful way. I don’t adhere to any particular cultural or religious traditions in my practice. (I actually consider myself a secular witch because my spirituality and my craft are largely separate.) Thus, in my mind, I am a person who venerates Norse deities, but not a heathen.

Plus, I give equal time to my Irish Celtic patrons (my primary patron is actually Brighid), so it doesn’t seem proper to identify myself as a heathen when I could just as easily call myself a Celtic pagan, which I don’t.

My spiritual beliefs are a bit all over the place and they’ve done a lot of changing over the years. So I feel it’s more expedient and appropriate to just identify myself as a non-denominational pagan, rather than trying to quantify things that would ultimately become too difficult to define without attaching a long explanation every time somebody asks what religion I am.

“I’m pagan” is much faster. And of course, if someone wants to know more, I’m happy to talk about it.

[shuttershocky]

im. extremely new here to your blog and a lot of the stuff posted on it but i feel like you might be the best person to ask for help understanding the mystic eyes of death perception. i think tsukihime is really neat as is garden of sinners but ive yet to actually sink my teeth into either, but the mystic eyes is a super interesting concept that is. very hard. to read abt on the wiki OTL obviously you don't have to answer but ty for reading my rambling bs either way

Okay, I'm not sure how much background knowledge you already have, so for the purpose of this explanation I'm just going to assume you're a new, casual fan of Fate who's probably watched the animes but hasn't really dug deep into the lore yet.

Alright so, in the Nasuverse, Mystic Eyes are essentially eyes that have been modified by magic to be able to cast powerful spells upon activation. There's many kinds, like the Mystic Eyes of Petrification that Medusa has, or low level Mystic Eyes of Whisper that mages use to hypnotize or coerce people.

The Mystic Eyes of Death Perception is above all of them, because one cannot normally modify their eyes with magic to completely replicate its powers. The MEoDP are essentially pathways to The Root, also known as The Spiral of Origin, the origin (duh) of existence and the source of all power. Opening a pathway to the Root and essentially claiming infinite knowledge and power is the goal of all Clock Tower mages and is the true reason behind the Holy Grail War's existence. Users of the MEoDP have their eyes directly connected to the Root, and any mage that understands that will realize a user of the MEoDP can be kidnapped and used to reach it.

When the MEoDP are activated, the Root attempts to return all things in earthly existence back into itself (nonexistence), and thus gives the user the power to destroy almost anything on Earth. The eyes draw special, invisible lines called Death Lines. If an object or being's death lines are traced, they will be completely destroyed down to the conceptual level.

This means that the MEoDP are much more than just eyes that draw physical weakpoints over anything; their ability to destroy almost anything that exists on all metaphysical levels means that even nonphysical things like ghosts or spells can be destroyed by the MEoDP. Ryougi Shiki uses this property to defend herself from magic attacks by simply slicing them right out of the air, while Tohno Shiki used this property to kill an immortal enemy by destroying the enemy's soul rather than just their physical body.

The MEoDP are extremely rare, to the point where most mages don't know it even exists, while the ones that do mostly consider it a myth. Due to its rarity, barely anything is known about its history or origins beyond the two wielders in the modern age, Shiki and Shiki. Tsukihime however, established that Balor, the Formorian giant, Lugh's father and Cu Chulainn's grandfather, had it as the magic killing eye that made him near unbeatable in battle. How Balor acquired it is not known, nor do we know of anyone else who possessed it in history (although King Hassan displays extremely similar abilities). It's so rare that one of the main heroines of Tsukihime mistakenly assumes Tohno Shiki must have acquired Balor's powers somehow, perhaps not realizing that the MEoDP's source is The Root itself.

Additionally, Ryougi and Tohno's eyes work slightly differently from each other, and they don't even look the same either as of the remake (Ryougi's eyes are multicolored, Tohno's eyes are greatly darkened and are monochrome) which makes explaining the MEoDP's properties a little more difficult.

I hope that was a good enough explanation!

[margridarnauds]

@inkandglitter21​

This is a VERY good question! And one that I think keeps quite a few people in the field up at night, to be honest, but I’m going to give the best answer I possibly can, hence why I’m giving it its own post. My apologies in advance if this gets slightly technical - Some of this is kind of inherently technical and complicated. I also am going to HAVE to mention that I’m doing my best to represent the closest thing we can get to a consensus of the field, but that doesn’t mean that someone, in a week or so, can’t publish an article that blows this out of the water. It happens. 

As a further warning, which I give every single time I discuss the issues inherent to the study of this material: I am not a religious authority. I’m a Celticist. I love the Tuatha Dé, but I can’t claim any form of spiritual connection with them. (As LGE would say, “Though the author enumerates them, she does not worship them.”) So, to anyone who reads this who might have a connection to the figures described....I can’t say anything about the relationship that you, personally, have with them. I can only say what we know, what we don’t know, and what we’re still kind of scratching our heads at with regards to the medieval material. Part of why I’ve, traditionally, sworn off talking about Bríg, Danu, and Morrigan is specifically because they tend to arouse some very strong feelings, and I never really wanted to get caught in something I couldn’t handle. 

But, also. What use is a geas if you don’t break it, likely leading you to your tragic-yet-inevitable doom? 

So, first off, let’s talk Lebor Gabála Érenn. MAGNIFICENT text, and a personal baby of mine. Chock full of information about the Tuatha Dé, the Fir Bolg, the Milesians, the High Kings of Ireland....basically everything a person could ever want to know. A mythographer’s dream and nightmare all in one. But, there’s a problem with it, and it’s one that I feel like Celticists have never stressed enough to the public, not the least because Celticists, as a group, tend to be a little....terrified of LGE. There are relatively few scholars who want to work with it after Macalister’s edition (to understand the reception to Macalister: A personal hobby of mine is collecting remarks other scholars have made about his edition, because they can be BRUTAL.) It has been described as “almost unreadable.” Which is kind of forgivable given the man was DYING when he made it, but still. 

Why are so many scholars scared of LGE? Well, primarily, because it’s hard to say that there was one singular LGE. LGE, as we know it, was compiled in about the 11th century. Or, it began to be compiled in the 11th century. It’s a Middle Irish text (so, it’s coming significantly later than, say, Tochmarc Étaíne or Cath Maige Tuired, which are both ~9th century texts, though CMT was given revisions in the 11th century to bring it in line with LGE). And it is based off of a MUCH bigger genre of pseudohistorical texts, with many of the older texts being missing or destroyed. (The one generally most mourned by us is the one in Cín Dromma Snechta, which could have dated to as early as the 8th century and definitely contained a sort of proto-LGE. We know this because LGE cites it on occasion, so the tradition didn’t fully die out, we just don’t have the full thing.) So, to begin with, LGE is a mixed bag, based off of essentially all the work that came before it, with the scribes involved basically playing a juggling game with what prior scribes jotted down. (You can see it every once in a while, where a redactor will say something like “Certain ignorant people believe ____, but it is clearly not the case, for _________.”) 

It’s almost better to view it as a scrapbook than a single text - You have about 3-4 recensions (different scholars identified different recensions) spread out over around 20 surviving manuscripts, each recension containing significant amounts of detail that vary from their counterparts. Also, studded across LGE, you have a variety of poems that are believed to date either before or at around the same time that LGE was being compiled. (Part of what drives scholars up a WALL with Macalister’s translation is that, besides not identifying the original poets for the poems featured in LGE, he also separated the poems from the text around them. And, as someone who did have to work with that translation....yeah, it is a hot mess. Sorry and RIP, Macalister, but it’s a mess.) 

Now, you might wonder: Why am I telling you this? You came at me with a mythography question and I’m hitting you with manuscript studies. But THIS is the context that it’s existing in - I know it’s fairly popular to kind of talk shit about the scribes writing this stuff down, but it’s very important to understand that they were really trying their best to understand this stuff, just like we were. And, between the various recensions of LGE, we can actually SEE the tradition evolve. One of the key ways to know that Something Pre-Christian is going on is if NONE of the redactors could agree on someone. If you see someone’s depiction REALLY shifting around, you know that the redactors were having an issue with them, possibly dealing with multiple contradictory traditions. 

Enter the Bríg/Dana/Anu/Morrigan problem. AKA “Things that will cause me to have nightmares.” So, let’s try to take this piece by piece. 

The term “Tuatha Dé Danann” is generally accepted to be a later addition. There was not, before a certain time in the Irish mythological tradition, any notion of a goddess named “Danu”. (Established by John Carey in the article, “The name Tuatha Dé Danann”-- Essentially, the term “Tuatha Dé” was the original, but then, with the influence of the term Tuatha Dé, or “Tribe of God” to refer to the Israelites, they felt they had to disambiguate it to “Tuatha Dé Danann”, or “People of Skill”, and then people mistook “Danann” as being the name of a goddess...if I remember correctly, since I don’t have it to hand at the moment.) It is very important to establish this off the bat. Now, how did this get started? And where does this web begun to be woven? Well, I feel like someone could probably write at LEAST a MA dissertation on the topic, possibly even a PhD, and it definitely isn’t going to be me, but I can try my best. 

So. The Trí Dé Dána (Three Gods of Skill). 

Originally, it seems very likely that the genitive component Dána in their name was not meant to be a proper name. They were not MEANT to be perceived as “The Three Gods of Dana”, but “the three gods of skill”. As noted by O’Rahilly (and GOD, it hurts me when he’s right), the first time we really have the phrase referenced is in Cath Maige Tuired, where, he argues, and I have to agree with him, that it refers to Goibhniu, Luchta, and Credne, who Lugh goes to for weapons to fight against the Fomoire. Additionally, you have a gloss on the 9th century text “Immacallam in Dá Thuarad: Ecna mac na tri nDea nDána” that says that their mother was Bríg, though also seems to indicate, specifically, a connection with the filid, which keeps neatly with the LGE reference (and to the image of Bríg as a poetess. I don’t have enough time to talk Bríg here, but if you want to see what I had to say a while back, I made a post here) After the 12th century, though, when the name “Danu” became associated with the Tuatha Dé, a bunch of medieval scribes looked at “Trí Dé Dána” and thought, not UNREASONABLY, “Oh? This is a reference to Danu? Let’s fix that grammar!” So you have, in some later recensions of LGE, the name “Trí Dé Dána” replaced by “Tré dée Danann/Donand/Danand.” It is vital to mention, as Williams does in Ireland’s Immortals (189), that “Danu/Donu” is never attested, it’s always Donand/Danand. So, from the get-go, trying to identify “Danand” with “Anu” was going to be problematic at best. The general consensus seems to be that Bríg and Bres were the original parents of the Trí Dé, and that it’s very possible that they were, originally, specifically associated with the filid, or poets, with this fitting very neatly into both Bres and Bríg’s associations with the Dagda, Ogma, and, of course, Elatha, but that, with Cath Maige Tuired in the 9th century and the new tradition of Bres as a tyrant, it all got muddled, with traces of it lingering into LGE. (Myth and Mythography)

But, what about “Anu?” Who is this figure? And THIS, my friends, is where things REALLY begin to get fucky. She is identified in Cormac’s Glossary as mater deorum hibernensium, “Mother of the gods of Ireland” - That is beyond doubt. This ties in very naturally with the conflation of Danand/Danu as the mother of the Trí Dé Dána that we discussed earlier. It was, to a certain extent, natural that the two of them would become intertwined.

So, this means that Anu is a genuine pre-Christian figure who became entangled up with the whole Danu business? 

Well....

Michael Clarke, in his exploration of the intellectual environment of medieval Ireland, points out that the reference to “Anu” is, in fact, VERY similar to both Isidore of Sevile and in Carolingian mythographical compilations relating to the Greek goddess Cybele, indicating that the scribe, when he was jotting that down, might have very well had that in mind (52-53). Does this mean that they invented ANOTHER goddess and then conflated that goddess with another invented goddess? 

...not quite. 

Because we still have to account for things like, for example, a mountain known as “The Paps of Anand”, which isn’t easily ascribed to a classical influence. (As noted by Mark Williams, with the typical mixture of good humor and good sense that characterizes his writing,“It beggars belief to think that the Pre-Christian Irish would not have associated so impressively breasted a landscape with a female deity.”) (189). Also, as noted by Williams, even the most skeptical argument cannot explain where Anu comes from. It seems unlikely that they would simply create a goddess out of thin air. Even Danu, as sketchy as her existence is, came from SOMEWHERE, even if it was a linguistic, instead of spiritual, basis. But THEN we have to deal with another question: If this figure is so important, why doesn’t she show up in any of the myths? Why let the Dagda, Lugh, the Morrigan, Midir, Óengus, Ogma, and Nuada have all the fun? The Dagda in particular is as close to a BLATANTLY pre-Christian deity as you can get on-page, so it can’t be chalked up to a simple “They didn’t want to depict the mother of the gods on page.” Mark Williams suggests, tentatively, that Anu might have been a minor Munster figure who swelled in popularity, possibly dropped in by some Munster-based scribes who wanted to bolster their own province’s reputation and, equally tentatively, without further evidence to go on, I have to agree with him. I believe there’s too much evidence to suggest that there was SOMETHING, but that there’s also too little to say that she had the range or influence described, and that it’s very likely that, at the very least, the scribe writing that entry had Cybele on his mind. It’s really, really a mystery, though. 

Furthermore, as John Carey notes in “Notes on the Irish War Goddess”....why conflate Anu with the Morrigan? “While it may be plausible....to explain a war-goddess’s possession of sexual characteristics...it is considerably more difficult to follow that chain of thought in reverse in order to account for a land goddess with martial traits. Not is there any evident reason for a conflation of Anu/Anann and the Morrígan unless the former were to some extent linked with war already” pointing out that, relevant to the first paragraph of this, it SEEMS like her inclusion among the daughters of Ernmas was forced on the redactor by a prior tradition (271). Sometimes, she’s a fourth daughter of Ernmas, sometimes she’s a replacement for the Morrigan, sometimes, in the later texts, she’s associated with Danu. It’s like the various authors KNEW they had to include her in there somehow, but they didn’t know how, and she didn’t fit in smoothly once they did. Are we looking at a war/land goddess , obscure enough that the redactor didn’t know where to put her, deciding that she HAD to be the Morrigan/one of the Morrigan’s sisters but not knowing exactly how to fit her in? It wouldn’t be the first time multiple traditions clashed like this. Also, as noted by Sharon Paice Macleod, who gave a very thorough (if not always, in my opinion, sufficiently contextual) account of the tradition, there is a location called the “Paps of the Morrigan”, further suggesting a fertility aspect to the Morrigan that also features into Carey’s earlier argument of dual aspects to the Irish war goddess, along with Bhreatnach’s suggestion of the sovereignty goddess, who represents the land in the medieval Irish literary tradition (and into the present) also functioning as a goddess of death. (Indeed, as noted by Bhreatnach, the hag Cailb from Togail Bruidne Dá Derga, who functions as a sort of anti-sovereignty goddess, identifies herself with Nemain and Badb, at 255. Sovereignty giveth, sovereignty taketh away when you don’t fulfill your place as king.)

Basically, as with almost everything relating to pre-Christian religion in Ireland, we’ve really, really got to shrug our shoulders and go “Fuck if I know, mate.” 

My best attempt at a tl;dr for...this: 

LGE - WEIRD 

Danu - Help us. 

Trí Dé - Who’s your daddy? (Most likely? Bres originally, though it got out of hand after, like, the 12th century.) 

Anu - Who are you? (Who, Who?) 

Sources: 

Scowcroft, “Leabhar Gabhála Part I: The growth of the text" (For the discussion on the different recensions of LGE.)

John Carey, “The Irish National Origin-Legend: Synthetic Pseudohistory”

T.F O’Rahilly, Early Irish History and Mythology

Máire Bhreathnach, “The Sovereignty Goddess as Goddess of Death”

John Carey, “The name Tuatha Dé Danann”

Mark Williams, Ireland’s Immortals (Who, really, puts this all together in a so much more cohesive way in his book, I highly recommend it to anyone who wants to get an idea of how these things develop.)

John Carey, “Myth and Mythography in Cath Maige Tuired.” 

Michael Clarke, “Linguistic Education and Literary Creativity in Medieval Ireland”. 

John Carey, “Notes on the Irish War Goddess”

Sharon Paice Macleod, “Mater Deorum Hibernensium: Identity and Cross-Correlation in Early Irish Mythology.” 

[thenorthernrecords]

Meanwhile, in Wexford...

On one particular morning, it was warmer than what was usual during that time of the year. So, Jacob took advantage of the weather and after breakfast, went outside with his two children, Erik and Signy, to a fenced area right behind their large home. A maid watched over Signy as the little girl went around collecting sticks while Jacob helped Erik train. Erik was a little older now, so he trained daily. In fact, he had now had his very own practice shield!

Jacob had no practice wooden weapons, but had told Erik that his “mission” was just to hit him. Erik was already panting after missing him despite multiple attempts. Erik frowned in frustration as Jacob stood in front of him, arms extended to the sides. 

“I don’t understand how hard it is to his someone,” Jacob chided him with a grin, “Your little sister has better aim!”

Erik, with a child’s attempt at a warcry, raised his sword up and swung at his father. But Jacob, laughing the entire time, simply ducked to the side, causing Erik to stumble forward towards the fence. He caught his balance and turned around, letting out a long sigh.

“This is hard!” Erik complained.

Jacob smirked, “You’re just not thinking with your head.”

A loud caw caused them both to look up, and flying towards them as the familiar black crow. He perced on the fence near them, clicking as he did. Tied to its leg were two small scrolls. Jacob approached and gave the crow’s head a rub with the back of his index finger.

“Ah, you finally came. I was thinking perhaps you lost your way.” Jacob told his feathered friend with a raised brow. The crow simply tilted his head at Jacob, and after a roll of his eye, Jacob took both of the letters. His crow cawed at him, but he ignored it, mostly because he was eager to see what news came for him! He unrolled the first one, and instantly recognized his wife’s handwriting. As he read the letter, he grinned proudly.

“Your mother beat up her brother and gave him a black eye!” He said out loud to his two children. Signy clapped, mainly because of how happy her father looked, while Erik snickered.

“Why do you hate him so much, papa?” Erik asked curiously.

“Because he’s a sad little man with a sad little brain living a sad little life.” Jacob said to him as he idly took a few steps fowards, reading the letter. “He also thinks just because he was money, he’s owed respect. I taught him otherwise.”

Jacob frowned significantly at the attending a wedding part, but overall, Caro’s letter made him smile softly.

“...Your mother is well. She beat up her brother, went to a fancy dinner with Aunt Lani, and she sends both of you her love,” Jacob announced to his children outloud as he pocketed that letter.

“I miss her.” Erik said with a sad little sigh.

“...Me too.” Jacob replied softly, breaking the seal of the second letter with his thumb’s nail, but then he heard Siggy begin to sniffle, with the maid trying to cheer her up, “But, she’ll be back soon, so don’t go making your sister cry.”

Jacob began to read that letter, wondering why it was addressed as “K” when his name started with a J, smirked at the Michael got beat up part,  but soon, he grew confused.

“Lugh? I don’t have Lugh with me...” Jacob said outloud to himself, as Erik attempted to sneak behind his father and hit him with his shield. But, Jacob turned around and as Erik rammed his shield foward, he grabbed it with his free hand, stopping Erik. 

Erik kept pushing against his immovable father, and as he struggled, he told his father in a strained voice. “...I saw Keiran with Lugh! I think he’s watching him while Aunt Lani’s away.”

Jacob frowned.  “Then why would she tell me about Lugh--” Then, it all connected. The letter wasn’t meant for him. He grimaced noticably. “....Fuck, this letter is for Keiran.”

Keiran was the one man that actually intimidated him. Something about Keiran unnerved him. It wasn’t his height, as the man was taller than him. Jacob had gone against taller men and won before! It was Keiran’s calm demeanor -- it was too calm. It made Jacob nervous.

Jacob rerolled the letter with his free hand, and extended it to the crow. “Here, deliver it to Keiran.”

The crow cawed in protest. Jacob scoffed.  “Oh please, you know who he is. If anything, you can just look for Slania’s huge dog, and you’re bound to find him.”

The crow looked at the scroll and cawed defiantly again. That caused Jacob to give him an incredulous look. “Oh come on, it’s not another big trip. Don’t be so fucking dramatic!”

Well that did it. The crow flew away from him, and perched on the very top of his home’s roof. Then, it made a cawing sound that was lower and continuous -- it sounded like laughter. Jacob pressed his lips together, muttering to himself, “This fucking flying bastard...”

Erik stopped trying to push his father, and peered at him. “Why don’t you just give him the letter? You didn’t know it was his. What are you afraid of?” Then, it dawned on him. Erik then proceeded to give Jacob a devious smile. “...Are you scared of him?”

Jacob stared at Erik as Erik continued to smile. “...Training’s over.’ Jacob told him plainly, and then he suddenly jerked the shield towards him, hitting him sharply on the side of his head. Erik fell back onto the floor, dropping his wooden shield and sword. As he laid there, he groaned; his hand placed where he was hit. It wasn’t hard enough to bruise, but it was hard enough to hurt. 

“The only thing I’m scared of is how easily you fall, son,” Jacob told him matter-of-factly as he leaned down slightly towards him, his hands on his hips, “Never put down your guard. That was your lesson for today.”

Erik nodded as he groaned. Jacob, satisfied, walked over to Signy, who had begun to approach Erik with a look on concern on her adorable face. 

“Happened Erik?” Asked Siggy, pointing at him, but Jacob scooped her up with one arm, giving her a big kiss on her chubby cheek.

“Oh, he got pretty smug and fell on his own shield! Can you believe that. Say ‘better luck next time, Erik!’“ Jacob told her.

Siggy told her brother in the same concerned voice. “Better luck, Erik!”

Erik got up, rubbing the side of his head, “Yeah...yeah...I got it.”

“Good. Now, let’s go get cleaned up. ” He told them both. 

He held up Siggy with his one arm as she held on to him, basically hugging his head, as he walked back inside, with Erik walking beside him. He looked down at rerolled letter in his other hand, the seal very obviously opened.

Well, he was going to have to get this letter delivered one way or the other.

[wiccan28]

Who are the Goddess and God of Wicca?

The Horned God and Triple Goddess are generally the deities you’ll hear people associate with Wicca, but these very same concepts generate a lot of confusion. You’ll read a lot of books that will tell you the Horned God is like this, or the Triple Goddess is like that. There are a lot of oversimplifications and generalizations going on with these descriptions. Many Wiccan sources also refer to the Lord and Lady as well, or “The” God, and “The” Goddess (the article “the” implying they’re specific deities). This leaves people to wonder— to whom, exactly, are we referring when we use these terms?

Wicca, being a 20th century religion, is fairly unique in one way: we don’t actually have our own deities. That is, our religion wasn’t built around veneration of any specific deities of our own—we worship Pagan Gods and Goddesses of other ancient cultures in a new and modern world. We do not have our own unique pantheon, nor do we believe our religion was revealed to us by deities.

So, who are these characters, then, that you’ll find peppered throughout Wiccan books and websites? Who is the Horned God or the Lord or the God? Who is the Triple Goddess, the Lady or the Goddess? Let’s have a look.

Types and Titles - Not Names

One quick way to settle a lot of confusion is to remind people of this: these terms in question are types of deities or titles of respect. Horned God is a type of Godhead, not one specific God. Triple Goddess is a type of Goddesshead, not one specific Goddess, or a specific trio of Goddesses. These terms are merely descriptions, not deities in themselves.

Likewise, Lord and Lady are titles of respect by which we call any God or Goddess, respectively; Lord and Lady are not names. Zeus is one Wiccan’s Lord, Thor is another Wiccan’s Lord, Lugh is another's... just as a Christian's Lord is YHWH (Jehova) though they call him 'Lord' and 'God'.

“The God” and “The Goddess” are not specific deities that all Wiccans worship; they are simply the generic term for male deities and female deities, respectively. So my God that I worship may not be the same God another Wiccan worships. But I still refer to him as God, 'the' God, or Lord.

So why do Wiccans use all these titles and types instead of just using the name of their God/dess?

Originally in Wiccan covens, Wiccans didn't speak the names of the deities they worshiped outside the circle. This was to prevent others from defaming and disrespecting the deities.

This still holds today for a lot of Wiccans, though many eclectics are more relaxed on it. They might be willing to tell other Wiccans/Pagans, or close friends, who their specific God/desses are but not wish to divulge that information to just anyone.

For other Wiccans, the Horned God and Triple Goddess, or the Lord and Lady, or The God and The Goddess have taken on a persona of their own. Some would argue this is the result of watered-down eclectic Wicca and improperly trained practitioners who have failed to do any in-depth research. Others embrace the “All Gods are one God, all Goddesses are one Goddess” theory1 which has become more prevalent with eclectics in the 1990s. These people would argue that all the various God/desses in mythology are either aspects or personifications of the same divine couple.

1 The “All Gods are one God, all Goddesses are one Goddess” theory actually didn’t originate in Wicca; it was from Dion Fortune, a Christo-Pagan Ceremonial Magician. This kind of ‘soft polytheism’ is probably as common in Wicca now as ‘hard polytheism’ (the belief that deities of different cultures are all unique and distinct beings).

The Horned God

The very term “Horned God” is controversial, considering most of us grew up in a Christian-dominant society in which the only god-like being who had horns was 'the devil'. This is why the term 'Horned God' gets a lot of knee-jerk reactions.

There is no relationship, however, between the Wiccan view of Horned Gods and the Christian view of Satan. That would be like saying a pumpkin must be an orange in disguise because they have the same color skin. Horned Gods existed long before any concept of Satan did, and nowhere in the Bible was Satan described as having horns and hooves—those extra-biblical descriptions came from the Middle Ages.

Horned Gods were sometimes depicted as having curving, conical horns like the goat or ram, or sometimes the branched antlers like the stag. Sometimes they were animal-headed, and sometimes goat-footed. Some of the more well-known Horned Gods include Pan and Cernuous.

To ancient Pagans, Gods with horns were related to the wild and man’s primal nature. They represent mankind unencumbered by the trappings of civilization and living by his instincts in a natural state of being. Horned Gods were closely related to the forests—particularly the wild animals. They’re related to the hunt (both as hunter, the life-taker, and as hunted, the life-giver; thus, he perpetuates the cycles of life). They would often be associated with fertility— the virile male embracing his carnal desires without the imposition of social codes and mores guiding his behavior.

The Horned God made its way into Wicca due to the popular theories at the time by a handful of 19th century/early 20th century anthropologists who attempted to tie all of Pagandom together as if it were one universal pre-Christian set of beliefs that went underground to avoid persecution. Christianity had long painted Pagans as villains; in the age of enlightenment, many tried to look at history from a new and more open-minded perspective, and they romanticized antiquity. Some became desperate to turn the tables and paint Pagans as the victims. Ultimately, the attempts to oversimplify all the various Pagan religious from all over the world has been discredited, and the attempt to prove them going underground as a single surviving ancient cult has been debunked. Still, it was these oversimplified works that were prominent theories at about the time Wicca was forming, so it heavily influenced Wicca's formation.

To Wiccans, the Horned God motif fits in neatly in the Wheel of the Year, however it’s important to understand that just because many Wiccans worship a Horned God doesn’t mean they worship the same God.

Finally, not all Wiccans have a direct relationship with Horned Gods. Some Wiccans worship a Sun God, another god-type that fits neatly into the Wheel of the Year mythos and corresponds well to a Moon Goddess.

Remember also, that not all Gods are as easily “typecast”.

Hekate Triple Goddess

The Triple Goddess

The most commonly known triple deity form today is probably the trinity in Christianity. If one can understand how Christians see the father, the son and the holy spirit as three, distinct persons in one, then one can understand how Wiccans view the Triple Goddess. In Wicca, many Goddesses are seen as having three forms that mirror the stages of womanhood:

* The Maiden, who is the young, innocent, often (but not always) virginal beauty. She is independent and idealistic, ready to take on the world and looking to the future possibilities, filled with all the promise of what can be. She’s associated with youth, the time of coming of age, new beginnings, the new moon and spring fertility festivals.

* The Mother, who is mature, experienced lover and (often, but not always) parent. She is nurturing and protective, representing the selfless giving of oneself to sustain others. She's associated with family, children, domestic issues, growth, sexuality, the full moon, the summer (when she becomes pregnant) and winter (when she gives birth).

* The Crone, who is the wise, guiding, respected elder (but not necessarily grandmother) of the trio. She is strong and pragmatic. She represents the "dark" side-- fears, decay, and destruction. Not that this makes her 'evil'; rather, she's someone who guides us through some of the biggest challenges in her infinite wisdom. She's associated with changes and transformations (particularly the biggest transformation-- death and rebirth).

It should be noted that not all Goddesses fit neatly into a trio of Maiden, Mother and Crone. Ancient Pagans were not monotheists; they did not believe all Goddesses to be an aspect of the same divine feminine. It was the work of Robert Graves – another heavy influence, now debunked -- at the forefront of the Pagan revival who popularized this concept that eventually made its way into Wicca.

In ancient Paganism, trio Goddesses would have more often been three Maidens, three Mothers or three Crones. Just because a culture has a Maiden does not mean that they automatically must have a Mother and Crone counterpart. Historically speaking, this was not common. Even if a culture had Goddesses that would fit neatly into the Maiden, the Mother and the Crone categories, it should not be automatically assumed that they had a connection to each other.

Think of it this way: if you walked into a waiting room and found a college girl, a middle-aged mom, and a retiree, would you automatically assume they must be related because they occupy the same time and place? Of course you wouldn’t—the same thing can be said for Goddesses.

Most Goddesses will fit in at least one of these categories, but that’s simply because these are very generalized attributes. Not every Goddess in history is so easily stuffed in a box—many Goddesses can fit into more than one category. Consider Hestia, who can be simultaneously considered a Maiden Goddess (due to her virginity and never having children), but also a Mother Goddess (due to her association with domestic life, as keeper of the sacred hearthfires).

While the model of the Triple Goddess is useful in Wiccan mythos, a Wiccan must always be careful not to pigeonhole ancient Goddesses in groups of three.

[calamity-bean]

Hi !! In your post about "Mad Sweeney through the ages" you noted in the tags that you restrained yourself from going into tangents... I'm super interested about what you mentionned though ! Would you mind wiritng a little bit on the relationship between the Tuatha de and the fairies and the dead ?? Sorry, i'm very curious and I love history and mythology a lot !! (Also sorry for any mistakes, I'm not a native speaker !!) Thank you ! :)

Hello! Sorry it took me all day to answer this; it’s just that, well… this got a bit long, even though I tried to be brief. XD 

Basically, what I was referring to is the same thing Sweeney talks about in the show: the way his identity has changed SIGNIFICANTLY over the centuries because the stories about him have mutated over time. People gradually conflated stories about certain types of beings (such as the Tuatha De Danann) with stories about other types of beings (such as fairies), or allowed elements of certain stories to influence others, and as a result, the very essence of what Sweeney IS evolved along with the folklore.

The cool thing, though — and I guess this is really the crux of what I was getting at in my tags — is that Sweeney’s particular evolutionary path isn’t a concept that’s unique to American Gods. I mean, to SOME extent, it’s AG’s invention; after all, the traditional figure of Mad Sweeney as portrayed in the Buile Suibhne is not a leprechaun or Lugh. He’s cursed, but he’s still just a mortal dude. But I think AG’s decision to MAKE him into those other things makes perfect sense in light of the fact that in certain areas that historically retained a strong Celtic influence (including much of the British Isles as well as Brittany), there really are a lot of intriguing similarities, overlaps, and parallels between the way folklore portrays fairies and the way it portrays the spirits of dead mortals. In Irish mythology specifically, the Tuatha De Danann get wrapped up in the relationship as well. These similarities have inspired a theory that elements of Celtic folklore about fairies might have evolved out of ancient superstitions about the dead and the places the dead were believed to inhabit. Which isn’t to say that it’s a direct evolution, nor that these three types of being are all exactly the same thing — simply that they seem to be related and to have influenced one another over time.

Unnecessarily detailed discussion under the cut, along with more of my thoughts on why I think this whole concept works out really well with regard to Mad Sweeney and lends a lot of weight to his backstory’s arc.

The People of the Mounds

One of the most familiar narratives in a classic fairy story is the human traveler who accidentally wanders into the fairy realm. It’s a story with innumerable variations. Perhaps the traveler simply follows the wrong path, or perhaps they enter a doorway in the side of a hill — either way, they end up in Faerie. It is a liminal space inhabited by beings that, because they are immortal or non-mortal, are not DEAD, exactly, but aren’t quite ALIVE, either, not in the way that mortal human beings are alive. And in many stories, it is also inhabited by dead humans. There are many versions of this story in which the traveler in Faerie is shocked to encounter a neighbor or loved one whom they know for a fact died years ago — like, actually physically DIED. And yet here their spirit is, trapped in this other world! The realm of Faerie is thus a place of great wonder, yes, but also great peril. It’s a place into which a person’s soul might be tragically stolen, though also a place from which they can sometimes be rescued. One such tale of rescue is the medieval poem Sir Orfeo, which is straight-up a Breton/English reimagining of Orpheus and Eurydice — except it’s set in Faerie instead of in the realm of the dead.

In short, Celtic stories often handle fairies and Faerie in a way that strongly evokes death, the realm of the dead, and the spirits of the dead. But for me, perhaps the most interesting aspect goes back to what I mentioned about WHERE these stories often take place. Where do the aos si dwell? Underground, of course — specifically, in hollow hills. It’s right there in the name: “aos si” means “people of the mounds.” Hence the stories in which a traveler enters Faerie through a door in the side of a hill. Coincidentally, where do the Tuatha de Danann dwell? Also underground — not originally, but they were driven underground by the Milesians, who took the above-ground world as their half of the earth in their truce.

But what kind of hill would be hollow? What kind of hill might have a doorway set into the side…?

Well… A hill like Newgrange, perhaps. Or like other hills within the Bru na Boinne complex. Or a hill like Bryn Celli Ddu in Wales, or Maes Howe in Orkney, or the Mound of the Hostages at Tara, or any number of other ancient barrows/tumuli: burial mounds built in prehistoric times as tombs for the human dead. Because the answer to “What other kind of creature dwells underground?” is, of course, dead people, at least in cultures which have tended to bury them.

Thus, the familiar trope of entering Faerie through a door in a hill very much evokes the idea of entering a tomb. This concept is reinforced by the fact that some specific fairy legends are anchored to specific tumuli. Newgrange is said to be the home of the Dagda and other Tuatha De; Cnoc Maedha is home to the fairy king Finvarra. Glastonbury Tor is associated with Gwyn ap Nudd of the Tylwyth Teg, ruler of the underworld of Annwn. Willy Howe is proposed to be the location of a specific version of one of those tales about a traveler wandering into a hill.

Not every fairy legend is associated with a specific hill, not every tumulus is associated with a fairy legend, and not every hill associated with a fairy legend has been confirmed to actually be a tomb. It’s more of a general association based on the tumulus shape. Also, some of these associations seem to have originated much later than others; they might be fairly recent inventions rather than old, traditional myths. But that’s kind of the point in AG, isn’t it: traditions evolve. Over time, they gather new associations and take on new meaning as the stories change. Did the idea that the aos si live in hollow hills evolve directly out of a superstition that specific hills — specific burial mounds — were home to the spirits of the dead? Perhaps! Perhaps not! Perhaps it’s more a case of stories mutually influencing each other, or maybe it’s convergent evolution, or maybe it’s sheer coincidence. But I think that the amount of similarity and overlap in these legends is enough to suggest roots in a common tradition, or at least to suggest that beliefs about these three categories of being have, over time, become intimately associated with each other.

Suibhne, the Dead King?

Which FINALLY brings us back to Sweeney.

I think the idea that the aos si evolved out of the Tuatha De Danann is pretty well known; I don’t think it’s entirely clear-cut from a historical standpoint, but it’s a theory I see mentioned quite often, and I feel like it intuitively makes sense. A transition from one supernatural, subterranean creature to another feels natural; it’s easy to grasp how those legends could be related. So it’s no surprise that American Gods would have a character who starts out as one of them and evolves into the other, especially since it’s been theorized that the concept of leprechauns in general might have evolved specifically out of Lugh. (The names share a possible etymology, and the characters share an association with luck.)

But the primary inspiration for Mad Sweeney — Suibhne, son of Colman Cuar, of the Buile Suibhne — feels, at first, like more of an outlier. Sure, Suibhne was under a curse, but he wasn’t, like, any type of supernatural creature… He was just a mortal human. The whole legend at least purports to be based on a real-life historical man. How does a mortal human get turned into a god or a fairy? How does that stage of Sweeney’s evolution fit in with leprechauns and Lugh?

To me, the key lies in the Annals of Tigernach. As I mentioned in my Mad Sweeney Through the Ages post, these annals record that Suibhne didn’t FLEE from the battle of Magh Rath… he DIED in it. And I don’t know whether AG is doing this on purpose, but in my opinion, this death really fits with the way AG has chosen to tell Suibhne’s story? In the Buile Suibhne, Suibhne flees the battlefield simply because the frenzy and St. Ronan’s curse overwhelm him. The idea that he fled because he foresaw his own death is AG’s own particular twist on the legend. AG’s Sweeney is a character who is haunted, throughout the different versions of himself, by near-deaths and foreseen-deaths and deaths that may or may not have actually happened. By choosing to reference the fact that Sweeney should have died at Magh Rath — possibly even did die at Magh Rath, heck, he supposedly died that night with the seer, too! — American Gods makes the critical decision to recast Suibhne mac Colmain as not merely the story of a king, but of a dead king.

And if you view the Buile Suibhne as the story of someone whose life, historically, ended at Magh Rath, but who through the power of mythology has been given an existence beyond Magh Rath, it becomes a story of undeath: of a mortal who becomes trapped in a strange, supernatural form of existence that is not exactly death but not really life as he knew it, either — sort of like a spirit trapped in Faerie. For me, AG’s decision to connect Suibhne’s legend with leprechauns and Lugh makes the most sense when I view Suibhne as a figure who kind of escaped death, but also kind of didn’t escape death, and always has this specter of death hanging over him for the rest of his cursed “life” after Magh Rath. If Suibhne is, essentially, a spirit persisting in a type of pseudo-life beyond death, then I can contextualize his role in Sweeney’s evolution within this whole theory of how the dead, the fae, and the Tuatha De Danann are intimately entwined.

Conclusion???

…WOW, this got long! Thanks for listening to me ramble. I hope it was interesting to you and that I’ve explained myself in a way that makes sense.

Obviously, I don’t know whether Gaiman / the showrunners of American Gods had any of these same concepts in mind when they were creating the book or the show. And I want to reiterate that the proposed relationship between these types of folklore is more of a theory than a concrete historical fact. It’s a theory that I find very compelling and very inspiring, but it’s difficult to really prove that traditional beliefs evolved in this way. Also, much of the actual scholarship I’ve found on this subject is older than I’d like, and I’m not sure whether different interpretations have since gained more traction in the field. Still, the work of Katharine Mary Briggs is a good place to start if you’re interested in reading more on this subject, especially her article “The Fairies and the Realms of the Dead.”

Regardless of whether it’s provable, though, I think it’s a theory that works beautifully with what we see in “Treasure of the Sun” and that fits really well with the mechanics of American Gods. And when it comes to AG, it doesn’t really matter, anyway, whether the dead and the fae and the gods were originally related or not — all that matters is that we humans believe that they are.

[momo-de-avis]

So regarding the conundrum I was stuck in, which I expressed yesterday, I’ve reached a veredict. And I would actually appreciate some feedback because this is THE low point. This is where the line on the graph just falls down like a damn slope.

Keep in mind this is the structure: the character who wrote the letter, Etain, is already dead. The very previous chapter shows her death, and why it happened. It is mentioned she wrote a letter, and this would be the letter she sent that her betrothed reads.

Defeated, he fell on a chair, head stuck between his hands. All around him, the two continued to discuss—Flann as cautious as ever, Ewan siding with the younger one, pros and cons being listed, one eager to put together a party to assess his claims, stating that sending a few scouts couldn’t hurt, they should at least try. Flann agreed with the scouts, but not everything else—it was an unnecessary risk, they had to wait until they reached further north and secured a safe passage towards Dunmorrígain so they could contact the ó Conchobhair, with their aid they could then prepare an assault.

But the uncertainty in Seán’s heart grew, a flutter that propelled him to move in his seat like a restless child, hands up and down his body, between messing his hairs and slapping his knees, jittering leg evidencing his despair. I have to have faith, he thought, closing his eyes for a moment as behind him the two men continued to discuss the matter with a growing voice that was borderline a shouting contest. He had come to notice that Ewan and Flann tended to disagree on several matters, far too much than what should be expected of a clan bearing not two, but three leaders. It sometimes caused a fuss between their men, who seemed torn between the two and acted irrationally out of, perhaps, a lack of discipline. He hoped that wouldn’t be the case then.

Time passed; outside, the sounds of merry living dwindled, light decreasing as the sun settled in the horizon, and inside the tent, the fight ensued. Seán didn’t move, only occasionally turning back to say something he believed to be useful, though he was sure none of them paid attention to what he had to say. Then, a man came inside, holding a letter between his fingers and called for either of the leaders. Ewan and Flann exchanged a look, the former taking a step forward and leaning in to listen to the messenger’s whisper.

Ewan looked down at the letter, a layer of pallor cast over his face as he gulped in silence. His eyes skimmed the inside of the tent as if he sought for something, but they rested on him, on Seán. He gave a step forward, handed him the letter and nodded.

“For you,” he said. “From Alba. It just arrived.”

Seán’s hands trembled, his fingers barely able to hold the paper. The seal struck a chord of fear in his heart—the green apple of the ó Cairbre. His mouth went dry and he blinked repeatedly; there was a hazy sensation to the world, as if it swirled and moved despite his existence, outside himself, with no meaning, no connection to his soul, no relation to him whatsoever. It was a good sign, was it not? She had written him a letter—it had to be Etain’s words inside—and that meant she was safe. Yet something inside his heart sent a shudder of a horrifying anticipation, one he couldn’t quite explain.

He broke the seal. The letters danced on the paper when he unfolded it, and for a while, they seemed to bear no meaning. Do not come for me, no matter what happens. His hand waved in the air, found solace in covering his mouth when tears sparked in his eyes. I am lost, and this I have chosen with a clear conscience, now I only pray to Brigid that you find it in your heart to forgive me. A dash of pain, cold and brisk, stabbed his heart and shot up his head; for a moment, he thought he went blind, but was simply blinking. His eyes focused with difficulty, the words now contorting under the yellow tint of the lights that brought out their irrational shape and buried their crude meaning into the depths of his scarred mind. Am I to live, he will make me a prisoner and negotiate my life with Selena—I cannot allow that, my love. I cannot allow myself to put her in that position.

Both Ewan and Flann disappeared from his sight; all there was, was the irritating sepia tone of the air around him, the intense smell of burned wax and wood, and the clanging sounds of metal outside, cups clinking against one another as voices raged in roaring laughter. A distant, inconceivable joy he couldn’t place. He wasn’t there, but thrust into somewhere unknown, a black nothingness where Etain’s words stung his skin like a million needles.

I am told they’re only a day away as I write this. It is likely the ó Cinnéid will yield. They’re weak, have always turned where the money is and hide their tails between their legs like cowards. Do not trust them. Lugh knows I cannot, and I have accepted the fate of our city. Now, I have to accept mine.

The words became blurry. Seán wiped his eyes with the back of his hand when the tears came, blinked repeatedly at their stinging sensation. Protect her. Fight for her. A sob escaped his lips; his hand shivered, he could barely hold the paper. Stay with her, forever. Don’t ever leave her side. She needs you, my love. He crumpled the letter, though he didn’t mean to; he thought of throwing it away, but couldn’t do it. Etain’s very soul was contained in it, her very essence enclosed in the ink that stained it in those daunting words.

Tell Selena I love her, and how much it saddens me that I will never get to see her crowned. Perhaps my spirit will linger, and I shall walk by her side until her dying days. I certainly hope the gods are kind enough to grant me the gift of peering through the veils, if only to make sure her life is a gracious one.

Ewan’s hand moved, trying to reach for his shoulder in a calming pat, but Seán warded him away. The letter was clutched to his hand like an amulet—he couldn’t let it go. He opened it again, pressed it against the table to soften the creases of his impulsive gesture, a sense of regret so great possessing his heart he felt he was tending to Etain herself, muttering the words as he did so: I’m sorry, I’m so sorry, my love, I am so sorry.

I left my wedding dress on my bed. Ever since the day I left the School, I longed to wear it. I chose the colour blue because it reminded me of the seas, the same that’s always scared you so much.

Flann tried to speak to him, but Seán told him to shut up. The map was now a deriding vision, a divine mockery. There was no room for the flashing memories that assaulted him—all he could think of was Alba and its gardens, the marble statues of Etain’s favoured place, sprinkled with apple trees and quinces everywhere as she hopped around merrily. Her giggle. The way her eyes crushed whenever she smiled, her cheeks pink as roses in puerile joy. Her golden locks swaying at the salty breeze, how graciously they framed her round face.

I keep thinking of the day I fell in love with you. That day you found me in the arena and I begged you not to tell the guards on me. We had known each other for eleven years, and I wondered: how could I have missed it? How could we have lived together as friends for so long and missed on the love that bloomed right there and then, so immediate it took me by surprise? How could we have shared a lifetime together and only find this joy so shortly before we parted ways? I wish I could return there. I wish I could stand in the School’s arena with you right now. I wish I was hiding behind a tree or under the benches as you pressed a hand against my lips to keep me quiet while the guards searched for us. I thought the School would tear us both apart if we let everyone know, but as it turns out, it was never in the gods’ plans.

The world, Seán, is more cruel than I figured. Alba was always peaceful. I had my stupid gardens and my ocean, and I had you. And all the while, our beloved Selena suffered. They taught us for eleven years the tools to survive in a world that isn’t ours. They kept us hidden and protected like precious gems, and released us into the world like tamed animals. You and I, and Selena, we don’t know how to survive in it. The three of us were always bound to inherit a war we didn’t start. That’s why you must always stand by her side, that’s why you must always fight for her. So that in one year, two years, eleven years, the next children won’t fear what we feared.

I love you, so much I understand now our fates are not bound together. I love you enough to take the fall so you shall stand. But I promise you I shall not fall alone. You’ve always said I was a better dancer than I was a fighter. I suppose the time has come for my last dance, my love.

“There has to be time for—” his words died on his tongue, sucked in by his own sobbing. When another pair of hands touched him, Séan pushed them away. “You have to go to Alba right now! You have to do something!”

And the world swirled, untamed, distant and disconnected. All he thought about was Etain, her garden, her quinces and apple trees; all he thought about the wedding that never happened, the mistakes committed in the past. Her joy, her smile, her giggle. Her bossy attitude, her imposing stance, the way she pressed her lips together when she wanted things done her way, how her eyes fulminated whoever crossed her. Her blind acceptance of Selena’s reveal, how she hadn’t flinched at the thought of her best friend being Lavinia’s daughter. Devoted and faithful, as she had always been.

Ewan’s hands held him down by the shoulders; this time, Seán didn’t fight him. His strength waned, his vision blurred. The letter shuddered in his hand, the words now indistinct. I love you, and please forgive me. They danced in his mind like a haunting, and images of Etain projected themselves in his mind as a last attempt to hold on to her. Stand with her, fight for her, don’t ever leave her side. Promise me. I promise you, he thought, but he couldn’t; if he promised her, that meant accepting she was gone, but there was still time, there was still a chance.

“I cannot—” tears ran down his cheeks. “I cannot leave her, we have to—” there had to be a chance, there had to be a chance at saving her, saving the city, saving Alba’s gardens; a chance at standing atop the walls overlooking the black rocks whipped by the white foam of the seas, as Etain leaned over with arms wide open, giggling. He had to see her again. “Please, I beg you, we have to—”

“I’ll gather a party,” Ewan said, his hands now holding his face. “We’ll leave in the morning.”

Seán nodded. There had to be a chance.

So yeah, my idea was taunting the reader with this idea of the character being obsessed with the possibility of there being a chance, because there isn’t. By now, the reader knows there’s no chance. She’s dead and the reader saw it. 

(And then there’s one character left for us to see just how much this fucks her up)

[setmeatopthepyre]

[Above images are from the cleaned-up Blackwing board that @mysticorset made]

So continuing from this post where I screencapped the other Blackwing symbols that pop up in the opening credits of season 2, I wanted to take a closer look.

We know only one with reasonable certainty, and that’s Lamia. Project Lamia is most likely Mona Wilder, which we know from photos that have been posted of the actress in Blackwing jumpsuit, and it seems like Mona Wilder’s power is shape shifting. However, Max mentioned at some point that none of the subjects’ powers are as clear-cut as Blackwing thinks they are or wants them to be. Dirk is not psychic, he can’t just predict the future. Blackwing named Ken Project Alpha likely because they thought he had power over the subjects, simply because Bart doesn’t kill him. That’s the reason. So Blackwing’s names for the projects won’t necessarily tell us a whole bunch but they might shed us some light on what Blackwing knows about them.

So keep reading for interesting information about the project names and some theories.

PROJECT LAMIA

As before, Project Lamia is Mona and her power has something to do with shapeshifting. At least, Friedkin mentions a shapeshifter and we see Mona change shapes. We see her throughout season one - likely - as the squeeze toy, and as a clown in Amanda’s vision. When she teleports Dirk, we see her in human shape with bright green eyes, just like the clown toy (sometimes - when the eyes aren’t blue).

But why “Lamia”?

Lamia was a figure in Greek mythology. Hera killed or stole all Lamia’s children and cursed her to become a child-eating monster herself. Alternatively, Lamia goes mad with grief and devours other children out of envy, becoming a monster in the process. Lamia is cursed with an inability to close her eyes so that she always has to obsess over the image of her dead children, so Zeus gives her the ability to remove her eyes, which in turn gives her the gift of prophecy. The myth of the Lamia monster has been used for centuries to scare children.

But why did Blackwing give Mona the name Project Lamia? I think it’s because of her curse to bear witness. I think part of Mona’s power is the ability to take a form and witness, but not being able to actually do anything other than witness when she takes on a different form. The squeaky toy literally cannot close its eyes, and the other forms she takes are all rather inconsequential. The only time we actually see her do something important is when she throws the water on Dirk, and that’s when she looks human. This is also reflected in the symbol for Lamia: a circle representing an eye looking out over the world.

PROJECT CARMAN

Carman is a figure from Celtic mythology, an evil Greek warrior-witch who invaded Ireland with her three sons, bringers of death and destruction. Their names are Dub (darkness), Dothur (evil) and Dian (violence). She used her powers to destroy all the crops in Ireland while her sons destroyed everything else in their path. They were then challenged by four others: the god of poetry (Ai Mac Ollamain), a white sorceress (Bé Chuille), a satirist (Cridhinbheal) and a magician (Lugh Laebach), who used their magical powers against Carman’s three sons and banished them from Ireland for as long as the land was surrounded by water. Bé Chuille then used a spell to subdue her magic and Carman was imprisoned, after which she died of longing and was buried among oak trees. At the sight of her burial place a fair was held every three years during the harvest festival. If the festival failed to be held, it meant famine for all of Ireland.

We don’t know who Project Carman is, but there is a theory here that she is linked to the Cardenas’ because of the name and the being buried among oak trees. The question that is important to me, however, is why would Blackwing give a subject this name? Major themes with Carman seem to be her being the cause of famine, and the trail of destruction left by her sons.

As far as the symbol for Carman goes, I don’t have any firm theories. As far as I can tell, the square as a symbol stands for the material world. The two overlapping squares could mean two overlapping material worlds - which, if we go with the Cardenas theory, could hint to a house within a house - or we could see them as forming a third square which could reference the three brothers in the myth. It could also be a reference to theories of dualism.

PROJECT MIRU

Miru is a figure from Polynesian mythology and I could find very little information about her. She is a death goddess or a demonic goddess who lives in the nether world, Avaiki. Avaiki is the ‘root of the world’ from which the rest of the earth was created. Miru intoxicates either the souls of dead people or just men with kava, then cooks them in her ever-burning oven and devours them.

So we have Miru’s ever-burning oven and intoxicating people with kava, a drink made from the kava plant. Kava has sedative, anesthetic and euphoriant qualities which makes me think that maybe this is part of her power - being able to influence how others feel or making other people experience things.

As far as the symbol for Miru goes, it seems to be a combination of the alchemical symbols for sun and earth:

It could also simply be a figure, indicated by the dot, in the middle of the earth, like Miru in the nether world.

PROJECT VESTA

Vesta is a Roman mythological figure. She is the goddess of hearth, home who rejected the advances of both Apollo and Neptune and begged Jupiter to allow her to remain forever a virgin. When he agreed, Vesta took care of his home and hearth out of thanks. She is rarely depicted as a human, but is often personified by her ever-burning flame or as the fire stick that lights the hearthfire. In Rome there was a perpetual fire tended to by Vestal Virgins, and its extinction at any time other than the Roman new year meant disaster for Rome.

Her symbol very much matches the myth. A Greek historian said: “And they regard the fire as consecrated to Vesta, because that goddess, being the Earth and occupying the central position in the universe, kindles the celestial fires from herself.”

So themes for Vesta are fire, home, and the connection between heaven/sky and earth.

Worth noting: there is also the Vesta family of asteroids, including 4 Vesta, which is the brightest asteroid visible from Earth.

PROJECT WRAITH So wraith is originally a Scots word for a ghost, spectre or apparition, though it can also be an omen of sorts, or a wisp or faint trace of something. I have a lot of trouble coming up with what this could be in terms of Blackwing because it could be so many things and I can’t come up with a good explanation for the symbol either. The only thing is that it’s one of few symbols with a hexagon, the others being Orthrus, Golem and Phoenix [which Amanda sees a vision of maybe?], and the hexagon is a symbol that shows up very prominently in both The Mage and Triangle Badevil’s tattoos.

PROJECT GETUS

Getus is another very tough one, mostly because I could find nothing for ‘Getus’. There is Cetus, an ancient Greek sea monster or large fish or whale. The sea monsters slain by Perseus and Heracles are referred to as cetus. Cetus are viewed as bad omens to sailors, bringers of misfortune or great storms.

The symbol for Getus is very similar to the all seeing eye or eye of providence.

I have no theories for Project Getus, though the interrupted triangle reminds me of the spirit of something bigger being part of the middle. Like shark kitten. Yeah, Project Getus is shark kitten.

That’s all six. If anyone made it all the way through, I applaud you. Send me a message and let’s throw theories at each other. Tell me your thoughts!

[phoenyxoftheashes]

I have a question about mixing pantheons. I see you're both a Gaelic polytheist and a Hellenic polytheist. How do you blend the two?

I actually don’t “mix” the two, I keep them separate.  And that’s for a number of reasons:

1.) The two pantheons are very different when it comes to “holiness”.  When it comes to the Irish gods (Gaelic pantheon doesn’t really exist since “gaelic” refers to Irish gods, Scottish gods, Manx gods, etc.  I deal with the Irish gods specifically but draw from some Scottish myths and am fascinated by Scottish creatures.), they’re not really on the same level as the Theoi.  The Tuatha De Danann are more down to earth and much more…human, I shall say.  The Theoi are much more revered and holy.  This connects to ritual pureness…

2.) Ritual purity is an important aspect of Hellenic polytheism.  Irish polytheism?  Not so much.  I also wash my hands (and possibly my face/body if I have the spoons) before addressing the Theoi/Hellenic gods.  This is so I can wash the miasma from my being and cleanse myself before addressing the gods formally.  The Tuatha De Danann?  They don’t give a shit if you’re dirty or not.  To put it bluntly.  lol.  

3.) When it comes to eating food offerings after a while, it’s okay in Hellenic polytheism and not okay in Irish polytheism (or rather, it’s taboo/considered unhealthy because it is believed the spirits/gods drain the energy from the food).  So for the Irish gods I always throw away the food or drink offerings.  For the Hellenic gods I can drink or eat the offerings after a period of time.

4.) Similar to number 1, the Irish gods may or may not have been humans who became gods through centuries of ancestor worship.  The Hellenic gods are undoubtedly gods and have always been gods.  We’re (as mortals) not on the same level as the Theoi.  But for the Tuatha De Danann?  My relationship with them is more like they’re my really good friends.  Flidais is more like a mother figure to me, Manannan is like the goofy uncle, Lugh is like a big brother, and Brighid is like a big sister.  They’re more like family/friends than gods I worship.  The Hellenic gods don’t have the same relationship style (at least for me), they’re more distant and awe inspiring.  The only exception being Hermes whom I have a close relationship with…..he’s the one that drew me back to Hellenic Polytheism.

So long story short, or tl;dr:

* The hellenic gods are more holy

* I focus more on ritual purity with the hellenic gods

* Eating food/drinking drinks offered to the Irish gods is taboo

* The Hellenic gods are more god-like, and the Irish gods are more human-like

[awfullyhorriblybadfantrolls]

Pesterchum name: deathGaurdian [Well that’s a nice start.]

Typing Issue: /O.O\ one starts cawversations with owl faces and hoogely loves raven and owl puns, going out of one’s way to add them where he can. You could say one’s…raven mad about them, but apparently they’re a hoot! [Dies from overexposure to puns.] One ends all cawversations with a raven head and refers to himself and hoothers as ‘one’ <O [This is actually a pretty alright quirk.]

Font Color: Raven Black and Snow Owl White. Like Cihuco, he set it to alternate between sentences. Naturally, the others aren’t fond of this but hey, that’s they’re problem. [… Dude. Just set if to your blood color.]

Owl & Raven (Both found in Native American signs)

Symbol: tribal design of the 2 birds, only uses the one symbol.

Mythological entity named for: Apollo, Orev, Vahana, Gaelic

Blood Color: Grape (Because in some cultures the owl is a symbol of statues) [… What? What do statues have to do with grapes? Is this a reference i’m not getting?]

God Tier: Seer of…some combination of Mind and Doom…probably because of being an owl and a raven. He says it’s Soul, as in the owl’s role of Seer of Souls and ruler of the night. Suppose the symbol does look sorda like a soul… [If you want a god tier that deals with souls, that’s heart.]

(fun fact: this is the same aspect that layzza maniae has. in later editions they use the name ‘madness’ to refer to this beauty of an aspect)

Owls and ravens aren’t that much different, actually. Both are associated with death, darkness, secrets, and also light, intelligence, and oracles.. [Maybe it would make sense to make him a light player then?] Likewise, being only 1 level away from the sea gave his family the same association. Could it be he’s bipolar or is it just because of his cast [*caste] that he goes from very very calm to snapping one’s neck within seconds?[*Sighs* People, please, stop doing this. It’s gotten old.] Could it be the ancient meaning of both the animals being conflicting with the new meanings are manifesting themselves within him? He has the strange power to help spirits transcend different planes of reality, as is associated with the owl’s role. He is often used as a messenger between the dead and the living because of this. He is very secretive as well. Naturally he also has superior night vision. His horns look roughly like the feathers on the top of a Magellan’s Eagle Owl’s head. [Ok that’s pretty neat.]It is probable they are actually feathers (because feathers, horns, hair, and nails are all made from the same thing, Keratin) and this would explain why sometimes they seem smaller and almost non-existent. Naturally, because of this, the coloration of his horns is different. [Just make them horns.]

-extra info not needed- [Then why is is here? Well too bad for you because you put it here so i’m gonna go over it.]

Relations:

Lughin Vahlic: Named after Odin and Lugh, he is Aporev’s dancestor. The entire family is rather close and it’s unknown if they’re alive or dead. 

The Wisest: The ancestor and a very well known philosopher, he has chosen to stay completely neutral, as he can see valid points in both systems. He doesn’t speak in riddles, per-say, but the way he speaks often confuses people. He does not call himself by the name the others gave him, nor does he take it as a complement. After all, his dying words were “I know now that I know nothing.” which may or may not have been taken from an earth philosopher. That would depend how you think the time-lines work. Was matesprits with The Poet.

Morgan: His entire family line has always been connected in a rather friendly way to hers. Naturally he is the same with her. This is probably because ravens have always been associated with the Morrighan and because owls have always been associated with magic. [Is she a troll?]

Cihuco: Rather close friends, probably because Vanaha is also associated with vultures. Another of those long family line things. [Is this a troll?

Sapiens: The owl lusus that took care of him, she was very beautiful and very wise. In fact, the name means “wise” in latin.

Tenebris: The male raven lusus which watched over him. He is, naturally, a black lusus (before I get complaints that they don’t exist go back to Nepeta’s intro in act 5 and look at her damn floor please!)[The animals on her floor weren’t lususes, they were wild animals. Lususes are different. “They are horrifying beasts found in the ceremonial brooding caverns once the young trolls have completed their many dangerous trials.” -Wiki page on lususes] They both survived thanks to Sapiens’ transcend ability.

[I think this is the first time we’ve gotten a troll with 2 lususes.]

Grace and Jenny: get along very well, as they both understand the true symbolic meaning of the raven, which most do not.

Strife Portfolio: thrwdagkind

Fetch Modus Setting: Philosophy -rather hard to learn for someone who isn’t naturally philosophical, you must speak of something as if it were the subject of very deep study- [… Ok? I don’t get it. Guess i can’t use this modus then.]

Age: 7.4 Alternian Solar Sweeps (16 earth years)

Planet: Another troll whom lived on a dwarf planet between 2 others. It’s probable the dwarfs didn’t get destroyed because they weren’t seen as a threat. [What? The planets have names. Like, i dunno, land of philosophy and feathers . LOPAF.]

Name Breakdown (Troll) : The Greek god Apollo was heavily associated with ravens. They were seen as good luck and as messengers. In the bible Midianites defeats a king by the name Orev, which means Raven. Vanaha is a Hindu deity associated with Ravens and owls alike, and Gaelic is a Celtic Goddess whom was turned into an owl. [Pretty neat stuff.]

Name Breakdown (Pesterchum) : While ravens have long been associated with death, the owl has been associated with guardianship of the underworld in several cultures.

Personality Qualities: Wise, mysterious, secretive, and rather protective of those which he holds close. He is free to visit both dream worlds, not because of split personalities but rather because of the owl’s association with dreams. [But he still has to be either a prospit/derse dreamer.] He has psychic abilities as well, but he generally doesn’t see a need to use them except for his fortune telling. However, in battle he chooses them over weapons, for it doesn’t actually hurt the other one…that is, unless he started the fight and is extremely pissed. He doesn’t really care if you think he’s dark and creepy or wise and odd. He is naturally very curious, as all ravens are. He knows most about the ancestors and dancestors, often communicating between generations as well as the planes of the dead and the living. Despite being rather secretive, he is also very chatty. Quite a blabber-mouth actually, but you have to figure out what he’s saying before responding. Between his puns and philosophy it can be difficult. His family are also tricksters, though not as bad as the Unnuto’s. [As who now?] (As Ravens know a limit which the Hares do not) He was born with white hair, however as time went by it turned mostly black. [Trolls have black hair from birth my dude. Only exception is eridan with that violet bit] This is true of all of his family, and only each individual knows why it turned black. (because it is different for each of them) If you notice, he still has a few white streaks.

Rules broken: [It isn’t horrible. There are a few themes and things that work but there are definitely some fixes to be made.]

Rating: [A broken raven feather out of ten.]

[shuttershocky]

Coexisting Mystic Eyes of Death Perception: An Explanation

Alright, so before @miyamanga and I had our chat so rudely, crudely interrupted by a would-be rapist (Don’t worry, she got him arrested), we were chatting about the Nasuverse’s Mystic Eyes of Death Perception, the magical eyes featured in both Tsukihime and Kara No Kyoukai that can see lines over anything. If these lanes are traced with a finger/knife/sword etc, that thing is instantly destroyed or killed. Now, quite a contradiction came up while comparing the two. Specifically, Miya brought up how there can be only one pair in the entire Nasu multiverse (important because parallel universe is their favorite way to explain inconsistencies), because that’s just how rare the eyes are.

So of course because I have way too much on my plate and thus needed something to procrastinate on, I decided to try explaining how Shiki Ryougi and Shiki Tohno’s Mystic Eyes of Death Perception could coexist.

The Short, Boring Answer:

Nasu just bent his own rules again for the sake of doing whatever he wants in his universe / Kara No Kyoukai does not exist in the same universe as the rest of the stories (Shiki Ryougi appears in FGO and in Melty Blood so that info’s no longer right btw) / because ehh. Elementary. Boring. 

The Long, Hopefully Not As Boring Answer:

Alright, first, let’s review what we know about the two Shiki’s eyes and their differences.

First off: Shiki Ryougi’s Mystic Eyes.

SO cool.

These eyes are not just capable of revealing the death lines of living beings, but also of inanimate objects and even conceptual or invisible things such as spells, bounded fields, and fae (essentially allowing Ryougi to identify and neutralize magic), making it both an incredible offensive and defensive weapon.

These eyes can be turned on and off at will, described in the Kara No Kyoukai light novels as shifting the focus of her eyes. 

Usage of these eyes has very little to almost no adverse effects on Ryougi. In the text she sometimes complains about light headaches. In the Ufotable movies, these eyes appear to have no cost at all, not even mana.

Despite the lack of any cost to these eyes, they grow in power as Ryougi ages, allowing her to see death lines on things that originally had none. In the 5th book, Paradox Spiral, antagonist Souren Alaya muses that even his arm, the mystical arm of Buddha the enlightened one, will have death lines drawn over them eventually. This (possibly. It’s a big IF) means that even beings above the concept of death, such as Buddha, Tiamat, Ultimate Ones like Type-Moon and Type-Mercury, etc, will eventually be vulnerable to her.

While the death lines are originally described as black, they seemed to have later been changed to red in order to differentiate from Tohno’s death lines.

The eyes themselves came to her as she fell in a coma from an attempted suicide. Her second, destructive, masculine personality died instead of her first, feminine one (it’s complicated) and the reborn Shiki Ryougi came back from touching death with these eyes.

According to Souren Alaya, her eyes are simply a manifestation of her spiritual origin, which is Nothingness. She is able to return anything to the nothingness of whence it came.

Now let’s look at Shiki Tohno’s eyes.

What a terrifying bastard.

Apart from the death lines Ryougi can see, Tohno can also see death points. These points act as the source of the death lines, and simply stabbing them can do the equivalent of cutting along the death lines they are connected to. This comes in very helpful when fighting an enemy with multiple lives such as Nrvnsqr Chaos, who had all 666 lives destroyed when Shiki stabbed his one central death point. 

In the original VN, Shiki Tohno is unable to see death lines of invisible or conceptual things, such as spells. In the manga adaptation, he is able to after some great difficulty. It is possible he merely lacks the training Ryougi has in order to be able to fully utilize the eyes’ powers.

Shiki Tohno’s Mystic Eyes are unable to be turned off, and he must wear protective glasses in order to seal them away, just like Medusa in Fate/Stay Night. (Incidentally, the glasses they wear both come from Touko Aozaki.)

Using the eyes has adverse effects on the already sickly Shiki Tohno. They give him migraines, sap his lifeforce/mana, make him throw up, and even lose consciousness. If he uses them too much, he will die.

These eyes also grow in power like Ryougi’s, although while hers grows in capability, being able to see lines where she could not before, Tohno’s grows in intensity. His eyes are constantly growing more intense in power, capable of overwhelming even his Mystic Eye Killer glasses (especially when he is upset) and giving him terrifying visions of the sky falling and the ground giving away as all of existence returns to nothing. By Tsukihime’s epilogue, he has resorted to wearing a blindfold instead, his eyes long since becoming too powerful for the glasses.

The death lines and death points he sees are black in color.

The eyes came to him in a childhood accident where he was killed protecting his adoptive little sister Akiha. Unwilling to give him up, she used her demonic/Oni magic to split half of her life and give it to him, raising him back from the dead. The eyes manifested on him as soon as he awoke from his coma.

Shiki Tohno’s spirital origin is unknown, although Arcueid Brunestud tells him in the VN that him owning the eyes is unnatural (as opposed to Ryougi where Alaya always expected it of her), and she also claims that he must somehow borrowed or stole the power of Balor, the Irish Formorian giant, father of Lugh and grandfather of Cu Chulainn, who could kill with a magic eye.

Ok, having reviewed all of this information, a marked difference in Ryougi and Tohno’s Mystic Eyes of Death Perception becomes clear: Ryougi’s function more like normal / natural Mystic Eyes like with Illya’s or Touko’s, while Tohno’s function more like Mystic Eyes acquired from a curse, like Medusa’s. Ryougi’s eyes, while powerful, are hardly a problem for her. They do not hold her down or get in the way of a normal life, and they function more like tools with her ability to turn them on and off. Tohno’s on the other hand, actively impede his life. He is completely dependent on his glasses to live (since seeing the lines straight up eats away at him), and what he sees when the glasses are off is far more horrible than the slashed up visions Ryougi sees. Just as his eyes bring death, they also constantly seekto return him to the death he managed to escape from. Furthermore, Alaya stalks Ryougi knowing it was a matter of time before she got her eyes, while Tohno getting his wasn’t something that should have even been possible.

Therefore, I’ve come to the conclusion that Shiki Ryougi’s eyes are the real deal. If we just completely ignore that Nasu bends his own rules a lot (Hah!) and assume only one pair of Mystic Eyes of Death Perception can exist at any given time, then Ryougi is the one with the real pair. 

What about Shiki Tohno then? Simple. Stolen power. During his battles with Michael Roa Jackson Vamldamjong, Roa displayed a very similar ability to see the lines of death through his own eyes altered by magecraft. However, he was only able to see the lines of living things, and assumed Shiki Tohno’s eyes worked the same. He was terrified to learn that Tohno didn’t see natural death, he saw the end of all things, and this convinced him that Tohno’s eyes were the real deal. This tells us that magecraft is actually capable of altering normal eyes to see the lines of death (at least, partially), so why wouldn’t Shiki Tohno’s eyes be able to be altered? Thus I also conclude: When Shiki Tohno temporarily died and was brought back from the void, he took part of the void with him. This is why his eyes are completely uncontrollable and are prone to unpredictable behavior (sometimes they see through his glasses when stressed, etc.), they are eyes altered by touching death itself in an extremely haphazard process improvised on the spot by a 6 year old girl. 

I hope you enjoyed this short presentation on something completely inconsequential. 

P.S - This also explains why the Aozaki sisters had two completely different reactions to finding the Mystic Eyes of Death Perception. While Aoko Aozaki technically came first, having found Shiki Tohno in 1992, she could probably tell his eyes were something unnatural if he couldn’t control them at all. Meanwhile Touko Aozaki discovering Shiki Ryougi’s eyes 5 years later in 1997 had her first thoughts being “Hey I could use this girl as the ultimate attack dog!”

[eviloneills-blog]

hey so i have another question for you :D concerning the original trio and others who do you think their godly parents are? personally, i was thinking Han was a son of Hermes and Luke and Leia are children of Zeus but that's basically it lol. thoughts?

ohhh okay this is gonna be some Grade A modernist poetry because my period and comma keys aren’t working but here goes

I honestly don’t know all that much about the original trio but tbh neither Luke Nor Leia seem much like children of Zeus? IDK but I don’t really associate power and lightning and other children-of-Zeusy things with them Maybe children of Athena? I could dig that Luke seems maybe like a son 

Lando: undoubtedly a child of Athena but w/ a slick Aphrodite 

Also ALSO ALSO one of the systems of mythology BY far the most similar to the general star wars plot/tones is undoubtedly Irish! Def more than Greek There’s a lot of glowy swords and family murdering and vaguely extraterrestrial feeling invasions and also one of the main god guys lost a hand and had it replaced with a silver version  I used to be really into Irish mythology so if I had to give Luke a godly parent from that pantheo def Lugh? There are some really interesting parallels between Lugh closing Fomor’s eye and Luke destroying the Death Star 

One super cool crossover between SW and Irish mythology: One of the most important Irish epic heroes is Fionn MacCumhail/Finn McCool! Someone did a project a few years back (before the reboot) where they did a rewrite of Star Wars as an Irish Epic  and the name they chose for Luke was actually Finn because that was the character that had the most connection to Luke’s epic hero journey Coincidence??? I THINK NOT So yeah even the ancient Irish were super on board with Finn Stormbreaker epic male protagonist of the Finnian Cycle!

 So anyway this was probably not the answer you were looking for but it turned into some epic Finn love cause that’s how I roll!

[margridarnauds]

pagan-soul replied to your post “My absolute HATRED for the term “Celtic Mythology” VS my desire for...”

Why do you hate that term? ��

So, I decided to give this its own post because I really feel like it does deserve it, since it’s the kind of thing that I think most people outside of the field don’t really think about and you deserve the best answer you can get, though I’m not sure how clear I’m being. If there’s a point that I’m not clear on, please ask me to clarify, since I can never tell if I’m being entirely coherent. I’m not sure if I can give you a FULL answer, since some of this is slightly outside my pay grade (given I don’t get paid, that isn’t hard), but I’ll try to do what I can. 

For most of us in the field, I think, we generally hate it because it’s very, very imprecise and a little misleading. There really ISN’T a singular “Celtic Mythology”, just like there was never really a singular “Celtic people”. There were a vast variety of Celtic-speaking groups, spread as far out as modern-day Turkey, and each one of them had a unique cultural environment. Cernunnos, for example, does not have anything to do with, say, Bres mac Elathan or Rhiannon. And, in fact, in terms of the times that each one of them would have been popping up, there’s a SIGNIFICANT difference in ages. 

(Taken from David Stifter’s Sengoidelc)

At some point, as you can see on the linguistic map.....during the Proto-Celtic period, they WOULD have had roughly the same cast of characters, BUT that is a time that we really know little to nothing about, and even then, I do believe there would have been localizations depending on family group and region. We can TRY to reconstruct it by comparing different figures/names and then putting them in an Indo-European context. If, for example, you see similar things pop up in India, Ireland, Greece, etc., you can be fairly certain that it is [1] A pre-Christian survival and [2] Specifically, a Proto-Indo European survival, aka going back to really some of the EARLIEST belief systems we have. If you have the same things popping up in Irish and Welsh contexts AND you have the name popping up in Gaulish inscriptions, we can be fairly certain that the figure is a REALLY old ass Celtic figure. Figures like Lugh, Ogma, and Nuada.....they are probably VERY old. Not that we won’t argue over it. Because Celticists argue over everything. (If you want to know about some of what Celticists have conjectured, I highly recommend Proinsias Mac Cana’s ironically-titled , given the topic of this post, book, “Celtic Mythology”. Now, some of what he said has been debated, because.....see above. Celticists. Arguing. We love it. BUT he’s a respected figure in the field, and my supervisor likes him so I’m legally required to like him too.)  WHICH brings us to our next problem, which is that the way that each figure developed. Lugh, in an Irish context, is not Lleu in a Welsh context. They probably share the same root figure, at some point in their shared history. Their names match up TOO PERFECTLY for them not to. But the way they developed was specifically in the cultural context of Wales/Ireland. Lugh in particular is a VERY malleable figure. You can read three works where Lugh is in and get a VERY different reading of him in each one. (Good king? Machiavellian schemer? Flawed pragmatist trying to unite a people who won’t be united? A figure who’s more a symbol of kingship than an actual CHARACTER? Depending on the source and the time/context, you can get any combination. For what it’s worth, in the Early Modern period, there is quite a bit of matieral that shows a darker side to Lugh.) Saying, “Yes, these two are related” SOUNDS like it’s admitting a lot, but in reality, that still doesn’t really tell us anything about this hypothetical figure. If you put a knife to my throat and made me GUESS, I would say that he had some connection to kingship and sovereignty. Possibly, in relationship to that, sacral kingship, given that both Lugh and Lleu are betrayed by a woman to their deaths. But that is HIGHLY speculative and again, doesn’t really SAY anything. Lugh is Lugh and Lleu is Lleu. It’d be like trying to say that, because you and your cousin come from the same grandma, you’re exactly the same. Now, you might be able to INTUIT certain things about your grandma from any common traits you and your cousin have, and that’s a valid line of inquiry, and it’s definitely one that plenty of solid Celticists have done, I am NOT denigrating their research, but you’re still you. 

Finally, “Celtic Mythology” really is.....rather bombastic, as a term, for a group that almost always consists of Irish Mythology (and, sometimes, Irish folklore, which is VERY different from the mythological texts), with Medieval Welsh literature sprinkled in for a bit of flavor. (Even the term “Welsh Mythology” is controversial, simply because, really...it’s much harder to pick the MYTHOLOGY from the literature. Even harder than the Irish.) And, in the field, even saying “Celtic Studies” is something that we kind of do through gritted teeth because we don’t really have a better term for what we do. See that big-ass linguistic family tree up there? Yeah, I’m not too proud to admit that there are exactly two languages on there that I am in any way equipped to talk about: Middle Welsh and Old Irish. Now, an IDEAL Celticist, aka some of the best in the field, is a jack of all trades, someone who can talk about the linguistic evolution of at LEAST Old Irish and Welsh (including their modern descendants), with a solid background in Proto Indo European and the ability to at least comment on the various other Celtic languages. (There are some scholars who specialize in, say, Scottish Gaelic, Breton, Cornish, and Manx, but they are basically a niche in a niche. The field, as a WHOLE, is VERY much dominated by Irish, both modern and medieval. Which suits me very well, but does make me feel very bad for the other languages that get left out of the mix.) But that is a VERY small number of people in the field. Hell, I got met with basically crickets when I said that I wanted to study Breton, not because people didn’t WANT me to, but because the resources simply weren’t available, much less as an English speaker. (I still want to take it up, though.) I know of some professionals in the field who NEVER would call themselves a Celticist, simply because the term doesn’t really fit them. My paleography professor was, incidentally, one of them. Personally, I DO use it, because again, I don’t have another term. 

But, and I can’t emphasize this enough, what I study isn’t a SINGULAR Celtic Mythology. What I study is Medieval Irish Literature, with a focus on the Mythological Cycle and, when needed, I can sometimes comment on the similarities to Welsh figures. I don’t LIKE it, because I feel like I can’t do the richness of the Welsh material justice, but I can do it if you put a knife to my throat. With stuff like, say, Gaulish Mythology....we can make very educated guesses based off of inscriptions and things that the Romans/Greeks said and comparing them to Irish/Welsh material, but we don’t really know. Can’t really know. And with others...there were no written materials during the medieval period, or at least none currently surviving. (This is why Old Irish and Middle Welsh to tend to dominate mythological discussion: The bulk of our medieval material does come from those sources. People can say all they want about the scribes who wrote down the Mythological Cycle, but the simple fact remains that, if it weren’t for them, we wouldn’t be studying these texts.) 

For me, the term “Celtic Mythology” kind of lumps all the individual Celtic materials into one massive soup bowl, regardless of time, context, culture, or any other distinguishing features, and, most of the time, would be just as easily done by saying “Irish Mythology” or “Welsh Mythology”. There are very few times, unless you’re talking about the ENTIRE POSTULATED HISTORY of a figure, that “Celtic” is really needed and it tends to assume that Irish = “Celtic” (most of the time, I see posts where Irish, in particular, is treated as being the same as “Celtic”, and my ire in this instance is directed towards them) instead of admitting the full variety of what that term actually means. Irish IS a Celtic language, yes, absolutely, but it is not the be-all, end-all, and the two terms are not synonymous. “Celtic” is a very broad term that can only really be useful in a few contexts, mainly linguistic, and is insanely controversial in the field as it is. 

On a religious perspective, since I know that this is inevitable in conversations like this, does this mean that I’m saying, going back to my original example, “No, you cannot worship Rhiannon, Bres, and Cernunnos at the same time?” No. I am VERY firm on my stance that I can only speak from the perspective of my knowledge of the field, NOT on other people’s belief systems. This is similar to if someone was to ask me about the function of a given postulated deity, where I can only say “The material as it was written down indicates x, y, or z, and most of us in the field are VERY hesitant to apply a solid function to these figures, but if you feel that this figure is guiding you to a given conclusion, that’s fine. It isn’t ‘inaccurate.’ I don’t believe that there’s any way for a religion to be ‘inaccurate' so long as it’s harming no one.” (Use Celtic Studies as a smokescreen for white supremacy and I WILL roll down your throat faster than a hot dog on the 4th of July, though.) If all three of them are calling you, that’s something that I have no call on. I personally think that it’s a HELL of a combination, and I’d wish you the best of luck, but....it would certainly be an interesting one. If you want to take the reconstructionist root and try to figure out how they would have been worshipped in the Proto-Celtic times, that’s fine (though I do strongly advise against human sacrifice.) You’d have a devil of a task, but it’s certainly a fine one, and in many ways, not too unlike what scholars like Mac Cana did. And, if you want to worship them as they appear in the texts or how they’re personally guiding you, that’s not something that I can make a call on one way or another. Again, this is about my own personal feelings, from inside the field, on the term and how it can be rather misleading.