#east of heaven

[elisaa-suu]

John Steinbeck🌼

[baudouinette]

I have like a thousand versions but imma post these for now

I referenced the tiles from the Andalusian ones in my house bc they look similar to the ones in the movie!

[its-stuffimadeinphotoshop]

[tvntheatre]

Tossing out scraps of my concept for that AU I have a definite amount of ideas for (I have no idea how to make a solid design!)

[yeyayeya]

Quan Yizhen and Lang Qianqiu should be besties

[soath]

Of Contracts Between Gods and Men

On the Aeorian Kinsey-Deicide scale I’m a solid 5 (near exclusively god-preserving) which may seem surprising to my many dear associates who want those fundamental truths of existence wrecked. Without digging in any further, let’s do some quick religious history review on the question: Do you owe anything to the gods and do they owe anything to you?

The answer is not as universal as many raised in the nigh inescapable miasma of Christian theology may think! Reciprocal (or even unilateral) responsibility in religion comes and goes across history and geography. The Norse Aesir, for example, created humans but don’t owe them nada and only rarely bothered messing with them. The Greek pantheon are significantly more touchy on the subject of their pride but a person could manage offering no prayers or sacrifices as long as they didn’t promise any prayers or sacrifices. Probably. Compare this to Mayan theology, wherein both gods and humans have significant co-responsibility in maintaining balance; with ritual and sacrifice key to the continued safety of the polity. Divine-mortal relationships can be classified as nondirectional, unidirectional, or bidirectional with various advantages and disadvantages to each model. Gods come in lots of shapes and the demands they make aren’t universal!

A phrase that will often come up in any divinity studies is “covenant”. Originally a translation of the Hebrew berith or Greek diatheke, and also present in Islam, the Bahai’i faith, and possibly historical Phoenician religious practices, covenant theology has metastasized in Christian scholarship to the point it was genuinely hard to research this piece while dodging blogs by guys named Richard. But, broadly, it’s the idea of making an explicit deal with power(s) greater than yourself where you both have sides of the bargain to uphold.

Contract law is not the solution to every problem on earth or in fiction, but when the issue is a large disparity in power and mutual fears of future adverse behavior…. to quote Kate Bush “I’d make a deal with (the) god(s).”

Vitally, compared to other bidirectional pacts in world religion, Exandria has some advantages. For one thing, they have a godeater they’re right now helping to suppress. As long as the gods remain behind the divine gate they need mortal champions to effect their will—but that only holds true as long as the Divine Gate stays up. And unfortunately the problem with a fence someone else has erected is that you don’t know if they’ve kept a key.

If I was mortality’s lawyer? I’d ask for a second layer to that divine hamsterball I’d ask for anything left of the godkilling spark to be kept by the temples of Vasselheim—if they can’t be trusted with it no one can. And I’d promise cooperation from people of a certain degree of civic responsibility, not coerced or threatened out, whole hearted. But terms and conditions may vary.

Anyway, I guess the thesis is that it’s a terrible sin to destroy something you can’t comprehend with no idea of what the outcome will be (and a lot of you don’t seem to get the inconceivable joy of having/knowing/being a god, even just in fiction) but you can bring any monstrosity to the negotiating table. Don’t kill your gods, unionize against them.

[uisgeartplus]

TGCF Cowboy!AU

Local Ranger Xie Lian makes a new friend!

[falling-star-cygnus]

i only just recently got into Heaven Official's Blessing, but i don't think anything will ever beat the Windmaster looking at Lang Qiuanqiu hitching a fit about being bet for only half a steamed bun, immediately going "it's more than i would pay >:(" and then hiding his face behind his fan like he hadn't said anything at all

well aside from how tooth-rottingly in love Hualian is ofc

the dialogue in this franchise is top tier "you're going to pay!" "...for what?"

[theaologies]

No more modern shonen isekais. Go back to 90s josei isekais where Japanese school girls get sent back to 14th century BC Türkiye to become the commander in chief of the Hittite armies on a campaign against Ramesses I

[buffetlicious]

My very first time trying 4Fingers Crispy Chicken but not for their fried chickens. Instead, I went straight for the jawbreaker burger – the Chicc Crisps Combo with seaweed fries and drink. The staff asked me which level of spiciness I wanted and I took the midlevel “Hot” option. As I unwrapped the foil paper, the single patty burger in front of me doesn’t look as intimidating as in the menu. On the other hand, it seems rather smallish to me. Taste wise, the juicy fried chicken patty is well marinated and crispy with mild spiciness. It is topped with smoked cheddar cheese, mixed greens and Thousand Island dressing between toasted sesame seed buns.

Topmost image from 4Fingers Crispy Chicken.

[thursdaymurderbub]

Silver Screen magazine, October 1939

[lorddougie]

"then it hit me: dying is just like sleeping. you only know you’re sleeping when you wake up the next day, but if morning never comes, you sleep forever. that must be what death is like. when someone dies, they don’t even know they’re dead. because they never see it happen, nobody ever really dies. this hit me like a sucker punch. "

- heaven, mieko kawakami

[asian-character-of-the-day]

Day 33

Today’s Asian character is Zhou Min from The Heaven Sword and Dragon Saber!

She is Mongolian.

(Yes this is taken from the Wikipedia idk where to find other images)

[rrcraft-and-lore]

India, Tianzhu (and the centre of heaven).

What the heck does that mean? Well, let's get into the good relations of old India and China way back when. Besides the records of trade, treatises, statecraft and then material goods ancient India and China have traded in not to mention the link of Buddhism, and long philosophical exchanges, there was a beautiful regard for each other for quite a while.

China once gave India the long-standing historical name of: Tianzhu or Wutianzhu which mean: The Centre of Heaven, and the Five Indias the latter is because of how China viewed India has five geographical regions of the four cardinal directions with a fixed center.

The name of India is different in the Japanese transliteration of Journey to the West and reads as Tenjiku.

Interesting in 300 CE, common era, there is an account of a traveler and writer to India who records of parts of the climate, materials found for sale and coming from the earth, parts of the biodiversity in animals found, and the fact India was trading with what the Chinese called Rome then - Daqin, or the part of the empire they knew of at that time at least, what is known as Syria today.

[justana0kguy]

2024 MAY 17 Friday

"For as the heavens are high above the earth, so surpassing is His kindness toward those who fear Him. As far as the east is from the west, so far has he put our transgressions from us."

~ Psalms 103:11-12

[the-monkey-ruler]

Yellow Emperor's Sword (2012) 春光灿烂之欢乐元帅

Director: Li Huimin Screenwriter: Zhang Tan / Gu Man / Zhu Yili / Fan Xiaotian / Xu Shalang Starring: Charlene Choi / Gillian Chung / Leo Kee Ku Genre: Drama Country/Region of Production: Mainland China Language: Mandarin Chinese Date: 2012-01-07 (Mainland China) Number of episodes: 48 Single episode length: 45 minutes Also known as: Happy Marshal of Brilliant Spring / Happy Marshal IMDb: tt2473962 Type: Reimanging

Summary:

This is a mythical and legendary comedy. In the ancient East, there was a beautiful village rich in "celestial silkworms", and everyone lived a leisurely life in a paradise. Tmall Girl (played by Zhong Xintong) escaped here because she stole the elixir of Taishang Laojun (played by Han Zhenhua). When she discovered such a fairyland, she became greedy. She put herself into Miaomiao's body and planned to occupy the village. Taibai Jinxing (played by Guo Jinan) came to Zhujiajiao to chase the cat demon, and was rescued by a piglet during a fight with the cat demon. In order to repay the favor of saving his life, he let the piglet sneak into the owner's body and become a human for one day, and named him Zhu Tianshuai (played by Leo Ku) ). Little Dragon Girl (Charlene Choi), who came to the world to repay her kindness, met Zhu Tianshuai and mistakenly thought she was his benefactor and fell in love at first sight. The cat demon is almost exhausted due to the loss of the golden elixir. She drains the blood of the villagers to replenish her physical strength, and the villagers whose blood she has sucked all become her minions. Seeing the cat demon wreaking havoc, Little Dragon Girl and Zhu Tianshuai decided to get rid of her...

Source: https://tv-1.chinesemov.com/tv/2012/Happy-Marshal

Link: https://www.iq.com/album/%E6%AC%A2%E4%B9%90%E5%85%83%E5%B8%85-2018-19rrh76hed?lang=en_us