#contemporary influences

[gigivas]

1K GIGI Prompts Collections 'Classical Bust: Vivid Contrast and Detail' 5882 Free 10 pages out of 1000 pages

Get Free 10 pages MTMEVE00560G_146_0001 – 1K GIGI Prompts Collections – Classical Bust, Vivid Contrast and Detail 5882 10PagesDownload 1K GIGI Prompts Collections ‘Classical Bust: Vivid Contrast and Detail’ 5882 series provides two documents, one document is 10 pages of prompts in 1000 pages, available for free download. One document is the complete 1000 pages of prompts, this is a paid…

[suckmydictionary5]

[serpentface]

Do psychotropic drugs and/or ritual play a role in any of the blightseed cultures? A pretty broad question, lol

Yeah that’s a very broad question, the answer is about as much as it tends to play roles in real history. Alcohol is pretty ubiquitous (outside of cultures that abstain from intoxicants) and used for a variety of purposes, opioids are commonly used in some parts for pain relief or recreational purposes, stimulants (usually in mild, natural forms) are used to provide extra energy, and hallucinogens are most commonly used as part of a larger religious framework (rather than for recreational purposes). Any more elaborate answer kinda has to be case by case in a certain culture or part of the setting.

I'll just take this as an opportunity to talk about the one established sect that pretty much REVOLVES around psychoactive use. This is the Scholarly Order of the Root, which is a sort of mystery religion + elite community of scholars who currently occupy the Ur-Tree and its forest in the far southern Lowlands (southeast of Imperial Wardin, on the same land mass).

The Ur-Tree is the obligatory Huge Fucking Fantasy Tree (and its surrounding forest). It’s a mass of vegetation about a mile tall and almost as old as Plant Life Itself, its upper branches are primeval plants, which become more modern the nearer they get to the ground (and each 'level' holds tiny ecosystems, some containing descendants of LONG-extinct arthropods/other small animals). Its lowest branches and the surrounding forest are contemporary plant life, and all is connected and protected by an incomparably MASSIVE fungal mycelium network (which is itself a living god).

A lot of the Scholars' more secretive practices revolve around experimentation with substance use with the goal of expanding the Mind and transcending the body to fully connect to the Dreamlands, and they have a supply chain of traders and mercenaries called Rootrunners who traffic substances into the Lowlands. Most of their psychoactive use is in a very intentional capacity and not just like, for fun, but a LOT of them are just straight up addicted to cocaine (in the form of alchemically refined bruljenum, which is used for practical purposes of its stimulant effect during long hours of work).

All known psychoactives are desirable for experimentation (particularly hallucinogens), with each having properties that either allow expansion of the Mind, transcendence of the body, or outright divine communion. Their effects are logged in great detail and interpreted to form the basis of the Scholars' understanding of the natural world and reality itself.

The most important substance is Ur-Root, which is root matter from subterranean levels of the Ur-Tree that have both their own intrinsic psychoactive substances and a very, very high concentration of living god mycelium. The tree root contains DMT and the mycelium has its own wholly unique effects (being an actual living god). They alchemically refine it into a purer, more potent form, and use it to expand beyond the body and directly commune with the Giants, a group of entities they have identified as the only true gods.

An Ur-Root trip starts off with minor visual distortion, which turns into shifting fractals that slowly obscure the vision. Eventually the senses are entirely taken over by a 'tunnel' of rapidly shifting fractals and geometries. In a complete trip, the experiencer gets a sense that they have been pushed through a membrane and entered another realm, finding themselves in a distinct experiential Space.

At this point they may encounter entities which communicate to them in a language impossible to describe but wholly understood. These beings are understood to be the Giants, or at least aspects of the Giants that mortals are capable of comprehending (they often take familiar tutelary forms of the Mantis or the Snake, or appear resembling the same type of sophont that the experiencer is, all composed of ever-shifting geometries). The experiencer often feels a sense of unconditional and endless love from these beings, though the Giants may be more hostile and may appear in the form of the Trickster (usually a cultural figure regarded as malicious, be it an animal or otherwise) in a bad trip.

(^Up until this point, this has mostly just been a DMT 'breakthrough' experience ft. 'machine elves' and the like).

They are then removed from this space and returned to something that feels like the real world, but is nearly unrecognizable. They have a sense of rapidly moving through time, and will usually see 'the spires' towards the beginning, which just so happen to look like this:

(source + some context via Implication- the spires are exactly what this art is depicting)

The experiencer continues to move across an unfathomable amount of time, occasionally 'seeing' other such flashes of unfamiliar landscapes and creatures, and yet also being devoid of all their senses, the 'seeing' is pure, unfiltered experience. There is a sense of interconnectedness with all life, and that one has become the forest (or even Life) itself. The sense of time is wildly distorted, the trip lasts only about 5 minutes but feels like an eternity and is understood as literal hundreds of millions of years.

The experiencer has usually lost any remaining sense of Self and individual consciousness during this phase (in which case this time distortion is usually a neutral or even peaceful experience), but some retain a fraction of their identity, and find themselves trapped and conscious while experiencing what feels like eternity (which can be LIFE-CHANGINGLY distressing, even after the fact).

(^This latter part of the trip is the effects of the Ur-Tree fungus).

The trip ends with a sense of rushing through the ground and back up into one's body, at which point they will abruptly return to their senses and consciousness. The details are then immediately retrieved via interview and recorded in immense detail. The whole experience is understood as having been full comprehension of the Dreamlands, communion with the Giants, and then a tour through the act of creation.

This is done as part of the initiatory practice into the inner mystery-religion of the scholars, and as needed for study by high scholar-priests. It is not taken lightly, both as it is absolute communion with the gods and reality, and in that it can be a very, very difficult experience. People who have gone through this often walk away with a permanently shifted perspective, often in a positive and/or comforting way- a sense of interconnectedness with all life, a peace with the concept of death, seeing less of a point in individual ego and the concept of Self, and comfort in the sense of divine love they (may have) experienced. This heavily influences the philosophy of the Scholars and has had effects by proxy in the religious worldviews of the region.

Details of this experience are closely guarded, and initiates are given absolutely no prior knowledge and expectations for their trip. This is seen as a necessity- their naivety will allow for a true, unfiltered experience, and can be used to gauge whether they should or should not be accepted. Those that have a distinctly bad trip upon initiation may be assumed to have been 'rejected' by the giants and thus denied full priesthood, though this largely depends on How they interpret their distressing trip- those who identify this as a test and harsh lesson in a journey to enlightenment may be accepted (as this is how fully initiated scholar-priests interpret and handle their bad trips).

This inner priesthood is only a small fraction of the Scholarly Order, and its greater function is as a hub of education and repository of knowledge, and Scholar-trained doctors can provide some of the best medical care available in the setting ('best medical care in this setting' only means so much but it's pretty solid, relatively speaking). Only a chosen few Scholars ever get to commune with the Ur-Root, and most of the divine secrets revealed in the process are kept hidden (though they indirectly influence the politics and worldview of the entire order).

[perfectwitchcrown]

Ekuoto 81 thoughts

Spoilers below! CWs: references to abuse, suicidal ideation/suicide

Before this week's chapter I had been wondering how we might see the Dante and Vergilius fight resolve since Dante had so clearly expressed that this was the end of the line chapters ago and Bel had just been defeated, but I somehow did not expect this to be what happened… :’)

Tbh I think he’s going to live if only bc I think that there was a reason we were shown that Vergilius has healing powers when he kissed Charlotte chapters ago. Maybe this is just cope tho lmao. On the other hand, I’d be really interested to see Priest’s (and Barbara and Leah, who were in France with Dante) reaction to Dante being dead so I’m torn lol.

I think it's interesting how often Dante's advice to fall in love from the first chapter has come up in the series, and how tonally different Priest vs Dante treat that moment in this chapter. Dante sort of broods on it and considers it a curse he's left on Priest, whereas Priest kind of brushes it off to Imuri as uncool advice from an unreliable adult. On the other hand, I think it’s super interesting that Priest seems to consider the hug Dante gave him as having saved his life as a child. In chapter three, when Priest saves the children in the aquarium, he similarly gives them a hug.

I’m sure a lot of it has to do w most of his experience with adults throughout his life involved physical pain (the abuse he suffered from his father, the abuse he suffered from the church, etc) so like I am sure positive physical contact was not something he really experienced. But also, this moment in the first chapter comes after Priest breaks down about how hard he finds living--outside of Bel, who Priest had forgotten about at this point, Dante was likely one of the first adults that actually listened to his cry for help as a child and saw his idealization of religious martyrdom that was really, at its core, suicidal ideation.

Dante’s whole thing about being tired of chasing Vergilius is interesting too. It uses the same language as when he spoke of his failure to chase after Vergilius in chapter 20. Vergilius naming himself Vergilius is also such a "come follow me" move since Virgil was Dante’s guide in Inferno. Interested to see how this shift in the dynamic affects Vergilius.

Also excited to see what happens w Marco next chapter. His relationship w Priest seems fascinating to me bc it’s kinda hard to tell what level of distance they have from each other. Marco completely idolizes him, and it’s also been mentioned that he was present at the previous offscreen exorcism of Mammon prior to the start of the series, and he’s also visible in a flashback panel to that exorcism. They've known each other for like three years then so it's kind of interesting how obsessive Marco is and how little he actually knows about Priest as a person for having known him for all that time.

Even in the first chapter we're shown that Marco's understanding of Priest is completely misguided, where he assumes Priest's studying the bible when he's actually reading poetry by Goethe and Song of Songs (the second of which is in the bible, but the unifying theme between the works he's reading is romantic love. Also, this is the dorkiest form of romantic texts for him to be interested in LMAO).

Also can’t wait to see what goes down w Leah Barbara and the others. While Marco looks pissed, Leah looks more worried than anything else, and Mikhail looks sort of solemn. Daniel sort of has resting bitch face so idk what’s going through his mind. Last we saw of them all, Leah and Barbara very much dodged mentioning that Imuri is a demon and said to focus on fighting the witches first. Now that they’ve clearly finished with that, I wonder if they’ve told the rest or if they’re still hiding it. Either way Marco would be pissed since Priest did work with Bel.

Anyways, what a chapter, I'm so excited to see what happens next chapter. If Imuri and Priest have to be on the run from the church for awhile I wonder if Imuri's friend Cass from the file extras might finally make an appearance...

[postmodernart81]

Nicholaas Chiao, Red Putin Two Times, 2024, digital painting

[sofipitch]

I will say, I don't understand the compulsion to claim anytime a writer used to write fanfic that they repurposed their fanfic. Like read like 3 things by the same author and you'll realize authors have their things, characters and plotlines they like, words or metaphors they prefer. It can often be an intimate experience where you start to get the sense of what is haunting that author. Yes their works may look similar but they are in fact written by the same person, enjoy getting to know them. And furthermore I hate the culture of artists having to pretend art doesn't inspire other art without fearing accusations of plagiarism

[sivavakkiyar]

tbh I think he has like a curious enough position where it’s actually kind of hard to get across how significant Quincy Jones was, and how people take it for granted. Like without giving a lecture

But he was major major. It’s almost guaranteed that some of the music you love—-and I mean this globally—-was heavily influenced by his work. Like yes on par with The Beatles

[wonder-worker]

Angelberga was a peculiarly prominent personality in manifold aspects of European politics [in the late 9th century. Born to the Supponid family of Italy, she married Emperor Louis II and had several opportunities to establish her position as an active and controversial player in the vicissitudes of her husband's reign]. She acted as Louis's regent, accompanied him on expansionary military campaigns in the south of the peninsula and represented him at [congresses, tribunals, and diplomatic negotiations]. Strikingly, she was also the beneficiary of a spectacular collection of charters. Almost one in seven of Louis II’s extant charters were issued in her favour. Angelberga’s conspicuous exploits in the field of charter acquisition did not diminish after the emperor’s death, and this helped her to maintain a position as a key power-broker in Italian politics, control of land [particularly monastic foundations] being a fundamental building-block of power in this period. In the interregnum following 875, during which Charles the Bald of West Francia and Karlmann of Bavaria fought to claim the succession to the heirless Louis, Angelberga herself conducted the negotiations and decided the loyalty of a major sector of the Lombard political community. She maintained this high profile until her death [having supported her son-in-law Boso's quest for power, endured a temporary exile, maintained the support of Pope John VIII, and founded the monastery of San Sisto in the city of Piacenza, where she probably ended her days sometime before 891].

— Simon MacLean, "Queenship, nunneries and royal widowhood in Carolingian Europe"

[miamaimania]

Whispers in the Dark ☾️ ➤ Ayu Gani, an enchanting portrait by Amanda Camenisch

[pearl-plays-piano]

Incognito (Jazz Nocturne)

Jason Sifford

[fideidefenswhore]

There is a saying that when Anne Boleyn was not the queen, she had greater power than the queen's three years. What do you think?

I think this rather limits the sphere of influence of royal woman (or, as it was for the former period, royal-in-waiting, Anne was a noblewoman, not a royal one, until she became Queen); to, how to put this...the 'domestic'?

Ie, it's known that Henry had mistresses while Anne was Queen, but not queen-in-waiting; I feel like when this is argued that's mainly what the gist of the argument is, she was his ultimate priority and singular love, then they married and the 'chase ran out' and the disillusionment was quick and debasing. And so her influence reduced concurrently.

And...while I find that summary rather specious anyways on whole, for the sake of argument, even if the former part were true, political power is something else. Queen-in-waiting was Anne at "I beseech your grace with all my heart to remember the parson of Honey Lane for my sake shortly", Queen Anne was Anne at seven of her own evangelical clients appointed bishops. After the fall of Wolsey we get "above all, the Lady Anne" re: Henry's councilors from the French ambassador, after Anne becomes Queen we get the contemporary remarks that she has the most influence with the King, beyond any other person, her time in power is referred to as her "reign". Even contemporary remarks after her fall are testament to the influence she had as Queen, "the fall of Queen Anne was like the fall of Lucifer", a parallel to God's most favoured angel being cast down...nobody remarks that it was evident her power had diminished once she married Henry.

Tl;dr, even following the paradigm of loss of love = loss of influence, I don't think...we have that much evidence of the former; the narrative is popular...well, because it's popular, if that makes sense? There's not much of an attempt to understand Henry as his own person, as an individual, particularly when it comes to his relationships with his wives. He was very ostentatious about what he felt for Anne: he "preferred the love of the queen to half his realm", he would "beg alms door to door" before he would forsake her, it's easy to dismiss this all as Henry being glib, knowing the ending, however...I believe he felt and meant these sentiments in the moments he said them, despite that, I think even had the ending been different, these expressions were both to Anne's benefit and detriment, really-- she was regarded as someone whose favour it was important to gain and keep circa as early as 1528, at the latest, all the way through to the end... but because of the common bruit of them, she was also, sometimes solely, blamed for Henry's unpopular decisions.

[joncronshawauthor]

The Genius of Pratchett: A Deep Dive into Discworld's Lasting Impact

If you’ve ever found yourself chuckling at a grumpy, anthropomorphic Death or a suitcase on hundreds of little legs, then you have fallen under the spell of the late, great Terry Pratchett. His legendary Discworld series, a mirthful, satirical romp through an absurd universe teetering on the back of four elephants (all of whom are perched on a giant turtle, naturally), has left a lasting imprint…

[janettkabeh]

[eachuisge-cc]

Hey, just wanted to let you know how absolutely pleased I am that there's another person with many Big Feelings (tm) about horses in skyrim. I completely yeeted my save game to get these gorgeous horsies. I am so excited for the light horse addon. I do have a suggestion, since you also mentioned making Cicero's cart horse unique. Unless he sold his horse for a fluffier one in Dawnstar, since he brought the night mother in from Cyrodiil it is possible his horse, if he indeed kept the same horse, would be a more Imperial type. That could be a neat way to make his horse unique! Although I totally get it if it's too much work for a horse we only see in passing.

aah thank you! very glad you're enjoying the mod.

I'm still debating what to do with Cicero's horse, my instinct is to keep it as a Skyrim horse for now because it would look a little odd to have a single barb-type horse pulling a wagon that size by itself, and I can believe that he might have changed horses/wagons between Cyrodiil and Whiterun, that would be a long way for a single horse to pull. I'll have to figure out the carriage horse situation if/when BS Cyrodiil comes out and at that point I'll replace Cicero's horse with whatever I end up with for that (I'm having a hell of a time finding info on work horses in Imperial Rome, everybody focuses on the war horses and the chariot horses which is all well and good until you need to know about the horses with less exciting jobs).

It seems like maybe they didn't have much in the way of draft horses (some pages on the Ardennes claim its history "dates back to ancient Rome" but don't elaborate in any way and it probably wasn't the contemporary version of the breed) but I'll have to do more research.

[postmodernart81]

Nicholaas Chiao, George on the Green Ground, 2024, digital painting

[maxellminidisc]

Greek and Roman power structures are why I hesitate to call most things people call "queer" about their societies queer on the internet or like when people ask the stupid question of "Do you think theyd be into bdsm?" I'm like do you WANT that kind of inherently bad for consent society to be into bdsm???

Putting my thoughts under a read more cause its lengthy and something that I've wanted to talk about for a while now!

Like I'm sure queer relationships with like 1) no weird power dynamic and 2) pedastry existed in these societies, we have always existed, but it would not have been easy. They most likely still would have had to have played the part of a man who followed the rule and roles of what a MAN had to to be considered a man on the surface of society, because if they didnt, they would've been ridiculed and seen as lesser men. A big example of one such rule in the sexual realm is men could not and should not be penetrated; penetration was the domain of those lesser than men, if you were a man who liked being penetrated you were a fucking joke. They would've even been called perverse for not having a weird power dynamic in their romantic or sexual relationship with other men.

Slaves, young boys, slave boys, etc were basically equivalent to women in classical Greek society: they are those below the status of men and thus suitable objects of ones sexual desires. Like think about how fucked up that is??? And on top of that courting was also fundamentally tied to this perception of these groups of lesser status and required guidelines, so seeming genuinely invested and lovesick in ones relationship to these lesser beings was also seen as ridiculous.

Like it was all seen as taboo for the WRONG reasons. They'd would be so confused, ridicule you, or frankly be pissed if you pointed out how awful the inherit vacuum for consent these dynamics are and rife for abuse of power these relationships would have been to begin with because you're basically questioning the standards of classical Greek masculinity.

And I also wish we discussed more how the classical periods in Greece and Rome played a part in contemporary homophobia. Like it's not all 100% the result of Christianity moving into these societies, but more so a chain with Christianity being the biggest domino to fall at the end. Rome in particular was influenced by these sexual and social ideas of class and sexual dynamics in Greece, so the undercurrent of homophobia inherit to those ideas made Christianity all the more appealing for aligning with those already establied ideas.

In the end sex was basically used the same way everything else was to men in classical Greek and Roman society: its about power, gaining power, flexing that power and through this, raising ones status in these societies. It left very little room for partnerships of equals and the little room that was there was probably incredibly suffocating for anyone who didn't want to abide by these rules and standards of masculinity or others of which they were expected to.