#but since i happen to like history and know more about christian historical lore than i do for other religions and cultures

[mania-sama]

Mondstadt and Its Religious Implications

One thing that I will NEVER get over about Genshin Impact is the iconography used in the designs for Mondstadt and the implications it has. Now, don't get me wrong, as a rule of thumb, Hoyoverse has done a really good job in creating unique environments for Genshin's nations that more or less accurately portray a real-life cultural region. Liyue is based on China, Inazuma on Japan, Sumeru on India and Egypt, Fontaine on France (and Australia, if you squint), and Natlan on African and Native American tribes.

Mondstadt is based on Germany. More specifically, many of the designs and icons seem to resemble the Holy Roman Empire. Now, an important thing to note is that most of Western and Southern Europe was some denomination of Christianity at this time, with some exceptions due to various holy wars that occurred kind of all of the time. Anyway, the point is that the Holy Roman Empire was an established Catholic nation (and Germany still is predominantly Christian in modern-day). One thing about the Catholic denomination is that they proudly display religious symbols anywhere they can or in ways that they can carry with them, usually coming in the form of a rosary or a cross. When it came to specific places of holy worship, they would obviously spend no small amount of effort to completely embellish the place with gold, art, and symbols. Catholic churches are known to be the most extravagant of the denominations for a reason.

When a design team looks at The Holy Roman Empire, they will see this religious imagery everywhere. Namely, they will see the cross, because that is kind of, you know, THE Christian symbol. So it makes complete sense for them to note that down and underline it in red; for a mostly-accurate portrayal of the region they are taking from, a church and crosses HAVE to be included.

Places of worship are obviously not unique to Christianity, nor is the "cross" as a religious symbol even born from Jesus Christ. There are a few cases from different regions in which crosses and cross-like images were used for their gods. HOWEVER, with the specific cross that Mondstadt displays, and with the fact that not only is it based on Germany/Holy Roman Empire but that it is the ONLY Genshin region to use the cross in its designs (along with the usage of distinctly Christian/Catholic roles like nuns)... it is safe to assume that this is representative of the Christian cross.

You can see the issue we are about to have.

The fact that Mondstadt displays crosses as a religious symbol in CHURCHES and on the KNIGHTS' ARMORY (because most knights were historically Christian), that characters like Barbara are seen wearing in their designs, implies two things:

Crucifixation is/was a method of cruel execution in Mondstadt's history.

SOMEBODY of high esteem and worship had to be crucified, and thusly held up as the ultimate symbol of religion...

For the first point, while it IS still crazy to think that Genshin would imply this, I can, indeed, believe it to be true to canon. Why? Well, Mondtadt's history is already rife with the same abuses as Europe's actual history. From slaves to gladiator fights to rebellion to cruel monarchs, Mondstadt has not had a pretty life. Crucifixion honestly fits right in. I can imagine, in failed revolts against the aristocracy, those rebels who survived were later crucified. Other victims may be those who try to falsify gods or improperly worship Barbatos in a manner that the ruler doesn't agree with, those who commit treason, etc. etc..

Is it insane? Perhaps a little. But if we really get into it, Hoyoverse has done some crazy things with their lore so it's not really out of place, no matter how cruel the actual punishment is.

The second point is a little more complicated. Let's first rule off Christianity being a thing in Genshin - while you could consider the most of the nations to be monotheistic because they technically worship one god, the respective one of their nation, they most certainly do not obey/follow one god holistically, nor is there one mortal representative that god, nor is there a specific spirit that lives on in every believer who follows that god. So, there is no Holy Trinity; no Jesus Christ, no Holy Spirit, and there is no God, so to speak. No Christianity.

However.

One thing about Genshin Impact is that it takes from biblical mythology heavily, for some reason (and I say mythology because modern denominations don't consider the demonology stuff canon). For example, Paimon is the name of a demon who was more or less a servant of Lucifer (interpretations may vary). It is well known that the Archons are based on demons from biblical demon mythology. Even in the latest Natlan Archon Quest, Ronova, the Ruler of Death, looks unnervingly like Ophanim, the one everyone draws when they make "biblically accurate angels" or whatever.

Mondstadt accomplishes biblical references in two ways: one, that Barbatos, the demon, had four main kings/knights that rode with him. This can be seen represented in the Four Winds. Two, that these Four Winds can be viewed like how the Catholics would view a saint. Saints were, in simplistic terms, mortals who achieved great things and helped many people, and were then canonized after the death (usually). The church essentially declares them a Saint and worthy of worship. Idols and imagery are produced of these saints and hung like one would a cross or other images of Jesus Christ.

The most clear representation of that in Genshin would be in Venessa, who is a mortal who dies and then ascends to Celestia. She then becomes the Falcon of the West, one of the Four Winds of Mondstadt. So, a saint, essentially. Even though Mondstadt isn’t Christian, it certainly is Catholic.

The reason why I am going over all of this is to say that, well, it may not be necessarily implying that Venti was the one who was crucified. That is the popular opinion when discussing the crosses - that somewhere along the way, Venti was crucified. I am here to say that that really might not be the case. While the Holy Trinity is interpreted by many denominations to all be one and the same as each other, it is still a fact that it was Jesus Christ who was crucified, not God Himself. Jesus is the son, not the God.

Which is to say that it could be anyone, really. The most clear "child" of Barbatos that comes to mind is Venessa, who we could interpret as someone who could have been, at one point, crucified (though she was not). Rulers and people of high esteem also claim her titles and name like monarchs would claim holiness and divine right in Europe. Again, the problem with this is that she was not crucified and lived a very successful life post-rebellion.

The other option that comes to mind is the Unnamed Bard. He also could have been crucified. Even though we know he died in battle, it is not unreasonable that his corpse would have been strung up by pissed-off nobles upon the defeat of Decarabian. But, again, the problem being is that a. the timelines don't match up (Barbatos was not yet the Anemo Archon), and b. they won the rebellion so he still probably wasn't crucified.

So, it could be someone we haven't heard of, or someone deep in Genshin lore that I don't know about. Or, you know, perhaps Venti really was crucified. I don't know.

THIS is what Hoyoverse is implying. AND I DON'T LIKE IT (it's fucking hilarious).

[apoloadonisandnarcissus]

Could Saurondriel actually happen in Tolkien lore? 

@historical-romances9 asked me to elaborate on how and if Sauron x Galadriel could/would work, according to Tolkien lore, or if it’s was even possible to actually happen because many “lorebros” are always whining about the impossibility of it because Galadriel is an Elf, and they “mate for life”, and Sauron is an evil spirit obsessed with power, and uncapable of “human like” feelings, and that “Rings of Power” is an abomination to the Professor’s lore for giving these two characters romantic and sexual undertones.

Tolkien’s writings about wedding, love and sex among the Eldar (Elves) can be found in “Morgoth’s Ring, Part III. The Later Quenta Silmarillion: (II) The Second Phase: Laws and Customs among the Eldar.”  

Argument #1: “Galadriel can’t have romantic feelings for Sauron because she’s already married to Celeborn, and Elves are monogamous and mate for life!”  

Is this true? 

We know that Galadriel is already married to Celeborn (whom she believes to be dead) when she meets Sauron/Halbrand. We also know Elves marry for life (either by love of free will from both parties; an Elf can’t be forced to marry), and divorce is forbidden, especially among the Noldor. This is what Tolkien actually wrote; there is no mention of Elves being emotional monogamous (= only loving one being for the rest of their lives). 

Actually, we have textual evidence on the contrary, with Elf characters, actually, falling in love more than once in their lifetimes and even re-marrying. The Elves don’t divorce due to their history, and not because they only love one being their entire lives; and the majority of the Noldor’s problems are blamed on Fëanor’s parents' divorce. In short: Fëanor’s mother, tired of giving birth, went to the Hall of Mandos to sleep. Afterwards, Fëanor’s father asked the Valar for permission to remarry (even, though, his wife wasn’t dead). The Gods said yes, and Fëanor’s half-siblings were born, and Morgoth used Fëanor’s jealousy to drive a wedge in the family, which eventually led to disaster. And this is why the Noldor don’t divorce. 

According to Tolkien lore, it’s completely possible for Galadriel to have romantic feelings for Sauron, despite already being married to Celeborn. 

But now, one can argue that the Valar would never give their permission for Galadriel and Sauron to be married. Here’s the catch: Sauron is a fallen Maia and a servant of Melkor/Morgoth. He’s not one of faithful (he doesn’t obey Eru nor the Valar); he wouldn’t ask for their permission to do anything. Many wrongly compare Sauron to the Christian Satan, but the actual “Devil” in Tolkien’s lore is Morgoth (he’s the one who rebels against Eru, “God”, and wants to corrupt creation).  When Sauron proposed to make Galadriel his Queen, he really meant it as the "whole package deal", because his master is in the Void forever, and he doesn’t gives two f*cks about the Valar giving permission or not. Which leads me to the next point.

Argument #2: Galadriel wouldn’t ever cheat on Celeborn because adultery is unthinkable for the Elves! 

True. However, we've already established that “emotional cheating” can happen, according to the lore, and I would argue that counts as adultery as well. But, again, we are talking about a fallen Maia and a servant of Morgoth, here: Sauron doesn’t follow the Valar’s rules. And, so, Sauron sexually seducing Galadriel isn’t OOC for him, actually.

And what about Galadriel falling for his seductions? We know Galadriel is proudful and strong-willed, but she’s not immune to temptation herself. Sex, for the Elves, equals marriage, and it’s actually a requirement to officiate the union (you, kind of, like medieval traditions). And since Sauron doesn’t need anyone’s permission to marry Galadriel, this is possible to happen if she was to actually join him and be his Queen.

And if Galadriel and Sauron would to have sex (or any kind of sexual/romantic act) it has to be 100% consensual on her part (and that’s what drives the “lorebros” mad) because if Elves are SA they die (Tolkien actually wrote this).

Argument #3: “Sauron is not capable of love! He’s a Maia! He’s an evil spirit obsessed with power, and uncapable of human-like emotions!” 

Maiar were immortal spirts, yes, but they were capable of falling in love, because Melian (a Maia) fell in love with an Elf (Thingol) in Tolkien canon, and these two characters happen to be Elrond’s ancestors. This means that Mairon, the Maia of Aulë, was, indeed, capable of love.

However, Mairon was corrupted by Melkor/Morgoth, meaning his capacity to love was also corrupted. And instead of the “good” and “fluffy” side of love, Sauron is in the “dark side” of it, and his love is possessive, obsessive, jealous, and manifests in unsatisfiable lust, emotional turmoil and suffering.  

I've already talked about this before, but, in “Rings of Power”, Sauron fell in love with Galadriel while he was on his somewhat “repentant era”, and it started out as something purer, but it’s twisting into something darker as he goes deeper and deeper into evil, until it turns into hatred, later on. 

Argument #4: “Sauron can’t have sex! He doesn't care about sex! He’s a Maia!” 

Actually, Tolkien himself wrote about this, in his essay "Ósanwë-kenta”, where he brainstorms about Maiar reproduction. According to the lore, Maiar can, indeed, have sex and reproduce if they are in humanoid form (Elf, human, etc.). Tolkien discourses about Melian (Maia) and Tringol (an Elf): they had sex and a child (Lúthien), and this Half-Maia lady was also able to have sex with Beren (a human), and have children on her own (Elrond and Arwen are descendant from Lúthien and Beren). But there’s a catch: Melian created a she-elf body to be with Thingol, and she became bound to her Elf form because of this. She lost the ability to return to her spirit form, unless her physical body was killed to set her free (which was what eventually happened).

Tolkien also wrote about the corrupted Maiar by Morgoth (Sauron, Balrogs, etc.) and whenever they could take on Orc form in order to reproduce with other Orcs, in his essay “Orcs”. Here, it’s pretty much the same: they can, but if they were to actually do it, they would also be bound to their current physical form, and unable to return to their spirit/demonic form, unless they would be killed to be set free. But there’s another catch: they would be “damned”, too, and “reduced to impotence” after.  

This means that Sauron can indeed have sex with Galadriel (and impregnate her), but he would be bound to whatever current humanoid form he had at the time (Halbrand or Annatar), and, if he was to have such physical form destroyed, he would be damned afterwards (well, Eru did took away his ability to have a body after the fall of Númenor, so it, unintentionally, checks out?). 

The answer is yes: Saurondriel can work in Tolkien’s lore, under the right circumstances: 

Doomship: they love each other but can’t never be together (never act on their feelings);

Dark!Queen Galadriel: she joins Sauron and it’s pretty much the "whole package deal", with lots of obsessive love and hardcore sex.

Galadriel has a moment of weakness and has sex with Sauron; he becomes bound to Annatar form, which only gets destroyed in the fall of Númenor, but he's now "damned" and "reduced to impotence" and that's why he loses the ability to take on a full body? (Ironic how this actually fits the canon).

[immaturityofthomasastruc]

Sometimes I feel the kwamis lore is extremely wasted

For example we know miraculous have been part of history and religion. But this brings the question: what kinds of miraculous influenced what?

There’s multiple myth of persons turning into monsters so has nooroo been miss-used for thousands of years?

what kind of miraculous created Christianity? What kind of miraculous caused all mythology’s to involve snakes to some point (hydras, Chinese dragons, leviathan, jormungandr, etc) what kind of miraculous created the idea of demons and hell?

Then there’s the possibilities of them being concepts and how inconsistent it can be at times.

Like what’s the difference of genesis and Creation? The tiger miraculous power (which I can’t rembeber) and destruction? They are all very similar. So why can’t we just say “screw it” and we get creative with the miraculous

What about Modification? Demolition? Consequences? Translation? Manipulation? Regeneration? Infection? Fortification?

Why kwamis want to help mortals? Why all kwamis accepted being in a miraculous if things like Gabriel could happen? Why isn’t there a evil kwami? (If Plagg extinguish the dinosaurs then I see any other kwami doing despicable things like causing tyrannies, destroying country’s, murder or other evil things but everyone seems totally innocent but plagg)

If there’s a miraculous of illusion then where is the miraculous of reality? Whats the relation of the prodigious with the kwamis? if the kwamis are living concepts then what could their distant cousins be?

How can someone break a miraculous? How can someone absorb that power and put it in a piece of jewelry?

Imagine if Gabriel experimented with the miraculous to make permanent Akumas, imagine if someone used the miraculous to make weapons? We know the power of the miraculous can be transported through technology so why isn’t there Cataclysm/tiger miraculous powered canons yet?

The possibility’s are there but is a lot of wasted potential

My biggest letdown was knowing a single sentimonster destroyed the order of the guardians of the miraculous when their job is to defeat the miraculous yet a simple sentimonster they themselves have written in the book killed them all

Imagine if a rouge kwami escaped because of feast and then destroyed the guardians. We could have a potential antagonist which we know is dangerous since it killed all the guardians and we know how powerful kwamis are

Seriously a kwami has a villain is a 100% times more threatening and interesting has a final threat than Lila or Gabriel. It also makes sense to have has a final Thanos like threat to defeat if they want to make Gabriel relatable. Also lila is a kid so making her the unredeemable monster and not Gabriel would be like fuel for Chloe stans to point out the classic “adult? Redeemable. Teenager? EVIL” everyone is angry for since season 3 ended

With the concept of the Miraculous being used through history, you can do one of two things:

Use it to flesh out the mythology of the world and explain how the Miraculous affected history while furthering the story.

Just cut loose and connect Miraculous to all kinds of historical events, making it clear it was done to just have fun with the concept.

Instead, all the show does is occasionally mention that the Miraculous have been used throughout history while focusing on the modern conflict. I get why that's more important, but if you're going to introduce something like the idea of Joan of Arc using a Miraculous, do more to explain how history changed as a result.

The idea of a rogue Kwami could also be interesting, as most of the Kwamis are one-dimensional characters who do nothing but spout random advice and screw around when they're not being used. Too bad we needed to give Gabriel three different villain identities instead.

[realmonsterboyhours]

Anguism (GodNaga!Beej Lore Post)

This is something I’ve had in the works for a while. I wanted to expand on GodNaga!Beej’s lore, and the religion practices Scarabee would use. Please note that this is a false practice, created so we wouldn’t end up offending anyone who practices real religion when we talk about Scarabee. Everything you will need will be below the cut! Trigger warnings: Mention of blood, mention of violence.

Anguism- A religious belief system worshiping Betelgeuse/Beetlejuice, an eldritch abomination. Also known as a “God of serpents”

(Anguis = Snake/Serpent in latin since he predates christ)

Origin of Betelgeuse:

Born from the explosive creation of the second brightest star in the constellation Orion, Betelgeuse was the product of a spare fragment of the star colliding to the planet earth which had disrupted a snake den. Thousands of years later an earthquake shook the remains free from the rubble of the long-forgotten den. What was released was a horrific creature, half-man, half-snake.

In his search for purpose, the beast found refuge in cave systems where he resided for thousands of years that unbeknownst to him was rather close to where a small settlement of early humans would eventually reside. Revered for his strange shape, and his immense power it wasn't long until the locals had begun seeking him out for protection and prosperity.

In return for their praise and sacrifices, he offered the humans protection, and for centuries he served them. Night after night he would watch out for the members of their small town, returning children lost in the forest, blessing crops, and livestock. The people worshiped the serpent for generations, passing beliefs, prayers, sacrifice ideals, and the likes down from father to son and so forth.

As time moved forward and with the rapid spread of Christianity, the few faithful followers took to his shrine where they wrote everything they could in books, scrolls, and tomes. The history, and practice all were archived and stored in a small temple where worshipers would come to pray or leave their offerings.

Misfortune struck the village when they were attacked, raided for their ‘false God’, and the settlement was burnt to near ashes. All remaining members of the religion were taken by those who lead the raid, never to be seen again.

In a furious rage, the serpent emerges, thus begins a great wipe of carnage and destruction. The snake god had taken on a form even his most devout followers would likely have not recognized. Those who witnessed it had gone mad, or simply dropped where they stood, their minds not able to comprehend what they had seen. The rage took place for days, those who were ordered to try and subdue the monster lost their lives, like lambs to slaughter until the great beast settled after day three.

Shocked and appalled by the state he found his beloved village, he retreats, with the last of his strength he retrieves the books and scrolls and hides them away within his own temple, protected with the last of his magical ability before he collapses, only to wake seasons later bound in chains to a large pillar in the broken remains of his once-grand temple’s atrium, where he remains, locked and powerless for centuries, hidden away in the ruins of his only home, defeated and left with the weight of guilt of his followers' lost lives and his inability to protect them.

Practice Belief:

The main focus of his belief is based on trust, blind obedience, and sacrifice. In return, you receive a benevolent God, and those who earn his favor will be gifted with immortality, or an afterlife to serve him.

Worshipers:

Anyone can worship this God, but the hidden knowledge often times makes it nearly impossible to hear of or practice so the religion is quite small. Worshipers gain favor over time in their trust, tasks given to them by the beast. Sacrifices and gifts are also required. This ‘level’ makes the majority of his worship. Most followers of his fall under this category. In basics, you simply serve him, and in return, he will help when called upon.

Devotees:

Devotees are a group of individuals that have earned his respect. These individuals are blessed with the ability to see their God first hand, or may be requested or summoned when he may need. He may telepathically visit these followers with insight to their future, if they are in danger, or other things similar.

Marked:

Also known as ‘priests’ of his religion.

Those who are marked have earned his highest favor. In a way, he has claimed them with a mark that will bond those marked with him forever. Those who are marked may expect eternal life serving him. Those who are marked would be offered the knowledge written in ancient times. Special powers would be granted, typically powers manipulating shadows, or altering one’s own body are gifted. “Priests” or those who are marked will be taught the serpentine language that is exclusively distinct to the beast. Only the most devout, trusting, and self-sacrificing would ever be considered to be marked.

Tools of practice:

Tools of practice are very aligned with an eclectic pagan. Divination tools and ceremonial daggers are primarily used tools. Presents and gifts from the beast should also be used in practice, including protective jewelry and collars from him. The use of alcohol is also strongly suggested, and nearly every spell, and offering to the serpent includes dark alcohols. Of all tools used it is important to note that intent, trust, and faith will always be the backbone of this religion. Those who cannot simply trust cannot worship this deity.

True magic versus spell working:

There is a stark difference between true magic, and spell working within this religion.

Spell working can be done within any level of this worship. Spell working would include making things like spell jars, candle magic, divination, offerings and prayer.

True magic is only accomplished by those with the serpent’s mark. Users of true magic are gifted from the serpent himself and typically have abilities that control shadows, or manipulate their own form at will.

Common historical offerings for Beetlejuice:

-Gold, jewelry, coins, money, jewels. -Small offerings of virgin blood. He was known for feeding directly from them or through small vials. -Livestock, raw red meat, hearty breads -Alcohol -Personal letters of devotion -Acts of devotion could be protecting those at risk, protecting and caring for the shrines, caring for snakes.

Common modern offerings for Beetlejuice:

-Dark alcohol. -Red meats and hearty breads. -Coins and special trinkets. -Acts of devotion include protecting those in need, caring for snakes, and if allowed visiting him, or communicating with or praying to him.

Common themes or repeating imagery: 

-Snakes, crows, beetles -Green, black, white, gold -Elements of earth and fire -Bones and ash/soot -Mist/fog -Autumn -Bogs and open fields -Shadows -Broken glass/chains/broken stones -Old books -Dark blood like that found in veins -Things repeating in threes -Ouroboros

The mark

Being marked by the serpent God is something akin to a marriage but not in the traditional ideas. It binds you two forever, it shows both himself and the recipient just how much they mean to one another. The mark is given usually in private, a small ceremony between the two may be held, usually pertaining to drinking, sharing a meal, sharing some form of promises and then finally the mark is given when the serpent bites you and pours some of his own power into the recipient. The mark heals quickly and the bite leaves a very small marking of a snake on the skin of the one he marked, that spot will work as not only his vow to you but when either party touches the mark the other will feel a warm feeling spread from it. It can be used as a sort of built in security system that the God uses to warn the recipient of danger. Very few have ever been marked, he does not take it lightly.  In current official lore Scarabee Shoggoth is the only surviving marked/priest, and in the past only three others had ever been marked who were taken away during the attack on his temple. He to this day does not know what happened to them, their marks have long since gone cold, and their life force had gone during his years of unconsciousness. He mourns them greatly and every 100 years on the anniversary of what he presumes are their deaths he pays respect to his lost followers.

Information about Betelgeuse/Beetlejuice himself.

Appearance:

His most typical appearance is as naga, about a 10 foot tall. His tail is thick and constrictor like, black and white stripes that are slightly iridescent in certain lighting, with black ventral plates. His upper body is large, he has quite a bit of muscle from the way he moves around, large arms, broad shoulders, and well defined back muscles. His chest is also quite strong. His stomach has a lot of muscle but a thick covering of fat that makes him look quite chubby. He has long black hair that falls down past his shoulders and chest, usually to rib length. Can be straight or wavy and messy. His hair is styled in a half shave with a few braids that are beaded with gold. His ears are pointed, he has two small black horns on the top of his head that curl in and back. He's got several piercings, and wears almost exclusively gold and emeralds. Around his waist is a black and white striped cloth that he can be drawn without.

It should be mentioned that he can control his form at will. He can make himself smaller, bigger, human, naga, snake, or otherwise strange monster form that is unfit for human eyes.

In his human form he is tall, similarly shaped as his naga form in terms of body size. He typically wears dark colors, favoring blacks, gold, and dark green or jewel tones. His hair is still long, coming to about his collar bone.

Personality:

Rough, abrasive, and more than a bit full of himself. He can be selfish and jaded, he's quick to anger, and he's quick to punish. He very much embodies the act first and ask questions later. He can be a bit quick to jump to conclusions and can be very hard to get to know. Can be quite a trickster, often cat-like and chaotic. He gets a sick rise out of terrifying newcomers just for fun.

Things to consider for self-ship:

Obviously this is completely open ended for you the reader/viewer/shipper to do whatever you wish with the story or ideas you have, but these may help you make some decisions!

He is meant to sort of have a pre-existing relationship with Scarabee. They are in fact some sort of romantically inclined. Proving your loyalty to Scarabee would likely bleed over to the deity over time. Self shipping with Scarabee and GodNaga!Beej as a poly deal is a common mode for sure, however, if poly isn’t your thing or you don’t want to ship with Scarabee at all, you could just as well meet him without Scarabee’s help. He’s open ended for the ease of the reader to write/draw/hc/or do whatever they want. It’s also important to note that while he is rough and abrasive, he is not incapable of feeling emotions like love, and lust and the likes, he us just far less likely to experience it than others might. He tends to get a bit confused by affection, and isn’t quite sure what to do with it, but it IS a massive ego boost for him.

Trivial facts:

-We nicknamed him ‘Snubban’ for “Snake Husband”. -He has a potent aphrodisiac venom. -He can and will give you a golden collar or bracelet if you don’t want to be marked, or just if you offer yourself to him. -Nicknames from him are typically akin to small animal names like “Rabbit” “Mouse” “Little Pet” “Lamb” etc. -He does in fact shed! Usually once a year, often gets real bratty and princess-like, making Scarabee come down to help him with the shed since it’s so itchy. -He usually stays within his temple, but he does in fact visit the estate as an extended universe character, and also has been known to simply venture out to see what humans are up to in his human form sometimes. -Scarafaggio and him would have crossed paths in their time on the earth. We’re still ballparking ideas on that. -My HC for his voice would be similar to Thresh from League of Legends. -

[zayashmaya]

dipping my toe into clown lore

@clusband my ode to u

i was gonna make a much longer post about this but i have a really important exam in the middle of august so I'm too anxious to focus on anything else but i wanna spout some clown lore that’s gonna appear in my fic

see below for information on the human carnival festival, its ties to saturnalia and the feast of fools, and how i think purplebloods share similar practices.

warning: mentions of violence 

i’ve been digging around the web to learn more about the carnival festival that is celebrated globally in human culture. why do we go apeshit with cool costumes and indulge in our base desires during this holiday? what the fuck is it even for? 

turns out, it’s rooted in religion! who knew dressing in skimpy outfits and partying would be tied to god. i knew, that’s who. here we go - 

carnival seems to be a christianized version of saturnalia, a festival thrown by the romans to celebrate their god saturn. in much the same fashion as modern times, it was a big party with lots of fun and food and gambling and maybe a human sacrifice thrown into the mix, complete and total meltdown of morality, nothing too spicy. people also gave gifts and allowed their slaves to be seen as equals during this holy day. a person is nominated to be the king of saturnalia to oversee the festivities and act as the event organizer. this role might have also been used to instigate whimsical activities, because according to wikipedia (i know, crucify me for using it as a source): ‘His capricious commands, such as "Sing naked!" or "Throw him into cold water!", had to be obeyed by the other guests at the convivium: he creates and (mis)rules a chaotic and absurd world.’ 

but wait, there’s more! remember that human sacrifice i mentioned? yeah, it’s the king of saturnalia. At the end of 30 days from the start of the festival, their throat is slit on the altar of saturn. According to James Frazer:

We are justified in assuming that in an earlier and more barbarous age it was the universal practice in ancient Italy, wherever the worship of Saturn prevailed, to choose a man who played the part and enjoyed all the traditionary privileges of Saturn for a season, and then died, whether by his own or another's hand, whether by the knife or the fire or on the gallows-tree, in the character of the good god who gave his life for the world.

saturnalia, and in particular the role of the king of saturnalia, has been compared to yet another holiday - the feast of fools and all that it entails. it’s not totally understood what the feast of fools was originally meant to celebrate or how it was done, because historical texts kinda slacked on being historical and there were a lot of people who condemned this practice and consequently talked a lot of shit that may not have been true. this festival seems to have started off as a relatively harmless celebration within the church where men of lower rank would switch roles with the higher ups, possibly to symbolize humility and bringing down the mighty. 

the role reversal is very similar to what was done during saturnalia. furthermore, saturnalia was followed by the celebration of the calends of january, where a lot of the same sort of customs were upheld - slaves allowed to be free during festivities, homes were decorated, gifts were exchanged, etc. it seems that this is where christmas stems from. anyway, the theme of “power, dignity and impunity ... [being] briefly conferred on those in a subordinate position” is a common theme among all of these holidays. once again, it’s not really clear where the feast of fools came from or why it was created, but the influences are all there.

historians propose that the theme of role reversal among all of these holidays might be a mockery of those who were displeased with social order. by displacing those who were in power and partaking in the madness during these festivals, it was probably a message to people to show how crazy society would become, and that this was the future they would find themselves in, if everything was switched. or, here’s another theory by Victor Turner:

The order we are mocking is important but not ultimate; what is ultimate is the community it serves; and this community is fundamentally egalitarian; it includes everyone. Yet we cannot do away with the order. So we periodically renew it, rededicate it, return it to its original meaning, by suspending it in the name of the community, which is fundamentally, ultimately of equals, and which underlies it.

anyway, back to the feast of fools. humans were and always will be baboons, so while the feast of fools was largely condemned by the rest of the church, rich civilians were like ‘dudes lets get funky’ and started partying. i can’t summarize what follows well enough, because here is a great description from oxford bibliographies:

While the liturgical Feast of Fools struggled for survival inside the churches, unrelated festivities of bourgeois confraternities of fools outside the churches burgeoned. Dressed in motley costumes with ass’s ears, secular fools had their own distinct traditions of parades, comic performances, and mimicry. Subsequent scholarship largely confused the two traditions, prompting considerable misreading of the older ecclesiastical records and contributing to the mistaken but widespread view that the Feast of Fools was little more than a disorderly clerical revel.

sounds familiar? very much like saturnalia, y'all. history constantly repeats and reinvents itself a la stealing cultures and rebranding it as a new thing. 

somewhere in this absolute mess of history developed yet another tradition that is eerily similar to the king saturnalia - the role of the lord of misrule. a peasant or sub-deacon would be randomly appointed to preside over festivities, and it seems to have been during christmas. ALL of these things converge and influence each other and all happen around the same time (like decemberish), which is why it’s so hard to make sense of what’s what. anyway, wiki says that the lord of misrule “was an officer appointed by lot during Christmastide to preside over the Feast of Fools”. since the feast of fools became bastardized by secular influences, the holiday became one of revelry and weird shit going down. The lord of misrule called people to disorder, just like the king of saturnalia. thankfully, i can't find reports of the lord of misrule being a human sacrifice.

so where am i headed with this? i think this all SCREAMS purpleblood antics. 

as a spin-off from this post, imagine a festival where all purplebloods on alternia gather in the ancient city where the grand highblood once ruled. the lord of misrule is chosen among the clowns that were left abandoned in the city due to their mental instability. this role is immensely sacred to the clowns, because they revere the unstable purplebloods and would gladly follow their commands. as i said in that linked post, the unstable purplebloods are considered to be particularly blessed by the messiahs and are seen as prophets and guides. the chosen lord of misrule cannot really command the festivities because of their degenerated mental state, so there are priests appointed to interpret their word (like Chahut). 

the clowns bring captured lowbloods with them to the festival, and for this short period, they are allowed to be treated as equals. unbeknownst to them, they will eventually be sacrificed. their blood is used to paint the new clown initiates during the initiation ceremony at the end of the festival, in much the same way Chahut baptized mc during her route. as a final blessing to the clowns and to mark the end of the festival, the lord of misrule is sacrificed, and their blood is spilled on a sacred altar that runs down into a pool of purple blood left over from past lords. i dont know what this would be for yet. maybe the initiates have to drink from there, like how eating bread and drinking wine is considered consuming the body and blood of christ. maybe it symbolizes them growing closer to the messiahs. 

i’ll probably come up with more lore, but here it is for now. 

[omgbrainstorming]

John Rogers’ Facebook Live

For those of you who didn’t know, this evening on the UPtv Facebook page, John Rogers (writer and producer of The Librarians and Leverage) did a Live and answered fans’ questions.

Here’s a recap of what happened (it’s a freaking poem, sorry!):

The comments in square brackets [like these] are my comments.

It started with some good old awkward silence (because few people were there and UPtv wanted for him to wait).

He said hi to everyone and marvelled at the fact that he had The Librarians fans watching him from all over the world (Please don’t ask me what time is it where I live). Someone had mistaken him for an actor and he thanked them, but said that they were mistaking him for someone way cooler than him.

In the meantime, he had a record on the wall behind him and someone asked him about it, he proudly took it in front of the camera to show that it was a 45 Bohemian Rapsody record (he’s a big Queen fan).

He reminded all of you lucky folks in the US that UPtv is not only showing all the episodes with new material every Wednesday, this weekend there will be a The Librarian marathon (the 3 movies plus the pilot and interviews with the cast), so don’t forget!

What was his fave moment from the show?

One of his fave was the videogame episode written for John Kim, the idea of the episode wasn’t new, but it was supposed to be a sort of redemption arc for Ezekiel. John Kim wasn’t a seasoned actor when he came from Australia to film the show and he really gave his best in this episode, thanks to - John Rogers added - the help of John Larroquette (Jenkins) and Rebecca Romijn (Eve Baird) who really helped him a lot. 

He added that every single moment spent watching John Larroquette was a great moment [and can’t we Larroquetthishes understand], also watching Rebecca and Noah interact was really funny because Flynn had been really unlucky, romantically speaking, on the show and watching him being pulled out of his shell because of Eve, his equal, was a gift, especially when they figured out that Rebecca had a lot of comedian potential and they learned to tap into that. He liked working with Jonathan Frakes, and when Christian Kane finally got to fight in season 3 and 4 (they intentionally held him back). Overall too many great moments because it was a great cast. 

Please talk about your experience as a writer and producer for The Librarians.

He wasn’t one of the original writers, he just hopped on the first and third movie of The Librarian because Flynn is a polymath and he (John Rogers) has a degree in phisics and could help with lots of science and cool knowledge stuff. After Leverage ended they managed to get the rights to make a tv show out of The Librarian, they had schedule problems because Noah was on Falling Skies, so they needed to make it quickly, they couldn’t replace him because he was a franchise character, so they came up with the idea of a team looking back at the first movie [when there’s that loooooooooong queue of people on the stairs that are trying to get the job like Flynn] and thought “Who are these people who had a shot of living this magical life?” and just one replacement Librarian would have been constantly compared to Flynn, while a team gave them the possibility to have the format change they were looking for. So then they sat down to think how Flynn would change and how these new characters would change. John Rogers thought about the fact that throughout the movies a big theme was loneliness, because this dream job made you isolated, and Noah was all for playing a Flynn who had been through a lot of action in those 10 years and was a different guy. 

What was your inspiration for the episodes you wrote?

They put togethere a lot of ideas, mainly thinking “What is a great myth, urban legend, urban lore, etc.? And how do we twist it?” Because us, the fans, watch a lot of genre entertainment, so we were probably ahead of them in terms of knowing the subject. So they decided to start with “something like the 90s X-Files, something that the audience’s expecting, and twist it!”. He makes the example of the “witchcraft episode” [1x07 The Librarians and the Rule of Three, the one with Morgan Le Fay] “so in the 90s the kids.. it would’ve been a goth cult doing satanic practices, how do we twist it? Well, it turns out it’s actually the parents and it’s with good intentions. And also we brought in Morgan le Fay, fantastic character”. They sit down, think about the themes, do a lot of research, have fun with weird historical stuff and then twist it. Then he added that beside all of this, they listened to whatever John Larroquette would say/point out because “whatever John Larroquette says is super super interesting!” [Preach.]

How did you decide the villains of each season?

Since they didn’t know if they were going to be renewed (this for each season), they always tried to give us closure, they didn’t want to leave us hanging too much, they tried to make each season like a book with only one big villain. Since the first season was a reboot of the movies they used the original villain, The Serpent Brotherhood, to ease us in a new mythology. By the second season they were really fascinated with how books and narrative works, so Geoffrey Thorne came up with the idea of the fictionals. For season 3 and 4 they found an interesting historical path to follow and explore. So they actually decided first what they wanted to talk about in that season and then picked a villain that would fit. 

Where does the story of What Lies Beneath the Stones come from?

[Can I say that this question is getting old?] Jacob Stone comes from a place where he’s uncomfortable with himself and that’s mostly because of the expectations that are put upon us by others, so they wanted to tell you where those expectations came from, in this case from his father. John Rogers was quick to assure us that Christian actually has a great relationship with his father, but they wanted to show what happens when you leave home, when you go out of a “redneck” situation like that. 

If there could have been only one Librarian in the end, which of the LITs would you have chosen?

“Well that’s not fair!” He says that there’s a reason for which he wrote the season 1 finale like that, to show you what all of them would have been like as the ultimate Librarian, partially because they didn’t know if they were getting a season 2 (they filmed it all before airing) and he “has no desire to revisit that nightmare”, he likes to think that “Ezekiel is annoying the hell out of Stone” somewhere, somehow, still all happily together. [Is John Rogers a Jazekiel shipper? Yes, he is]

Had you been able to do a 5th season, what ideas would you have liked to explore?

He thinks that the show had a lot more seasons in it than what they actually got, and they were leaning toward the idea that you can’t keep a secret forever, they would have to go public, they would have to address the fact that magic is in the world and the world would find out and that would have been a whole new mess. 

How did you come up with Galahad and the other immortals?

A lot of it was looking back at the movies, and once they established that Jenkins was immortal and Excalibur was there as a character, “a real character, he made us all cry when he died! I mean, probably my favourite thing in my entire career, is that I made a bunch of people cry when a sword died on tv!”, it made sense to look at the Knights of the Round Table for immortals (with the help of historians on staff, like Kate Rorick) and other immortals too are just “what are other cool myths and how do we integrate them with our story?”

Why otters?!

Always in the Morgan Le Fay episode, they were researching projects to put in the background and they stumbled upon the fact that otters are actually really dangerous, and “when you’re a bunch of writers locked in one room with each other for ten hours a day... you get a little sneaky, and so... deadly otters just became a recurring joke and we just never let it go!”

Which of the cast members could you see as a librarian, working the books and stuff?

Surprisingly for us, he says, Christian Kane, because he had a real interest in history, and he or Lindy Booth would have had a natural inclination towards it. 

When did you decide Charlene and Judson were an item? I ask since in the movies it was never really hinted at.

Bob [Newhart, Judson] was retiring and Jane [Curtin, Charlene] was on a CBS show and they had just enough time to shoot that first episode of season 1 with them, so they had to tie them together to say goodbye at the same time. They first tied them together with her being his Guardian - there was actually a cool sword fight with Jane Curtin we never got to see because there wasn’t enough time - and when they brought her back they got to throw Jenkins in the mix (they liked their banter and decided to up their relationship) [dumbest decision ever], they created a backstory and properly said goodbye to her. 

About the death of Excalibur,

 on the first edit Dean put in the dog whines sound without warning him and when it played he told him it was too heartbreaking, take that out, but Dean loved it.

Did you keep anything from the set?

No, because they were still shooting when he left. Everyone wanted the Globe, but Dean kept it. 

So who was Charlene married to prior to Judson?

Actually, it was after Judson. But he said “think of Higlander, once you realise Judson will never be able to settle down you think, well, maybe you should have a human relationship to have a real life”

What do you think was the secret sauce that made the show so special?

“Honestly, I think it was love”. And the fact that they could literally tap into any subject, and “they could all hit a joke!”, they [the cast] really liked each other, “Rebecca and Lindy were inseparable, everyone adopted John [Kim] as their little brother” so that showed on camera. On a business side nobody else was making a family show. 

How did you keep pace with the episodes so that nothing would happen too quickly?

In the first season they were lucky to be able to write it all before filming it, so they had a solid background, and he says that it’s important, for the emotional growth of the characters, to see the episodes in the order they were intended to, not like they are on DVD, especially “Jake and Cassie are kinda screwed up if you watch them in the DVD order”. The first season is about how you build trust, welcome to the magical world and see them rise to the occasion. In the second season it was how do you change, you’ve been introduced to this world, how do you become a different person. He loves writing about characters who don’t have a choice but to change. The actors really helped (they came up with “Jacob’s dad, the fact that Cassandra had never really dated so she was not aware of her sexual orientation, John [Kim] wanted to talk about his family. So it was very much talkig to them, looking at the emotional story we wanted to tell over the season and then split it into ten and figure out how to pace that”

How much ad libbing space was the cast allowed?

A lot. He knew Christian very well, kinda knew Lindy, “Rebecca was fantastic, John Larroquette has... nine Emmy’s! John Larroquette won so many Emmy’s he had to ask them to stop giving them to him! So, yeah, you let him do what he wants”. John Kim is a natural talent and Noah knows Flynn inside out. So they all go through reharsal (when they ask “oh, can I change this, can I change that?” and you’re like “yeah, sure” unless it’s a piece of information that is needed for later) and then they ask the directors “can I try this? Can I try that?”, sometimes they just go for it and you keep rolling. In the time loop episode (Ezekiel’s videogame) Christian Kane had to say “Some thief!” a billion times in one day and he tried to make it funny and new every single time.

Did you prefer writing more mythical/historical based stories or more science fiction based stories?

Fifty fifty. The mythical stories were funny because they had to find the real story and then find the magic tweak, science fiction is easier because you have control and people assume that what you’re saying is real, it feels easier. He likes the fact that in the historical ones you think “oh wow! That’s really weird, then you Google it and go like, oh wow! That’s true!”, both cool and sometimes disturbing, he says, what more could you want?

 Was it important for you to be working on a family friendly show?

Yes, very much so. Because there wasn’t much you could watch together with your kids back then. It was a beautiful challenge to make a show with deeply emotional stories and characters with real problems, real arcs, and do it in a family friendly setting. Raise subjects that were relevant, like in the Morgan Le Fay episode where a lot of the staff had kids in highschool and they talked about the fact that kids these days are under so much pressure, so much homework and still need to have lives! And they approached that through the metaphor of magic. 

Which tv shows and movies inspired you as a writer?

Old action shows, con shows, Doctor Who, historical shows, The Rocket Files [?? sorry, I’m really not sure about the name, English is not my first language], Raiders of the Lost Ark, old pulps (they structured the episodes titles to be like old pulps). Probably more books. Alastor MaClaine [??], Isaac Asimov, Robert Howard.

If the show had continued, what other mythologies would you have drawn from for ideas?

Probably expand the Arthurian mythology, Asian mythology, Russian mythology, etc. He would have liked a more diverse casting with the new mythologies to make it even more inclusive as a show, because The Librarians are the Guardians of the world and you should have world cultures and world mythologies represented. 

What were some of your favourite ideas put into the show?

Santa Claus. He thinks it came up because they knew they were going to be a winter show, so they had a Christmas episode, and he said “well, we can just do Santa Claus!” and then someone said “he’d be a friend of Jenkins because he’s immortal!” and then “but who do you get to play Santa Claus?!” and Bruce Campbell had just conveniently moved to Oregon. He was a delight, everyone loved him and he broke their hearts when later his schedule never allowed him to be back on the show. Jeff Thone’s fictionals as well, the vampire quest with Cassie and Jenkins and Clara Lago (Estrella) because of Cassie’s sexuality that was set out at the end of season 1 and had to roll out, basically they figured out who she had chemistry with, “Honestly, I was kinda going for her [Cassie] and Baird, but we never got there. Yeah, Noah kept coming back and he’s a charming bastard! Ops! I’m not supposed to swear, sorry” [John Rogers is a wild fanboy and I love him]. “Most of my favourite things were not mine”

About Nicole coming back:

They had to be careful, because it wasn’t something that could have happened in season 1, the story had to progress before her [you could have just... not brought her back? Just saying], the show needed to be able to stand alone and only then they could bring a character from the original movies back [yeah, but like, why Nicole?? Why not Emily? Better yet, why not Simone?? And don’t you dare tell me “Simone died” because guess what, Nicole was dead too.] 

Which character was the most fun to write?

It’s a tie, but Lindy because he had fun with maths, all the calculations she does they (espacially he) did them, in the pilot when she’s in Stonehenge, John Rogers went there and had fun calculating the actual height of the sun in Germany at that particular time, and then Rebecca because she’s a gifted comedian ancd actor, like with the story that Eve tells Ezekiel in the time loop episode that was the anchor to that episode. 

Who’s your fave director to work with?

They were all great, probably Mark Roskin and Jonathan Frakes. 

About the pilot:

The pilot was a challenge because in the middle of it they found out they could not have Jane Curtin for the second half, so her part was rushed. 

Did you ever have to deal with writers block trying to create such intricate arcs? How did you or would you deal with it?

There’s the writers’ room, so hopefully when you’re stuck, the others are not. That’s why it’s important to rely on your writers, because even if you don’t have a way to approach something, they will. There’s an old saying that goes “you don’t think your way out of a writing block, you write your way out of a thinking block”, if you are stuck you just start writing, even if it’s bad, till you hit one interesting line, one interesting moment and you hook on that and realise that that was what your brain was trying to get to. 

It was action packed, but was it hard to keep it family friendly?

No, lots of them had kids so they knew the right tone. Action doesn’t mean brutal violence, the most challenging thing was how to do the emotional stories that are mature but still resonates with, like, 12yo. 

Did you ever start working on an episode and find it wasn’t working? How did you change in the fly?

It happened only once to him. The physical sets weren’t lining up, they were trying to go for a dream sequence (later on they made something similar with the Wonderland episode), so they changed it with the “deal with the Devil in a small town with Baird’s old friend”. 

Was there ever a storyline that you wanted to do and didn't get to do?

He would have liked to do something more with the “the Government has found out that magic is real”, especially because the idea of magic in the show is not “weeeeee, we can do magic now! Hardwork is what pays off and magic is a short cut and is dangerous”, Jenkins is saying it constantly, they wanted to blow up some myths “everyone loves talking about kings and queens, but everyone forget that that means you don’t have any rights, that’s why Jenkins had that speech at the end of episode 10″ [season 1, Loom of Fate]

Who was the best poker player?

Not John Kim because he has no poker face “I love the boy but you can see everything that he’s thinking crossing his face at all times”.

After the time line resetted in the last couple of episodes, do you think Jenkins still has his D&D games with Jeff?

As you may have noticed from episode 10, season 1, Baird points out that the thing she did with Santa that enables her to remember all the other timelines did not come from the Clippings Book, it came from Jenkins, so the assumption is that Jenkins can at least see other timelines and certainly as immortal he’s aware of them, he’s a different relationship with time, so even if during the timeline reset maybe Jeff doesn’t remember, he [John Rogers] likes to think that Jenkins found his way back to them, if that was something that he enjoyed doing (and John Rogers thinks he does), “but Jenkins definitely remembers all of the timelines, wheter he admits it or not”. [Like, be still my Casskins heart, he remembers, he remember Tea Time in the Annex, I’m cool, I’m calm. Fine. Someone call an ambulance]

Which character relationship was your favourite? Eg. Eve/Jenkins, Jake/Ezekiel etc.

He says that the question is which characters do you prefer to write, because that’s how they exist, with dialogue. He loved Eve/Jenkins because they were “the old guys”, they’ve been through a lot, a lot of pain, loss, so there was a lot of bonding ground in those scenes, and Cassandra and Jacob because they both didn’t have a chance to live their best life, “because Ezekiel is living his best life, it’s just a shallow one”, and then as Lindy and Rebecca became friends they just let them ride with it. And then Flynn/Everybody because when Flynn shows up they can torture him and have fun. 

In the first episode there’s a conversation between Jenkins and Eve about Flynn’s mental state that i just LOVE. It made me fall in love with Jenkins.

That’s the idea of Jenkins, he’s been through A LOT, he’s known pain, has lost a lot and he’ll help you to help other people the way he couldn’t. [I’m crying, someone needs to hug Jenkins for like, a whole new season. I volunteer]

Did you have a favourite artefact?

They were trying to distance themselves from the movies by stopping the show from being all about artefacts. He can’t choose. But he really loved Frankenstein, loved that everyone forgets that in the book he’s actually really literate and wanted to bring him back to show his relationship with Ezekiel but the actor wasn’t available. 

What are you up to currently?

After The Librarians and The Player on MBC he’s adapting the Kingkiller Chronicle by Patrick Rothfuss for the tv.

Was the storybook episode easier or harder to write?

It was really easy once they figured out the archetypes, they wanted to subvert the tropes because they didn’t want Jacob as Prince Charming and they knew Ezekiel was Jack, so Cassandra being Prince Charming was a great clue of what would happen later on “and also, she nailed it! She was amazing, everyone was amazing”. It was very easy to write but very hard to produce. 

I remember reading about an abandoned "Black Mask" idea. What was up with that?

They were thinking about doing a much more complicated time travel story (for season 1), where Eve, instead of being thrown into parallel dimensions, would be thrown back through time, and they’d later reveal that each time the “mysterious hero” that Jenkins was supposed to tell them about, appeared in time of need was actually one of the Librarians going back wearing the mask to save the day, and that Jenkins himself originally had that role. 

In the episode with Dorian Grey, how difficult was it to turn the classic art story into the electronic version.

The idea came very easily, from selfies to narcissism, from that to Dorian, that’s done. 

I loved your blog posts as we went through first season - thank you for that!

He said thank you.

What a great storyline that would be - the black mask - maybe if you get to do reunion movie!!?

He said that instead of looking back he’d like to move forward, what would it be like for them not to have to hide anymore. 

I think the darkest episode was the Bender House, but it was really cool.

Perfect example of twisting classic stories.

Would Ezekiel have ever found aliens?

No, never! They find it too funny, in a world were everything is true, aliens are not. 

Did you ever think about having a kind of "flashback" episode of Jenkins' Arthurian times? [This was mine]

[Ignoring the fact that he though I was Spanish just because I told him who played Estrella - I just Googled it, I’m weak] They did think about it, it was going to be in the season 2 finale, when Eve and Flynn go back in time, it was supposed to be a King Arthur episode, when they were to find out that Shakespeare was Merlin, find him and give him their statue so he would be the guardian of it, but then they thought it’d be cooler - and John [Larroquette] himself liked this better - if even he didn’t know what was going on and they could talk more about his longing and the loss for Flynn and Eve like everybody else, they didn’t want him to be like “let the LITs suffer thinking they’ve lost them while I know better”. [So either the episode didn’t make sense or like... Galahad was just hanging out with Merlin in the Elizabethan period?? So it wouldn’t have been “his Arthurians time”, just “hanging out with almost the only remaining buddy from Camelot”, still cool, but I meant like, middle ages]

Who came up with the Serpent Brotherhood?

It was the original writers. 

He finished reminding averyone about the marathon, to tweet along because the actors will be active (he’ll personally bog John Kim so he’ll remember), he’ll be on the hashtag too. Thanked us fans and closed hoping for new The Librarians material.

Now I’m knackered, it’s stupid early in the morning here, I have yet to go to sleep, send help. (If you see any errors, please let me know!)

[jefflion]

Hello! I'm writing a story and much of it takes place in a Slavic-inspired setting. I've done alot of research, such as naming conventions, languages, and superstitions, but since it's still in a fantasy setting, their belief system and history is completely my own save for maybe common fantasy creatures, like dragons for example. That said, what would you say are some things someone should be mindful of when writing a Slavic setting? What should be avoided?

Hey, anon! Great to hear you are interested in Slavic-inspired fantasy. 

The most obvious pitfall is: don’t make it into Evil Wild Violent Russians TM stereotype. You must be thinking: “of course! This goes without saying!”, but the trick with writing is to know stereotypes and know how to avoid unfortunate implications. Know what Eastern European people are sick of seeing as a representation of themselves and know what they consider too holy/important not to be touched. 

Common problems: Being wild and dishonest by nature; always starting wars, insensitive, nobody laughs, it’s snowing all the time and everybody is just cold and depressed. And drinking. Yes, these are stereotypes from Cold War movies but these persist. You want to avoid these. Not to say that nobody can drink or be violent, but there has to be a balance among characters. 

This is just a bland answer so I will go in more depth after the cut. (Seriously, it is long!)

I think the first thing you need to decide is whether you want to do a Slavic-inspired fantasy (as in, based on Slavic pagan beliefs) or fantasy based on specific nation’s folklore (for example, Russian) - this one is heavily influenced by Christianity, but also keeps traces of older Slavic beliefs. It is sometimes difficult to tell one from the other even for natives, let alone those who write from outsider’s perspective. Generally speaking, I would avoid basing anything on today’s religious beliefs (example: Russian Orthodox Church), because this is something that many people actually believe in. As for the other stuff… Yes, there are people who might actually believe in some of the old lore but more often than not, this stuff is not to be taken literally.

Which is perhaps the number one thing to remember when writing about Slavs: nothing is to be taken literally. (Or, not just literally.) Every single belief, saying, supernatural being, folktale, etc. - all of it is deeply symbolic and full of metaphors. You see that in Slavic writing (novels, etc.)  Of course, this is true for all (most of) folk beliefs around the world but I do think it is a bit more emphasized than it is in the West. 

So, for example, you have some sort of a supernatural being that attacks people who happen to be outside after midnight. It will attack you and kill you, so you are told to always wear a specific object with you to protect yourself from the attack. Ok, but what does this supernatural being symbolizes? Why does it attack the way it does? Why do you use this specific object? The answer might be that it discourages people to go alone at night and to always have someone they trust with them. That walking after hours is bad because you should be resting and preparing for a new day. The object might symbolize your attachment to your home. Etc. (This is just a made-up example, btw.) To build a good Slavic-inspired role, you do need to know what things symbolize. And those metaphors should be made believably Slavic. So yes, you can invent your own things as much as you like, just remember to at least establish some metaphorical meaning to it that is believably Slavic.

So, what is believably Slavic? It depends on specific culture in question. One of the most common things across Slavic cultures is a strong collective as an ideal and contributing to your family/village/group (not fitting in is seen as dangerous; this is a huge no-no!) Feel free to ask for more (and for those metaphors that are not believably Slavic, such as: “a metaphor for expansion of the American frontier”.)

With symbolism, you can say that Slavic lore is more similar to magic realism than any other type of fantasy. Magic realism is not something that is generally associated with Slavs in the West (as far as I know), but do try to find some resources. This can be very helpful to get into the “vibe” of the story. I can help you find some resources if you need them.

Personally, I think this “vibe” is more important than specific details. You need to get historical details right in a historical novel. In fantasy, you want to get a sense of a world, a specific “vibe” that is reminiscent of a Slavic setting. Yes, part of that can be climate (but remember, many of us live in countries that are not all about snow; on the contrary), it can be language, it can be dresses, but a lot of it is getting these important beliefs and attitudes right. Ideally, even with names Bob and Jane who live by a beach, the reader should be able to tell that it is Slavic-inspired (not that you should use Bob and Jane as names :) ) Many times, writers do take time to research setting, language, history, fashion, etc. but they still write their characters as being… idk, to me, these often read as modern American teens. (This is not a problem with Slavic settings but in general.) You want to avoid that.

This is not easy to get but the good news is that you should try your best when writing and then seek beta readers. They can point some obviously non-Slavic things that you can change. You need to get beta readers native in culture(s) you take your inspiration from, and you need more than one beta reader. Also, research - there are some good resources online but do not rely on Wiki. Try to find scholarly articles. 

Again, this is just my opinion. Others might have different things to say. Which is another thing to keep in mind: it is not possible to satisfy 100% of your readers. Do not aim for that. There will always be someone who feels that you did not get something right. However, as long as you avoid the main pitfalls and unfortunate implications, you will be alright. (Hopefully.) 

Feel free to ask more. :)

[glowyelfboyfriend]

How did they ruin elven lore? I’m sorry, but I don’t know much about the games as other people

I didn’t call this blog ‘Elf Salt’ for nothing

-cracks knuckles-

I have a number of issues with how bioware handled elves in Dragon Age and they all interject to create this terrible mess of a mishandled race allegory that should never have happened. The frustrating thing for me is that most of the fandom is content to kinda just skip past these discussions but as someone who is first nations it actually hits real close to home for me.

Anyways...

Elves in dragon age are very clearly ‘inspired by’ if not completely based on racial experiences and history of Jewish, Roma and Indigenous peoples. (I can only speak to first nations knowledge so its what I will discuss the most).  Historically in Thedas the Elves lived across most of the land and were more or less the dominant race (I’ll get back to that later...). After a massive war they were nearly completed wiped out and enslaved by the Tevinter nation that defeated them. Elven culture was absolutely wiped from Thedas, language and history was completely lost, their cities and holy lands were either destroyed completely or overtaken by the people who know enslaved them.

Their experience as slaves has them widely stripped of any of their culture, their language, they are not permitted to learn how to read and are considered more akin to animals than to other humanoid races (sound familiar to American history?). In other parts of Thedas slavery had ended but elves were only permitted to live on designated chunks of land such as The Dales (does that sound familiar? Hm?) until the human authority decided they shouldn’t be allowed to have it anymore since they didn’t follow their christian-inspired religion, thus swooping in to wipe them out again and remove land promised to them.

In modern Thedas, Elves are still kept as slaves in Tevinter and are kept under such tight authority and law in other kingdoms that they are not much better off. In Denerim it is illegal for elves to own weapons. Elves are stuck living in alienages (which resemble both ghettos AND reservations) where there is no work, they are routinely abused/harassed/raped/murdered by humans (and have literally no legal standing to defend themselves as its illegal for an elf to assault a human whereas there are no laws protecting them) and the alienage is routinely locked up so the city guards can completely wipe out the elves living there. 

There are Dalish elves who attempt to recobble together their culture and history, traveling nomadically with the constant danger of humans deciding to try and attack them (this includes templars, city guards and country folk btw). They contend with constant fearmongering that they are doing evil and malicious things for their traditional religion as well as stereotypes of them being thieves (sound familiar???)   

So here is the thing, up to this point, this is just world flavor and world building. There are critics who find the inclusion of these stereotypes and the ways in which they are represented to be an issue in and of itself. I don’t disgree but its not my actual issue. I think fantasy settings can be an eye-opening and cathartic practice, it can give people who don’t experience those racial themes or hardships a chance to roleplay and maybe understand it a little bit more. As someone who is first nations I find getting to play a Dalish elf in Origins and taking people to task for their balant racism and save the world to be incredibly satisfying. 

The issue is.... once you created a fantasy world where this sort of racism exists you need to be EXTREMELY careful with how you use it. And while I think the writers of this series are talented and did the best they could with the limitations of ‘video game’ I think there were some GRAVE errors, particularily in Inquisition and Trespasser that completely ruined any goodwill they had. 

In Inquisition it felt as if they wanted to try and retcon the race issues they had established, or else had completely forgotten that those race issues were based on real-life issues. The two elf companions you get are, frankly, extremely anti-elf. You have Sera who has tons of internalized racism, which in itself is a really interesting concept to explore, except there is no character arc or closure for this. If you romance her as a Dalish elf you never have a chance to bring her around to stop hating on her race and culture, instead she insists you give up your racial identiy and heritage. Solas... oh gods where do I even begin? To keep it short, Solas’ entire point in the plot seems to be to completely undermine and ridicule elves and all the world building the game devs made. He refers to Dalish as ‘children’ and even mocks city elves, both of which are just coping with racial injustices/slavery/genocide over a couple hundred year history. 

If you play Inquisition as any race other than an Elf you will be presented a picture of elves as nothing more than stupid, misguided, shameful people that take what they have for granted and want ‘more’. Which... let me tell you... as a person who is first nations... that is insanely close to what racist pricks think of us today. Painting indigenous religion as ‘savage’ or ‘primiative’ and infantilizing those who follow it, shutting down people who are trying to find some justice for generations of abuse and trauma all while lifting up characters who are willing to throw their fellows under the bus....... its a narrative that is present in modern day real life race issues. This is all presented as Fact with no solution, no exploration, just ‘how things are’. And I think that’s extremely misguided of the writers, and I wonder when they forgot that these themes were based on real life.

Finally, we get to the cherry on top - Trespasser. Before this game we had humans being widely dismissive of elven religion, but in a way where it was clear that they were just ignorant of a religion outside of their own. In this game they decided to take the history of the elves, their culture and religion and completely tear it apart.

It’s revealed that the Gods elves worship are actually not gods but were just Really Powerful Mages. It turns out the facial tattoos (which is totally a reference to indigenous tattoo practices my dudes) that were devotional to these gods were in fact just slave markings because elves enslaved their own race, and Tevinter had never actually taken them down in war - the elves just destroyed themselves.

I shouldn’t have to describe why taking the most oppressed race in the world of Thedas and undoing their culture/religion and history is a shitty move. I shouldn’t have to, especially with the context of the CLEAR real-world parallels. But everyone seems to miss out on how disgusting this really is.

From my own experience, I have heard this shit about my own heritage and people. I have heard white people say that the injustices first nations people faced ‘wasn’t so bad’ because they were ‘already’ killing and enslaving each other. I have read books written by white ‘researchers’ from only a hundred years ago trying to imply the wrong meanings on sacred tattoos and culture. I have heard these arguments to defend colonialism and genocide. 

If you don’t have these real-life experiences, or you decided to play as something other than a dalish elf who might give a shit about their entire history/culture/family/beliefs/identity you will not notice this. It’ll just be an interesting ‘twist’ and I hate it. I hate that dismantling the ONE THING this systematically oppressed, enslaved and genocided culture had to cling onto has been used for a cheap ‘twist’.

Will they do something interesting with it in the next game? I don’t know, maybe. But kicking down and making elves be the sacrifice for something so identity-destroying is just... its bad. It was a bad choice. You know they wouldn’t do that with Andrastianism, they wouldn’t come out and be like ‘Oh the Maker was actually just some guy who enslaved humans for his own benefit’, and you know why. 

The issue is taking ‘inspiration’ for your fantasy world racial pain and then tossing it aside for shallow twists. Yes, its a fantasy video game, but as someone who IS affected by these REAL-WORLD ISSUES I felt completely betrayed and gutted by my fave escape telling me that my in-game equivalent was a fucking dumbass for believing in the culture of their heritage.

[urfavmurtad]

What are some things about Judaism and Christianity that you learned that surprised you? What about polytheistic religions like native american animism, Buddhism, Shinto and Jainism? Zoroastrians? Baha’i? Yazidi?

Anon this is… such an in-depth question! Idek where to begin here. Of all those religions, I have learned the most about Judaism since I stopped being religious. What I knew about Judaism prior to maybe 5 years ago was mostly just what Islam says about Judaism. Meaning, you know, from Adam to Moses, then it skips ahead to David/Solomon/Saul, then there are some brief mentions of Jonah and Ezekiel and that’s really it.

So I didn’t know a lot, and I wasn’t very interested in what I did know tbh. The only reason why I started reading the Bible is bc I wanted to compare it to the Quranic versions of the stories and see how much Mohammed fucked them up. And that was fun but I didn’t bother to look much further into Judaism past that. The Books of Kings and Chronicles, for example, I took one look at them, decided they were boring, and didn’t read them until only a couple of years ago. That’s when I first got into the whole Biblical history thing. I tried reading a book about how the Bible was put together and realized I didn’t know enough about the Bible itself to even begin.

I forced myself to read those four books and then some of the prophet books (side note: all of the female prophets were left out of Islam, I didn’t even know they existed. Damn it Mohammed!!!). And I’m glad I did, because it changed my whole view of the Jewish Bible. It’s a history book!! Like… that’s literally what it’s supposed to be, a (legendary) history of Israel/Judah, and every bad thing that happens to them is ascribed to YHWH getting pissed off at them, but then like my friend and her trash boyfriend he always forgives them and takes them back even tho they just go on to disappoint him again. The Bible is the world’s oldest and greatest self-drag!!!

Once I actually knew the general chronology of the Biblical kings and shit I could actually make my way through this book without getting confused (mostly). Highly recommend this one for beginners btw, there is a PDF online and it’s not overly long.

And damn… I know there’s some debate about certain elements of it like the exact nature of the “documentary hypothesis” but even just focusing on the stuff that people agree upon, I didn’t know any of it before reading this, beyond there being no evidence for the Exodus/the huge kingdom of Solomon etc. I also knew that early Judaism was a system where multiple gods existed but YHWH was just their patron god, but I didn’t fully understand the process in how he got conflated with El and became the god.

More relevant to this topic, though, I didn’t understand the history behind the Bible itself. Deuteronomy being written separately/earlier than the rest and the Bible claiming that it was “found” in the Temple after like 900 years in Josiah’s time… like I had never even heard of Josiah prior to a few years ago and here I am realizing that this bitch perpetrated fraud that would make Linda Taylor proud. Tf. AND, the whole thing with Judah being way, way less developed than Israel, and Israel was actually a multi-ethnic and prosperous society, but then after the Assyrians handed Israel its ass the Judeans were suddenly the top bitch in school and wrote the whole Bible to make their former northern neighbors out to be assholes?? Wow Team Israel tbh.

Then when you get to the time of the Babylonian Exile tho you have to feel a bit bad for the people of Jerusalem, like the Babylonians were uncommonly dickish even for their time and the ppl of the city were clearly traumatized tbh… a lot of the stories in the Bible, especially those believed to have been added only after the exile, make a hell of a lot more sense when you realize the huge changes occurring in Jewish society at the time. The transition from “there are lots of gods but YHWH is our god” to “YHWH is the god” is completely understandable when you realize that people were searching for some explanation as to why they had all been uprooted and thrown out of their homes, and the obvious explanation is that, yet again, they had pissed YHWH the fuck off by worshiping other gods.

I feel like both Christianity and Islam (but especially Islam) try to separate many of Judaism’s better-known stories from the context of ancient Israel/Judah itself, presenting them as more universal stories that apply to everyone, but tbh the whole over-arching story doesn’t work unless you look at it as a history written by and for Jews who were rebuilding their religion and society in a volatile period. I’m reading this rn and it’s relevant to that topic.

It’s truly a damn shame that pretty much like 0% of Muslims have been exposed to any of this tbh? I feel like almost all scholars of Biblical history come from non-Muslim countries. I have more feelings on this subject but let me answer the rest of your question. First of all, Christianity. I read the New Testament in full a couple of years ago as well. It was obviously way easier to read because the Gospels are all different versions of the same story and the rest is just supplementary material, basically. I think the text itself is pleasant and Jesus was a chill dude. I like him. And the whole… sequence of events made much more sense after I’d read the Book of Isaiah and realized that the authors of the Gospels were viewing Jesus in light of those prophecies. Revelation is a fascinating shrooms trip. The Acts of the Apostles were fun to read, but all the letters were just like w/e. More historically interesting (if they’re real) than interesting in terms of content. Though I do think some of the content in them is very nice, idk if people know this but Muslims think Paul was responsible for perverting the (non-existent) “real” Gospel of Jesus and paint him very poorly. But I dunno, the letters seemed fine to me.

Tbh I was surprised to see how different Islam’s version of Christianity/Christian stories is compared to the “real thing”. I don’t even mean his disastrous misconceptions of Christian theology but just like… with the stories Mohammed pulled from the Jewish Bible (and the Talmud–which I also enjoyed flipping through btw, it’s like a bunch of old guys yelling at each other in written form), he gets details wrong but the overall stories are basically the same. But with the Christian stories, barely anything in the Quran is from the Bible. I think I’ve said this before but like 90% of the stuff pulled from Christianity in Islam is about baby Jesus, not adult Jesus, and even that stuff isn’t from the Bible. It’s understandable when you realize that he was listening to these stories, not reading them, and just picked the ones he liked best… which happened to be later texts. That brings me to a subject that is near and dear to my heart:

Apocryphal texts bih. I love this shit, with full sincerity and zero irony. The weirder it gets, the better. I started out just reading the ones that made it into the Quran, like the Life of Adam and Eve, the Infancy Gospels that I’ve mentioned before, and the Testament of Solomon. Then some Gnostic stuff, which I only read because it has the same substitute-crucifixion thing going on as Islam, but WHEW chile the DRUGS these ppl were on while writing this shit…! The Sethians and the Nag Hammadi library produced such treasures of crazy-ass literature. It makes me sad how so much of this stuff is just totally forgotten now that Christianity is mostly just Catholic/Protestant+Orthodox. There were so many sects and people had so many divergent ideas, some more drug-assisted than others probably!! And Middle Eastern Christianity was very diverse even in the 7th century. Some of the stories they produced had such rich lore. My fave right now is this Syriac collection:

I came across this one while looking for the origins of the al-Khidr story in the Quran. There were all sorts of opinions about who he was, bc Mohammed never really gave any details on his life, but Ibn Ishaq recorded an opinion that al-Khidr was the one who buried Adam and Allah granted him long life in return. So I looked for the source of that story and it was the story of Melchizedek in this book. Then I read the whole thing and man this would make for some weird psychedelic series or sth. It’s online, look it over and you’ll see how trippy it is.

Um… anon this is getting rly long tbh so let me sum up my knowledge of Shinto, Native American animism, and Jainism: not much!! Buddhism I have only an intro-level knowledge of, I know the basics but I don’t know more than that. The beliefs of Yazidis I don’t fully understand, but the little I know is pretty cool. From what I understand it’s a blend of pre-Islamic Kurdish religion + early Islamic influence + some other influences thrown in. It’s sad how they’re branded as devil-worshipers or w/e when the story of Melek Taus is actually really interesting and has a good moral and is way, way better than the story of Iblis. I also enjoy Yazidi architecture and that unique ribbed cone top of theirs. I hope they’re able to live on as a community after, uh, recent events.

I actually was taught about Bahai people growing up but I was told it was some heretical offshoot of Islam comparable to Ahmadiyya people. I didn’t realize it was considered its own religion until fairly recently tbh. I did read the Kitab al-Aqdas (which is blessedly short, this makes Bahai a great religion automatically!!) once. It’s definitely super inspired by the Quran in terms of style and to me clearly seems to be an attempt to make a Kinder And Also More Iranian Islam. I think it’s pretty neat. In fact I think a lot of attempts to magically make Islam “nicer” would just end up making it more like Bahai tbh. And it has a really fascinating history, with the Bab basically being a new John the Baptist and Bahaullah being the one he foretold. He even accidentally ended up in Israel lmao. I also really love Bahai architecture in terms of how diverse it is, with the only unifying feature being visual interest, and I would love to see the temple in India irl one day. India always has the best architecture anyway.

I saved Zoroastrians for last bc I have to be honest here. I tried to look into it, because it’s ancient and had an influence on Judaism etc and that makes it important. Fam I got about 3% of the way through the Avesta before giving up. I was still in the hymns part and just like… every other word was something I didn’t understand. I will go back and try again one day but for now the answer is “lol idk”.

ANYWAY… yeah… I’ve enjoyed reading about religion way more now that I’m not religious, both in terms of Islam and other religions, I can appreciate the process or w/e now that I’m not constantly trying to make it fit into Islam or panicking every time I spot something that makes me question my faith. I know a lot of atheists either fall away from religion altogether or just look at it like it’s something dumb, but even if it’s fake, that doesn’t make it worthless imo. The history itself is always worth studying.

[anannd-morrighan-lus-mor-blog]

Why Christopaganism Needs to Define Itself

Christopaganism is often trying to be what it is not.

It's trying to be Christian. It's trying to be Wiccan. It's trying to be whatever flavor of pagan, in the same manner of "Jews for Jesus". It's trying to wedge Jesus into places Jesus doesn't go (and believe it or not, there are a LOT of places that have seen the bare-footprints of the Lord of Lords). It's Wicca molded on a Christian mythos, or a Christian mythos entwined with one, with three, with twenty different mythologies and none of them synchronizing well. We try to make Jesus into other gods to suit the direction we're too afraid to admit that we're growing into: He's Dionysus and I can get drunk in ecstacy and lose myself in these men, these women, both! He's Cernunnos (yes, I've seen it, and I fight it), He'll rut the Goddess with me or He'll challenge Himself as the Oak King! He's Mithras! He's Horus and Osiris and Ra! He's Sol Invictus! He contains all and so he is all gods!

Don't even get me started on what is often done to the Blessed Mother or Mary Magdalene.

Look, you feel called, genuinely, to serve Christ in a pagan way. It's really not that unusual and it's really not that terrible. Most pagan traditions (I'm talking about the ones we have to reconstruct, but I also include others already reconstructed) have room for reconstruction and synchronizing Christianity of some flavor (Catholicism being the easiest, for historical and structural reasons) with another flavor of paganism. It's all over the Celts (which is where I am) and can be seen as a large and legitimate part of the Faith. You can be a Christian and an Alexandrian pagan. There are places where the Norse faith and Christianity meet. All those pagan traditions that Christianity draws from? They meet too, and that's nearly everywhere. There is no where where Jesus has not gone...the guy has literally been to Hell and back, I doubt he'd turn His nose at Faery, or at so many other places. I'm very sure you can adapt it to forms of Wicca, SOME forms of Wicca, if you tweak it to that you don't completely kill the mythos of both.

The real issue here is not that you can do all these things. *I* love that I can do these things. It's more that I feel like Christopaganism has no real structure...even Wicca has ground rules to follow as new traditions are built, you can likely find a thread to follow in most recons. But where is it? Christopaganism just doesn't know what it wants, or what it is, or what mythos takes precedence, if not a balanced equality, and in the end it doesn't even know who it calls God or what it's own mythology is!

Otherwise, I fear it will go the way it's been going: some attempts and wracking it together resulting in short periods of the limelight, a haven for would-be pagans afraid of betraying family or societal culture (or just afraid of going to Hell), a mishmash of faiths that serve no one but one's self...when the potential for Christopaganism (and all the other subtypes) is so much more, an opportunity to merge the past with the dying present and revitalize what each attacked in the other...the good stuff, I mean.

Christopaganism needs to know what it is, who it is.

Christopaganism is poorly developed and poorly understood.

This may be because that there are SO many ways to develop within such, and that the Christian aspect is usually actively antagonistic towards the more pagan aspect. (It really can't be denied.) While there is a long history or Christianity drawing from and synchronizing with other religions, it also has a long history of demonizing those other religions, as well as the other gods and spirits it has drawn from to form the character of the mythological Christ.

It is incredibly difficult to build a tradition, or a set of traditions under one umbrella, when there is so much cognitive dissonance surrounding it, from the developers, the developees or the pagans and Christians watching on! To get a new religion or tradition off the ground, there has to be a genuineness of belief, as well as the right kinds of motivations, and when this is clouded by personal or sub-cultural bias, it takes something like this a long time to get off the ground...something which is completely unnecessary, seeing as there is plenty of room to redefine for one's self, to agree to disagree and to set forth basic group tenets. Just like in the beginnings of Wicca, and heck, in the beginnings of Christianity, Christopaganism will likely form group by group and unlike early Catholicism, will have to uphold each other's differences rather than seek to assimilate them into a whole.

But for now, we stand wondering why Christopaganism has such a large-scale nebulousness around it. Why pagans and Christians alike turn and snicker and relegate them to the category "not a serious magician" or "not a serious pagan" or just "not worth our notice, only our laughter." Other than the cognitive dissonance mentioned earlier, as well as the sheer scale of what organizing Christopaganism would look like, a part of it like likely the lack luster talent that has noticeably tackled the issue thus far...with the exception of Joyce and River Higgenbottom's book, which I found a little uninspired and sort of route (I have to be honest), but also the most organized and and the most intelligent of the material resources out there. What resources of quality are availabile for Christopagans? A cursory web-search doesn't bring much. So much of what is available lacks substance, lacks meat, and leaves the person delving into the overwhelming (but very interesting) world of lore and history (combing out what can or cannot be found, like any good reconstructionist) or simply settling to the easiest path until something shakes them loose.

The lack of any discernable structure for the Christopagan overall is what may be the most damning, as it often leads to UPG (unverified personal gnosis) of the kind previously mentioned. "St. Michael and Lucifer are lovers!" I remember a Christopagan telling me, years before I found myself in the same spot. To this day, I find the idea laughable and to be a clear deception by God only knows what spirits she's listening to, since this UPG flies in the face of all tradition, all respect and all that we know of the two entities, embittered in enmity until the end of time. Where was she getting some of her mythology? Was she Catholic, or a Catholic-Gnostic, or a Catholic-Gnostic-Angelolatry-Witch? Even so, the UPG was suspect. And so many of us have UPG of a similar vein, that we live breathe and fight for, but what is there to check us?

I believe, personally, that Jesus is a personage in Faery, the High King of Faery (much like the legendary King Arthur) who is sacrificed in the form of a white stag upon the World Tree.

I mean, yeah. Seriously. I totally believe that. I had a long time leading me to it and several studies and experiences that got me there. But just as I say, "What do you do with THAT?" and point fingers at the girl I used to know, what are you also going to do with me?

I actually draw more from the Faery Faith than anything, and use a lot of medieval mythos to inform my opinions...along with the ancient stuff, of course. But the World Tree, while existing in ancient Celtic and Medieval Christian mythos, tends to draw most strongly from the Neo-Celtic Shamanism of John Matthews (whose books I do adore). So what does that make me?

Christopaganism is a mishmash of gods, beliefs, theologies, mythologies and cosmologies, all mushed together until it's unrecognizable. If you can find the roots of your beliefs, you can build on it. But if you can't, and it's only true because you decide it is... 

This lack of development and the poor resources lend to why Christopaganism is so poorly understood. The lack of quality in all areas can only lead one to assume the worst when seen.

Christopaganism, in many ways, is as traditional as other contemporary forms of paganism. Christian and Pagan synchrynetisms have been happening since the two religions met.

When Christianity began its mass spread across the world, it came into contact with many many world religions. And as each religion vied for supremacy in the hearts of others, borrowing cultural and religious customs became commonplace, so much so that Christianity still bears strong traces of ancient pagan practices, changed over time and redefined. Folk religious practices and official religion were equally absorbed...two of the most obvious places were in Alexandria, Egypt (that beautiful melting pot of so many cultures and religions) and in Ireland, where Christianity is present even in our lore since it was the monks who wrote it down, whose practices were absorbed in places by the Celtic church and even lady Brigid sincerely connected to the new religion and became St. Brigit. Not all of this “swapping” was theft, but the natural desire to bring beloved practices and beliefs (and gods/spirits) into the new religion.

I will never deny that Christians and pagans have a lot of blood between them, and that Christians have wiped out ancient paganism in the name of the “One True God” ideology (or mind virus, whatever). I AM saying that not all of this synchronizing has been with the intent to destroy, but more to preserve as best the can the old religions and the new.

I can recommend some of my favorite books on the subject, more or less:

-Egyptian Light, Hebrew Fire by Karl Luckert

-Christian Mythology: Revelations of Pagan Origins by Philippe Walter (questionable scholarship in places, but still a great read)

-Pagans and Christians by Robin Lane Fox

-Christians as the Roman Saw Them by Robert Louis Wilken (where we hear from the Oracle of Hekate that Jesus was a righteous man but his followers were kind of “off”)

-Cunning Folk and Familiar Spirits by Emma Wilby (more of a shamanic and spirit-work overview, though there is evidence of the Christian-pagan blending, even during a time when the Catholic Church held iron control.)

-The Cult of Kingship in Anglo-Saxon England by William A Chaney

-Religion of the Irish Celts by Sandra Bollenbacher

-Where Three Streams Meet by Sean O Duinn (OSB)

-The Rites of Brigid: Goddess and Saint by Sean O Duinn (OSB)

(My apologies at not doing a better job at this section, my CFS/ME has been bad this week.Besides, these books are more valuable than my poor opinion.)

As a result, there are MANY ways to be a Christopagan, but we lack core tenets to have us standing out from pagans who like Jesus.

I would like to propose, for starters, that not everyone who melds Christian and pagan practices, beliefs, etc. is necessarily a Christopagan.

A (Hopefully) Helpful Guide:

Folk Catholic- Someone who is essentially Catholic but incorporations present or past Catholic Folk Traditions into their present religion. Still essentially Trinitarian in a monotheistic bent. This often but not always includes folklore based traditions, such as the Celtic Faery Faith (which is based more on Wicca, Witchcraft or some other forms of Western Traditions...think Orion Foxwood or RJ Stewart...or some forms of Voodoo, Palo and Ocha...a great example is the tradition of Santisima Muerte).(I myself shuffle between this and Christo-shamanism.)

A folk Catholic is someone who typically can be seen valuing the sacraments, valuing Mass (though they may not go as often as your more orthodox Catholic) and finding wisdom in the Bible and the Catechism, though they aren’t afraid to question or reject tenets that seem contrary to their own heart (or Christ’s message, if we’re going to be honest) and usually integrates folk tradition or outright pagan beliefs into their Christianity, often outright transforming the way they see and practice as Christians. They are able to hold community with a variety of beliefs, especially those they espouse, without too much trouble. Sacredness is seen and felt in both places, and held in respect.

Folk Christian- Expand the upper definition.

I have noticed many Folk Christians practice Hoodoo or, in this country, American Regional Folk Traditions (such as Appalachian Folklore). Instead of being strictly “Folk Catholic”, a wide variety of Christian traditions are represented: Lutherans would pair well with Pennsylvania Dutch or Germanic Folk Traditions. Angelicans pretty much do whatever they want in this country, anyway. They have a strong sense of structure that would pair well with Ceremonial Magick, or some revised (or more Christianized) Theurgy. The more low-church types would pair well with mystical, shamanic or ecstatic traditions that would add to, and maybe improve, on their own charismatic technique. Pretty much anyone can work with the tradition of the saints. However, this is only my conjecture; I am sure that all types of Christianity can meld with a wide variety of traditions with the right amount of will, effort and love. 

Christoshaman- Someone who still espouses the Trinity/Jesus as God, even if this has been redefined while embracing the specific mythic thread, and incorporates various shamanic traditions, spirits, practices and even pagan “gods”, though they may be seen as spirits. Some pagan divinities may be worshipped, thought Trinity/Jesus is still seen as ultimate godhead. Mainstream Christianity may or may not be present.

This can be tricky, since the melding of Christianity and shamanism, or shamanic-based traditions, is more intense. Pieces of Christian practices will be let go to make way for new practices. Pagan “gods” may be seen as Gods and worshipped along-side, or right below, The Holy Trinity; or the Trinity may still be seen as God and the pagan gods as spirits, honored and loved and fed, but not as often or in the same way as God, who may be served at Church, honored similar to the spirits, or both! Some gods/spirits will not accept this, some will, and some will accept it for some and not for others. You never know until you ask, and begin the work. The most helpful thing is to find where Christianity and the mythic culture your draw from historically meet, and go from there.

Christopagan- Someone who still espouses the Trinity/Jesus as God, even if this has been redefined while embracing the specific mythic thread, and incorporates various pagan traditions, mythologies, practices or “gods”, though they may be seen as spirits. Some pagan divinities may be worshipped, thought Trinity/Jesus is still seen as ultimate godhead. Mainstream Christianity may or may not be present.

I don’t want to repeat myself, but a lot has been said above. The difference is primarily the focus: rather than teasing out the authentic shamanic essence in a culture, religiously and mythically, you are reconstructing (at least to start) the place where the religions met, and integrated..and there are precious few cultures that have not been touched by Christianity, for good or for ill.

Wiccan Christian- Someone who worships many gods in a polytheistic manner, of which Jesus or the Trinity is one (or three), and seen as “one god in all gods”. If Jesus and Mary are your patron gods and goddess, or if you worship the angels, the saints. Witchcraft may or may not be melded into the main tradition, and not all of the Christian beliefs, tenets or practices may be included.

It is difficult to reconcile Wicca and Christianity, even moreso than Witchcraft and Christianity. One cannot fit Jesus as their god and the Virgin Mary (or Mary Magdalene) as their goddess into Wiccan theology without bastradizing one mythology or completely changing the other. In Wicca, however, successful interweaving is possible: whole traditions are founded on it (see “The Crafted Cup”, an older classic, combining Wicca, Christianity, Arthurian legends and the Grail mythos). The difficulty is in respecting the stories and essence of both, without simply changing things around to suit your passing ideas.

Gnostic Christian- Someone who incorporates Gnosticism with other systems, such as Wicca, Shamanism, Paganism, Ceremonial Magick, and many others.

In my limited experience of this faction, Gnostic ideas are combined with mainstream Christianity (and usually take precedence), and often are combined with one or more magickal systems: ceremonial magick with a focus on theurgy, hermetic or Christian Kabbalah, Witchcraft, etc. I have not seem it combined with pagan practice save once, and while I wasn’t sure of the legitimacy of this practice, I don’t doubt that there are others who can make this work.

Gnostic figures will be present with near certainty, and this includes the more well-known figures, such as Sophia (Jesus’ gnostic other half) and Yalbadoath (Sophia’s son made without mate -and so was imperfect- who others often say is the real spirit of the institutional church. Sometimes I think I agree.)

Angelology, Demonology (sadly) or the worship/work with the Saints may accompany any of these. Many Christopagans may not feature angels, saints or demons in their work, and some may feature heavily. It may seem like an unworkable contradiction to have someone revere Jesus, Satan or others, but I have seen it at least once or twice before. However, the term “Luciferan Christian” or anything having to do with real theistic Satanism is beyond the scope of the article.

PS: Even if you claim to worship Jesus or serve St. Michael, if you worship Lucifer or any form of the devil, you are a Luciferan or a Satanist. Hands down. The streams just do not mix, and there is no argument that can change that. They were made to oppose, which is not the aim of Christianity with any other religion. It is a literal case of "You cannot serve two masters." At the very least, you will love one and forget the other.

So, fellow esoteric Christians and Christopagans, I leave you with just a few hints of advice.

1. Don’t be afraid to make up your own mind.

People love to tell you what to believe, without any regard to your feelings, simply because they believe it and you must believe it to satisfy their strength in said belief, or simply their ego. Don’t fall into that trap. Ask yourself questions, don’t be afraid of the answers, and decide for yourself what you believe, based on what your heart, mind and the still voice of your spirit tell you- don’t believe based on family, or community, or culture. Don’t believe based on threats to your soul (you’re going to Hell!) or to your personal integrity (You are a really ignorant person if you believe this...) Spiritual immaturity accusations are another to let fly by you (You’re just not over your Christianity yet...you’ll grow up some day...).

2. Don’t be afraid to contradict yourself, and catch yourself in contradiction.

Reconciling Christianity with a pagan belief system of any kind is a challenge. There will be a day you believe something and then a day you don’t. There will be a day you waffle back and forth. This is normal! When you are in the beginning stages, or even intermediate stages...or, well, any stage of integrating two spiritualties, there will be changes, fluxuations and stages of belief: where you are, where you’re going, etc. It seems chaotic, but try to just let it flow around you and examine what settles into place. Catching yourself in contradiction will help you see where you have not reconciled your feelings on a particular belief. Having a friend to talk things over with (without judgement) would be ideal.

3. Don’t be afraid to change, as long as it’s to evolve, and sometimes rapidly.

As mentioned: let things flow where they may, and examine what settles. Let your “unconscious” work things through as you do consciously. Try to avoid the chaos of confusion or the similar chaos of excitement, and enjoy both as you take your time in discovery.

4. Don’t be afraid to let go of others who tell you what to believe, or what is right and wrong when it is based out of their own ego or religious programming.

You don’t have to exile them from your life, if they are important to you- but close this part of your life off from them and protect it. Do not engage in conversation about your religion, do not tolerate bad attitudes or insults but be peaceful in your disagreements. Save your vulnerable, developing self, but save your relationships, too.

Don’t tolerate toxic relationships, period. Kick them to the curb.

5. Know who you are. Know what you’re looking at. Know when you’re following something true, and when you’re deluding yourself: we all do it, have done it. There is no shame in owning your faults and moving forward.

Don’t try to be what you think you should be. Don’t try to be what you aren’t.

[themodernsouthernpolytheist]

Can you talk a bit about Southern folk magic? What's that like? How'd you learn it? What makes it distinctly Southern?

@erynn-lafae​ First, I’m so sorry it’s taken me so long to get back to you! I was so excited for this ask, but life just got in the way. I’m also gonna tag @winebrightruby​ cause I know she asked me a long time ago and I never really got to discuss it. 

So, I’ll start with a little background on the term “Southern Folk Magic.” Obviously, hopefully anyway, the term is to denote regional variations of folk magic practiced in the US South. That said, I use it as an umbrella term for the practices that happen Down South because there are TONS. We tend to talk about the South as a whole, but what many folks from outside the region don’t seem to realize is just how much diversity there is down here. Like I mentioned here, there are tons of subregions in the South and just as our food, accents, and dialects are different, so can our magical practices be. My personal experiences have been in Memphis/Mississippi Delta/North Mississippi and Knoxville/East Tennessee/Southern Appalachia. I’ll be addin Atlanta and hopefully North Georgia to that list soon, but not quite yet. 

For those not from the Delta region, Memphis is often jokingly referred to as “the capitol of Mississippi.” This is largely cultural and demographic and I’ve long said “Memphis will always be more Mississippi than it’s ever been Tennessee.” And the older I get, the more true that seems to be. According to the 2010 census, Mississippi has a 37% Black population. It has also seen the largest increase in people reporting to be of “mixed race.” Memphis has a 61% Black population, with many of these folks bein the direct descendants of freed slaves who moved out of the rural South and into a city. And in West Tennessee, which runs from the Western border of the state to the western bifurcation of the Tennessee river and represented by the far left star on our state flag, even small towns often have 30%+ Black populations whereas Knoxville, the largest city in East Tennessee, only has a 13% Black population. So the folk magic I grew up around in Memphis is largely influenced by Black folks whereas East Tennessee Appalachian folk magic is much more influenced by Cherokee and Scots-Irish practices. 

So, when I moved to Knoxville for college, it was absolute culture shock. I wasn’t actively or knowingly practicing magic at that point, but the foundations had been laid. I got a blue doormat for the front door because that’s what you do. Now I realize this comes from a West African idea that harmful spirits can’t cross water and the blue doormat (or painting the underside of your porch roof) will hopefully confuse em. I’ve since learned this is common in Carolina Lowcountry from the Gullah-Geechee people, so I’m not sure the exact lineage of me learnin it, but it’s somethin I still do. Little things like this abound and I honestly only think about it when I find myself doin one of em.

Another tradition I grew up around is water-witchin water dowsing. The first time I heard the term as a kid, I was confused, but both of my grandparents on my daddy’s side could do it and it basically involves balancin a forked stick and when it drops, that’s where you dig your well. Other people use 2 sticks or metal rods and wait for em to cross. Either way, it seems to work.

I also wear a dime on a red string on my right ankle for good luck and to avert “the evil eye.” This is somethin a childhood friend’s grandmother made for me the first time sayin, “honey, you just need it.” And I think she was right. This is a practice that, from what I’ve read, also comes from African tradition, but specifically what or where has been all over West Africa. But the red string also carries over into Irish lore on good luck and as a Gaelic Polytheist, it makes a perfect blend of practices for me. There’s also what I feel like is a broder American tradition that comes to us likely from the Irish of hangin a horseshoe above the door. Modern folklore says to hang it points up so that the “luck doesn’t run out,” but it also seems to do have to do with the idea that horseshoes are traditionally iron and the fae don’t like iron. In East Tennessee, it’s not unheard of to see a tree with ribbons or scraps tied to it. The type of tree varies, but the idea is similar to Buddhist prayer flags (for a more recognized practice) and seems to come from the Gaels that settled in the area. But over heard people say it has Indigenous ties, too. How much of that is true and how much is “Cherokee Princess Syndrome” as I like to call it, I just don’t know. That’s one thing about bein down here; we’ve created a string cultural identity that, regardless of how it happened, mashed cultural practices together that there’s just no tellin where some of em exactly come from. And that’s honestly part of what makes it “Southern.” Our culture is an amalgamation of various African cultures, Irish and German immigrants, Acadians, French and Spanish historical colonization and influence, and countless indigenous cultures. If the stories of how that happened weren’t so absolutely mortifying, it could be beautiful, but we’ll always carry the wounds and scars of the past, imo. As for how I learned, it’s been a wild ride. A lot of things I just learned culturally growin up. When you’re “born in the South, given to a town raised on hand to mouth,” a lot of things I’d now qualify as folk Magic are just a part of life. But as I’ve grown and begun intentionally practicing, I’ve read everything I can. Lots of times, this means pickin through charlatans and pseudo-intellectual horseshit. It means often bein VERY wary of other white folks claimin to know anything about anything. I’ve talked to older folks who practice and try to learn what they’re willin to teach. But it’s been a tough road. And that, along with other historical factors, are why I don’t use terms like hoodoo for my practice. I think hoodoo is a form of Southern Folk Magic, but it also has its own specific history and practices ties to the Christianization and slavery of African peoples. I’ve found a lot of similarities in my practices and Hoodoo™, but I also have a much more heavy and specific Irish influence because of bein a Gaelic Polytheist than a lot of other folks. So, as with most topics, it’s incredibly nuanced and I’m sure I’ve left somethin out or even said somethin that wasn’t super clear, so if there are any questions, shoot! And if there are any other folks that practice Southern Folk Magic or Southern-influenced Magic, hit me up! I’d love to hear from y'all cause lord does it feel lonely sometimes. We can pm here, send me asks, hit me up on twitter, or shoot me an email at TheModernSouthernPolytheist@gmail.com.  

[gigslist]

Grateful Dead and Da Vinci Codes Updated

Branding is an important business tool of a musician’s or band’s marketing. A music artist’s logo is as vital a visual asset as a music artist’s stage wear and hair. And if an audience doesn’t remember you or your name, they will remember your logo. Modern music branding, as we know it, started in the 1960s. When music artists lived and worked with bands face to face. Some living together in communes. The Grateful Dead is a USA folk blues jam band with a psychedelic cult following. The Dead, as their fans call them, came out of Haight Ashbury, San Francisco, California. The Grateful Dead symbol is the Grateful Dead lightning bolt.  “When the group formed in 1965, the Dead provided an American alternative to the overpolished and squeaky-clean Beatlemania still captivating the world. The Beatles, of course, would eventually come around in agreement. But it was the Dead, among other acts, who set the tone for the let-it-all-loose rebellion of the '60s. Could there be a better insignia than a tie-dyed skull to celebrate the revenge of the turned on, tuned in and dropped out? The Dead wove the image of the skull through much of their presentation, from album design to music-festival art. Two skull-based logos that hold up include the red, white and blue lightning bolt and the rose. The first was the creation of sound engineer Owsley Stanley, also known as "the Bear," who says he wanted to put a mark on the band's equipment so he knew who owned what at multiact music festivals. The Rose was the artistic work of Stanley Mouse and Alton Kelley. The duality of virgin floral beauty and the cult of death was of a piece with the message of a band known for saying, "a friend of the devil is a friend of mine."” Time.com 2010  Haight Ashbury is full of Masonic lodges and Knights Templar churches. Many built in the late 18th and early 20th century. La Belle Epoque and Masonic symbols inspired arts and design in the 1960s and 1970s. Especially in Summer of Love music poster designs. 

The Haight Ashbury Street Fair logo, founded in the 1970s, features a pyramid with an "all seeing eye" on a bed of roses. Masonic symbol themes appear through many poster artists’ work of the era. Relaying a subliminal message.  The 13 point lightning bolt or Grateful Dead bolt as an example. The skull, rose, circle and lightening bolt. All are symbols of the Masons, Catholics and Knights Templar. The symbols' origins and early meanings before that are the mystery and the key. Knowingly or not, what artists do is keep these mysteries alive in the public psyche. In no small way. Their fans keep spreading the symbols in tribute art on anything that images can be applied to. Including permanent facial tattoos. 

Get somebody tripping on any kind of psychedelic and tell them something over and over and they will believe whatever that something is you are telling them.  This is how new age cults recruit newly open minded avid followers.  The quickest way to be a guru with a following who follow your every word is host LSD parties.   It is also how the Dead got such a huge cult following that has been multigenerational since the 1960s. Ditto for electronic dance music, EDM.

The Dead and friends were trying to open minds to the "truth of oneness" through music and psychedelics. While this is admirable in its concept, it has a double edged sword. The minds they opened were later drowned in new age space alien guru conspiracies on all kinds of drugs.  Give somebody any kind of psychedelic and tell them something over and over. They will believe whatever that something is you are telling them. This is how new age cults recruit open minded avid followers. The quickest way to be a guru with a following that follows your every word is to host LSD parties. 

Tripping is how the Dead got such a huge cult following. A cult following that has been multigenerational since the 1960s. Ditto for electronic dance music, EDM. I know EDM producers and DJs from the 1990s who are grandparents. hieroglyphs that in the 21st century we call heraldry. 

The Dead’s skull iconography was more likely inspired by the Day of the Dead festival. A popular Latin American theme in California, featuring skulls and roses. The lightning bolt may relate to the first time somebody takes LSD or mushrooms. Their minds get opened to other realities and ways of thinking.  Masonic and Knights Templar institutions have large visible ornate buildings in Haight Ashbury. The symbols on the buildings are a language and they are history books. There is nothing mystical or extraterrestrial or even Biblical about the symbols. The symbols on the buildings are history books. Not the histories taught in school books. Bible miracles and winged angels and demons with superpowers don't actually exist. If you think they do, you've had too much screen time. Step away from the phone and game console and the remote… like now! In Masonic and Knights Templar lore the Grateful Dead symbols are common symbols. The skull, lightning bolt and rose relate to the Holy Grail Bloodline. San Graal is the original name in French. It means Sainted Blood or Holy Blood, another name for royal blood. The big secret is that Holy Grail, in a nutshell, is just another name for Royal Blood.  Before written words as we know them, histories got written in symbols. Jesus was a King of Kings, so he was a royal. A King of Kings is an emperor. Royals have always recorded their family histories in a form of pictorial hieroglyphs. In the 21st century we call it heraldry. 

Heraldry is a symbol relating to an event or career in a royal’s life. Such as a ship for a navigator or a tower from a land that an ancestor ruled. A flower from a poem an ancient ancestor wrote in the Bible. Sometimes the symbol meanings are related to royal status. A coronet for a prince and heir. Each symbol is not an isolated abstract. Each symbol is rich with history and back stories and the people those back stories are about.  Symbols are a kind of shorthand to record dynastic epics. Line up symbols and their stories with other symbols and whole libraries of lost history appear. Different versions of history to our school history books and Bibles. Histories with kickass women rulers, women scholars, women warriors and women priests. They didn’t need Bible miracles or extraterrestrial super powers or fantasy fiction. They had the real thing. "Whatever is hidden is meant to be disclosed, and whatever is concealed is meant to be brought out into the open.” Jesus Christ from the Gospel of Mark  In Stanley Mouse and Anton Kelley’s skull and roses logo, are symbols of Mary Magdalene of the Bible. From the Bible, “I am the rose of Sharon, and the lily of the valleys. As the lily among thorns, so is my love among the daughters…”  Song of Songs II, also called the Song of Solomon. It is a love poem written by Mary Magdalene to Jesus Christ.  

The historical Mary Magdalene was of Greek descent and a royal. Magdalene means "Great Queen", an empress, the same as Catherine the Great. Ancient monarchs had god avatars and symbols. Roses are a symbol Venus, a goddess of love and was once a real person. The real life Venus was an ancient ancestor of the historical Mary Magdalene. This is how the rose is in Mary Magdalene’s lexicon of symbols and Christian icons.

Floral and leaf wreaths with ribbons are ancient Greek and Roman headwear. It denotes them having Gods and Goddesses for ancestors. The head wreath with ribbons is the headdress of the Goddess Nike. A goddess who is also syncretistic with Mary Magdalene. Nike is the goddess of victory. Her Greek name is Bernike, the ancient version of the name Bernice.   The story gets confusing from here. There are at least two historical Jesus and Mary Magdalenes. Both were emperors and empresses and other elements of their stories the same or similar. This is why it took 20 years for the Council of Nicaea to create the Biblical Jesus and Mary Magdalene. The Bible is allegory, so are all religious stories around the world. Modern researchers and Bible orators tend to forget or don't comprehend this. So we get new age garble, such as calling the lightning bolt a Satanic supernatural S. Or that Bible miracles really happened like in Hollywood movies depict.  The truth is that there were no Bible miracles involved. The Bible is not a book of history and was never meant to be history. The Bible is a book of morality tales and redemption stories. Paraphrased religious folklore from many different religions. Its characters loosely based on people who were deified royals. All religious stories are based on deified royals.  Owsley Stanley’s Grateful Dead skull has a 13 point lightening bolt. The lightning bolt is a big clue to the identity of the historical Jesus of the Bible.  “Yea, he sent out his arrows, and scattered them; and he shot out lightnings, and discomfited them.” Psalm 18:14 King James Bible Arrows can mean both a battle and or symbols on a military shield. Both people that the Biblical Jesus became based upon were emperors. Both entered Judea as military commanders with huge armies. The insignia the army’s shields were lightning bolts. Their battles recorded by scribes in allegory as many lightening bolts raining down. Both had secret marriages to an empress, a Magdalene. All these people were deified, and other shared stories. One also foretells the coming of the other. The Second Coming has already happened. Fans in the 21st century write tribute fantasies about the Grateful Dead. Flying around with wings and super powers and lighting bolts shooting from their guitars. What these creative followers are talking about in allegory is the Grateful Dead’s music. But imagine 1500 years in the future, somebody finds the writings and artworks in scattered pages. 

They don't know the backstories, but try putting them together into a book. Some other people make a cult from that book. They make movies and documentaries to tell the people the book is a real story. People start to believe the Grateful Dead flew around with wings. They start to believe that the Grateful Dead shot lightning bolts from their guitars. Total Bill and Ted moment.

2,000 years in the future the Grateful Dead are paranormal space aliens with laser rifles, flying around in UFOs. Their followers watching augmented reality concerts in the sky. Chanting their church's holy mantra “Beam me up Jerry.” And Phish Food ice cream their holy sacrament.   

[yasbxxgie]

IN 2014, Nigerian author Adaobi Tricia Nwaubani argued in The New York Times that African literature, in order to be successful, had to appeal to “Western eyes.” The claim was prompted by a friend of Nwaubani’s who had told her, a bit inelegantly, that her first novel, I Do Not Come to You by Chance (2009), had figured out “what the white people wanted to read and given it to them.”

Nwaubani thought her friend had a point. I Do Not Come to You by Chance is about the so-called 419ers, the Nigerian “princes” who lure the unsuspecting into email scams — a phenomenon that has long since become an international joke and a callous way of dismissing what most are surprised to learn is the seventh-most-populated nation in the world. To be sure, the novel is in some ways familiar: a young man accidentally comes of age while simultaneously becoming ensnared in a criminal enterprise. Think Dickens via Doctorow. But it’s more than just a template, and the protagonist’s Uncle Boniface, the criminal mastermind who goes by the more colorful moniker “Cash Daddy,” looms large mid-book with a speech asserting that, no matter how much money may be bilked from the First World during a few years of internet tomfoolery, this loss will be dwarfed by the wealth, culture, blood, and potential that has been stripped from the entire African continent in the much vaster scam of colonialism, which lasted decades and lingers still. I may be putting a few words into Cash Daddy’s mouth, but by the time he’s done, you’re almost ready to start Googling Nigerian princes so you can cut a few checks.

I Do Not Come to You by Chance was critically well received (it won the Commonwealth Writers’ Prize for Best First Book from Africa, among other honors), but I doubt it was the commercial blockbuster that Nwaubani’s cynical friend either feared or hoped it might be. The book is now a decade old, and in the years following its release, Nwaubani turned more toward journalism, becoming a chronicler of an endless smorgasbord of Nigerian oddities for the Times, the BBC, the Guardian, the Thomson Reuters Foundation, and, most recently, The New Yorker, which in July published Nwaubani’s account of her family’s history of trading — rather than being — slaves. All the while, Nwaubani has carefully avoided indulging in the kinds of stereotypes that appeal to Western eyes, and which “tend to form the foundations of [African writers’] literary successes.”

Somewhere in there came the Lost Girls. Yet even saying it that way is wrong, because Boko Haram was wreaking havoc and stealing Nigerian children long before the mass abduction of students in April 2014 that finally captured Michelle Obama’s — by which I mean the world’s — attention. Since then, Nwaubani has become the go-to authority on what is known locally as the “Chibok Girls.” She penned a number of articles about the kidnapping and its aftermath; she co-wrote a half-fiction, half-nonfiction volume on the episode with Italian journalist Viviana Mazza that appeared in Italy in 2016; and she served as location producer for a documentary on the subject that will be released this October.

Most important, the event returned Nwaubani to fiction, and her new novel, Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree, is both a harrowing account of a horrific event and a slyly trenchant criticism of all those who believe the tragedy would be easily remedied by simply bringing the girls home.

***

Being one of those books that is based on recent and all-too-real events, you kind of know what’s going to happen: the narrator is one of the abducted girls; her benign family life and promising education are interrupted by the theft of the young women; and, in the would-be caliphate of the Sambisa Forest of northeastern Nigeria, the Chibok girls are subjected to rape, murder, impregnation, and indoctrination; at last they are rescued by the Nigerian army and an international community that has finally decided to pay attention to what happens in Africa.

Early in the book’s extended preamble — as vague references to Boko Haram recur like the evil soon to manifest in a horror film — we are told the creation myth of the baobab tree. Eons ago, the story goes, a god in heaven hurled a gigantic tree down to Earth; it planted itself face down in the dirt, but continued to grow — which is why baobabs look upside-down, their roots all up in the air.

Such is the novel itself. The story is delivered in discrete chunks, a fragmented narrative like a choppy radio signal, and the result is a kind of upside-down root system of anecdotes, news reports, and riddle games. Western celebrities, we learn, loom in Nigeria like heathen deities from some demented Valhalla, and laptops are a mechanical oracle that permit communion with an artificial divine. The story reads easily, but there’s something lurking in the texture of the book, something lodged deep down in its point of view that the Western canon doesn’t have a name for — it’s first-person narration told from the perspective of someone lacking Western self-consciousness. Even the “I” is a kind of mournful collective identity.

Buried Beneath the Baobab Tree is being pitched as a Young Adult title — it has been published by Katherine Tegen Books, an imprint of HarperCollins that specializes in stories for even younger readers. The truth, however, is that the novel has far more in common with Margaret Atwood’s The Handmaid’s Tale (1985) than with any contemporary children’s book. Like Offred, Nwaubani’s narrator has no name apart from the one she is given after her abduction (Salamatu — Arabic for “safety”), and her story too breaks off abruptly after the Chibok girls are rescued. Atwood’s epilogue — an in-the-distant-future academic presentation on Offred’s manuscript, by then a historic curiosity — is matched here by a brief afterword by Mazza, who historically contextualizes Nwaubani’s novel and in the process accidentally confirms Atwood’s claim that her novel wasn’t really fantasy because everything in it was happening to real women somewhere in the world.

Yet a YA imprint may be a perfect fit for Nwaubani, if only because her story so often concerns itself with myth, lore, folktales, and children’s stories. Periodic epigraphs from Robert Browning’s “The Pied Piper of Hamelin” serve as a constant reminder of Nwaubani’s more fundamental concern, and of her awareness that fairy tales were originally much more than a cute way to put American children to sleep. Nigerian children too, we are informed, long for stories, but when the children of the narrator’s village are told a folktale one evening, they spend the rest of the night debating its meaning. Eventually, as the horror approaches, we begin to put the pieces together: the Sambisa Forest in northeast Nigeria is where the really wild things are. When Salamatu is finally rescued, a Western aid worker gives her a copy of Roald Dahl’s Charlie and the Chocolate Factory (1964), as though Willy Wonka has something to say to a girl who has by now been raped and stoned, and who is carrying the child of her abductor.

Once upon a time, fairy tales served the purpose of introducing children to the stresses and dangers of the adult world that awaited them. Not anymore — or at least not in the West, which giddily transforms Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Snow Queen” into Disney’s Frozen (2013). Nwaubani is on to all that: buried deep down beneath this baobab of a book are the charred remains of the fairy tale itself. When the Chibok girls were abducted, the call went out around the world: #BringBackOurGirls. Which is fine, so long as you recall that Africa had good witches and bad witches long before Dorothy did, and that #BringBackOurGirls is in no way the same happy ending as three taps of your ruby slippers. [h/t]

[ugglescraft]

The History of Witchcraft Part 1

An Introduction to the Tangible Facts

Sit tight this is going to be a really long post, but interesting I swear.

With a topic as varied and vast as this, it'll be difficult to narrow it down. Especially when essentially witchcraft can cover anything vaguely phantasmagorical and unbelievable. So to start with I'm simply going to look at the actual history of it. As much as I would love to use this is as an excuse to research the folklore and myths and legends of other cultures and religions, due to the time restrictions of this project, I'm going to keep it local. I will look at witches originating from UK origins, maybe sliding slightly into the puritan purges in America, but essentially Anglo-Saxon history. It's the one I already have the best base knowledge on and the one I feel I can manipulate the aesthetic of fairly and accurately. 

To really dive down into the history I’ve split this post into two parts. For the sake of my examiner a lot of my research I’ll be putting into posts like these but feel free to skip to the end where I’ll put a vague bibliography of where I got my info. It won’t cover everything I’ve read though as I do a lot of article reading on my phone.

But if you are interested click the read more. 

What I didn't really anticipate in this project is how confusing it is to find a starting point with witchcraft. Even trying to define it is a struggle. It largely depends on who or what religion is in charge and what the leaders of that religion deem to be heresy. For example one of the earliest forms of organised practice of magic comes from Celtic history and folklore. The Druids were members of the high-ranking professional class in ancient Celtic cultures. While perhaps best remembered as religious leaders, they were also legal authorities, adjudicators, lore-keepers, medical professionals and political advisors. They were responsible for organising worship and sacrifices, divination, and judicial procedure in Gaulish, British and Irish society. They had scripture but it was largely oral, thus a lot of what is known about them was from Roman and Greek scholars studying them. The records kept on these Druids, especially those detailing the human sacrifice, is met with some criticism. Records state that Druids used to burn people alive in large Wicker Man structures or stab them in the chest and read the future from the blood splatter. However, the Romans and Greeks were known to project what they saw as barbaric traits onto foreign peoples including not only druids but Jews and Christians as well, thereby confirming their own "cultural superiority" in their own minds. So it's unknown if their accounts are reliable.

Despite the fact the main religion of the Romans was now Catholic and the belief in Roman mythology was dwindling during the occupation, there's a lot of evidence to suggest that other religions like that of the Druids were still heavily prevalent in Britain. By the time of the Anglo-Saxon occupation, many Britons held firm to their own spiritual practices and found it easier to assimilate into another polytheistic religion like that of the Norse. Thus religion in Britain was a strange amalgamation of various cult practices, ritual and folklore. With Christianity being the opposing force to the Roman, Celtic and Norse polytheistic religions, they coined the term Pagan to insult them. Paganism is considered by many to be witchcraft but actually originates as the name given to those (mainly Romans) who practised a polytheism. Christianity, a monotheistic religion, eventually became the dominating force and denounced it as such. Pagan was a derogatory term used to allude to its inferiority, it was referred to as "the religion of the peasants". 

"Paganism was a pejorative term that was applied to any non-Abrahamic or unfamiliar religion, and the term presumed a belief in false god(s)."

Paganism has been adopted by various religious groups since the 19th century, by groups who idolised the ancient world. It became an umbrella term generally applied to religions that strayed away from mainstream religions that generally followed one God, scripture and prophets. Contemporary Paganism or Neopaganism can be anything influenced by various historical pagan beliefs of pre-modern Europe. These groups largely practise religions that pantheistic, polytheistic or animistic. 

Animism is the religious belief that objects, places and creatures all possess a distinct spiritual essence. It's a term that is often used to describe the religions of indigenous peoples and directly contrasts the worshipping system of many organised religions. Sacred status is granted to all things rather than selected artefacts and alters. It's an anthropomorphic construct that is used to explain peoples 'spiritualism'. 

"Animism encompasses the beliefs that all material phenomena have agency, that there exists no hard and fast distinction between the spiritual and physical (or material) world and that soul or spirit or sentience exists not only in humans but also in other animals, plants, rocks, geographic features such as mountains or rivers or other entities of the natural environment, including thunder, wind and shadows."

So under that banner, I would place polytheistic mythologies such as Norse religions where thunder and lightning were personified as Thor, a powerful God that could be appeased with offerings. Or a lot of Native American beliefs stemming from the power of nature and animals, although I confess I do not know as nearly as much as I would like about it. This could be used to describe the religion that had a residence in England before Christianity, now referred to as Anglo-Saxon paganism. The religious beliefs and practices followed by the Anglo-Saxons between the 5th and 8th centuries AD, during the initial period of Early Medieval England seemingly didn't have a name if it did it has been lost. It came with much regional variation so definitive practises and beliefs cannot be pinned down but it carries a lot of similarities of Germanic paganism that had spread across a lot of North-West Europe. According to the archaeologists Martin Carver, Alex Sanmark, and Sarah Semple, Anglo-Saxon paganism was "not a religion with supraregional rules and institutions but a loose term for a variety of local intellectual worldviews." As Christianisation of England happened much of this religion gradually bled into folklore. 

A lot of evidence of this religion comes from the writings of Christian scholars and archaeological artefacts attesting to ritualistic and cultic practices. "Further suggestions regarding the nature of Anglo-Saxon paganism have been developed through comparisons with the better-attested pre-Christian belief systems of neighbouring peoples such as the Norse." Since it has similar polytheistic beliefs, they believed in deities known as the ése (singular ós). Deities such as Woden, Thunor and Tiw. "Cultic practice largely revolved around demonstrations of devotion, including the sacrifice of inanimate objects and animals, to these deities, particularly at certain religious festivals during the year." A lot of their beliefs in supernatural entities have survived through folklore and now pop culture, elves, fairies and dragons all come from this practice.

Their beliefs clearly became entwined with the Christianity that eventually wiped it out, why else would Saint George randomly be fighting a dragon. I can't be the only person who was confused by the lack of other dragons in the continuity of the Bible. I will have to check that for definite since that is my own speculation but it would make sense that the patron Saint of England is a blend of the two opposing beliefs that dominated Britain in early centuries. Because Carver stresses that, in Anglo-Saxon England, neither paganism nor Christianity represented "homogenous intellectual positions or canons and practice"; instead, there was "considerable interdigitation" between the two. 

It's speculated that magic and witchcraft played heavily into their beliefs, elements that could be classified as a form of shamanism. Anglo-Saxon pagans believed in magic and witchcraft. There are various Old English terms for witches, including hægtesse translating to "witch, fury", which is believed to lead to the word hag in Modern English. Other words like Wicca, gealdricge, scinlæce and hellrúne are also used to describe what we would describe as witches. 

 "The belief in witchcraft was suppressed in the 9th to 10th century as is evident e.g. from the Laws of Ælfred". The Christian authorities attempted to stamp out a belief and practice in witchcraft, with the Paenitentiale Theodori attributed to Theodore of Tarsus condemning "those that consult divinations and use them in a pagan manner, or that permit people of that kind into their houses to seek some knowledge". Similarly, the U version of the Paenitentiale Theodori condemns those "who observe auguries, omens or dreams or any other prophecies after the manner of the pagans".

The word wiccan "witches" is associated with animistic healing rites in the Paenitentiale Halitgari where it is stated that:

"Some men are so blind that they bring their offering to earth-fast stone and also to trees and to wellsprings, as the witches teach, and are unwilling to understand how stupidly they do or how that dead stone or that dumb tree might help them or give forth health when they themselves are never able to stir from their place."

 Amulets were a big part of Anglo-Saxon Paganism at least a large chunk of the physical evidence we have of that time as there are many cases where corpses were buried with them. As David Wilson noted, "To the early [Anglo-]Saxons, they were part and parcel of the supernatural that made up their world of 'belief', although occupying the shadowy dividing area between superstition and religion if indeed such a division actually existed." One of the most notable amulets found in Anglo-Saxon graves is the cowrie shell, which has been often interpreted by modern academics as having been a fertility symbol due to its physical resemblance to the vagina and the fact that it was most commonly found in female graves. Not being native to British seas, the cowrie shells had to have been brought to England by traders who had come all the way from the Red Sea in the Middle East. Animal teeth were also used as amulets by the pagan Anglo-Saxons, and many examples have been found that had formerly belonged to boar, beaver, and in some cases even humans. Other amulets included items such as amethyst and amber beads, pieces of quartz or iron pyrite, worked and unworked flint, pre-Anglo-Saxon coinage and fossils, and from their distribution in graves, it has been stated that in Anglo-Saxon pagan society, "amulets [were] very much more the preserve of women than men". Which is the stemming point for where a lot of imagery associated with witchcraft now is amulets and precious stones containing power. 

Apologies if all this information is a bit disjointed I've been cherry-picking pieces of info I thought were fascinating and using this blog as kind of an online notebook. I'll keep dropping posts like this as I eventually pool my knowledge together to actually start building my project. So, I think for a first research post this suffices for one night of extensive googling. I'll be back at it again with more witchy history tomorrow.

A lot of my early research has come off Wikipedia I will admit that. But I like to read a lot at once and the way you can just click through links on there is exactly what I need to consume a baseline of information before I can research specific things more thoroughly and corroborate the facts. Honestly, I'm glad I did because I had no idea that Pagan was an old-timey slur, I was originally just going to jump into the modern day stuff and hope I could get the history through context but it seems the meaning of that word has changed drastically. So these blog posts will be picked out sentences and paragraphs that I find relevant. I will try to write a lot of it in my own words but for time's sake I probably will cut and paste a lot of it, just so I can keep all the info I might want to refer back to in one place and not have to go on multiple internet dives to find it. From here I will go onto look at the persecution of witches and from there the modern-day impacts.  All photos are from Google and Pinterest if it's a piece of artwork that I could trace back to an artist I've put their names in the caption. 

Basic Bibliography 

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

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

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Druidry_(modern)

https://www.druidry.org//druid-way/what-druidry/what-druidism/what-druid

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

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/religions/paganism/

http://www.bbc.co.uk/religion/0/20693321https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Anglo-Saxon_paganism

https://www.thoughtco.com/wicca-witchcraft-or-paganism-2562823

[anotherdoor]

Within Amalfi Town square, there’s a rather impressive statue:

This is none other than Saint Andrew the Apostle, the First Called.

Look at this enigmatic figure, a charismatic scholar of the Correspondence Discordance!

In all sincerity though, travelling through a region with a history far longer than our own has re-contextualised the role of culture within society for me. Just as pop culture causes its own obsessions within the niche roles of various fandoms (Marvel superhero stories, D&D characters, Dark Souls mythology, Game of Thrones, etc.), I’m realising the roles that these religious icons had within European life. They weren’t just abstract figures - they were legends, and ones that you could tell stories about, reason and obsess over, just as we have today.

Unfortunately for you, dear Reader, I am not versed in history or culture. So, instead of being able to interpret these statues and religious relics correctly for you, I instead invent wholesale a ludicrous interpretation born from my own ignorance.

Why? Well, because speculation is fun. And furthermore, it was ridiculously inspiring on a creative level. Having centuries of artwork retelling and reinterpreting a single apostle within the larger context of Christianities story essentially creates this large volume of ‘canon’ or ‘lore’. Much like how Dark Souls doesn’t really give you a narrative and more ill-defined points along a series of events that happened long ago, these artworks felt mysterious but self-consistent. That put me within the mindset of designing for mechanical systems - things that are internally consistent and interact together to produce novel outputs.

With that in mind, what I hope to share with this post is how my misinterpretations of historical art caused me to be inspired with my own ongoing projects.

To begin, recall the singular point of import contained within the walls of the Vatican City:

A dove. Is shooting Holy Light. Into a Saints forehead. And he gets crazy mad blessed. A halo! All around him is bowing and deferential and whaaaaaaaaat is going ooooonnnnnnnnnnnnn...

This mystery would compel me to look further into this matter. And thus I have invented wholesale an explanation that has been driving gullible scholars insane ever since. This theory was only made possible via the artefacts contained within the Cathedral of Saint Andrew and the Umbria National Gallery.

Upon entry to the antechamber of the Cathedral, I notice an individual with a halo/corona in a faded fresco within the halls of St Andrews. I idly muse to myself, I wonder if this presupposes the existence of a Dove...

Dove with halo DOVE WITH HALO

Incidentally, Kate and I stumbled across the legitimate Sacred Heart. You know, just chilling out. It was in a GLASS CASE KATIE, OK, don’t break my heart ;_;

it’s totally legitimate T_T (homing tears now pew pew ahem)

Anyway where was I oh damn look at this Dark Souls-esque staff:

Now, these next three pictures contain several points of interest, but I compel you to examine the halos within each:

Something of interest to me is how different periods and artists represent the halo - although more interesting is how consistent the various representations are across different bodies of work. The dove, coupled with the different states of halos/coronas, made me very interested in how they worked.

For example, within the first picture you have a representation of all the apostles with the simple banded halo, whereas Jesus has a solid corona of light. This implies to me a continuum on which the halos rest. Keep in mind that these objects are typically invisible to mortals, like angels or cherubs. Their presence signifies a certain degree or capacity for holiness. Absent a halo, a single golden ring, then the interior filling up until you have a solid golden corona. This idea is something that I’ll continually return to, as it leads me down some interesting design choices for interactive systems.

For now though, let’s examine this dove statue:

Love it, the statue being damaged and lacking a head just adds to the deliciously creepy factor for me. A creature, unseen by most, who confers blessings to those who earn Sainthood by suffering. A far more interesting a premise than any H.R Geiger monster. So, the whole point of the dove is to represent the Holy Spirit, as shown by this fresco within the Umbria Gallery:

What I like about this idea is this recurrent and strong use of internally consistent logic applied to a medium or story. The dove represents something, it’s a strong visual metaphor, so whenever we see a dove we know what that means: 

Better, from my perspective, is for interactive storytelling - it’s a way to distil complex motifs into a clear visual, something easily programmed and then robust to player actions. The picture just before the above one is also really useful for demonstrating the spectrum of halos I was discussing earlier - the huddled masses don’t have them, the nuns and monks have a slight distortion around their heads, those blessed are with a corona and we can see those divine figures have even more detail within their halos. Look at the corona on the Dove itself:

I like to think of this as a way of approaching secrets in a really well defined manner. The nature of the dove is mysterious - you are lead down a path you do not fully understand. As your comprehension grows, you can develop a distortion around your head - this feeds into your own understanding. Progression systems are abundant in interactive systems - I prefer it when they are visual and interesting, as opposed to meters or abstractions (XP, etc).

Plus it means finding a ‘dark halo’ is suddenly very interesting:

But enough musings on halos, what about Saint Andrew?

I’ve picked the two pictures above because they show a lot about his ‘character’ progression. Andrew was a scholar, always present with his book. The first statue is very cleverly done - Andrew doesn’t have a halo yet, but see how the fresco has a negative space that clearly implies one?

The second picture was taken above Saint Andrew’s Crypt - at the end of his journey (mad adventures with the holy spirit dove), he’d been crucified crux decussata (X-shaped cross), developed a corona, sometimes shown to wield his tome as a weapon and all around just comes across as a character straight out of a fantasy novel. Deification, huh. 

See how this statue, the halo is represented by the hollow ring, yet in the Andrew statues they are filled in and detailed? This sort of thing makes me believe that they knew what they were doing with the halos and their hierarchy.

Really appreciate the way simple visual stand-ins for concepts are used to communicate meaning.

Saint Andrews cathedral made me examine a lot about how we create characters and build legends out of them, how we tell stories that we get excited about and want to believe in, and how we’ve been doing that for thousands of years.

It’s made me realise that the game I’m working on will definitely have some kind of headless dove in it, and that if we follow it, we’re going to start seeing things no else has seen.

I’m feeling very inspired.

[nofomoartworld]

Hyperallergic: Required Reading

One of the final images of Saturn and its main rings captured by the Cassini space probe before it was commanded to fly into Saturn’s upper atmosphere and burn up in order to prevent any risk of contaminating Saturn’s moons. You can find more impressive images here. (Credit: NASA/JPL-Caltech/Space Science Institute)

One medieval historian explains what to do when Nazis are obsessed with your field of research. David M. Perry writes:

White supremacists explicitly celebrate Europe in the Middle Ages because they imagine that it was a pure, white, Christian place organized wholesomely around military resistance to outside, non-white, non-Christian, forces. Marchers in Charlottesville held symbols of the medieval Holy Roman Empire and of the Knights Templar. The Portland murderer praised “Vinland,” a medieval Viking name for North America, in order to assert historical white ownership over the landmass: Vinlander racists like to claim that whites are “indigenous” here on the basis of medieval Scandinavian lore. Similarly, European anti-Islamic bigots dress up in medieval costumes and share the “crying Templar” meme. Someone sprayed “saracen go home” and “deus vult”—a Latin phrase meaning “God wills it” and associated with the history of the Crusades—on a Scottish mosque. The paramilitary “Knights Templar International” is preparing for a race war. In tweets since locked behind private accounts, University of Reno students reacted to seeing classmate Peter Cvjetanovic at the Virginia tiki-torch rally, saying they knew him as the guy who said racist things in their medieval history classes.

Brigido Lara is an artist responsible for many Pre-Columbian fakes that continue to fool museums around the world. Kristen Fawcett of Mental Floss writes:

It’s not entirely clear whether Lara began making these figurines for fun or profit. But according to the man himself, traveling dry-goods merchants had noticed his talents before he had even reached his teens. They accepted his “interpretations,” as he called his early work, in lieu of cash—then sold them on the black market. Looters also came to Lara, asking him to fix and restore stolen works. Eventually, the artist wound up working in a Mexico City atelier that produced forgeries.

No detail was too tiny for Lara. He visited archaeological sites to study just-dug-up artifacts, and harvested clay from the surrounding region to sculpt exact likenesses. He later told Connoisseur magazine that for true authenticity, he even crafted his own primitive tools and stockpiled 32 grades of cinnabar—a reddish form of mercury used by the Olmec, an ancient Mesoamerican civilization that existed between 1200 BCE and 400 BCE—for precise pigmentation. He finished his works with a ancient-looking patina made from cement, lime, hot sugar water, urine, and other ingredients, and coated the final products with a seal made from dirt and glue.

Hank Willis Thomas’s new public art work in Philadelphia is getting a lot of attention, including on our Instagram account, but did you know the source image? Introducing the history of the black fist afro comb:

This iconic comb represents the ethos of the civil rights movement, with the power of the clenched fist and the peace sign in the centre. For subsequent generations the comb has a range of meanings. In preparation for the 2013 exhibition ‘Origins of the Afro Comb’ at the Fitzwilliam Museum, Cambridge, whenever I met someone who had a black fist comb I asked what it meant to him or her. Answers have ranged from: ‘Black Power’; ‘Black pride’; ‘Nelson Mandela’s release’;‘ it’s just a nice shape’; and ‘unity’. For younger generations the combs also seem to take on a sense of the retro or ‘old skool’. It is perhaps the comb’s multiple associations that have ensured its success across generational divides and time. Whereas some of the young people I spoke to were not aware of the details of the American Black Power movement, their own associations with the design were nonetheless linked to ‘Black’ culture and identity.

RELATED: A Signe Wilkinson editorial comic.

This is your brain on art:

If you think about it, having a great time at the theater defies logic in many ways. We’re surrounded by strangers, bombarded with unusual images and often faced with a wordless language of symbols. Yet, on a good night, we generally laugh more, cry more and enjoy ourselves more at a live performance than when we’re watching TV at home. We may even lose ourselves and feel connected to something larger. How does this happen?

… Social connection is one of the strengths of our species — it’s how we learn from others by imitation. We’re keenly attuned to the emotions and actions of people around us, because our brains are designed for this.

If, for example, you’ve ever gone to an experimental performance-art piece where there’s hardly anyone in the audience but you, and you’ve felt a little exposed and awkward, this is why. We crave social connection. And the cues we get from those around us help our brains make sense of our surroundings. This starts from the moment we walk into a crowd.

There’s a board game that takes 1,500 hours to complete (kill me):

It’ll take you about 1,500 hours (or 62 days) to complete a full play of The Campaign For North Africa. The game itself covers the famous WWII operations in Libya and Egypt between 1940 and 1943. Along with the opaque rulebook, the box includes 1,600 cardboard chits, a few dozen charts tabulating damage, morale, and mechanical failure, and a swaddling 10-foot long map that brings the Sahara to your kitchen table. You’ll need to recruit 10 total players, (five Allied, five Axis,) who will each lord over a specialized division. The Front-line and Air Commanders will issue orders to the troops in battle, the Rear and Logistics Commanders will ferry supplies to the combat areas, and lastly, a Commander-in-Chief will be responsible for all macro strategic decisions over the course of the conflict. If you and your group meets for three hours at a time, twice a month, you’d wrap up the campaign in about 20 years.

The urge to take photos of tragedies fascinates me, so this man’s explanation for the reasons why Omega Mwaikambo took photos of the Grenfell fire victims in London is quite a read. He tells the BBC:

It was about 05:00, as he returned home to his flat, that Mwaikambo spotted the body. A corpse, wrapped in plastic, apparently dumped in the enclosed courtyard area outside his flat’s front door. “God knows what I was thinking in my head,” he explained. “But I was holding my iPad. The body was not wrapped tightly; it was loosely wrapped. “Inside I was just saying to myself ‘does anybody know this person?’ I just took the picture.” Mwaikambo started off by taking photos of the body bag from a distance. Then he went further. He lifted the plastic sheeting around the corpse’s face, and took more. “[I was] not even knowing what I was doing.” he said.

Font detectives exist, according to Glenn Fleishman at Wired:

Detecting fraud via fonts isn’t as sexy as sleuthing art forgery; it often involves tedious measurements with digital calipers, examinations under loupes and microscopes, charts that track the slight differences between two versions of the Times Roman face, or evidence that a particular form of office printer didn’t exist at the document’s dated execution.

Even so, such measurements can be worth millions—and can even be lucrative, for the handful of experts (maybe a dozen) who have hung out a font-detective shingle. Phinney had an expert declaration filed last month as part of a lawsuit against Justin Timberlake, will.i.am, their labels, and others. The suit is about a sample used in Timberlake’s 2006 “Damn Girl,” but the case might hinge on the size and clarity of the type on Timberlake’s CD cover. (How could that be? Read on.)

How filmmakers have finally been able to light actors with darker skin and get it right. Nadia Latif writes:

Lighting should be used to sculpt, rather than bleach, an actor’s skin, a technique championed by Charles Mills in Boyz N the Hood in his night-time exterior shots. Although many directors lament the shift from shooting on film to digital cameras, one of the advantages is that one can digitally recreate the effects of shooting on extinct Fuji, Kodak or Agfa film stocks, which were particularly good for capturing the richness of black skin. The colour palette is key, whether in the production design or the post-production grade – drawing a rainbow of colours from the actors’ skin itself to create something more vibrant and less concerned with being “real”. After all, the original title for Moonlight was In Moonlight Black Boys Appear Blue.

The last of Calabria’s ancient Greek community:

There are many theories or schools of thought regarding the origin of the Greko community in Calabria. Are they descendants of the Ancient Greeks who colonized Southern Italy? Are they remnants of the Byzantine presence in Southern Italy? Did their ancestors come in the 15th-16th Centuries from the Greek communities in the Aegean fleeing Ottoman invasion? The best answers to all of those questions are yes, yes, and yes. This means that history has shown a continuous Greek presence in Calabria since antiquity. Even though different empires, governments, and invasions occurred in the region, the Greek language and identity seemed to have never ceased. Once the glorious days of Magna Graecia were over, there is evidence that shows that Greek continued to be spoken in Southern Italy during the Roman Empire. Once the Roman Empire split into East (Byzantine) and West, Calabria saw Byzantine rule begin in the 5th Century. This lasted well into the 11th Century and reinforced the Greek language and identity in the region as well as an affinity to Eastern Christianity.

Today, there is more evidence of a Byzantine legacy rather than an Ancient Greek or Modern Greek footprint.

The small European nation of Luxembourg has shown how far a tiny country can go by serving the needs of global capitalism, now they are helping private companies colonize outer space. Atossa Araxia Abrahamian reports:

Space is becoming a testing ground for these thorny ethical and legal questions, and Luxembourg – a tiny country that has sustained itself off of regulatory intricacies and tax loopholes for decades – is positioning itself to help find the answers. While major nations such as China and India plough increasing sums of money into developing space programmes to rival Nasa, Luxembourg is making a different bet: that it can become home to a multinational cast of entrepreneurs who want to go into space not for just the sake of scientific progress or to strengthen their nation’s geopolitical hand, but also to make money.

It already has a keen clientele. Space entrepreneurs speak of a new “gold rush” and compare their mission to that of the frontiersmen, or the early industrialists. While planet Earth’s limited stock of natural resources is rapidly being depleted, asteroid miners see a solution in the vast quantities of untapped water, minerals and metals in outer space. And the fledgling “NewSpace” industry – an umbrella term for commercial spaceflight, asteroid mining and other private ventures – has found eager supporters in the investor class. In April, Goldman Sachs sent a note to clients claiming that asteroid mining “could be more realistic than perceived”, thanks to the falling cost of launching rockets and the vast quantities of platinum sitting on space rocks, just waiting to be exploited.

A pretty impressive drone video:

Goldenboye:

G O L D E N B O Y E doin a heckin perfection from rarepuppers

And a new Saudi textbook strangely features an image of Yoda (from Star Wars) with King Faisal (tweet):

https://twitter.com/SilentRuins/status/910757978306961409/photo/1

Required Reading is published every Sunday morning ET, and is comprised of a short list of art-related links to long-form articles, videos, blog posts, or photo essays worth a second look.

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