#because their main focus is podcast creation

[orangedagger]

sword af season 2 being sound only is lowkey killing me because english isn't my first language and i rely a lot on watching people's mouth move to understand what they are saying....... i'm also very confused as to why they are not uploading it to their podcast channel even if it doesn't have a video? idk it feels kind of weird that it's kind of not attached to any smosh channel?? like i understand it's still smosh because they shared it in their community tab but it feels weird that i have to get out of youtube to listen to it?? idk i know they kind of gave up on it because it wasn't getting as many views and they made it a podcast to still make us happy but i cant help but be a little disappointed

[eluminium]

Lately I've been seeing a lot of people doing new hermit speculations dismissing Skizz as an option for HC10, pointing to his statements about just not having a lot of time lately on the Imp and Skizz podcast. AND TO THAT CLAIM I SAY

Because Skizz is TOTALLY still an option for one of the two new hermits for Hermitcraft season 10!

Now I don't expect everyone to be as normal (read: insane) about Skizzleman as I am, HOWEVER! There are two clear contradictions in known facts that disprove this claim and I have the obscure-ish knowledge to prove it!

Proof number 1!: The Imp and Skizz podcast is recorded in sessions, not individually. This is done for efficiency considering both Impulse and Skizz do not have the time to meet up and record individual singular podcasts anymore. Instead, they record 2-3 podcasts in a row so that they have the next weeks covered. BUT! This means that there is a good 2-3 weeks of delay between a podcasts recording and its posting at a minimum! Which in turn means that both men have ample time to change situations or opinions, and any opinion shared on the podcast is not 1-1 relevant to the here and now! This means that yes, while Skizz says he has no time, this is based on what could be outdated data! ...now this isn't my strongest argument, but really, it's just setdressing for my main argument. WHICH IS PROOF NUMBER 2!: Skizz is going on a sabbatical from his work in the super near future to focus on content creation. Yes, you read that right! In a recent phasmo stream, Skizz made this very important claim that by itself puts him back on the radar for potential new hermits. Now I don't know how long Skizz's sabbatical would be, but traditionally they can last from 3 months up to a year. Even on the low estimate, that's 3 entire months. 3 months focused on content creation without the distraction of his irl work. Time he could use to, oh I don't know, establish himself as a new hermit perhaps? SO IN CONCLUSION. SKIZZLEMAN FOR HERMITCRAFT SEASON 10 IS STILL REAL GUYS. AND GOD DAMN DO I PRAY THAT HIS MAGIFICANT ASS GETS ON THAT SERVER. GO LOVE BOY GO

[riveracheron]

hey guys have my wild magnus protocol theory that stemmed from me just overanalyzing the little bits of content we have

i think lena is a homunculus.

(spoilers for the pilot and jonny + alex’s post pilot discussion under the cut)

basically this stems from. a lot of places w small amounts of information so some of this might be stretches. But

1. a lot of marketing around protocol mentions the theme of “what does it mean to be a person?” which. leads me to believe there’s gonna be a plot around a protag being Not Human but has the heart or whatever the fuck. standard pinnochio or wizard of oz story. sure youre not human but ur a person bc of xyz free will or whatever

2. lena’s behavior in the pilot is So odd and almost inhuman in its extremely dull corporate jargon way. she literally uses things like “you can file a complaint” or “here at the oiar we….” (advertiser shit) , in genuine conversation. she doesn’t leave the building, either and has a Generic office party.

im genuinely thinking bureaucracy and the weird eldritch stuff of the oiar is Literally all she knows, not that shes being manipulative and evil in the trailer like elias; she doesn’t or maybe cannot question the whole. asking sam about the eldritch trauma thing, something something cant understand human emotions and why that might be troubling.

also “people like chocolate cake.” that sounds weird and something someone with only base knowledge of humanity would say.

she’s described as “an odd one” by jonny and that we will “get her soon”. im under the full belief that shes the non-human character of the bunch thatll yknow. have the Real Boy plot

3. homunculus specifically comes from all the alchemy shit around protocol, and homunculi are some of the most famous alchemical creations in popular culture, and i think she’s not. an entity creation. lenas too much of an important character to just be like. tied to An Entity, as a main character extremely tied to the OIAR, that entity would have to be the basis of like the entire plot of protocol; which i doubt theyd do.

the eye is so important to archives because the themes of archives was the consequences of knowledge- the entire plot was engineered around the Eye as the Main Character Entity and the Eye was written to be that in turn, sorta similarly to how Griffindor is the Main Character House (TM) of HP with its themes of bravery. i doooont think the oiar is tied to the stranger or flesh or any other simulacrum creating entities.

all that to say i think lena is a different kind of artificial human, one that’s manmade rather than entity made yknow?

we get glances of the people above her in status, theres mentions of an ephemeral “he” in the pilot, so. heres what i think

the He in question is an alchemist whose in charge of the OIAR (and maybe other branches but lets focus w the oiar). He created Lena the homunculus to be the middle manager of the branch in his stead; “programming” her to be as dull and corporate as possible to keep the employees in line or whatever. something something shes got a plot wrestling with that and her inherent lack of persondom

EDIT: totally forgot this part

adding that the first statement’s plot was about an abomination of corpses given a humanlike shape and coming back wrong which is. exactly what frankenstein’s monster is, and frankenstein’s monster is considered a homunculus.

with the anglerfish’s importance to season 3 of archives i definitely think the Arthur monster will come up again in some form, but maybe instead of Actually being In Podcast maybe its a parallel to the main characters’ story in the same way that many s4 statements were used to give us more information on how jon is working through it all. the zombie statement when he just wakes up comes to mind especially. maybe it’s a hint and echo of what a Character in podcast (lena) is

[je-dood]

Can machines be considered Lovecraftian monsters?

The short answer is yes.

However, the long answer has been a chain of thoughts that have bothered me for the past hour and a half, in which I've had to somehow stumble my way across debates about moral philosophy, questions of the unknown, and trying and quantify the limitation of human understanding.

This all started when I was listening to a recommended Lovecraftian Inspire podcast, Rolling with Rainbows, and a small, brief discussion was had about whether mortals like them could even begin to discuss the ongoing mind of the eldrich. This caused me to pause and question myself. If Lovecraftian beings were so alien to the human mind, how could we potentially even write from the perspective of one without it feeling diluted and disingenuous? I tried asking the philosophers of my own personal round table aka my friends; however, it was clear that today wasn't the day for intellectual discussion for Lovecraftian pursuit, so I was off to my own devices. During that time I had been recommended to potentially find others who may have been interested in such a subject, as discord severs around Lovecraftian discussion do exist. However,  after joining, I felt immediately intimidated to push any further, so as all great philosophers do, I casted myself out of society for 10 to 15 minutes to rant to myself.

Firstly, the reason why I chose the topic of a machine is because they are preexisting objects that, at the time of writing this, I could still empirically justify weren't figments of my own imagination. Secondly, machines within my mind fit the category of holding an alien form of "thinking," so I can use them as the same basis for my questioning of eldritch minds.

Now to tackle the main question at hand, I believe it is imperative to understand what we mean by Lovecraftian monsters, as some definitions already leave this question to become redundant at a first glance. Wikipedia states, "Lovecraftian horror, also called cosmic horror or eldritch horror, is a subgenre of horror fiction and weird fiction that emphasises the horror of the unknowable and incomprehensible more than gore or other elements of shock." This definition is quite tricky at first glance, as one may be able to focus on the aspect of cosmic horror, and one could state that due to machines being located and crafted on Earth, there is hardly anything cosmic or wholly other about that. However, this is where I would have to push an interjection and state that truly, in the grand scheme of things, everything that we have come to know at some point has in some way, shape or form, derived from some sort of cosmic interference or origins, whether it be the metal that forms from the bowels of celestial bodies or the eventual creation of the earth, which led to the existence of humanity. One could argue if they were to get really abstract with it, that all dimensions of machines hold some sort of cosmic nature about them, and they can pass this cosmic check in the definition.

Although one could pull things to a stop here and conclude that overall machines fit the definition of Lovecraftian horror and therefore could be considered Lovecraftian monsters, I believe this is not enough overall to come to a satisfactory conclusion as, in my mind, there is still potential for a banana berry situation. The idea is that although something technically fulfils the qualifications to be something, it just personally feels ontologically distinct, and in this identification, I wanted to figure out whether machines were to exhibit the same abilities or mannerisms as preexisting Lovecraftian monsters. This is named how I believe that although bananas may be berry, I just don't vibe with it.

Morality-wise Lovecraftian beings tend to lean themselves a little more on the hedonistic side of things, mostly. This can be mainly seen within their carefree attitude in slaughtering the masses and quite frankly doing whatever they want, and although one could argue this may present them as being evil, I would argue they are simply acting as any rational being would in such a situation, for if one were to be unborn as a creature so vast and great the scholars would fail to find conjures appropriate adjective to describe your presence, and you were to grow up in a world that lacks any guidance or social moral consequence, it would only make sense that one such as these beings would act out of an almost infantile alien hedonistic desire. However, this understanding of the mind of the unknown does bring problems about machines, as, as far as we can tell, machines lack any actual desire to want in the first place, as they are simply constructed to fulfil the task. However, I would like to bring this chain of ideas to less focus on the existence of desire and more on the idea of an alien existence. As beings of desire, we would like to believe other sentient beings would have the desire; however, in the face of a truly unknown existence, going forward with such presumptions is simply wishful thinking in an attempt to rationalise the unknown. So even if machines were to lack this core mechanic of holding desires like people, I argue that one could say this makes them MORE Lovecraftian in nature as it solidifies their alien nature in comparison to human life, therefore meaning both Lovecraftian beings and machines both share the property of holding an alien philosophical system in compression to human beings.

However, in retrospect to abilities, this is quite a finicky topic, as although there are some relational qualities about Lovecraftian when it comes to philosophical attitudes, most of this comes completely out of the window when it comes to scaling feats and traits. On the one hand, you could have reality-eating beings such as Azathoth, which need to be subdued to let existence keep doing its things; on the other hand, you can also have immortal beings such as the deep ones being outsmarted and outrun by seemingly ordinary guy at the time. Although most, if not all, Lovecraftian beings hold some impressive and additionally alien concepts to them, which overall separates them from your average person, as they might as well be as diverse as a microwave to a refrigerator…

under the guise of a poor attempt at comedy, in which reading over is making me regret attempting it in the first place. On my part, to make things seem as if I was about to end this while ranting on a low point, this is my final point. Like a microwave to a refrigerator, and Azathoth and the deep ones, [ a wild comparison now that I look at it] both Lovecraftian creatures and machinery share the property of holding a diverse powerset in which most, if not all, demonstrate feats that are simply too great for humans to replicate. This idea of being diverse yet unique and inhuman is what solidifies machines as being considered Lovecraftian creatures.

So the long answer to all of this is yes, machines are Lovecraftian monsters, and additionally, you should probably treat your Alexa with more care, as they are quite literally gods beyond your wildest comprehension.

[theuntitledblog]

Oppenheimer (2023) - REVIEW

SYNOPSIS

Theoretical physicist J Robert Oppenheimer is recruited by the US government to lead the Manhattan Project during World War II in the development of the worlds first atomic bomb.

During a recent interview for the Empire Podcast, Christopher Nolan questioned whether there was such a genre as a biopic. He suggested that when a film based on someone's life successfully tells their story, that they are not thought of as a biopic but rather an excellent drama or adventure story. The description of biopic is therefore used more as a "pejorative" (Nolan) when a film follows a formulaic pattern that can somehow leave you unsatisfied from a cinematic sense. It's an interesting point and one that I don't particularly disagree with because when it comes to Oppenheimer, biopic is not the description that best comes to mind when describing it. This is very much a Christopher Nolan film; it refuses to follow a predictable structure, has a visual quality and scale from Nolan's insistence in using practical effects all the while telling an uncompromisingly complex story to its audience. Oppenheimer is a character study that prefers to ask questions of its title character rather than answering them.

This is a lengthy, complex and very talky drama that makes no allowances for those who may not be familiar with the history of the period or the subject matter. There are no action set pieces, no World War II battles or events depicted to separate the narrative. But your understanding of history and/or theoretical physics is no barrier to enjoying the film. Much like Inception and Tenet before it, Nolan trusts his audience to be able follow what's going on despite being 3 hours long and having a unique non-linear structure split between the Oppenheimer focused 'Fission' narrative and the black and white 'Fusion' narrative told from the perspective of Robert Downey Jr's Lewis Strauss. As a result this is perhaps Nolan's most extraordinary work in creating such prolonged and tense sequences through his manipulation of the narrative structure and by shifting between different genres. Oppenheimer is at different points an origin story, a thriller and political courtroom drama while telling its story from multiple points in Oppenheimer's life but keeping the events linked together. So far so Christopher Nolan.

If you're hoping to come out of this with a greater understanding of the science that went into the creation of the atom bomb then you'll walk away disappointed. This is a strictly character focused affair and Murphy's J Robert Oppenheimer is very much the main focus of the film almost to a fault. There are so many characters introduced and re-introduced at different points that it does require the audience to follow closely what's going on. But let's make one thing clear, this is a triumph for Cillian Murphy who delivers an outstanding lead performance amongst a heavy weight cast not to mention how satisfying it is in seeing him elevated to lead star. What unfortunately doesn't work for me is the depiction of the relationship between Oppenheimer and the women in his life. Emily Blunt and Florence Pugh do their best with material that perhaps exposes Nolan's weaknesses as a writer. There is nothing romantic, sexy or compelling in their relationships, it feels as if Nolan's included it just to be faithful to history. But this is a relatively minor complaint for a film that is so ambitious and well executed and for me avoids the trap of overly glamourizing the central figure. With Oppenheimer, you get the sense that Christopher Nolan and co have made a genuine effort to understand the man himself and in this sense, ironically, is perhaps the truest biopic I've ever seen.

VERDICT

Oppenheimer is an unexpected thriller and absorbing political drama while being no less complex and ambitious than anything Christopher Nolan has delivered. A few flaws doesn't prevent this from being a must see while always asking questions of the title character.

5/5

[onlygirlasia]

Best Apps Every Content Creator Should Know In 2023

Content creation needs skills and creativity, but aside from that, using a content creator app can turn the tables in your favor. In addition, it will enhance the skills that you already possess. For example, you are a script writer and video editor but you have little to no experience in graphic design, in that scenario, you’re going to need a content app that will effortlessly create graphics.

Also, looking for the best content creation app for your business/content can sometimes be tricky. Following your social media marketing plan is your main focus and the list of such apps is usually lengthy. Choosing one that doesn’t suit your needs can lead you astray from your goal.

So if you ask me how you should pick the best apps to reach your marketing efforts, truth be told, there’s a handful of elements to consider. You should look for its features, the price, whether they have a mobile version or a desktop and what can it contribute to you as a content creator.

1. Grammarly

Grammarly can help you avoid typos when you create posts on social media, scripts for videos and podcasts, blogs, or other written content. It’s a content creator app that checks grammatical errors, incorrect punctuation, unnecessary words, and spelling.

Grammarly is free and you just have to log in to its website, paste your text and it will automatically show you the mistakes. Now if you want to get vocabulary and tone suggestions to better fit with various writing styles, then use the premium version. The current monthly plan is $30 but if you pay for a year, it’s only $144 (you can save up to 60%).

2. Canva

Canva is a famous app for graphic design and it gives you a ton of templates that are not limited to social media. You can generate content for Instagram and Facebook, or be sophisticated with posts on Twitter or even newsletters and email headers. Another good thing is that you can also create videos.

Furthermore, the best part about Canva is its user interface. The site is easy to navigate, even a beginner can smoothly access most of what Canva can offer. You can use Canva for free but if you want to access over 6 million pre-licensed 4K and HD video clips, and a 1TB storage limit, then subscribe to Canva Pro for only $14.99 per month.

3. AllHashtag

Hashtags started in 2007 and have become widely popular ever since because it’s being used on the web to help people find a particular topic. So basically it’s a phrase preceded by a hash symbol “#”. For instance, if you want to find the latest fashion trend on a particular platform, you just use the search bar and type #latestfashiontrend and it will show all results or if you see that hashtag somewhere, you can just click it and it will redirect you to a page with all related latest fashion trends.

Why am I explaining this, you might ask, it’s because hashtags can help the internet’s algorithm go to your profile whenever you use a specific hashtag. AllHashtag is a free website that suggests hashtags. It does not limit the number of hashtag searches and you need this as a content creator because the choice of hashtags can affect your content discoverability.

4. Snapseed

There are thousands of free mobile photo editing apps that do not have pro-level edits like tone curves, blemish removal, and selective editing. However, Snapseed has those features and it’s completely free. You don’t have to unlock anything and pay for a subscription, plus, it’s accessible for both Android and iOS users.

Furthermore, Snapseed supports RAW files, which means that content creators who use mirrorless cameras or DSLRs can transfer their pictures and edit them immediately.

5. InShot

If you need a content creator app that’s free, with beneficial features for trimming, splitting, and merging clips, and editing videos, InShot is the best option for you. It lets you adjust video brightness, saturation, and contrast. Also, you can be creative with the visuals using this app for it comes with a variety of unique filters and transition effects.

Equally important, InShot offers a huge selection of royalty-free music to go with your video. Use them as a background track or replace the sound from the original video, it’s up to you. You can also do voiceover and add narrations if you don’t like talking in front of the camera.

Start Your Content Creator Journey Now!

At OnlyGirlsAsia, you can get verified as a content creator in 15 minutes or less! Our platform is designed with every content creator in mind, so you can share your creativity freely and engage with your fans/subscribers in real-time with our mobile app. Earn up to 80% of your exclusive daily content if you sign up now!

[royalswille]

My Hyperfixations: A Helpful Step-By-Step Guide

Step 1: Watch the show / watch the movie / read the book. Repeat this up to 60 times depending on the intensity of the hyperfixation. This will allow you to allocate blorbo status to one or more of the characters, develop a strange attachment to one or more background characters who appear for one scene, and memorise enough lines and moments to annoy your friends and family with whenever they mention literally anything that reminds you of the hyperfixation (which will be everything since the hyperfixation should have taken up all the free space in your mind by the end of step 1).

Step 2: Consume all other media related to the hyperfixation. This may include watching a screen adaption, watching cast and crew interviews, looking at fan-created things such as art and fanfiction, or listening to podcasts focused on the hyperfixation. You can also start to create your own fanart or fanfiction based on the hyperfixation at this stage, but it will be difficult and out of character and later when you read it back you will hate yourself for it.

Step 3: Largely happens alongside step 2. Gravitate towards the fandom on various social medias. Absorb the most popular headcanons and theories until they have become so ingrained in your mind that you now struggle to separate them from canon. Find new friends who like the same hyperfixation and then bully your other friends into watching / reading it as well.

Step 4: If it is a show or movie, choose your favourite actor and watch everything else they have been in. Everything. Leave nothing unwatched. Watch until you cannot stand the sight of them anymore and then keep going anyway. Let them ruin your life. If it is a book, read everything else by that author even if their other writing makes you hate them because it’s a different style to the book you like. No matter what, you will always be dissatisfied with your further reading and watching because your mind is so taken up by the hyperfixation that you’ll spend the entire time wishing you were consuming media for that instead.

Step 5: Repeat step 1.

Step 6: Revisit creating for the fandom. You have now become heavily invested in three ships you didn’t know existed, are rooting for trauma-riddled storylines for happy characters and happy storylines for trauma-riddled characters, and you headcanon everyone as queer. Your creations are likely to be better because they are now peppered with genuinely awesome ideas you’ve picked up from other wonderful people in the fandom. This is now your main focus. If it is not, then reading better fanfictions and looking at better fanart is now your main priority. You have settled into your own place in the fandom.

Step 7: If the show or movie is on Netflix, cry because it didn’t get renewed.

Step 8: Over a period of between 4 weeks and several years, lose interest in the hyperfixation or find another one that immediately overtakes it. When someone asks you, “Didn’t you used to like that thing?” reply with, “What? Oh, yeah, that, I don’t really care about that anymore.”

Step 9: Repeat cycle for all of eternity.

[sweetk1lls]

       [   CONTENT   -   MAIN CHARACTERS LIST   -   PINBOARD   -   PLAYLIST   ]

*   WIP INTRO   :   GOD EXITS, THE 2ND INSTALLMENT OF THE GODLY TRILOGY 

“   And God exits leaving behind the lies in all gore galore. Yet god too exists in the dirty basements, every torn out eyes, the stars bound to die screaming and fall forgotten, these cracked reflections stained with blood, ashes, and memories that beg to be held despite, despite, despite—   ”

‹ GENRE // : ›   Metafiction while it is consisted of every genres there is, though the most highlighted ones are action, comedy, horror, sci-fi, and weird fiction across all mediums of God Exits   /   ‹ POV // : ›   Everything to embody the chaos within the narrative   /   ‹ THEMES // : ›   Believing into being, bending the possible and breaking the impossible, creations vs. creators, finding light in darkness, hands made to love and to kill, morality in creation, rebellion against fate, self searching in everything and everyone and everywhere, what makes art and storytelling, nothing matters therefore everything is beautiful, the narrative loves you enough that it will kill you.  /   ‹ WARNINGS // : ›   Cannibalism, death, experiments, existentialism, eye themes ( horror, gore, scopo ), general horror ( body, gore, psychological, etcetera ), religious themes, mental illnesses, nihilism, paranoia inducement, self-harm, sexual themes, suicide, suicidal ideations, surrealism, traumas, unreality, violence, world endings, mentions of abuse in general.   /   ‹ STATUS // : ›   Outlining only the novel version; will soon focus on other versions as the novel is the main priority of this installment

‹ SYNOPSIS // : ›   There are seven doors present before You that You can enter that its path embodies a form of medium: Novel, show, film, theatre, music, podcast, and video game. These paths will tell You a story that sets in the God Exits universe, where everything and everyone and everywhere dies because of The End phenomena except for You, the Consumer, part of the Audience. No matter which door You take, You will meet an all-encompassing glitch who may be either your friend or foe, even more or less than either, known as [ REDACTED ]. It seems to be the only character who knows about The End, and It wants to find a way to prevent this moment from happening, but warns You that there is no point of returning if You want to help It. So You can choose to help It and all of these universes or walk away. If You do intend to help, You should wonder if You truly can when You are then the cause of The End.

“   Oh, and how the universe always say God exists in myself as well. I do believe it: God exists in all and then me, killed before consumed raw. And I loathe how, even as all horror made in God’s name, the taste of divine makes me wish for the end when I just want to BE[LIE]VE—   ”

[sumadigital]

Content Written guide

The process of SEO-friendly writing content for the web involves planning, writing, and editing, usually for digital marketing purposes. This can include writing blog posts and articles, scripting videos and podcasts, content for the best platforms, tweetstorm on Twitter or texting on Reddit. However, content writing is more than just necessary for blog posts. Content writing is essential for all kinds of content formats, including: video script Email newsletter keynote speeches Social media posts podcast title with paper copy site a house YouTube video descriptions

Writing is the foundation of virtually all content you publish. Creating an outline is a GREAT first step in writing content. Outlines improve your content for two main reasons: First, shapes force you to write down all of your thoughts in an organized manner (instead of writing everything from memory). Which really speeds up the writing process. Second, outlines usually result in much better structuring of your content. That's because YOU can look "high level" with an overview of your content that isn't visible when you're typing. And because YOU have an overview, your final content WILL cover all the points you had in mind before you started writing. Sisters are three main strategies that work well. When we began work on a new guide, we took much of the structure of our existing guides as a basis. The majority of professional content writers work with tried and tested templates. There are 5 content templates that you can use to create the outlines you need. Viewing Content: Check out BuzzSumo to find popular content to use as a basis for your feed. You might want to type "keto diet" into BuzzSumo to see what's happening. BuzzSumo - "Keto Diet" Search Then read some top posts to see exactly who should be covered in your article. Delicious low-carb fruit post Make it easy to consume and share Content that is super easy to read and share is the key to great content. You can have a message written by the world's best copywriter. But if this message is star for people to consume, nobody zou moeten lezen. Here are a few tips to make your content easier to consume, view and share. They're spicy, rich, and fun Evenzo, whether you're writing about car content creation, your writing needs to grab (and keep) people's attention. Otherwise, they'll click through to something else. How YOU grab someone's attention depends on the format you are working with. When I make videos, I use "Family Guy moments" throughout the video. These little trivia add humor and spice to my video content. And when I write videos, I focus a lot on formatting and layout. In particular, I try to keep my paragraphs short: Backlinko video script I also throw in pictures and screenshots to shake things up. Map screenshots and videos And when you sit down and record some audio, you want your lines to be short and snappy. It would help if you also avoided bracketed statements. Stop-in brackets are easy to understand when reading. However, when you listen to your audio as a podcast, you might lose track of what you were saying. To be effective, your final content must be highly engaging. And no matter what format you work with, it starts with writing content. To quote on social media. According to a study we conducted, very few blog posts were involved or coupled. And to increase the chances that your content will rank in search engines and be shared on social media, add shareable quotes. With text-based content, that could be a statement that you're emphasizing in your message. Post with a clear statement And if you make a YouTube video, you can share a short clip of that video from LinkedIn. A LinkedIn message with video clip The most important thing here is to have the quotes ready before you publish the post.

[marwan-simposium]

Rules!

Welcome to the Simptember Event, hosted by Marwan Simposium! Your event mods are Sam, Kellin and Viola! We would like to challenge and inspire you to create fanworks for this wonderful actor.

What is the event? This event is basically a prompt month! We have made a prompt for each day of September, with the Sundays left open for free choice. The prompts are open for all kinds of fanworks - you can choose which ones you like best! CHECK IT OUT HERE. This event runs from Wednesday, September 1 until Thursday, September 30. Because the server which hosts this event is 18+, this event shall be so too.

Details on the rules are under the Read More.

Who is this event for? There are many amazing creators, whether they write fic, draw art, make moodboards or create other amazing fanarts - we love all of them, and therefore our event is open to all kinds of creations. Think of art, manips, fics, playlists, podcasts/podfics - if you can create it, we take it!

This is a Marwan Event. Does that include all his projects or one specific film? This event would like to cast a brighter light on Marwan and all that he’s done so far! So, if you feel inspired to create something for a specific movie he did, or even for something back in his theater days, we can only encourage you to create it! We are aware that Marwan has played some… dubious characters, but that does not mean they are off-limits! This is a discourse-free event and gives free reign to all creators.

What about pairings? Considering the hosts of this event are also here because of The Old Guard, and they’re familiar with the Crossoverelli multiverse (shipping any Marwan character with any Luca Marinelli character), they’d like to include it. However, it is not mandatory to choose out of the Crossoverelli! If you wish to pair a Marwan character with a different character or no pairing at all, that’s fine too! All we ask is that Marwan/Marwan's character is the main focus of this event!

There are multiple prompts per day - does my work have to involve all of them? No, you’re free to choose one of them! There are the ‘main’ prompts, with various options listed underneath them, given as examples. You are welcome to choose one (or more) of the sub-options, though you are not obligated to do so - as long as your work includes the main prompt, it counts!

What is the rating of this event? This event is open to all ratings! We therefore have both NSFW and SFW prompts. Please tag your works appropriately before submitting.

Speaking of submitting…? Considering this is a prompt month, we ask you to publish your works on the day of your prompt! There is an ao3 collection waiting for you! You can upload your work to ao3 and submit it to the collection - one of the mods will add your work as soon as they’re able. If you don’t wish to upload it to ao3, or if you want it uploaded on tumblr, too, tag @marwan-simptember-event and use the #marwansimposiumevent tag when you publish your work and we will reblog it! We’d love to feature your work!

Are there any goals to achieve when I participate? As a matter of fact, yes! We want to boost this event, and so we have a challenge for you! We’d like to challenge you to complete a prompt for every day of the week - it doesn’t have to be of the same week, but we’d like you to try to get at least one prompt-fill for each! For each day you complete a prompt, you can earn a gold medal! Let the mods know you completed a day, and fill your week template! The medals and template will be handed out in the discord server, or ask for them in a DM!

Does this mean I have to fill out every single prompt? No, don’t worry! We like low stakes and free choice! Out of the entire month, you only need one day of the week for each - so one Monday, one Tuesday etc! However, if you feel inspired enough to create for every day, we won’t tell you no!

I am a fic writer. Do the prompts have to have a minimum and maximum word count in order for them to count? No, not at all! Frankly, we’re happy with all that you’re willing to create!

Where can I go when I have any questions? This event is hosted by the Marwan Simposium discord. We’d like to invite you into the server - you can always @ us there or send us a DM

What if I don’t have discord? That’s okay! Our ask-box is open, and so is the DM of this tumblr page!

PROMPTS

The prompts are categorised by days! Each day has its own theme.

Mondays are love prompt days - every Monday consists of a prompt your work should revolve around! Tuesdays are trope days - focus your work on a trope! Wednesday is kink day - there are both SFW and NSFW options, but if you want to use a SFW prompt in a NSFW setting or the other way around, that’s allowed too! On Thursdays we’d like to hear about your favorite things! Fridays are Canon days - or rather, we’d like you to explore outside canon. Saturdays are reserved for AU’s! The Sundays we’ve kept open - feel free to create something outside of the prompts!

We sincerely hope you will have a lot of fun creating, and we look forward to all the wonderful fanworks we hope to receive!

[tma-mspec-week]

TMA Mspec Week FAQ

Q: What is TMA Mspec Week about?

A: This event is about celebrating canon mspec characters, as well as your mspec headcanons in the podcast The Magnus Archives

Q: Why make a TMA Mspec event?

A: This podcast has a rare instance of an mspec ace main character, as well as multiple unique mspec characters, which is something we all love deeply and want to celebrate. On top of that, we want to encourage creation of fanworks with mspec headcanons for other characters, because the more the merrier! The mods are also bi/mspec people themselves, or simply folks who enthusiastically support mspec identities, so this is a very exciting opportunity for us!

Q: When does the event take place? 

A:  From January 25th until February 1st, 2021

Q: What does "mspec" mean? 

A: Mspec means "multi spectrum" and is an umbrella term for all queer identities that include attraction to more than one gender, e.g bisexual/biromantic, pansexual/panromantic, polysexual/polyromantic, omnisexual/omniromantic, etc.

Q: What tags does the event use?

A: To get your work seen and reblogged/retweeted by us, tag it as "#tma mspec week" on Tumblr, and "#MspecWeekTMA" on Twitter.  

Q: Do we have to use all of the given prompts?

A: Nope. We give a selection of three types of prompts per day, generic / mspec-related / character list, and you can choose to use one, two, all three, or none of the suggested prompts. They're there purely for your inspiration

Q: Character prompts give you three characters per day. Do we have to use all three??

A: Nope! If you choose to use the character prompts at all, you can choose one, two or, if you want a little challenge, even all three. And, of course, your work absolutely doesn't have to be limited to the chosen characters. Meaning that if out of a list of Jon, Tim and Melanie you chose just Jon, your work can still be JonDaisy, JonMartinGeorgie, just Jon or something entirely else. We wanted to add the character prompts to hopefully inspire out of the box thinking about which characters could be mspec, and encourage a wide diversity of representation in the works that could be created!

Q: What do you mean by "the works have to touch on the topic of mspec identity"?

A: While there are no strict boundaries, the main goal of the event is the celebration of mspec identities and content featuring them. This can mean an explicit exploration of a character's identity and self-discovery, but it can also simply mean, for example, a MartinGeorgie artwork or a JonPeter fanfic. We leave it up to you to decide how you personally interpret this topic and how you personally want to celebrate it. We won't strictly police the content, but also ask people participating to only submit works they genuinely believe fit the event.

Q: Do the works have to be focused on romantic relationships?

A: Nope! The works can be romantic couples or romantic poly, but they can also focus on just one character, a friendship, QPP relationship, found family, or otherwise platonic relationships. The only important thing is touching in any way on exploration/celebration of a mspec identity, however you envision it.

Q: Can the focus in the work be on a different identity alongside the mspec one, or are only mspec identities allowed?

A: Yep, it absolutely can be! We more than encourage intersectionality, and if you want a character to be bi ace and trans, or maybe pan and nonbinary, or simply queer in their own unique identity, we completely support it.

Q: Can the work feature mspec/lgbtqa+-phobia or otherwise negative/upsetting/angsty content?

A: Yep! You can certainly explore or feature elements such as bi/pan/mspec-phobia, aphobia, transphobia, etc. within your work, as long as it doesn't promote such behavior as correct or justified. But please be sure to tag and warn for such themes accordingly.

Q: Do all characters in a work for this event have to be mspec?

A: Of course not! While the focus should be on mspec identities, it doesn't mean that it can't feature gay, lesbian, aroace, or straight characters. However, we will not allow erasure of canonically mspec characters, such as Jon (both as mspec and ace), Tim, and Georgie, in favor of different headcanons.

Q: Are only mspec fans allowed to participate?

A: Of course not, any fan of any identity is allowed to participate, of course as long as they act respectfully and in good faith. 

Q: How do I submit a work to the AO3 collection?

A: Please see the information here

Q: Is there a minimum or maximum word count for fanfic?

A: Nope

Q: Is any ship/headcanon/content/etc. not allowed in this event?

A: Nope, aside from works that promote any sort of x-phobia or bashing. Everything else is allowed, so long as you make sure to provide appropriate rating and content warnings

Q: Can I submit a work that was created and posted previously, but that I believe fits the event?

A: Yes! The 8th day, February 1st, is reserved specifically for previously posted works to be reposted/retagged/added to the AO3 collection.

Q: Who are the event mods and how can I get in contact with them?

A: You can send questions directly to this account through the ask box or DM us on Tumblr or Twitter. 

The mods for this event are:

Saj (@ sajwho, @ saj_who on Twitter)

Aza (@sazandorable, @sazandorable on Twitter)

Fly (@apatheticbutterflies)

If you have any more questions left, please feel free to send them to our ask box!

You can also see the event rules here

[mspaleoart]

Tiktaalik roseae

Late Devonian (375 Ma)

I'm back again, after a loooong time neglecting this blog. I've been planning to come back for a while, and I'm finally here! I thought I'd return with one of my favorite vertebrate fossils, Tiktaalik roseae! The common ancestor of all tetrapods was probably not Tiktaalik, but something very similar. Scientists use it as a model organism for that ancestor, though, and I'll be doing the same here.

The invasion of the land is a fascinating subject for paleontologists, because it’s one of the first major steps toward life as we know it today. Life evolved in the oceans, and for the majority of earth's history, stayed there. It's uncertain when exactly life first made landfall. Rocks from deep in the Precambrian show evidence of photosynthetic microbes who lived on land, and simple plants were sprouting along shorelines by 430 million years ago. Before this, water on earth was confined to oceans or isolated lakes, but the advent of those land plants meant the creation of the first soils and mud, in turn leading to the formation of the first river systems. Not long after the first terrestrial plants, arthropods and their relatives arrived and began carving niches for themselves.

By the middle Devonian (~385 Ma), terrestrial ecosystems proliferated. The first forests covered the landscape, and invertebrates ran rampant, including the earliest insects. Fish, though, had yet to leave the water. So, what took them so long? Simply put, they waited until they had a good enough reason to go poking around up there. Although the land is my main focus today, the Devonian is more famously known as the Age of Fishes. This was the first time jawed vertebrates rose to the top of their ecosystems, and the first time they got truly big. This was the height of the placoderms, armored fishes like the infamously gigantic Dunkelosteus, and Bothriolepis, which kind of looked like a shield with fins. On the cartilaginous side were the spiny 'sharks,' as well as true sharks like Cladoselache and Stethacanthus.

At this point I'm just naming prehistoric fish that I like, so let's get back to tetrapod evolution.

Most of the traits we associate with tetrapods evolved in fully aquatic fish. Specifically, in a branch of fish called Sarcopterygians, or lobe-finned fish. Today, lobefins are represented by a handful of lungfish and the coelacanth, but they were all over the place in the Devonian. Early ancestral cousins of tetrapods were animals like Eusthenopteron, which looked like ordinary fish on the surface, but had unique skeletal structures. Particularly, their pectoral fins are built similarly to tetrapod limbs. Later animals would develop larger, sturdier fins they used for walking along the bottom of rivers, rather than land.

This is where our star comes in. Tiktaalik was adapted to live in shallow rivers or streams. It had a wider, flatter body than most fish, and it had lost its dorsal and anal fins. The four fins on its underside were built very similarly to tetrapod limbs. Tiktaalik is also one of the first vertebrates with a proper neck, meaning, in the words of Will and David from The Common Descent Podcast, you could strangle it, if you ever wanted to do that sort of thing.

Tiktaalik was a predator of small-to-medium-sized invertebrates. Its big, triangular head housed pointy teeth, and had two eyes on top. It looked like a crocodile in many ways, and may be one of the earliest animals to adapt the crocodilian lifestyle, laying at the bottom of a body of water and waiting for prey to come by. The placement of Tiktaalik's eyes may have been useful for peering out from the water surface while staying mostly hidden.

Despite being known as the 'fish with feet,' Tiktaalik wasn't exactly graceful on land. Rather than walking primarily with limb muscles like most tetrapods do, Tiktaalik walked by heaving itself forward with its front limbs and powerful shoulder muscles. Basically, it walked by doing push-ups. As you can imagine, Tiktaalik probably didn't spend much time out of the water. But, this goofy style of terrestrial movement was a precursor to the more efficient methods seen in landlubbers today.

Tiktaalik is my favorite prehistoric fish, and definitely a contender for favorite vertebrate. It was one of the first animals to really grab my attention once I started seriously getting into paleontology. While I was still trying to understand evolution I read Your Inner Fish, a book written by Neil Shubin, who was a part of the expedition team who discovered Tiktaalik. It discusses the animal in so much more detail than I did here, and is pretty much required reading for anyone who's interested in paleontology. In fact, I'm gonna go ahead and say it is required reading. If you haven't already, get on it. I promise you’ll love it.

Oh, and another reason I like Tiktaalik is because it's so charming. I don't think we could have asked for a cuter, goofier-looking fishapod. The image of it flopping around on land is both hilarious and really, really interesting to me. One day I want to commission a beautiful oil painting portrait of Tiktaalik like rich people do with their dogs.

That’s about it for this post! I hope I’m not too rusty. I can’t promise a daily post anymore, but I want to post at least semi-regularly.

SOURCES (this is also something I want to start doing btw):

Battistuzzi, Feijao, and Hedges 2004 - A genomic timescale of prokaryote evolution

Shubin, Daeschler, and Jenkins Jr. 2014 - Pelvic girdle and fin of Tiktaalik

The origin of tetrapods - Understanding Evolution

The Common Descent Podcast Ep. 77 - Fins to Feet: The Fish-Tetrapod Transition

Your Inner Fish, Neil Shubin

******************************************************************************

Buy me a Ko-fi, if you’d like!

[alexazbofficial]

[INTERVIEW] AleXa interview: from sci-fi to global fans and cultural mix

K-Idol, podcaster, cosplayer, best new artist, according to Soribada… If we start to list all the things that AleXa is, we will certainly spend a long time here. Despite having debuted in 2019, not even a year ago, the idol already collects titles, appealing projects and fans all over the world.

After gaining the attention of many K-Pop fans during Produce 48, when she still went by the name Alex Christine, the A.I Trooper commander built, alongside the ZB Label, an interstellar career: worthy of all the futuristic concept that marks her job.

In an interview to K4US, AleXa went from sci-fi to her relationship with global fans and cultural mix, sharing a bit more of what structures her projects, her values ​​and her creations.

The idol also took the opportunity to tell us where she would like to record an MV in Brazil. Check it out and tell us what you think!

Firstly we would like to say that we are really happy to talk to you! We know that you already had contact with the Brazilian media but still, we want to know: are you still surprised to know that people so far away from you acknowledge your work and admire you?

Thank you so much!!!! It’s honestly a great honor, and a wee bit scary, that people so far away take interest in my work and are able to enjoy it~ I never dreamed of being able to reach people across the globe, so hearing things like this makes me beyond happy.

Based on your projects, we notice that all of them have really strong concepts, from their ideas to their visuals. As an example, we can talk about this sci-fi/technologic narrative that appears on your songs, music videos and performances — something done in a way never explored before on K-pop and that ended up attracting K-Pop fans. Do you usually take part in this type of development for your music releases? How these concepts are created and what they usually are inspired by?

Fortunately, our staff knows me so well, inside and out. They know my likes, dislikes, and my passions!! Since before debut, they were well aware of my love for all things sci-fi, dark, and innovative! So, during the creative process of creating the AleXa Universe and concept, my love for sci-fi was taken into account. We’ve been heavily inspired by things like Star Wars, Alien, Battle Angel Alita, etc.

K-Pop is an industry dominated by groups, which, for soloist, can be a cause for concern. Did you ever feel insecure or afraid to debut in a solo career? What do you think that it’s the advantage to work that way?

Well, to be honest, when I first came to Korea, I did not have the particular goal of group or solo. I was just driven to achieve my dream, and work hard. Being a soloist hasn’t quite given me any concerns, aside from the fact that it is hard to catch my breath when performing because there are no “parts”~ I would say it’s advantageous to be a soloist because our staff is able to focus on my concept and performance, alone.

Recently you had your work recognized by the Soribada Best K-Music Awards, right? Congratulations, Next Artist of 2020! At some point, from trainee days to career difficulties, did you ever imagine that you would receive such an award? What was the feeling when you knew you were the winner?

First off, thank you so much!! I never imagined that I would receive any kind of award before my year anniversary! It was a tremendous honor and surprise to have received The New Wave Next Artist Award. I was so happy to have won an award, it was such a memorable experience- I will never forget it.

There is a performance version of “Bomb” with Tina Mirae and we think it’s really cool that, through this collaboration, the world of K-Pop grows a little bit more in terms of visibility for the work of black women — who are inserted in a culture that strongly influences K-Pop itself. By the way, you have other projects with Tina, right? What kind of relationship do you both have and how did you meet? During your creative process, do you have in mind these issues regarding social minorities’ visibility or even concerns about cultural appropriation?

We at ZB think it’s very important to give credit where credit is due. So in the circumstance of revamping the “Bomb” choreography and throwing in Afro-beat and Dance Hall moves, we deemed it absolutely necessary to learn from a professional on the field and abide by her teaching.

Tina is one of the most talented souls I’ve ever met, with a heart of gold to match. She’s so incredibly hard working and deserves to be recognized for her abilities. I first met Tina the day I came back from my brief break in America, late 2018. We began training together immediately, that day, and the rest is history~

I, along with our staff at ZB, value the importance of being knowledgeable of other cultures. Therefore, when approaching different concepts, music styles, and choreography, we do our utmost to research all that we can, consult others if we must, and to stay true to our core values as a company.

You’re a very expressive artist, especially when it comes to choreography moves. Aside from hip hop, is there any dance style that gives you the feeling of greater creative freedom or a dance style that allows you to express your feelings more easily?

Having grown up doing ballet, it was a great outlet for me as a kid. I’d really like to attempt ballet again later in the future.

Considering your recent posts on social media, the fans are speculating that a comeback is nearby. Could we have some spoilers about what to expect for your next release?

This comeback will be the third and final chapter to our trilogy. It will be quite a cinematic finish~ The song and dance are both super cool, and I cannot wait for everyone to see it!!

We know that before you became an idol, you already had been a K-Pop fan since 2008. How is it for you to go through this process from being a fan to now being the Idol in this industry?

I can only describe my experience as a dream come true!! It has been a wild ride since the beginning, but I’m so grateful to be where I’m at and I wouldn’t trade it for the world~

You already expressed your desire to visit Brazil, as well as being a great fan of Anitta and our funk music. So we would like to know… If you could shoot a music video in Brazil, which one of these locations would you pick and why?

The Ruínas de São Miguel das Missões would be a DREAM to film in!! It looks absolutely stunning!! I looked up the location to see more pictures- all I can say is WOW!!!

Lastly we have a quick game so the fans can get to know your personal preferences better. So we ask you to kindly answer the following with the FIRST thing that comes to your mind!

A song that I can’t stop listening to: WAP BY CARDI B AND MEGAN THEE STALLION LOL

My favorite movie: Jim Henson’s “The Labyrinth”

A cosplay that I still would like to do: Mei Misaki from “Another”

The best part of doing a podcast: Being able to speak freely about interesting subjects!

My main feeling while performing: Happiness! Pure joy!

Obrigada Brazil!! Thank you so much for the constant love and support that you have shown!! I am so grateful for the positivity you fill my life with~ I hope that once the world allows it, I can go to Brazil as fast as I can to meet you all in person!!! Much love to everyone in Brazil!! Stay safe and happy - AleXa

© K4US

[blooddrop-palace]

Project Updates - What to Look Forward To

<3 Hello all! I've realized (humbly) that I have a small following of very nice people that seem quite interested in what I've written so far, and after seeing some mutuals post update-status posts, I thought I should share what's going on with my projects, also. (Thanks for the encouragement, @queenmuzz!)

Updated Dec-10-20

Sons of Fortune

Probably somehow my main focus now, though I am steadily working on other works. Currently working on the “In Between” special short before I start on Chapter 12.

I would also like to talk a little bit about my plans for this story: if anyone has paid attention to this story's tags, yes, I am touching up on the plots of most of the games. In fact, all of them, and the anime. (I already dealt with DMC4. No, I will not tear apart Fortuna lol.) Not all relevant tags are in, yet, because small spoilers. It looks like it's going to be a long while before I even get to the Temen-ni-gru, though. (There is a reason why that event is getting pushed back.) I want to have fun with the family fluff that is the twins each learning how to parent, first. 

Hell Froze Over, and We Shall Reignite It

The drama of it all! Dante and Vergil are finally back from Hell, and Nero doesn’t even know his mother is now standing right in front of him. Meanwhile, even I’m anticipating seen how Snow and Dante is going to handle the obvious things currently unsaid... and I have a feeling a small measure of stupidity is still going to be involved.

Current chapter progress: Outline complete.

It's going to feel so interesting, shifting from "Fortune" back to Reignite. I get to write Sera and Vergil falling in love all over again, with a different set of circumstances. Whoa.

And, and... Nero meeting Sera... odd that I'm saying this as the writer, but I have a "I hope he likes his mom" feeling going on. 

Also, no doubt Dante's brain is going to 404 when he sees Snow. 

Nico prepares popcorn.

This is Not an Office Rom-Com

I have... about 8 new skits planned out. Nothing more written just yet.

That’s all I’m saying about this for now. =P

Hierarchy of Kings

Purely indulgent M/M romance of Vergil and an OC, existing all thanks to

@wordborne

Working on chapter 2. 

I know I said 3 chapters only. I might have lied depending on how much I want to write. It's supposed to be just... awkward fluff of a listless part-devil who somewhat-recently lost his mate, got in a bit of a tiff with his brother, and now his children are trying to set him up with the prospective-king-of-hell, Vergil. 

I think about this one a lot but I haven't written anything new for it yet, only because "Fortune" is taking over my life right now, haha.

Through the Lens of the Beholder

Okay, so...This story has no real plot. As a result, my drive for it is purely down to "if I think of a badass or cool photograph to describe." There is a TINY bit of plot. Only a little. And I don't know when I'll update. But this is why I'm trying not to START new projects. Four  is a lot already! But because this one is supposed to be simpler than the other two, I will most likely finish this one before the others, so I can open a new project. 

---------------

Speaking of new projects... Here are things ideas bouncing through my head:

- I still have a prompt from @maybeishouldwait sitting in my inbox. I WILL have it done one day, when I find the perfect way to write it. 

A whole, entirely royally late set of Dadgil week fics.  Yep. I want to write them. They just won’t be on time. 

Written in Ink

A plot-less post-DMC5 story. 

I say plot-less. There is a plot. The plot is:

Dante: Damn it, Verge, are you trying to turn my office into a zoo??

In which Vergil compulsively starts contracting strong demons he's defeated, left and right, because he's discovered "the joy of pets." The demons all take on a dark animistic form and things get wild. 

A Persona and DMC fusion/AU

I have no title for this yet, and I absolutely cannot start this one until I have finished one of my other big projects. This one will take a lot of big planning, because I am making a new plot, using the mechanics of Persona, with DMC characters and setup.

What I want to write, is a teenage Nero as the protagonist, trying to solve a mystery... probably starting with the sudden disappearance of his mother. (Most likely Sera.) And he meets a lot of "new" people, and even finds new family... and yes, he will find his dad. (I'm thinking he'll know about Vergil, though. At least in name and a photo? Isn't that an interesting difference?)

For those of you not familiar with Persona, the major theme I really want to play with is that of the protagonist growing as a person (and in power) by befriending different people that helps them grow as a person. Each party member and important NPC is represented by a Tarot Card, signifying the type of journey the protagonist (The Fool) "embarks" with that character. There is growth in both the protagonist and that characters. 

Again, this is ambitious to try and pull off... but it's in the back of my head. I'll focus on it once I've cleared some other stuff. 

Sugar Sweet

A somewhat short-chapter series reader fic... of a surgeon/doctor!reader (barely 30 and good at what you do) who often saves the lives of shady people (e.g. mafia) because you care about saving lives, not the politics. But you do make good money out of it. (Hey, you gotta be at least a bit morally ambiguous if you're going to deal with devils.)

You meet one mess of a young mercenary named Dante, who is totally not human and deals with things like having bullets healed into his back, and he can't reach them to cut them out. 

Dante doesn't care about bills for his office, or a lot of the debts in his life. You don't know where his money is going, or if he even makes much money at all (for the kind of specialty work he does? Money's going somewhere, but that's none of your business.)

You won't pay Dante's bills, or his debts, but he will accept pizza and ice cream. And new parts for his jukebox. And maybe a motorcycle. Or a new coat. Or a new car...

And you might complain to him about your dumb patients. Or just listen to him talk about his job. Or you two watch a movie together.

And this just continues. For years. 

Tokusatsu DMC fusion/AU

So. First thing's first: I'm a big fan of Sentai/Tokusatsu. What is that, you might ask? It's a Japanese genre, and if you're familiar with Power Rangers, that's derived from Sentai. 

Basically: Masked heroes with transformation gadgets, sometimes with motorcycles, fighting against evil. ("Magical girls" but strictly the opposite, a lot more physical combat involved, may involve upgrade gadgets, and not strictly limited to male heroes though mostly a male cast. Also not strictly for male-only audience. Girls like the eye-candy, too. :eyes-emoji:)

Why am I thinking about this?

Because I have found out that: Vergil's VA, Dan Southworth, was the Quantum Ranger (WHICH WAS RED). Nero's VA, Johnny Yong Bosch, was a Black Ranger and a Green Ranger. 

...And Dante's VA, Reuben Langdon, had a role in a Japanese Toku show as "B-Fighter Yanma" forever ago???? (HE WAS BLUE!!)

What am I going to do with this info? I'll let you know later. But my Sentai/Toku-loving little heart is about to burst with hyperfixation overlap. 

If I ever write this out, expect it to be just as cheesy as an actual Kamen Rider show. Or, at the very least, expect some art. I love Kamen Rider stuff!

Family Fantasy MMO

Snow introduces Dante, Vergil, Nero, and Kyrie to Final Fantasy 14 (because that’s the MMO I play) for family bonding. Yep. Mainly for silly indulgence.

Stardew Valley Visit

Post DMC5, Vergil and Dante accidentally end up going on a vacation when they try to leave Hell. No pairing with the farmer, but instead just a relaxing and somewhat introspective moment of the boys being stuck with most of their power temporarily sealed, learning how to take care of a farm, and maybe do a bit of healing by interacting with the townsfolk while they try to find out where their swords went and how to get home. 

Re-Colourize

Otherwise what I would call the “re-colour of Nero and Snow” AU. 

What if Vergil was found by Kassy’s family and raised among them? What if Dante ended up briefly in Fortuna and then convinced Sera to run away from the island?

What if we have a Nero who, though brash, is outwardly more soft and open-hearted, and has red-orange and gold colours instead? What if we have a Snow who is named Chiyuki, who wields her katana more like Vergil does, and has a more ice-queen aura about her, and has a teal and blue colouring about her?

This is my excuse to switch up the pairings, but also write Vergil being taught to fight more like an assassin. 

Raised by the Blade

Imagine: Yamato, cracked, broken, and separated from her Master... desperately searching for a way to get back to him, and ended up washed up on the shores of Fortuna. Humanoid, but clearly not if anyone saw the cracked, broken, and no-normal look of “shattered” in her torso, that she would have to keep covered. 

Made from the power of Sparda, she is pale with white hair... and she finds herself drawn to the orphanage...

Where she finds the toddler that is Nero.

Devil Hunters’ Podcast

Nico “accidentally” finds entertainment in recording the Sparda Family arguments as they talk about hunting; after all, they all share one braincell. 

Ascended Monochrome

A white angel remains by the side of Nelo Angelo. Mundus was not pleased by the behavior of his second creation, from the human woman that he had picked up with the treacherous Son of Sparda. But he later discovered that by using her, he could keep Nelo Angelo complacent. Eventually, underestimating love will be his downfall.

Fall to Royalty

A story of where Vergil wins against Mundus the first time, and takes the throne of Hell. But what is he to do next? Eventually, ruling Hell seemed meaningless when there was no one by his side, so he goes to seek out the Lady Knight that he had vowed to never think of or go back to unless he had obtained the power he sought.

Doppelganger Woes

So, I heard Capcom retconned Gilver to be some sort of imitation created by Mundus. I’m all for this! And I’m going to DO something with this.

Side-Project: DMC Tarot List

I started on this maybe months ago; and I have a tentative list oh what characters go with what card and a few detailed descriptions. I think I should confer with

@harlot-of-oblivion

at some point about this, and anyone else interested in, well, Tarot stuff. 

[ladyhistorypod]

Episode 18: Three’s Company, Four’s Divine

Sources

Ishtar

Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus: Mesopotamia Timeline

Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus: Inanna/Ishtar

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Inanna and Enki

Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Inana's Descent to the Netherworld

Cuneiform Digital Library Initiative: Composite Text of Akkadian Descent of Ištar

Journal of Near Eastern Studies

CON­STRUCT­ING THE IM­AGE OF ASSINNU BY MARTTI NISSINEN SAANA SVÄRD

Further Learning: Electronic Text Corpus of Sumerian Literature: Epic of Gilgamesh, Epic of Gilgamesh: Standard Babylonian Version

Nüwa

Oxford Reference

Mythopedia

Google Arts & Culture

Further Learning: Remarks by Ambassador Cheng Jingye

Danu & Tuatha Dé Danann

The Goddess Danu (YouTube)

Danu - Irish Goddess (YouTube)

Ancient History of Ireland, Tuatha De Danaan, Scythians, and Phoenicians (YouTube)

Celtic Mythology - An Introduction to the Tuatha De Danann (YouTube)

Further learning: House Shadow Drake - Don and Dana, Celtic Myth and Legend, Poetry and Romance, The Sacred Isle: Belief and Religion in Pre-Christian Ireland, Life Understood from a Scientific and Religious Point of View, The History of Ireland

Persephone

Hesiod’s Theogony

Homer’s Hymn to Demeter

Madeline Miller

Further Learning: Lore Olympus (webcomic), Punderworld (webcomic)

Attributions: A Ghrà by Damiano Baldon

Click below for a transcript of this episode!

Haley: Which goddess is three point three seven feet tall? Kelsie: Three point three seven? Haley: Yes. Alana: Do– do you want us to say? Do you want to say? Lexi: These jokes are just a quiz for Kelsie. Haley: I have to have multiple jokes? I'm not ready. Alana: I have one it’s fine. Haley: Okay well it's Demeter. Alana: And you know you should also you know in in in COVID times, in COVID times you should be standing Demeters apart. Lexi: Oh. My. Lord Jesus. Oh my god. I should say oh my lord Ashera [Ash-er-a]. Kelsie: There you go. Alana: Oh, that's very funny. Haley: I love when Alana’s– Alana: Ashera [Ash-ay-ra], actually please. Lexi: Yeah, right. I knew as soon as I said it I said it wrong. Haley: Every couple of episodes Alana will… like Lexi and I will say something, and Alana will be like “oh that's like really funny” in this tone and like… I’m always funny. Don’t be surprised. I don't need this from you. Kelsie: Actually Haley, you're quite hilarious. Haley: Thank you. Lexi: Wait, but how does that tie into social media? Haley: I didn't get to the question yet. The question is because for… well my dad doesn't listen to my podcast, but for my dad is the worst person to get Christmas or birthday presents and his birthday is January 2, so like hop skip and a jump right after Christmas. But he loves board games, and his favorite board game is Codenames, so I have printed out over two hundred photos�� like family photos– of the like stupidest photos in the world. And I'm laminating everything so it could be his own Codenames pictures, replacing all of it. Kelsie: That’s good. Haley: And my question is, is there a photo from your childhood where you're like what am I doing but you have that second jolt of like no this actually makes complete sense when you're realizing like what you're doing in the photo? For me it was crouching down in like the seventh grade next to a kangaroo, waking up a kangaroo, and then immediately after getting punched. I also had bangs but it was Australia and humidity or whatever climate that just didn't work with my curly hair. Lexi: So that was a set up so I could say that the picture of me digging up a dinosaur… Which, famously on this podcast I get mad when people think archaeologists dig up dinosaurs. Kelsie: As you should. Lexi: But yes, there is a picture of me, five years old, digging up a dinosaur. Not a real one. I don't think they’d let four year olds do that. Haley: But the best part is the goggles! Lexi: I have goggles on to protect me from the dirt. Kelsie: That’s important. You don’t want to get schmutz in your eyes. Lexi: But I’ve never been on a dig where I wore goggles. Kelsie: Maybe you should. Maybe you should wear goggles next season. Lexi: You know how much acne I’d get around my face if I wore goggles in the heat of Israel? Alana: Yeah, right? Kelsie: Who cares? Alana: No, go to Ireland! [INTRO MUSIC] Alana: Hello and welcome to Lady History; the good, the bad, and the ugly lady you missed in history class. We're back recording new episodes, so here is Lexi. Lexi, what would you be the goddess of? Lexi: Cross stitching and tricycles. Alana: Do you want to elaborate or just leave it at that? Lexi: Well right now I am cross stitching and it's what I do with my hands when I'm talking because I have mental problems and the only way I can focus on something is to do something else mindless. And the tricycle is because I have an adult tricycle and an anecdote my dad took that tries to go into the bike repair shop to get the brake fixed and he was too embarrassed to say it was his daughter’s so he said his wife bought it for his mother in law. Alana: And I really like that question so I'm also gonna ask Haley. Haley, what would you be the goddess of? Haley: I think I would be the goddess of eggs, just because I would control them and like not take it in because like I don't wanna be the goddess of something like I destroy, so like… Alana: For the irony. Haley: The irony. Eggs. Alana: And it's our third ever guest, Kelsie! Kelsie, tell the listeners a skosh about yourself. Kelsie: Hi everybody I'm Kelsie Ehalt. I am a Master’s student at Brandeis right now and I'm going to go and list the department I'm in. It's just a lot of words, so get ready. But I'm in the joint program in Near Eastern and Judaic Studies and Women, Gender, and Sexuality Studies, those are two different departments, but they both have ‘ands’ which makes things confusing. But basically I study ancient history via texts right now. I do archaeology as well but right now since digging’s not really a thing because we shouldn’t travel because of the pandemic, I'm really focusing on languages for my Masters. And then I also incorporate the gender studies side of things into the equation, so I'm just looking at how gender functions in the ancient world and thinking about it from a not straight white man perspective, basically, because that's basically all that’s been published. And there’s some better scholarship coming out now, but there's still some work to be done so I'm doing what I can there. Alana: We do love all of that. And I'm Alana and I tried to start an all goddess religion when I was like eight. (Haley laughing) Alana: Me and my friend Kay who is one of my like oldest friends in the whole world, they're gonna get a shout out a little bit later as well because they sort of helped me in my research. We like tried to start up polytheistic all goddess religion when we were like eight. We like had a list of goddesses that we wanted to name and we like created little rituals. A great time to be had. Kelsie: Everyone should have just a religion creation phase I think. Alana: Absolutely. We called it Selenism because the main goddess was Selene. Haley is shaking her head at me and it's making me feel… ways. Haley: I love it but also like… Lexi: I feel like I was like writing fan fiction before I knew it was fan fiction, while you simultaneously were making a religion. Haley: Like I'm not surprised that either of this happened. Not surprised at all. Alana: It's a true story, it's a fun story. We kept a lot of ash in bottles… related to this religion that we were making up. Kelsie: Where did you get ash from when you were like… Haley: Yeah, that’s the… Alana: I don't think we still have it, but like we had it for a while. Lexi: No no no, where did you acquire it? Kelsie: What were you burning? Alana: Oh. From like. I don't remember. Haley: No that's a body. Alana: I think we just like burned paper or something and collected the ash. Kelsie: Oh, that’s not exciting. Alana: We played with a lot of fire when I was… Kay and I… we played with a lot of fire. Haley: Yeah! Yes! Yes. Lexi: I don’t know what to say. Haley: No, playing with fire… Wait, were you a Girl Scout too? Alana: No, I was a Daisy for half an hour and then they wanted me to do all this like stupid weird shit like say my own name in a group of people so that was a no no for baby Alana. Alana said no no to being a Daisy. Kelsie: Alright so I'm going to talk about my girl Ishtar today. So Ishtar is the Akkadian name for the goddess of love and war but the Sumerian version of her name is Inanna so I might switch back and forth between Ishtar and Inanna but know that by the later period they're the same person. There's some debate about whether Ishtar was a separate goddess who became then sort of like coagulated in with this earlier Inanna, or if Ishtar is just like a direct connection to Inanna, there's a debate about this, it’s not quite clear. So I’ll probably refer to her as Ishtar. If I mess up and instead of Inanna it’s because I work with the later period stuff so I don't really see Inanna too much. But anyway so Ishtar, Inanna is the Mesopotamian goddess of love and war. And she's depicted in all kinds of different texts, but obviously we have the most interesting sort of goddess information about her from the mythological texts, but she also shows up in legal texts because they're just invoking her to you know validate decisions, things like that. And people in this period, well in Mesopotamia across all periods of history, have personal gods so she’s invoked in sort of just letters too if they're just like “hey bud I'm sending you this thing, you know, good luck, thanks Ishtar or Inanna.” like whatever, she's brought up a lot. But for today I'm gonna focus on a few of the mythological texts because I think that's where we get the most interesting information about who she is as a character in the Mesopotamian religion. So the biggest story, or the story where she has the biggest role, is– the title’s translated, there's not really a title, they don't always title these tablets. But it's translated as the Descent of Inanna or Ishtar into the Netherworld. So I'm gonna give you a little summary of what goes on in that story which is… it's a fun one. I actually– this is one of the first things I– the actual– first actual texts I worked on translating in Akkadian, not just working out of the exercise the book but actually working with text. So I'm gonna tell you the Sumerian version a slightly longer, and there are more details, so I'm gonna tell you that version, and then I can tell you how the later Akkadian versions differ later. So here, Inanna–because this is Sumerian– she's deciding to go down to the netherworld. It's kind of conceived as like a cavern type thing underground so I guess I should go over Mesopotamian cosmogony first so we have Earth here which is where you know humans and mortals lived, and above that is the heavens, which is pretty standard for what modern Abrahamic traditions follow as well. But then beneath the Earth, we have the netherworld or underworld. In Sumerian it’s kur, in Akkadian it's kurnigi… I'll just call it the netherworld. And then between the netherworld and the Earth we have the Apsu, which is sort of this underground water where things happened too, and that's where Enki lives. And that's also– that plays a role in the creation story of Enuma Elish where Tiamat, one of the primordial goddesses who's the goddess of fresh water...? Either freshwater or saltwater I’m forgetting. She mixes with Apsu which is either freshwater or saltwater, whichever one she's not, and they create the other gods from there. So the Apsu is really important because it's sort of the origin point of all of the gods within Mesopotamian… the Mesopotamian pantheon. It's also where Enki lives, and he's one of the head gods too and we'll talk about him some more in the story because he plays a role. Okay so in the Descent of Inanna… so she's going down to the underworld to visit her sister Ereshkigal, who is the goddess of the underworld. I'm forgetting what her name is in Sumerian, it might be still Ereshkigal. But she’s going down to visit Ereshkigal because her husband– Ereshkigal’s husband has died, so Inanna wants to go to his funeral. And before she goes down, she tells her assistant– it's translated as minister in the versions that I looked at– her minister whose name is Ninshubur– I'm not sure about the length of the vowels there, but Ninshubur is Inanna’s like assistant, I'm imagining like a PA. And so Inanna is like “okay Ninshubur, like I'm going down, it's kind of dangerous to go, people don't really go down to the netherworld, so if I'm not back in three days go ask these gods for help.” and she gives a list of gods. First is Enlil, and then Urim, Nanna, and Enki. That's important later because she gives a list of four and it's important that she gives a list of four because the first three don't help her, but we'll get to that in a minute. So Ninshubur is like “okay, great, have a good visit to the netherworld,” and off Inanna goes. So Inanna goes down, she’s stopped by the gatekeeper… and the gatekeeper says “hold up, what are you doing here and why are you here?” And so Inanna says “I'm visiting my sister because her husband died and I want to go to the funeral” and he's like “okay let me go ask her.” So he goes and asks Ereshkigal if it’s okay and Ereshkigal is concerned because before Inanna went down, she got these powers. And the powers are manifest in physical objects. So she gets a ring that has some sort of special power, and this lapis lazuli necklace that has a power, and there are seven other– seven total things, so five other things that have powers. And so Ereshkigal knows that Inanna brought these and she's concerned about them because there's a sort of not trusting dynamic between them even though they are sisters. So Inanna’s like okay you can let her in but close all seven gates and only open one at a time to let her in, and each gate take one of her things. So she goes through it's the same sort of structure throughout, in the Sumerian. And she goes to one gate, they take her ring. She goes to the second gate, they take her hat or whatever. And it goes on for seven gates. And then she gets to the last gate, they let her in, and basically it was a trap. Speaker 0: They… it's kind of confusing. The Sumerian is not really clear on what exactly happens. But I've sent Alana the link to the translation that I looked at, and so you can read it too if you want to see– Alana: That will be in our show notes at ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. Kelsie: Yeah. So I used the version that the… the Electronic Corpus of Sumerian Literature version which is trans– it's sort of a… It's a compilation of some different translations but it's a pretty standard not too fluffy interpretive translation, so I thought it was pretty good. But basically… so she gets the last gate and then they start yelling at Inanna and then she turns into a corpse and they put her on a hook. I'm not exactly sure what the process of these things are, but I’m imagining they're yelling at her and she just sort of like desicates and like dries up and they like put her on a hook. The motivation isn't super clear, I think, and some of the tablet is broken, so there… we might be missing some of the context, of course. And you know, of course, something important happens in a break, that's always the case, it’s never something boring. So maybe there’s some sort of other story, and maybe it's orally transmitted, detailing the drama between Ereshkigal and Inanna. Maybe there's a more specific reason why Ereshkigal does not trust Inanna and therefore wants to take her powers and then trick her to stay in the netherworld. Anyway, so Inanna's dried up, on a hook, and then three days passed and so Ninshubur, you know, being the loyal personal assistant, realizes three days have passed and Inanna’s not back, so she's like “oh shit, I better go get help.” So she goes to the first person that Inanna told her to ask for help from, Enlil. Enlil says “no, I’m not helping.” And then Ninshubur goes to Urim, Urim says “no I'm not helping.” And then Ninshubur goes to Nanna, and Nanna says “no, I’m not helping.” And finally she goes to Enki, who in some versions of myths is Inanna’s father. And in this version he… the wording is that he is her father, but we have to be careful with the wording about like familial relations in Near Eastern text because sometimes they’re just using them to describe power dynamics, not actual biological relations. So even though Enki here is you know referring to Inanna as his daughter, it might just be a power dynamic thing rather than a biological relation. That's not super clear, but in other versions of the story he’s also depicted as her father so I think that's fair enough to go for the narrative. But anyway, he’s like “okay fine I'll help, what is Inanna doing?” And so Ninshubur explains that she went down to the netherworld and is stuck. So Enki's like “okay I have a plan.” So he makes these two figures and these are gonna come up later because these figures are what I'm doing my thesis on. He takes dirt from his fingernail and he makes a kurgarru and in the Sumerian it’s galutera. In later Akkadian is just galu. But these two figures– and I’ll explain a little bit more later when I talk about what I'm doing for my thesis– there are some interesting gender performance things going on with these figures. But right now I’ll just leave them as helpers that Enki makes from dirt from under his fingernail. And he gives one of them a plant and he gives one of them water, and he’s like “okay, go down to the netherworld, and give… you're gonna see a corpse, and it's gonna be confusing, but that corpse is your queen.” So I love that saying, because he's like “you’re gonna see this dead body” so he knows what happened already, which I don't understand how that happened. But he's like “you're gonna see this corpse, give her the water, give her the food, and you'll be okay.” They go down, they give Inanna the water and the plant, and she– I assume like somehow revives. And I’m imagining like a sponge, like they put the water on her and like I said before, like I’m imagining like the yelling like desiccated her, so there was sort of like… like soaking up the water. And so okay… she's like “okay I'm fine now.” So they start to leave, and these two demons stop them, the group of three who are leaving, so there’s five of them now. And they say “well, no one ever leaves the netherworld, so you need to send someone to replace you.” And she's like “okay, who do you want” and they're like “we want your assistant” and she's like “no she's too loyal” and then they're like “we want your manicurist” and she's like “no she's too good” and then they're like “what about your husband” and Inanna’s like “okay sure, I guess.” There's some other stories about her husband Demuzi, that it was an arranged marriage too so Inanna is like not too keen on her husband. But so anyway, so the demons go to take Demuzi, and he's like “oh no, I don't want to go to the netherworld.” So he talks to his brother Utu, who lives in the heavens, and he's like “Utu, turn my limbs into snakes so I can escape the demons” and Utu is like “okay, that sounds like a good idea.” And so he turns his limbs into snakes, and he escapes the demons. And then the last part of the story is really fragmented, so I have no idea what's going on, but apparently Demuzi escapes, and then some other things happen, and then Inanna talks to a fly…  like a bug, a fly, who says “I know where your husband is, we can go find him.” And then apparently the fly helps her– it's broken so it's hard to know and then the story ends somewhere there. But that's the short, sort of humorous version of the Sumerian version of the descent of Ishtar, or Inanna, rather. And then the Akkadian version is a lot shorter, it leaves out a lot of the details of… it doesn't have the story afterward, after they leave the netherworld and the demons are trying to take someone back to replace Inanna, the Akkadian version doesn't have that. One of the notable things but the Akkadian version, I think, and this sort of links into my master's thesis, which I’ll get to in a second, is that when Ishtar, in this case since we're talking about the Akkadian, is stuck in the netherworld, there's a whole series of lines repeated twice or three times where it's like all of the animals and humans aren't having sex anymore. And things are bad. And so that's how they know that something's wrong with Ishtar, instead of the assistant sending people down to help, other people realize that something's wrong, which I think is interesting. And then, you know, then she gets back and it's okay. But yeah. So, to talk about my thesis a little bit. So I'm focusing on a couple different figures in the cult of Ishtar, the main ones I'm focusing on is the assinnu. The assinnu is the syllabic spelling of it in Akkadianin but there's also a logogram which in Sumerian is sagg or sag. That one you see sometimes the other one is urmunis which is literally man-woman. Haley: Fun fact, sag in Farsi is dog. Kelsie: Oh, really? Haley: Yeah. Kelsie: In Sumerian it’s head or like top. Haley: Oh that's fun. I was ready for you to be like wolf. Kelsie: No, it's the same as the Arabic it's kelb, kelbum in Akkadian. Anyway, so I think there's definitely something going on interesting gender-wise with these figures, and so actually I first came up with this topic because I was reading the descent of Ishtar in Akkadian, not the Sumerian version. But my first semester of Akkadian, and my professor was a PhD student and we got to a part where– the part where in the Akkadian version, Ea instead of Enki makes an assinnu. And it's the word assinnu in the Akkadian version, but it’s kurgarru and galla in the Sumerian version, but these are all kind of related. I'm throwing words out, I’ll explain the difference– and also the difference isn't super clear, so if you’re confused between them, everyone is. There's not a clear distinction between these roles that we found in the textual evidence so far. But I was like “okay what's an assinnu” because I never heard that word before, that's not a common word in Akkadian and he’s like “oh, it's like a third gender person” and like that raised red flags in my gender studies brain, I'm like okay like whenever you categorize something as third gender without any other discussion there's something interesting going on there. So I started reading some more about what people had written about the assinnu and it turned out to be pretty gross because as we all know being archaeology students and students of the ancient world, it's all white straight man… cis straight men writing about basically everything and so that's the case with gender as well, unfortunately. And so in all these different translations of texts, the assinnu are translated from everything as like cultic prostitute, to eunuch, to impersonator– all these gross words that I think… one, just really limit the conversation that you could have about gender in these figures because you're placing so many modern assumptions on them just with the single word that you're using, and two, especially words like eunuch and cultic prostitute like there's no textual evidence to support these interpretations anyway. So it's all this secondary scholarly interpretation being placed on these figures where you know there's not many textual instances of them, so it's hard to say what exactly is going on but there's not specific evidence for castration or prostitution. For my thesis I’m basically going through and writing about how the word assinnu and kurgarru and galu and kalu have been translated by scholars, and then going back and seeing like what can we figure out in terms of their gender performance from the actual textual evidence that we have, as opposed to just going to these simplistic, interpretive labels. And my proposition, too, at the end is to not translate words like that because any translation that we have is going to simplify the role of these figures and I think just leaving it in the Akkadian leaves more room open for describing the things that they did and leaving it open because we don't know a lot about them, and just leaving that sort of gray area there instead of just labeling them one thing or another. But yeah so that's what I'm working on for my thesis, and all of these figures are associated with Ishtar specifically. And I think there is something interesting there because of Ishtar’s liminality herself because she's the goddess of love and war and those are two kind of opposite things. And her own gender performance is kind of somewhere in between this binary because sometimes she's portrayed in cylinder seals and things with a beard, and her animal is a male lion, or a lion with a mane, at least. I mean there are female lions with manes too. So I think Ishtar herself has some interesting gender things going on, so it makes total sense that her cultic functionaries, her cultic personnel, also had some interesting gender things going on too. So I'm just trying to figure out what exactly we can say about what's going on within her temple. There’s not a lot of evidence, but just trying to figure out what's going on. Lexi: I love it. I love your thesis. Haley: My mind is blown. Lexi: I really struggled to settle on a lady for this episode because I wanted to do something interesting but I didn’t want my lady to be from the same region as like another lady that was already being covered by one of you in this episode and that's– the regions you are familiar with are the regions I am familiar with because we had the same professors. So I had to branch out of my comfort zone and explore a person I had never explored– well, a god I never explored because this is goddesses. So I did what any sensible person would do and I reached out to my sister– sorority sister, for everyone who's been following along. And I would like to thank my sister Amber for suggesting this lady. It was a very good suggestion. So I'm talking today about Nüwa. Clarification, as always, I do not speak Chinese, so that's the best that it’s going to get but it's probably not totally correct but do with that what you will. I speak Korean, not Chinese. Alana: Have I been Jewish yet? Have we said Sprinklebear McPuss-n-Boots yet? We got to get all three. Lexi: You got them in. We got them in. Nüwa is the mother goddess of traditional Chinese mythology, so you know we know of a lot of other mythologies from other parts of the world and there often is a mother figure… you know, a matriarch among the deities if you know what I mean. So she's that but in China. And her name is made up of two characters, nu which means woman and wa which is a unique character that is only a part of her name, so that's how it distinguishes her from women in general, it's Nu-Wa. And she is the sister and wife of emperor god Fuxi. And Fuxi is the god who created hunting and cooking, which is a fun combo like hunt then cook? Not vegan, but very relevant to each other. She is often depicted as a serpent, and it's her body is the figure of a serpent and she has a woman's head. And she is capable of shape shifting into anything she wants so she can change how she appears. And let me just say she looks really dope, like what a vibe, check out our Instagram, I’ll put up a picture there, or Google her, but I'm obsessed with the different looks that she has. In some depictions she's just drawn as a woman in traditional Chinese dress, which is hanfu and that's slightly less cool but like chill. And in the traditional Chinese creation story Nüwa created humankind from the earth. And we see this in a lot of creation myths. If you know of creation myths from around the world, a lot of times like the physical earth or clay or dirt is related to the creation of humankind. So the story goes that one day she was walking through the woods and she found the woods to be so beautiful that she was sad that she couldn't share the beauty with others. She wanted someone else to enjoy the beauty of the earth. So she decided to create humans from the clay around the river. So she stopped at the riverbank, she picked up the clay, and she's like “I can make humans out of this.” And it is said that she made the aristocracy, like the aristocratic class from yellow clay from the riverbank, and the lower classes were made from mud. And so Nüwa made the upper classes with her hands, she molded them, but her hands got tired and so she picked up a rope and she dipped in the mud, swung it around over her head, and the mud that dropped off became the lower classes. So there is a class distinction in this story, I assume it was at one point in history perpetuated by the upper classes to justify like the class divide in their society but that's how the story goes. And there are several versions that story with varying details so if you are curious to go explore it there are texts about her written in Chinese and Vietnamese and a couple other Asian languages, so if you speak any of those and want to go read it, feel free. But that's the general basic… things that seem to be true in every version of the story. She is credited with defeating the evil water god who is depicted as a black dragon and is named Gonggong, which… I love that name too, like I love the double syllable situation. It's like you could call a pet that, but I guess not since he's an evil water god, maybe it's not good luck to name your pet after him. And Gonggong he’d ripped a hole in the sky when he was battling another god– it was the fire god, so the water and fire god were like [fighting noises] you know? That was not good podcast audio, but they were going at it, him and the fire god. Alana: How am I supposed to transcribe that? Lexi: Ahhh noise! Kelsie: Throw in some vowels and some Hs. Lexi: They were going at it. And they were fighting. And Gonggong ripped down one of the pillars, which is a mountain. He ripped it down, and the sky got a big hole in it. This is a big problem because the sky protected the people from like crazy weather phenomena, so like rain, tsunami, crazy kind of like… crazy crap was happening in the sky. And so she repaired the hole and saved the humans because she loved them because they were her creation, and versions of the story also differ, with one suggesting that she died of exhaustion because she was so tired because she had like held up the sky and put it back together. But she saved humankind, so it was like her last great feat. And another version suggests that she could not repair the sky with just the material she had, so she herself became stone and put the sky back together. So there’s either the version of her dying of exhaustion or her actually becoming the material to repair the sky. Either way, this is her final story so she sacrifices herself to save humankind from Gonggong's mistake. Kelsie: Wait, so with the second version where she is repairing the sky herself is there like an astrological sort of connection to her then? Is there like a constellation representing her? Lexi: That's a good question. No source I read specifically dictated that. Particularly I think because she tends to be associated with the day, but I am unsure. There might be a constellation related to her. She's technically the goddess of marriage and fertility. Chinese religion has really changed over time, but despite that, Nüwa has remained an important figure to many people in China. There are many temples and shrines that are dedicated to her and preserved in her honor, including one that is seen as the ancestral shrine of all humanity, so she's very central in like the identity structure of China. And some women in China today pray to Nüwa for assistance in issues of fertility or marriage, so like if you want a husband you're supposed to go and be like “Nüwa! Give me a man!” and if you want to have a baby, you're supposed to go to Nüwa and be like “Nüwa! Birth me a son!” and so on and so forth. In addition to her role in religion, she also features prominently in pop culture in China and other parts of Asia. She has been a character in three video games, so you can go play Nüwa. I don't know exactly how these video games work, I have not played them. But if that's your jam, Google it. And in numerous television shows and films, there's films that depict all the different stories surrounding her and other deities so she factors into those stories too, and there have been film adaptations specifically of the sky fixing story. And on Earth Day in 2012, a statue of Nüwa created by a Chinese professor was revealed in Time Square as a representation of the importance of protecting the ozone layer because the theme of that year's Earth Day was the ozone layer. And so the ozone layer protects humans and is similar to the sky and Nüwa in her stories… so the statue is of her holding up a piece of the sky… Nüwa holding a piece of the sky…  and she's holding that up and that represents the ozone layer and the fact that we need to keep the ozone layer safe, so as you would give to Nüwa and worship Nüwa you should worship and protect the ozone layer… so on and so forth. Very very cool. And the statue was later moved to Vienna and I've included in the further reading the transcript of the speech that was given when the statue was installed in Vienna which is now where it lives forever, so it's really interesting if you're into that kind of thing. And also I will include a link to the Google Arts and Culture page that describes the statue and you can learn more about the statue and what it's made of if you like that kind of thing and what it looks like. Haley: I was having like a mental identity crisis with who I was gonna pick, and I was on TikTok, of course, scrolling through like just for inspiration. And I came on for my like For You Page. I think that's what it's called, the youths call it, a fun story about Danu and Tuatha Dé Danann. I really… Okay, so this is Irish mythology that we're doing a deep dive into, and I asked Robert how to pronounce these, and of course I forgot. So in Irish mythology, Danu, meaning the flowing one or the divine one who brings all things into being, is associated with both masculine and feminine things which is like right on. However, every time I pick– like, I couldn't decipher like, discern whether she was representation– like if you looked at her while she had her pronouns, or assuming from scholars now she/her pronouns, if she would represent both masculine and feminine or if she is just associated with because she's the divine one who brings all things into being. Because when you look at her it's– I put a lot in the further reading but I used a lot of YouTube videos of the people who are like kinda amateur experts in this… certainly not myself. And a lot of the representation that they put up were very feminine goddess like. Like very nature-esque, flowing long hair, flowing skirts and dresses, or sometimes like a warrior but really like honing in on that feminine side. And that's just my tangent. So she is also like the earth goddess of fertility and growth, abundance, agriculture, as well as intellect, change, and wisdom– and a whole host of others. She just does it all, apparently. She's also like the hypothetical mother goddess of the Tuatha Dé Danann which is what I'm also going to talk about. But before that, because this group of people, the Tuatha Dé Danann, which is Old Irish for the people of the goddess of Danu and the anai– the A. N. A. I. within the name means wealth and that's kind of strange because this… when I'm reading Danu is D. A. N. U. and that’s not found in any like medieval Irish text which was kind of like a point in time where people were like okay it's not in this period and afterwards type of situation. That goes for a lot of her myths and legends. And if you let me nerd out for a sec, let's go into some etymology of the name Danu. Scholars believe that the name Danu is the nominative form and the genitive form is Danann, spelled as like D. A. N. A. N. N. or D. O. N. A. N. D. or D. A. N. A. N. D., which is seen in the primary sources, that’s also how the name Tuatha Dé Danann is spelled. It's the D. A. N. A. N. N., the genitive form of Danu. Again, with these people, they are the people of the goddess of Danu. And this is the story that I'm actually gonna focus on because spoiler it's great and it's also one of the most well known sources, just if you like do a Google search this is the one that keeps popping up with her. And it's about how… basically Ireland was kind of populated. So opening our book to a short story, while there are a bunch of little stories like within this one story, I'm kind of like lumping it all up. And in Irish mythology  Tuatha Dé Danann were the first people or tribe in Ireland. Since they're supernatural and they're not necessarily human but they are human, the way they arrived to Ireland was like via dark clouds and mist which also gets strange because they landed on Connacht. Am I saying that right, Alana? Alana: Connacht. Haley: Connacht. Alana: C. O. N. N. A. C. H. T.? Haley: Yes! Yes ma’am. Alana: Connacht. Yeah Haley: Which is on the west side of Ireland. And this is where– Alana: It's– throwback to episode two, that is around where Gráinne Ní Máille was born and lived and did her pirate-y thing. Haley: Exactly. So this is like why it gets weird, why I say it's like they arrived via dark clouds and mist because they also had boats. So when I was first reading this, I was expecting like people coming out of like dark mist and clouds because clouds are in the sky! But I think now like boats come along with it, so there might be spaceship boats or like water boats. But– Alana: Like in Treasure Planet. Haley: Exactly! That’s what I was thinking. Lexi: Ancient Aliens? The aliens brought boats down and created the Irish people? Haley: NO. Alana: No no no no. Treasure Planet. Treasure Planet is the analogy that we are going with, Treasure Planet. Haley: Yes. And when they arrived, they supposedly burned the boats, hence forcing them to settle in the land they like docked. Which made little to no sense-tentacles, because you literally like, again, rode in like a cloud of mist. And also I want to know when they settled, and they were like “okay, we have food, water, shelter. Let's burn them boats.” And that's fine, that's a great tradition, I'm not like saying for the tradition. But what if, like, if it was immediate, how did you know that was like a suitable habitat? Because like wouldn't you say “oh, we don't have like one of the three basic needs, four, five basic needs that we need, let's get back on our boats and travel around.” These are also supernatural beings and I'm just overanalyzing mythology. That's what I do. Also once they were settled, so like post-burning boats, I guess… It was said that they stayed there for centuries. And for the archaeologists and all of us here part of the myth that is the ring forts, are also called like the fairy forts… Alana is making a face. And that's because that– Alana: I dug a ring fort! Haley: Connection to you and Susan. Probably Susan, why I know this story. So– Alana: This is the Susan Johnston appreciation episode part two. Haley: I actually have a book that she gave me right next to me on my desk, I have with my library background. Anywho, the fairy forts are like often called fairy forts because the Tuatha Dé Danann used them as portals to another like world. And side note, if a human were to happen across the portal they would be forced to dance until they went mad. Honestly, that’s just like… I read that and it was also kind of like– Lexi: What a way to go. Haley: Exactly. Kelsie: It wouldn't take very long for me, like you know twenty minutes I'm gone. Haley: I know! I was like I can dance through like one album of ABBA but like if we get into an album of the Beatles I might like cease to exist. Alana: (Gagging noise) I hate the Beatles. Famously I hate the Beatles. Haley: Rude. And then she is on a podcast with like one of the best Beatles lovers ever. Lexi, right there and then I’m like a– Alana: I hate the Beatles. I think they're overrated. I think it's just like mediocre white men getting more credit than they deserve. Lexi: Well, Sergeant Pepper takes your note and kindly throws it out.The bird. Haley: He took a nice poop on it. Alana: That's fine. Whatever. Haley: Okay so back to my story, because it’s about me right now. We all went mad. And then lastly, this is my last note, so when the Celts invaded, the legend goes that they all turned themselves into fairies, hence, fairy forts! And then they keep watch over the land. That's them. That's Danu. Kelsie: What's the– I don't know if you know this, and maybe I… maybe there’s not an answer, but what's the significance of… between fairies and circles around things? Like when I think of like– like I know about ring forts, I didn't realize there was a connection to fairy forts. But then like winding up like fairies and circles like… Haley: Yeah. Kelsie: Mushrooms, like that’s also a circle-y thing on the ground. Is that a bigger thing? Haley: So, the circle is like the portal, and the reason why it's called fairies is that the legend says they turned into fairies. So it's like fairy forts, that’s their fort. Kelsie: That makes sense. Haley: That's the most I can tell you. I'm sure there's more. There are a lot of YouTubers out there. Lexi: Also, circles is magic. Alana: I'm talking about Persephone the Greek theological figure, ancient Greek. I identify with her very strongly because I also contain multitudes. There is a poem by Nichole McElhaney who is the author of A Sisterhood of Thorns and Vengeance, a book that apparently just like does not exist, because I cannot find it in print anywhere. But the poem goes “Do not worry about your contradictions - Persephone is both floral maiden and queen of death. You, too, can be both.” And I love that. But apparently like the book doesn't exist Nichole McElhaney has a couple of other poetry books with really interesting cool names similar to A Sisterhood of Thorns and Vengeance. She is also known as Proserpina in Rome, and also known as Kora or Kore, which means maiden. And she becomes Persephone when she is like queen of the underworld which we will get to… the stuff that you might know… because of the Percy Jackson series. So in Homer's Hymn to Demeter… Homer's Hymn to Demeter is kind of the primary source we have for the story of Persephone being taken to the underworld. Homer describes her as slim-ankled, which my friend Kay, shout out Kay, who I brought up earlier, we tried to make a religion together, they are an expert in classical literature and they said that that probably meant like a graceful or delicate or something along those lines. So the story is Hades saw her in a field, abducted her, and took her to the underworld and like made her his queen and something about pomegranate seeds, that he forced her only one in Homer’s hymn. It’s only like one seed. You hear it like three or six other places, but in Homer it's just one. Here's what you might not know about that myth, according to Homer. Hades had Zeus’s permission to do this, but not Demeter’s, who is Persephone’s mother. And Demeter goes searching all over like the whole world for Persephone, and everyone saw what happened– like the sun god saw what happened and was like yeah we're not gonna help you because like basically they said she could do a lot worse as far as a husband goes. She's like queen of the underworld right now. I think like that's a pretty good deal… you know Hades isn't going cheating on his wife like someone we know. Zeus. But according to Homer, one pomegranate seed meant three months in the underworld. Anyway Persephone– this is a really short story I'm sorry– Persephone. She is part of the agrarian triad which is a group of three agricultural slash harvest deities with Demeter and a god called Triptolemus. Kelsie: Lexi would call this an agricultural throuple. Alana: That's an excellent point. I don't think there is any evidence for that but I do like the idea of it being a throuple. So Persephone as queen of the underworld kind of gives a more pleasant face to the concept of death and the afterlife, so it kind of like helps Hades’s reputation and there's not as much stigma about it because yeah you're dying but look the goddess of spring is also queen of the underworld, so that's pretty cool. Now I'm going to cede the rest of my time to modern reinterpretations that are all written by women or some other marginalized group. The only one whose like gender I don't know is married to a man and cis straight men don't marry other men by definition, so this person is marginalized in some other way. I don't know if they know that, but it's really cool story. So first of all, Hadestown. Wow. Anais Mitchell. It's beautiful. It's jazzy. It's so much fun. It's Hades and Persephone but they've like fallen out of love after so long and also the myth of Orpheus and Eurydice is in there. I want a live recording of it– it's a Broadway show– I want a live recording of it the way that Hamilton has been. I think that is what we deserve. There is also a couple of webcomics, the first one is Punderworld, which has a very– why are you shaking your head Kelsie? Kelsie: It’s such a bad pun and it has pun in the word! Alana: It’s a bad pun and it has pun in the word. It's a very realistic art style, there are not a ton of episodes, one of them made the rounds on tumblr while ago if you were still there. And it takes place in a more realistic like ancient Greek Olympian kind of setting. Links to the webcomics by the way will be in further learning which is what I've been calling it lately because it's not always reading. The other one is called Lore Olympus. There are a lot of episodes of this one. It is more whimsical but also somehow grittier? Like all the characters are kind of color-coded. Athena has a very androgynous, ace, butch lesbian vibe like someone else in the Zoom right now. So it’s like Olympus is a modern city, but the mortal realm is still in ancient Greece. It's really cool, I was up until five AM last night reading it because I just like gave up and was like I just have to read this. Shout out to my friend Em who told me about those webcomics. Also Madeline Miller, who wrote Circe which was an incredible book and Song of Achilles which I haven't read yet, wrote a really cool piece about Persephone several years ago that basically ends with if Madeline Miller were Persephone we would always have winter because she loves pomegranates so much and that is a mood. Lexi: I love that you brought up Percy Jackson because it always bothers me but there are so many cool modern literary takes on a lot of these things but that's the one that had to get famous? Haley: I'm rereading and I finished the Percy Jackson series, forgot how much like I invested myself into it. I think I only read like the first book and like half of the second because I don't remember the third, fourth, fifth but I have the next series which is like… Alana: The Heroes of Olympus or something? And it’s the Roman? Haley: Maybe. I think that's the next one. Alana: I read the first four Percy Jackson books in a weekend, and I would have read the fifth one in a weekend but it was not out yet. Lexi: I was a fan of them as a child. Alana: I was in like fourth grade. Lexi: Yeah probably fourth grade. But my mom decided I was still a fan of them and for my twenty third birthday I asked for a single ticket to go see Hamilton by myself, but for the same price my mother bought four tickets to see Percy Jackson the Musical. Picture this– Haley: Wait, where was it first? Lexi: It was on Broadway. I mean a real Broadway– Haley: They had Broadway? Lexi: Yes. Picture a thirty two year old gay twink dancing around the stage pretending to be a twelve year old boy. Alana: That just sounds like the Percy Jackson Lightning Thief movie. Lexi: Yes. Alana: But with singing. Haley: To be fair Logan Lehrman because I– Alana: Oh, Logan Lehrman is incredible. Lexi: Also, I won't spoil the musical, the musical's gone now it doesn't run anymore, but in case they ever do another iteration and people want to see I won’t completely spoil it. But it is written where there's only a cast of eight people but all the characters are covered by those eight people, and so there are some weird interesting things where that really take you out of the story because like they have to do double duty as characters and all they do to change is like throw on a jacket. Haley: Is it just the first book? Lexi: Yes and no like how the movie was the first book, but like not. You know I mean? Haley: Yeah. Lexi: It's not a truthful direct adaptation. The songs were like “when your dad’s a god, your dad's a god. The one other thing I want to say about it is my brother and I had both for the books as kids and were like okay we'll go see this as like a family thing, whatever. During the intermission, a girl behind us who was probably maybe fourteen or fifteen would not shut up about Percy Jackson to her family and my brother leaned in and was like if we’d come here seven years ago that would have been you. And I mean probably. But to that team who put that on. Lexi: You can find this podcast on Twitter and Instagram at LadyHistoryPod. Our show notes and a transcript of this episode will be on ladyhistorypod dot tumblr dot com. If you like the show, leave us a review, or tell your friends, and if you don't like the show, keep it to yourself. Alana: Our logo is by Alexia Ibarra you can find her on Twitter and Instagram at LexiBDraws. Our theme music is by me, GarageBand, and Amelia Earhart. Lexi is doing the editing. You will not see us, and we will not see you, but you will hear us, next time, on Lady History. Haley: Next week on Lady History, she’s going to blind us with some science. We're doing a deep dive into the women of twentieth century science. Haley: We good. Alana: Amazing.

[theonyxpath]

Demi? Meaning partial? No, quite the opposite, actually.

The Kickstarter campaign for Scion: Demigod starts on this Thursday, September the 3rd, at 2pm Eastern US time! And unlike the Kickstarter for Scion: Hero and Scion: Origin, the writing for this book is finished before the KS.

There are actually a fair number of important differences, so, as promised last week, here’s a rundown of how this KS is different from the first one for Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero, since we have indeed learned a lot since then (the first Scion KS was our 22nd and we’ve done 24 more KSs since then):

1- Like I said above, the writing is done. In fact, it is at the stage where the writing is over and the heavy lifting for the developer is over. All those words are now “the text” and any changes are going to be tweaks and minor fixes. Errata stuff. More on that later. The writing that was ready when we did the Scion: Origin/Hero KS was at the Redlines stage, as stated on the KS page at the time, and we have learned that we need more finalized text before we go live on a Kickstarter.

2- The rules are done. Well, of course the rules are done if the text is done, Rich! Sure, yet the fact that during Scion: Origin/Hero‘s KS the Storypath System was still being heavily playtested by our teams, and was being developed for two different creative teams (for Scion and the Trinity Continuum) so that design decisions were still happening is actually very different than now. Storypath has been “battle-tested” in numberless games of Scion, as well as the Trinity Continuum, Dystopia Rising: Evolution, and the They Came From…! game lines.

3- The text will be previewed to backers in sections throughout the KS, you’ll have it all by the end, and can back out before we deliver. Almost exclusively, this is how we handle our Kickstarters now. It eliminates a lot of the fear that the game will develop differently as the writing and developing stages progress. And we get pretty solid discussions going about the text all during the KS, which can be a lot of fun for backers.

4- Our average track record (not including Dark Eras 2 which was structured very differently) for delivery of the Kickstarters after Scion: Origin/Hero‘s KS has been 1.6 months earlier than estimated. Part of that has been because we extended out our estimated delivery date, but the rest has been better internal systems, like:

5- James Bell runs our Kickstarters now. We call him the Kickstarter Concierge because his entire focus is managing our KSs and helping out our backers. He does a phenomenal job with getting folks answers and enabling fun conversations in the Comments.

Titanomachy art by Sam Denmark

6- One of our new processes is a set phase to contract and receive art for the KS, which then rolls right into getting art for rest of the book. This practice is also helpful in getting the art for the Stretch Goal rewards.

7- We have at least one Errata phase after the Backer PDF goes out, although in some cases, and possibly this one, other Errata phases can be included at the developers’ discretion. Rather than having backers write in to us on the forums or via Kickstarter, we now have an Errata system that includes a new form administered by one of our in-house development overseers. Not the developer themselves. In fact, the Text to Editing to Layout to Done process contains more than three times the number of eyes reviewing and confirming changes than it did when we were pulling together Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero.

8- There are more devs understanding the game and rules, with Neall as the lead dev as opposed to having to be deeply involved in every phase like for Scion: Origin/Hero because only he saw how all the pieces needed to come together. Meghan Fitzgerald, who developed Mysteries of the World: The Scion Companion that released recently, and Monica Speca, developer of Titanomachy (the Advance PDF of which releases on Wednesday), are just two of the devs who are able to develop Scion books now that the first two main books are available. Danielle Lauzon is able to bring her unmatched knowledge of how the Storypath System works if needed. This means that while Neall directly developed Scion: Demigod, he has other devs he can run ideas past or who can jump in now if real-life issues impact his work on Scion.

9- One book, not two. More focus, less stress on creators. Also, you’re only pledging for one book (although feel free to pledge for as many as you want!) so your pledge amount will likely be less for this KS, as will likely be our total amount.

10- Scion: Demigod presents concepts which are not just the next “levels” of power for our Heroes, but which expand on what happens once a Scion is more than a hero, but not yet a god.

I’m thinking there may be more differences, but let’s stick with these as we get a Top Ten List sort of thing going. We’re going to have a fun Kickstarter with Scion: Demigod, and we’re hoping all of you can join us for it.

Also, we’ll be including links to Scion: Demigod Actual Play sessions all throughout the KS if you want to get an idea of how great it plays!

Sunken Bones art by Pat Loboyko

And Was There More In the Monday Meeting?

Sure, there really was. And I can’t tell you more than that we looked at a list of future projects that the team was extremely excited about, and we had to only hit the highlights of our weekly reports as the energized creative discussion over the new projects took up so much time.

Yep, we sure love creating:

Many Worlds, One Path!

Blurbs!

Kickstarter!

Scion Demigod Second Edition! Coming this Thursday, September 3rd at 2pm EDT! See all my blathering above for more info!

Onyx Path Media!

This week: What’s Up With The Scarred Lands? Featuring an update and interview with SL major-domo Travis Legge!

As always, this Friday’s Onyx Pathcast will be on Podbean or your favorite podcast venue! https://onyxpathcast.podbean.com/

Vorpal Tales begin their Scion: Demigod actual play from 21:00 EST on the 8th September! It’ll be hosted on our Twitch channel, but please give them a follow too: https://www.twitch.tv/vorpaltales

We’ve got lots of Scion: Demigod interviews and actual plays coming in the next few weeks, so keep watching this section!

For anyone new to our media section, you can find us running and playing games over on twitch.tv/theonyxpath pretty much every day of the week!

Plus, if you’d like your games hosted there, just get in touch with Matthew Dawkins using the contact link on matthewdawkins.com. 

Please give our Twitch channel a follow, as you can find a huge number of videos of all kinds of games being run!

This week on Twitch, expect to see these games and streams running:

Scarred Lands – A Family Affair

Technocracy Reloaded – Vorpal Tales

Scion – Behind the Screen

Danielle’s RPG Development Workshop

Hunter: The Vigil – Cold Cases Forsaken Spaces

Changeling: The Dreaming – The Last Faerie Tale

Mage: The Awakening – Occultists Anonymous

Vampire: The Masquerade – Boston by Night

Get watching for some fantastic insight into how to run these wonderful games and subscribe to us on Twitch, over at twitch.tv/theonyxpath

Come take a look at our YouTube channel, youtube.com/user/theonyxpath, where you can find a whole load of videos of actual plays, dissections of our games, and more, including:

Hunter: The Vigil – Hometown Heroes Episode 4 – https://youtu.be/QDwQXsSiGZ0

Scarred Lands – Purge of the Serpentholds S1E13 – https://youtu.be/PNUTWl3eJq8

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – They Came from Devil’s Reef 2/2 – https://youtu.be/hoyYsRLc6Jo

Hunter: The Vigil – Uptown Shadows Episode 3 – https://youtu.be/DWfboQk46RQ

Realms of Pugmire – Paws and Claws S2E13 – https://youtu.be/ARCZGvOKIpc

Subscribe to our channel and click the bell icon if you want to be notified whenever new news videos and uploads come online!

Tom Murr continues with his amazing They Came from Beneath the Sea! audio drama over on his YouTube channel! Radio ReScience Episode 2: Military Entanglement, can be found right here: https://youtu.be/qiTprIriV7Y and Episode 3: Spycraft is here: https://youtu.be/qqS5rM3GA5A

Systematic Understanding of Everything is a new Exalted Explainer Podcast by Exalted Dev Monica Speca and Exalted Writer Chazz Kellner that is breaking down Creation in 45 minute chunks in preparation for Exalted Essence.

Their most recent episodes are available over on https://www.exaltcast.com/, with their newest covering the stunning Sidereals!

The Story Told Podcast continues their Fall of Jiara Exalted chronicle, and you can find their newest episode right here: https://thestorytold.libsyn.com/fall-of-jiara-25

Chris Allen continues his excellent chronicle of Werewolf: The Forsaken over on Paleo Gaming‘s Twitch channel. Do check out Very Angry Dogs!

https://www.twitch.tv/paleo_gaming

Two new Occultists Anonymous episodes for you fans of Mage: The Awakening! Find them right here:

Episode 124: Vibe Check  The cabal travel to Seattle with the intent of hunting down Mr. Graves, behind enemy lines, and with little local support. https://youtu.be/kHJ8BVcqDd0

Episode 125: Not Enough… With a single lead from Wyrd, the cabal works to see who they’ve even made contact with. Unsure of their intel, behind Seer lines, they’re given a task to complete. https://youtu.be/w8iEpJoVJUo

Windy City Kindred kicks off their Vampire: The Masquerade Chicago by Night chronicle right here for you: https://youtu.be/nlaJfpABsE0

If you’re a fan of Dread Names, Red List for Vampire: The Masquerade, check out our friend The Primogen‘s video on the Red List! https://youtu.be/_6hEtPIyBs4

GMS Magazine produced a review of Dystopia Rising: Evolution over on their channel! https://youtu.be/Q0Ih1KkUhS0

Please check these out and let us know if you find or produce any actual plays of our games! We’d love to feature you!

Electronic Gaming!

As we find ways to enable our community to more easily play our games, the Onyx Dice Rolling App is live! Our dev team has been doing updates since we launched based on the excellent use-case comments by our community, and this thing is awesome! (Seriously, you need to roll 100 dice for Exalted? This app has you covered.)

We’re told that the App Dev is currently creating an updated version for the latest devices, so keep an eye open for those!

Virtual TableTop!

Introducing a Virtual Tabletop adventure: the Gauntlet of Spiragos for Scarred Lands on Astral TableTop!

Scars of the Divine War, which ended less than 200 years ago, have still not healed. One such scar is the Chasm of Flies, a rent in the earth created when the titan Spiragos the Ambusher was smote down by one of the young gods, Vangal the Ravager. Now, the Chasm is inhabited by spider-eye goblins and their spider allies, but it is also thought to be the resting place of powerful artifacts from that elder age.

Gauntlet of Spiragos is a Scarred Lands adventure designed for 1st level characters, although it can be easily modified for characters of up to 5th level.

Astral TableTop is the easiest way to play any tabletop RPG online, free. Astral already supports popular systems like D&D and Pathfinder, and Astral can support virtually any tabletop roleplaying game. Get started quickly with built-in support for most popular game systems. Whether you’re brand new to TTRPGs or a veteran tabletop gamer, Astral‘s ease-of-use and built in automation is designed to streamline gameplay.

Astral is browser-based and uses the latest technology to streamline your storytelling experience. Connect with your party online and run your campaigns however you like. Astral offers tools optimized for phone, tablet, and desktop devices, no installation required.

Build epic battlemaps using Astral‘s enormous collection of scenery, props, and tokens or upload your own. Pro users gain access to over 12,000+ assets and fresh new packs every month. Add weather, visual effects, triggers, and so much more with easy-to-use tools

Build your own adventure, or choose from pre-generated game kits like Gauntlet of Spiragos. Create character sheets, craft maps, or just jump right in to connect with your friends and start your adventures!

On Amazon and Barnes & Noble!

You can now read our fiction from the comfort and convenience of your Kindle (from Amazon) and Nook (from Barnes & Noble).

If you enjoy these or any other of our books, please help us by writing reviews on the site of the sales venue from which you bought it. Reviews really, really help us get folks interested in our amazing fiction!

Our selection includes these latest fiction books:

Our Sales Partners!

We’re working with Studio2 to provide our traditionally printed books out into your local game stores. Game stores can order via their usual distributors, and can also contact Studio2 directly. And individuals can check out our projects via the links below!

You can pick up the traditionally printed Pugmire and Monarchies of Mau main books, screens, and the official dice through our friends there! https://studio2publishing.com/search?q=pugmire

Now, we’ve added Chronicles of Darkness books such as Changeling: The Lost Second Edition products to Studio2‘s store! See them here: https://studio2publishing.com/collections/all-products/changeling-the-lost

Scion 2e books and other products are available now at Studio2: https://studio2publishing.com/blogs/new-releases/scion-second-edition-book-one-origin-now-available-at-your-local-retailer-or-online

Our Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition books are also available from Studio2 in the US: https://studio2publishing.com/products/vampire-the-masquerade-chicago-by-night-sourcebook

Looking for our Deluxe or Prestige Edition books? Try this link! http://www.indiepressrevolution.com/xcart/Onyx-Path-Publishing/

And you can order Pugmire, Monarchies of Mau, Cavaliers of Mars, and Changeling: The Lost 2e at the same link! And now Scion Origin and Scion Hero and Trinity Continuum Core and Trinity Continuum: Aeon are available to order

It’s the LAST DAY of the DOG DAYS OF SUMMER SALE!

As always, you can find Onyx Path’s titles at DriveThruRPG.com!

The Cthulhu Mythos sale at DriveThruRPG finishes this week, and we’ll have some God-Machine PDFs included in the sale!

On Sale This Week!

This Wednesday, the Titans grab the attention in the Titanomachy book for Scion! Advance PDF on sale on DTRPG!

Scion: Titanomachy has everything a Storyguide needs to bring the Second Titanomachy — a phase in the eternal cold war against the Gods — to their Scion Second Edition games.

It presents new threats from the Titans to their servants, plus their fell powers and Birthrights — ripe for use as antagonists or as new material for players’ characters. It also provides adventure hooks to springboard Storyguides into the action. 

Scion: Origin and Scion: Hero are required to use this book. 

This book includes:

Titans for each of the core pantheons, to be used as enemies or strange allies. 

Three adventure hooks to help Storyguides run epic games involving the Second Titanomachy.

Dozens of all-new antagonists from enemy Scions to fearsome monsters. 

New, Titan-themed Birthrights and Knacks for players to discover and use.

Note: This is the Advance PDF version. We’re collecting errata feedback before preparing the final PDF and Print versions of the book. Everyone who purchases the Advance PDF will automatically get the final PDF added to their Library on DriveThruRPG, plus they will receive a discount link for the Print version taking into account that they purchased the PDF.

Also this Wednesday, we open up the They Came From Beneath the Sea! Community Content part of the Storypath Nexus! Now you too can design scenarios featuring the terrifying, tentacular, terrors of the seven seas! And even get paid for it!

Conventions!

Though dates for physical conventions are subject to change due to the current COVID-19 outbreak, here’s what’s left of our current list of upcoming conventions (and really, we’re just waiting for this last one to be cancelled even though it’s Nov/Dec). Instead, keep an eye out here for more virtual conventions we’re going to be involved with:

PAX Unplugged: https://unplugged.paxsite.com/

And now, the new project status updates!

Development Status from Eddy Webb! (Projects in bold have changed status since last week.):

First Draft (The first phase of a project that is about the work being done by writers, not dev prep.)

Exalted Essay Collection (Exalted)

The Devoted Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

Prometheus Unbound (was Psi Orders) (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

No Gods, No Masters (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion Fiction Anthology (Scion 2nd Edition)

TC: Aeon Novella: Dawn (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

TC: Aeon Novella: Meridian (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Legacies of Earth (Legendlore)

Redlines

Dragon-Blooded Novella #2 (Exalted 3rd Edition)

CtL 2e Novella Collection: Hollow Courts (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

Adversaries of the Righteous (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Squeaks In The Deep (Realms of Pugmire)

Trinity Continuum: Anima

Second Draft

Many-Faced Strangers – Lunars Companion (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Hundred Devil’s Night Parade (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Novas Worldwide (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Exalted Essence Edition (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Saints and Monsters (Scion 2nd Edition)

M20 Technocracy Operative’s Dossier (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Wild Hunt (Scion 2nd Edition)

Development

TC: Aberrant Reference Screen (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Across the Eight Directions (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Contagion Chronicle: Global Outbreaks (Chronicles of Darkness)

Exigents (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Assassins (Trinity Continuum Core)

Kith and Kin (Changeling: The Lost 2e)

V5 Forbidden Religions (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Adventure! core (Trinity Continuum: Adventure!)

M20 Rich Bastard’s Guide To Magick (Mage: The Ascension 20th Anniversary)

Manuscript Approval

Crucible of Legends (Exalted 3rd Edition)

V5 Trails of Ash and Bone (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Dystopia Rising: Evolution Fiction Anthology (Dystopia Rising: Evolution)

Contagion Chronicle Ready-Made Characters (Chronicles of Darkness)

The Clades Companion (Deviant: The Renegades)

V5 Children of the Blood (was The Faithful Undead) (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Post-Approval Development

M20 Victorian Mage (Mage: the Ascension 20th Anniversary Edition)

Mission Statements (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Editing

Lunars Novella (Rosenberg) (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition core rulebook (Mummy: The Curse 2nd Edition)

Player’s Guide to the Contagion Chronicle (Chronicles of Darkness)

TC: Aberrant Jumpstart (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

LARP Rules (Scion 2nd Edition)

The Book of Lasting Death (Mummy: The Curse 2e)

Scion: Dragon (Scion 2nd Edition)

Scion: Demigod (Scion 2nd Edition)

Dearly Bleak – Novella (Deviant: The Renegades)

N!ternational Wrestling Entertainment (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Under Alien Skies (Trinity Continuum: Aeon)

Dead Man’s Rust (Scarred Lands)

Post-Editing Development

W20 Shattered Dreams Gift Cards (Werewolf: The Apocalypse 20th)

Cults of the Blood Gods (Vampire: The Masquerade 5th Edition)

Hunter: The Vigil 2e core (Hunter: The Vigil 2nd Edition)

Trinity Continuum: Aberrant core (Trinity Continuum: Aberrant)

Deviant: The Renegades (Deviant: The Renegades)

Legendlore core book (Legendlore)

One Foot in the Grave Jumpstart (Geist: The Sin-Eaters 2e)

Masks of the Mythos (Scion 2nd Edition)

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (They Came From!)

Heirs to the Shogunate (Exalted 3rd Edition)

Indexing

Art Direction from Mike Chaney!

In Art Direction

Tales of Aquatic Terror – LeBlanc art in and getting fulls.

WoD Ghost Hunters (KS) – KS page to Paradox for approval.

Hunter: The Vigil 2e

Mummy 2

Deviant – AD’d.

Legendlore

Technocracy Reloaded

Cults of the Blood God

Scion: Dragon (KS)

Masks of the Mythos (KS)

Scion: Demigod (KS) – Ready for Thursday.

They Came From Beyond the Grave! (KS)

TC: Adventure! (KS)

Geist: One Foot In the Grave – Artists are working.

Contagion Chronicle Jumpstart (Chronicles of Darkness) – Sending art buy sheet to Dixie for notes.

In Layout

Yugman’s Guide to Ghelspad

Vigil Watch

Trinity Core Jumpstart

Aberrant – Gonna start layout with the power section

Proofing

Cavaliers of Mars: City of the Towered Tombs

Yugman’s Guide Support Decks (Scarred Lands)

TC Aeon Terra Firma – Sent back to Josh, looking good.

V5 Let the Streets Run Red – Inputting corrections.

Pugmire Adventure – Need map finished.

At Press

TCFBTS Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

They Came from Beneath the Sea! – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Pirates of Pugmire – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Pirates of Pugmire Screen – Files at press.

Dark Eras 2 – Files printing.

Dark Eras 2 Screen and booklet – Files at press.

Contagion Chronicle – Press prep.

Contagion Chronicle Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars Wall Scroll Map – Shipping to KS fulfiller from printer.

Lunars Screen and Booklet – Files at press.

Lunars: Fangs at the Gate – Prepping files for PoD and press.

Scarred Lands Creature Collection – Shipping from printer to KS fulfiller.

Magic Item Decks 1-3 (Scarred Lands) – PoD proof decks ordered.

Scion Titanomachy – Advance PDF on sale Weds on DTRPG!

Today’s Reason to Celebrate!

Over the weekend we learned of the unexpected and sad death of Chadwick Boseman, the actor best known for portraying King T’Challa of Wakanda, the Black Panther, although in his relatively short career he also played several great and inspirational historical figures. The impact of his work portraying a comic book hero far outweighed the basic idea; we celebrate that his Black Panther embodied an ideal and inspirational place needed by many people around the world. As stated by former President Obama: “To be young, gifted, and Black; to use that power to give them heroes to look up to; to do it all while in pain – what a use of his years.”