#divine understanding

[dreaminginthedeepsouth]

ὄλβιος, ὅς θείων πραπίδων ἐκτήσατο πλοῦτον,/δειλὸς δ’, ὧι σκοτόεσσα θεῶν πέρι δόξα μέμηλεν.

Fortunate is the person who assembles a wealth of divine understanding, but a miserable wretch is he who tries to manipulate his fellow humans with his conjectures about the gods.

—Empedokles (Ἐμπεδοκλῆς) of Agrigentum, Fragment No. 132 (attr. Theophr., Caus. plant. I 13, 2)(c 444 BCE)

[Robert Scott Horton]

[ryanranney]

The Paradox of the Spirit

For the words of the spirit Are insane to the world’s sane And sane to the insane Unrighteous to the world’s righteous And righteous to the unrighteous For the spirit of the word Is folly to the wisdom of the world And wisdom to the folly of man Bondage to the will of the world And freedom to the will of man For the love of the spirit Is darkness to the seeking of self And light to the seeking of…

[compassionmattersmost]

Interfaith Harmony: Ganesha, the Universal Remover of Obstacles

There is an ancient story, older than memory, that speaks of a gentle presence who stands at the threshold of each journey. He is called Ganesha, the remover of obstacles. In Hindu tradition, he is worshipped as a friend and guardian of beginnings, an embodiment of wisdom and gentle strength. His form is unmistakable—an elephant head, eyes deep with understanding, a body both round and rooted, as…

[lizzybeeee]

Am I the only one who thinks it's fucked up that the Mortalitasi are parading about King Markus's corpse...as opposed to letting the next in line rule??

He's alive in DAI - old, but very much flesh and blood - and we know this because the venatori use blood magic on him to get him under their control. So, what is he in DATV then? Are they implying that he's a lich? That he still has his mind? That they've got a spirit in there?

What do they gain from this? Cassandra's, what, 64th in line for the throne? So there's a bunch of potential heirs just hanging about -> potential heirs who want the crown because we know that Cassandra's parents were executed for trying to overthrow him.

Cassandra may not be fond of her family, but I can't imagine her letting this slide. This is the type of shit that gets an Exalted March called down on you! Especially if she's divine?! Nevarran's can be 'death-focused'* yes, but they let the living rule and not the dead.

It's their belief that when their soul passes through the Fade it results in a spirit being displaced - so they have the Mortalitasi find the spirit a new home in the Necropolis. That is their job - they maintain the Necropolis and, according to DATV, sometimes deal with awry magic.

The potential relation to a Divine or the Head of the Seekers, the King of Nevarra, is having his corpse puppeted about by a mage...and no one seems to care?!

Is this not super fucked up to anyone else?!!!

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Edit - I put this down in the tags but I think it's important to point out: In all the previous games up to this point not once has a mage, manipulating a corpse like this, ever been portrayed as quirky or funny. This is not the norm of what the Mortalitasi are supposed to do - they honour the dead they do not puppet them.

Thedas is a world very strongly intertwined with faith, especially the Chantry. It is Nevarra's attitudes towards death and their burial practices that distinguishes it from other Andrastian nations - they still have the Chantry, the Templars, and the Circle of Magi just as the rest of Southern Thedas has.

It's impossible to imagine any Divine (Leliana, Cassandra, or Vivienne) hearing of this occurring and not taking action against this. It's extremely strange that Emmrich bemoans that half the nobility know this has occurred when this action should be seen as nothing short of an abomination to the faithful - including Emmrich.

[wardensantoineandevka]

it's kind of funny that we're back at the start, as it was known from the very beginning, as the story always was, the old lore: "the Divine Gate was built in response to the destruction and suffering of the Calamity as the Prime Deities realized was far too much and, as such, they needed to also remove themselves from Exandria to protect it from the ruin that the gods dwelling here brings"

[nellasbookplanet]

I know that after Downfall the perspective of 'the gods are a FAMILY' has permeated fandom on both sides of the kill-all-gods argument, but frankly that isn't all they are and acting as if it's suddenly their only motivation flattens both them as characters and the narrative they (and bells hells) are in.

The Wildmother and The Raven Queen didn't 'let' Lolth get away with nabbing Opal and killing Cyrus because she’s their sister. Come on man, we've already seen that the primes are plenty capable of opposing and fighting their siblings on the side of mortals (is the calamity a joke to you??). I'm not saying the primes aren’t capable of picking the lives of their betrayer siblings over mortals (downfall showed as much) but that's not what the situation with Opal and Lolth was about in the slightest.

They let Lolth 'get away with it' not because she’s family, but because this is the very rare instance of them not only having the same goal, but of them actively fighting for their lives. As far as we know that has only happened once before on Exandria, and that time they also entered a truce to defend themselves. The vast majority of the time, the primes picking their siblings over mortals won’t happen because mortals can’t actually threaten the gods (normally), making the 'they're family argument' a moot point. The primes won’t necessarily agree with Lolth's methods, but they won’t go throwing away both hers and their own champions in a meaningless struggle when they need all their strength to stop the fucking apocalypse.

[moldwood]

its a shame that scientology is the name of a rich person cult and not a really cool religion that thinks of scientific equations and laws of physics as a celestial language that allows us to understand the universe and the energies of wind and gravity and that the forces that act on the world around us are holy and curiosity to learn about them is holy and being a scholar learning to fight against them and work with them and discover new ones makes you a prophet. or whatever

[thatringboy]

haven’t finished Amphoreus yet but if they send Sunday down to the surface he’s literally gonna get confused for titankin with his funky clothes and halo he’s gonna get his ass beat by mydei and NOT in the way my current wip suggests

[to-be-a-dreamer]

I just think that Kristen "I was my God's chosen one and I met him and he adored me but he wasn't what I needed and I didn't like the kind of divinity my church had turned him into so I left and created a pantheon dedicated to the lost and the confused and the hurt because no one should have to feel the way I did" Applebees and Ostentatia "My God barely knew my name and I met him and he was dismissive of me but he loved me and always provided what I needed and when I looked at him I only saw my father so I helped him because no one should be left to drown under their burden when all they need is a little help" Wallace should meet and be friends and maybe kiss on the mouth

[balleater]

you know what i am so glad that exu calamity gave us insight into vespin chloras's reasoning and everything because now i can confidently say that the guy who kicked off the point in exandria's history that killed 2/3 of the population and fundamentally changed the way the gods interact with the world had more understandable reasoning than ludinus da'leth does.

[duskerot]

i disappear inside myself / my friends don't know it can't be helped

[Pure You - Nothing But Thieves]

[nymphiqueish]

me when I'm a pure and dependent angel with pretty wings who wants to sing praises and sit at a god's feet except I have to pay taxes and go to my full time job and do dumb human things like "drink water"

[hplonesomeart]

I’m getting so antsy about finishing this—Oh how I long for the day I’ll be able to share the full thing in motion. Alas that day never comes because I keep making it increasingly more complicated for myself to get done lol. Maybe give it another month

[oratoful]

hitaldi's basics in learning integral calculus.

[anglerflsh]

we jest we laugh but doesn't the thought that we aren't even free of nobility as a ruling class make your blood boil. Yes yes by the modes of the present the current ruling classes are the capitalists the hegemonies the monopolies but we can't even say we exchanged one for the other. They're literally still here. It's so inconcievable to me. What the hell

[silusvesuius]

my ♀Neloth 🤗 she is supposed to look like one of those 'crazy and wise old lady' magicians from children's media. she grew her hair out to the point of it looking like bramble, she's not taking that good care of it, so it probably has morrowind wildlife festering in it (that she carried over to solstheim). she has the attached permanent herbs && old person smell on her that are covered by intense fragrance oils. she grows her hair out because it makes her look younger, even though it is grey. she's really into flex culture and primo jewelry to show status and make her stand out from the poors. she has all of the good things in life and the only thing wrong is the untreated NPD and pms-ing. regular neloth only deals with the former