#detailed map

[granonine]

Assigning the Lands

Joshua 12:6-8. Them did Moses the servant of the LORD and the children of Israel smite: and Moses the servant of the LORD gave it for a possession unto the Reubenites, and the Gadites, and the half tribe of Manasseh. And these are the kings of the country which Joshua and the children of Israel smote on this side Jordan on the west, from Baalgad in the valley of Lebanon even unto the…

[mipexch]

i love animating these little freaks

[1-800-cuupid]

if you ever find yourself wondering why cc has blurry textures or why it overlaps with accessories and other things, this is why

one texture map for EVERYTHING your sim wears :)

[allyouneediskilly]

i massively enjoyed my time with rise/sunbreak and I’ll no doubt keep playing it, but i finally jumped into world and im not trying to be too corny but i am genuinely overwhelmed by how beautiful it all is.

[undercover-grisha]

Leigh Bardugo: “Yeah so this country is like old timey magical Russia and Siberia and somewhat a little tiny bit central Asian, so that’s pretty cool. We’ll spend three books on this one country and culture.”

Leigh Bardugo: “And this one is… uh… the rest of Asia. Except India!”

Leigh Bardugo: “India is in this nomadic culture of people over here, or there, or over there. Also they’re Romani too.”

Leigh Bardugo: “Yeah and up here is Scandinavia. Just… all that. And Catholicism. Catholic Viking Nazis up here.”

Leigh Bardugo: “And then here’s New York/Amsterdam/London.”

Leigh Bardugo: “And here’s the frontier. It’s the biggest country but all we know about it is some part has ‘the frontier’ and there was maybe a war at some point and this is where all the black people come from.”

Leigh Bardugo: “And of course we have the Colonies. Whose colonies? Dunno. Pineapple and mango come from there, but I’m not gonna say it’s South/ Central American or Caribbean even tho it… definitely is.”

Leigh Bardugo: “And here’s IreScotland!”

[rayroseu]

back in the trenches... another book 7 rambles 😭😭

CRYING ABOUT THIS ACTUALLY.... DO YOU KNOW THE IMPLICATION OF THIS.... realistically, one of the first words of babies are referring to their mothers and the last "true parent" that held Silver was his mother, Princess Leia, but here baby Silver called out for his father, and Lilia didnt taught him that😭

Now these words might be calling out to Lilia now, but I'm also thinking since TWST is a world where babies can recall words or songs they heard even when theyre "not concious yet", I was thinking baby Silver heard this word when he was still with Dawn 😭😭😭 Imagine Dawn holding this baby and guiding him to speak his first words like "papa"... and thats like Dawn's last moment with Silver... AAAAA 😭😭😭😭

since this was still infant Silver, I was thinking this memory occured when Silver was adopted by Lilia only a week or months ago 😭✨ so its still possible that baby silver was reacting based on his past (which can potentially be baby Silver is remembering Dawn through Lilia in this scene)

AAAAAAAUAGFJWJFS 😭😭😭😭😭😭😭 The fact!!!! The fact that he only took after being his father because he didnt want to deny this baby's affection !!!! LILIAAAAA 😭😭😭😭😭😭

[starkittnd93]

Hehehe I practiced drawing kissing

[capefoxalix]

A Map of Strictland and the areas around

No one ask me how long this took to make.

[backjustforberena]

FARAH, SAUL & BEN discussing the kegger, in Fate: The Winx Saga. requested by @unbeleveable

[loriache]

World Map Notes: the Elven Northern & Southern Central Continents

These nations are where all the elves in the story except Marcille and Thistle are from. This post collects all the information I could find about these two nations, and included a bit of analysis based on that information.

TL;DR (includes both fact and my speculation):

The Northern Central Continent is a feudal monarchy with a strong class system, as well as strict borders, & could probably be considered an ethnostate. It's deeply hierarchical, and the queen is a traditionalist - so it's probably very structurally biased against non-elves and half-elves.

Elves in the NCC practice cannibalism in some rural areas!

The Southern Central Continent is more diverse, with a large tallman population on its South Coast.

To elves, "Court Magicians" exclusively refer to those serving the elven queen - a prestigious role that seems likely to be only open to nobles.

The SCC may not be a monarchy, though it's not clear what kind of leadership or societal structure it does have.

The NCC will habitually take anyone involved in ancient magic as a criminal to prosecute on their terms, regardless of jurisdiction, but this depends on their political influence and ability to pressure local leaders to agree to extradite the criminal.

Elves VS Dwarves and Gnomes may have been at war around the time of the Golden Kingdom being sealed. This conflict also may be one of the factors pushing the kingdom to be sealed in the first place.

The "Central Region" might be the origin of the "Common Tongue" that our characters speak.

Northern Central Continent

The Adventurer's Bible | p. 132

For this place to have a high quality of life, and also a declining population - especially when it's so close to the Western Continent, which is stated to have poor quality of life - there must be strictly maintained borders and a strong anti-immigration policy. Based on the attitude of the elves, I wouldn't be surprised if it was very difficult to move there unless you are also an elf.

It could probably be considered an ethnostate - and while in these kinds of fantasy worlds, that's pretty common. Take Rivendell, or Moria, in LOTR - they take for granted that these kinds of different fantasy races will live in separate communities.

But that isn't actually realistic, and I think Kui has considered it as more of a politically established status quo rather than an obvious natural result of having magically distinct "races". Which, even in Dunmeshi, I think is a difficult and not-terribly-accurate way to represent politics - racism does not emerge from actual, physical differences between races, after all.

But Dunmeshi's presentation of this idea is interesting, because of the recognition that if there is an "elven nation" which prioritises the interests and rights of elves over other races, that is because there's a deliberate, concerted effort to keep it that way.

But there's a small section of the NCC with a high tallman population - I wonder what kind of community they have, and how they fit into the strict elven hierarchy?

The Adventurer's Bible | pp. 134 & 136

Kabru and Rin, and other kids like them, who are adopted or taken as adopted children(rarely - the way Milsiril treats Kabru is not perfect, but she's deliberately attempting to be better than other elves.... meaning other elves are usually worse)/pets/objects by elven nobles, as well as accomplished or notable individuals who earn the elves' favour/are "invited" to stay (such as they try with Laios at the end of the story) would be an exception.

Other long-lived races could probably (...?) visit, but given the historical conflict between elves, dwarves, and gnomes, I think they'd also be pretty hostile to many of them coming to live on the NCC, even if they see them as more like equals.

Social Structure & Nobility

The Northern Central Continent is an absolute monarchy under a 372 year old queen, Heimeya (IDK what the official romanisation of her name will be).

...With extended "nobility", which are the group that the canaries' guards draw from. We don't get much clarification of what sort of structure their nobility has, what titles there are, and where our characters who are nobles fall into it.

Pattadol (House of Vari), Mithrun (House of Kerensil), and Milsiril (House of Tol) are nobles.

Mithrun's noble house, Kerensil, is apparently a well-known family of investors! I wonder what sorts of businesses they invest in & what the elven economy is like?

Milsiril's house, on the other hand, is a well-known military family. I wonder if Kabru could claim the surname "of the House of Tol". He did go to family gatherings after all. But if he was comfortable doing so and it would be accepted, I would assume he'd have done so when introducing himself to the canaries.

Flamela is a distant relative of the queen, who has additional status due to exhibiting the genetic trait associated with their queens, extremely dark skin.

The queen is a "staunch traditionalist" who wouldn't even acknowledge a half-elf like Marcille. Nice! I really feel bad for Kabru and Rin growing up as tallmen in this sort of culture.

Court Magicians

While generally this is a term for any magic user who serves in a royal court, in the Northern Central Continent it seems to carry a lot of esteem; even just as the daughter of one, Pattadol assumes Marcille has the right to boss her around and to handle highly secret, highly illegal ancient magic secrets.

That makes sense, as in the society of the Northern Central Continent, you'd be directly serving the elven queen. But also, she has enough Court Magicians that Pattadol would not expect to know Marcille's mother's name, but few enough that it would be a big deal and Cithis would know about it if one had a half-elf child.

I don't think it's remotely unlikely based on that to assume that this role is only available to nobles.

A "Court Magician" who doesn't serve the NCC Queen isn't a "real" Court Magician in the eyes of NCC elves. Those short-lived monarchs would be happy just to have an elf around regardless of whether they were actually any good at magic.... according to Cithis.

Magic seems very important to the society of the NCC elves. The queen communicates with her subordinates via familar, and the birds we see surrounding her seem like they are some kind of magic - perhaps not familiars since we see her familiar, but some other kind of scrying?

Also, based on the fact Pattadol assumes a Court Magician would be serving the Queen of the NCC, we can theorise that perhaps whatever structure the SCC has, it isn't a monarchy....? Heimeya is "the queen of the elves", after all - that doesn't sound like there's another elven monarch competing for the title just next door.

Ordinary People

Apparently the NCC is a safe place and life is easy -- but given the strict class system, I kind of expect that varies a lot depending on the family you're born into.

The only elves we meet who are not nobles are the convicted criminal canaries, so it's hard to get a sense of what life is like for them from that. Cithis was apparently a wealthy fortune teller with "an intense jealousy for those born noble or wealthy." So I assume she was not born into comfort.

Apparently "There are also primitive villages deep in the woods and underground, and in some regions cannibalism is still practiced." Which is awesome. Based on her videogame elves art I think Kui's probably making a little nod to Divinity: Original Sin elves, who can absorb memories through eating the flesh of others. Elves in dungeon meshi don't have this trait, but I wonder if there is a magical ritual or some kind of cultural practice with a similar intention.

Cuisine

Marcille's mother didn't think much of the elven cuisine.

Liricmumwarel is fancy candy given out by the elven queen the shape of which conveys blessings.

Elf Cake is a crumbly dry cake that Kabru and Thistle don't think much of. I've heard someone discuss what it's likely to be made of, but I am afraid I don't recall.

Southern Central Continent

The Adventurer's Bible | p. 132

It seems like the Southern Central Continent gets a lot more immigration and has a more diverse population, especially along the south coast (near the Western Continent). That south coast has a high tallman population.

Fleki and Lycion are from the Southern Central Continent. Fleki got into ancient magic for the money, so you can assume there's probably class disparity there too; things are noted by Kui to be more "disorganised" than the NCC. Not a bad thing at all - the NCC is definitely too "organised" in my books. But that does potentially also mean there's less, e.g., bureaucracy, central organisation, less of a social safety net. But then again, in the NCC I doubt that whatever "safety net" there is, is available to everyone.

We can't extrapolate much from Fleki & Lycion's personalities, because they clearly aren't in the most stable societal position, and I get the sense that they're the countercultural type - they probably don't represent the type of person typical to the SCC. Also, our NCC characters are all either nobles or used to navigating high society (Cithis, Kabru to an extent) so they aren't exactly a typical "ordinary NCC person" as a basis for comparison either. However, there's less of a "strict set of social rules" type of feel to the SCC characters, fitting with my suggestion that the SCC may not be a society with a strong feudal element.

Geopolitics & Conflict

The fact that, despite their being from the SCC, Fleki and Lycion are in the Canaries, who work directly under the NCC's Queen, implies that the the NCC feel entitled to process and prosecute people who commit ancient magic-related crimes regardless of any notion of "jurisdiction". This is backed up by the way that they were going to take Marcille - but that is something that the governor of the Island had to give permission for, which Laios is able to withdraw. So I assume that the NCC elves apply pressure on various world leaders to extradite criminals involved in ancient magic.

The SCC would cooperate with this, since they're allies, even if they don't have a great relationship (according to the World Guide).

The NCC are also clearly able to take half-foots without trouble, as we see by Chilchuck saying he's known half-foots who got involved with "black magic" (ancient magic) and were disappeared by the elves. But I doubt gnomes or dwarves are giving people up easily - though that probably doesn't go for dwarves like Senshi and Namari, without strong community ties.

Long before the current times, elves fought dwarves & gnomes. There might have been more than one of these conflicts...? While long ago, this war isn't "ancient" (like the ancients who sealed the demon into dungeons, before their world was mostly destroyed by it).

Thistle, Delgal, and the Golden Kingdom were (I believe) caught up in one of these conflicts, which used Melini as a staging ground - thus why Thistle was pushed to seal the entire kingdom in the dungeon.

To do this, Thistle unseals a dungeon created by the "ancient people". These could be the "ancients" who created the dungeons, before the apocalypse. Or they could be another, still extinct, society.

Regardless, at least one of these conflicts seems to have taken place after the golden kingdom was sealed - so, within the last 1000 years.

Though, this could refer to a different, more localised conflict between the Golden Kingdom and their dwarven neighbours.

The order of events is that the Golden Kingdom was sealed (1000 years ago or so) > Dwarves took over > Elves stole the land from the Dwarves ("long ago" by the Island Lord, a tallman's, standards) > Elves gave the land to a local lord, who was either an ancestor of the Island Lord, or the Island Lord himself. The Island Lord is himself a descendant of the lord who poisoned Delgal's father, as is noted in the World Guide. However, it isn't impossible for there to be large gaps of time between these events, which could put the elf / dwarf wars at a more recent date.

The fact we know that the elves stole the land from the dwarves, and then granted it to a political actor who was relevant during the events of the Golden Kingdom flashbacks we see suggests to me that the events were roughly contemporaneous. If they were, that puts at least one of these conflicts at roughly 1000 years ago.

So, the elf/dwarf & gnome conflict is "long ago" by short-lived standards, but would be considered "modern" by the long-lived races, if you ask me. At least, the equivalent of the World Wars for us - recent history, even if we weren't alive.

I'm guessing the "Elf King" from the below panel in fact was a word that's more gender-neutral in Japanese, since the "Western Elves" definitely have a queen.

Language

When Kabru says the "Central region" I expect he means the region where the NCC and SCC is.

The fact that he observes that the lack of any accent means he's from the Central Region is really interesting. It could mean two things;

either they switched to speaking in the language spoken on those continents, which Kabru would naturally know, having grown up there. It's 100 percent possible, but I think this would be noted in the story.

or, the language that gets called "the common tongue", the one that all our principle characters speak for most of the story, originated from the elves in the Central Continent. Or at least it's the same one that the elves use, and their political influence is great enough that their accent gets to be considered not an accent at all. The fact they were "granting" land in this area to tall-man lords suggests a large enough historical influence in the area that this is quite plausible to me.

Mithrun absolutely does have an accent - nobody speaks without an accent. His accent is just politically and socioculturally normalised to the point of being considered the "default/proper" way to speak - like received pronounciation in English.

The common tongue isn't ubiquitous everywhere - not just Kuro, but Kiki and Kaka are also noted to be studying the common tongue. The Tansus were born on the Eastern Continent, so probably gnome communities there speak their own language - Kiki and Kaka grew up primarily surrounded by gnomes after all.

It's also quite likely that Kabru, specifically, because of where he grew up, would consider Mithrun's way of talking to be the default "not an accent" accent. His adoptive mother surely has the same upper-class NCC accent. I expect that other characters might experience it as more "marked".

This isn't a world where everyone speaks the same language everywhere; the common tongue is called that, but there are many different languages. Kabru and Chilchuck are two characters who are adept with many of them - Kabru speaks the language of the kobold, and probably lots more. Chilchuck works as an interpreter as part of his union stuff - I can tell you from experience that that's a hugely valuable skillset in that context, as many of the people who most need union representation are people who don't speak the dominant language, or at least not fluently.

If you got all the way to the end of this post.... thank you for reading, I love you. Check out my other World Map Notes under that tag on my blog; I've made a few so far and there will almost certainly be more. Next I'm thinking the dwarven nations...? But I could be persuaded if someone had a preference.

Also, anyone got any speculation on what, exactly, is the previous time that Heimeya ate a person/monster/chimera that this panel implies:

We really don't have anything to go on whatsoever, but I think it's a fun tidbit.

[spearxwind]

Hello!! Opening up some commission slots for what´s left of july!

▽▲ INFO:

Polygon illustrations are fullbody, fullcolor by default and come with a simple background

Illustrations are also fullbody, if shaded it will also come with a free simple background

Please keep in mind prices will increase for complex designs!

▽▲ EXAMPLES:

Polygon illustrations:

Regular illustrations:

More examples in my art blog @spearxwindart

▽▲ FOR ORDERS:

If you’d like one, hmu at windydraws@gmail.com, and please make sure your email includes the following:

visual references for your character

what pose you want your character to have, or what vibe you want the drawing to have (if you don't have any preference I’ll choose what I think would look nice)

If it's relevant to the pose/scene you can tell me a bit about their demeanor/personality, as well as any details you’d like me to pay special attention to, if any!

your paypal email so I can invoice you (VERY IMPORTANT)

your url if you’d like to be credited or @’d

For all orders, once paid I’ll send you the sketch for reviewing the pose, and once that is approved I will finish the piece and send it your way for approval. You have a right to two tweaks free of charge if I got anything wrong.

▽▲ TOS:

Payment is upfront, and through paypal only!

Turnaround is around four weeks/one month maximum after payment, I will warn you if it would exceed this time for whatever reason.

I will post these on social media by default, if you’d like yours to remain anonymous or to not be posted at all please let me know!

I reserve the right to refuse an offer.

These are for personal use only, commercial rights are cost extra.

If you have any questions feel free to send me an email as well! Thank you for reading!

[lokinightfury]

Umbrella academy - subway map code translated

Some of you might have seen I started to make a stab at solving the symbol code seen in TUA S4.

@ifellinto-fantasy happened upon a real life copy of the map so very kindly sent me some lovely photos to help translate the smaller bits of text I was struggling to see.

There are some missing letters and presumed typos in the code, so where I've corrected these I've added brackets around the correction, in caps if a corrected letter (M) lower case if an added letter (m)

For an overview of the map there is a zoomable image here

So there's several areas of code and text to look at

Starting with the title on the far left - SYSTEM MAP

The block of text next to it is a little longer, but still translates:

ATTENTION

THE TIMELINE IS IMPORTANT FOR YOUR SANITY BUT THERE IS NO WAY TO GAME THE SYSTEM ALL WILL BE REVEALED WHEN THE ANSWER IS OBVIOUS THE SOLUTION WILL BE ACHIEVED UNTIL THEN TH(e) TIMELINE MUST BE RESPECTED

At the top right of the map is this little box of text

INFORMATION

WE ARE NOT RES(p)ONSIBLE FOR LOST OR STOLEN ITEMS

Bottom left there is another text box

ATTENTION

THIS IS NOT A CLU(e)

CLUES ARE EVER(Y)WHERE

These are the line codes. Some of the lines are also letter symbols, but most are new symbols

The text upper left reads

DIRECTORY

The smaller text at the top is duplicated across both keys, but the kerning is different between the two boxes

THE TIMELINE IS ENDLESS DO NOT LOSE SIGHT OF YOUR GOAL

I'll be doing a second post shortly translating the much smaller text under each of the line symbols

[beannary]

so i was so brain empty for day 5 prompt which was map so i decided to do the prompt for day 5 from 2020 which was blade!

[spiritshaydra]

So

Galvatron’s Revenge right

Click below for a surprise <33 xoxoxo

Minecraft abandoned mine noise

[thetwilightroadtonightfall]

infected with union leader disease (incurable) <- loves and misses Daybreak Town with my entire heart and soul. But there’s no way to go back home.

[peopleareaproblem]

Some "minor" things from the Carlos Luna summary that have popped up in Junior Year:

the original Shrimp Party

Fig never going to class

Porter telling Fig she's good at rage

I assume these things got mentions in the summary specifically because they reappeared in Junior Year, so I combed through the video again looking for more "unnecessary" details...

General weirdly specific stuff:

we see Madam Silvaine's character card, even though she's a very minor NPC

the gang maybe went a bit too far while interrogating Biz

Gorgug was fed a flower by Telemaine

Ragh was hooking up with Fathethriel

Fathethriel helped Aelwyn trick the Bad Kids

Arianwen:

Arianwen taught at Hudol

frequent focus on Arianwen and her character art

Gilear:

Gilear couldn't become the guidance counsellor because Jawbone got that job

Gilear was living in Hallariel's garage

Gilear briefly died

Fabian was having visions of turning Gilear-esque in the future

we haven't seen Gilear in a while huh? everyone forgot him

Gilear was in the wheel well

"Fig's dads have the worst luck" (direct quote)

Gilear finds the sin armors, refuses to put on the kink armor

Gilear dies twice in Hell

Gilear has to stay out of the Forest of the Nightmare King because they can't keep spending their diamonds revivifying him

after saving the day, Gilear got a little proud in the pride armor and died

Those sure are a lot of minor details about a character who hasn't been in Junior Year since his brief appearance in episode 3, huh?