#example and reference post

[feliville]

:D i think ur art style and character designs are rlly neat !! Do you have any tips for making the same characters look consistent?

Thank u so much !!! 💜

The only thing I can think of is that you should draw your characters Over and Over again; they might slightly morph and change the more you draw them (specially considering artstyle changes), but you'll hopefully land in a spot where you're comfortable drawing them from memory.

Putting my favorite OC here as an example because I draw him the most + I love him.

His design isn't very distinct, he's meant to look like Just some guy, but you're still able to tell it's the same character, despite not looking super consistent the first few months I spent drawing him.

I reckon it's easy to get stuck with the idea that you need to be 100% accurate, otherwise your character will turn out unrecognizable, but I think you should prioritize what feels good and fun to draw, and everything else will hopefully fall into place : -]

[calware]

someone on tumblr: hey guys i see terezi as transmasc

random person in the tags: cool 👍

someone on tumblr: hey guys i see dave as transfem

random person in the tags: huh that's interesting! you know i personally never saw dave as being transfem but i think that's fun! dave is kinda like transgender in all directions like dave is just So transgender he can be trans all at once? lol i never really got that vibe myself but it's cool to see what other people are doing! i love seeing different interpretations even if they don't line up with how i see them <3 never gave it any consideration though haha but don't worry im open to unusual readings!

[starrysharks]

yeah boy and doll face

[whiteboardartstudios]

I SAID I WAS GOING TO DRAW THAT CAR SO HERE WE ARE (I hope you enjoy this is the stupidest thing I've drawn in months /affectionate)

(I put the image descriptions in the Alt text this time because there's so many images. If it doesn't work please tell me and I'll yeet them in the actual post!!)

happy finale of Wild Life everybody! :D

[the-shifting-long]

one fascinating thing about the Princesses is how often they echo the mindset that motivates the Shifting Mound.

Shifty/Felina is someone who is convinced that she is what she is, that the totality of her being is something that cannot be changed or denied. There is no compromise, in part because there is nothing to compromise-she simply is, you simply are, and this is how things are.

Communicating with her using words pre and post awakening is difficult-words are difficult for her. They never quite weave into what she wishes to say. She often resorts to flowery metaphors, unable to use imprecise and unnuanced language to say the things she wants to say. When frustrated by the player or by this issue of communication, she often falls back on how there is no constant, there is no center, everything exists in relation to everything it isn't and vice versa, "nothing" is a concept that exists because there's "something", and how can we even begin to talk about the inherently contradictory, multifaceted aspects of our existence when language cannot account for it?

Precisely because she dislikes words, and feels she has to fall back on metaphor for them to have any meaning, she values action more than anything-more specifically, she values conflicts. She values the ins and outs, the victories and defeats, things ending and breaking only to be reborn. This also ties into the Shifting Mound as a force of entropy, change, and death-she is what she is, viewing death and fear and pain and change as necessary parts of the world, and what's needed to improve yourself.

She loves it so much, loves the player so much, finds it so romantic, that she often refers to it as a dance. Conflict as music. Something beautiful and timeless to be adored and made over and over and over again in a billion different styles across a billion different times and places.

This is all basic Shifting Mound analysis, and it's important for establishing a baseline of Who She Is (without getting into what her Heart versions say, and why there's incongruence there-that's a different post! we can definitely go deeper) Because...every single one of her vessels reflects one or more of these aspects of Felina.

The Damsel line is all about TSM's connection and adoration of the player, how she loves the player even at their very worst and comes up with the most loving poems for the most horrifying things. Even when killed, she decides to return the favor with a smile and with your hand in hers. Damsel's deconstruction refers to the end of the world as "unleashing unceasing entropy upon all creation", Happily Ever After wants nothing more than to leave and dance, and even wears TSM's crown and takes similar poses to the dance Felina has with the player in the Leave ending.

Prisoner is once again about the failure of words, being able to communicate without them, or find hidden meanings. So much of Cage involves both Princess and Voices having literal understandings of the situation, and twisting it for their own ends, along with the natural fall into conflict-and that conflict being beautiful. Drowned Grey is beyond words, instead letting her own corpse's appearance and blank stare speak for her. She's also got this idea of destruction as something necessary-she's perfectly fine, even happy, being nothing but a head and losing her body completely. When that doesn't work, the cabin breaks down on its own, and its destruction is unambiguously a good thing.

Razor's a blatantly more meta route where you manifest a knife for your enemy to kill you with. Razor in both forms is about going through an endless stream of trials until you are about to embrace godhood, either being pushed into another very romantic conflict-the ebb and flow-or rising about it to break her against yourself. It's a beautiful parallel to Shifty herself, this unstoppable force that will never change, and where the relationship only changes because you're able to rise against it.

The Nightmare is about how she simply is what she is, and she can't change that. Fear and death and horror are necessary things to keep the world running. Noteably, Nightmare doesn't want to end the world so much as "hold it in her hands and squeeze." Nightmare doesn't see bringing death and destruction and most importantly, fear as an ending, but a new beginning, and an inevitable part of her nature, just like her fully-awakened self.

Spectre is one of the routes that plays a lot with perception-you think she's dead, so she is, and in Princess and the Dragon, she is both dead and alive until the metaphorical box is opened by an outside observer, schrodinger's cat style. Like the Shifting Mound, she personally chooses to see the best in the player until proven otherwise, and even then, is inclined to embrace violence as a natural part of their relationship if pushed down Wraith or the Stenciled version of Princess and the Dragon. Shifty, Damsel, and Spectre want nothing more than to be with you.

And Tower wants nothing more than to be with you, too...as a goddess while you sit by her side as a pet, or at best, a priest. The Tower princesses are arguably the ones that get closest to godhood, to being what the Shifting Mound and therefore all of the Princesses are. They're held back by their inability to treat the player as an equal, and there's definitely an argument to made for Felina's own arrogance and assumption that she can never be wrong, so you must concede to her. Tower and Apotheosis in particular are delighted by the player's acts of resistance, much in the same way the Shifting Mound gets excited when you're able to successfully resist her. In terms of personality, I'd argue this line shares TSM's general attitude and behavior the most.*

*Tower-Fury is different from the rest of her line in a lot of ways, such as actively disliking the player's resistance, but keeps the divine arrogance even when she believes it's been denied to her, and is genuinely upset it has been much in the same way a certain pre-awakened someone doesn't take kindly to the Oblivion paths.

The Adversary line, similarly to Tower and Razor, once more involves that core belief of conflict between the two of you specifically leading to greater and greater heights. If the Tower reflects TSM's overall attitude, Advy is a reflection of what TSM tries to get at with metaphor-Adversary in all of her forms finds no use in words, only purpose in action, but will still literally cry from joy if this action is compared to a song written in blood. Both Eye of the Needle and Advy-Fury share this trait, with Advy-Fury deriding words as things that "aren't music. They aren't dance. They aren't feeling." TSM shuts down arguments that nitpick her language much in the same way the Adversaries are uninterested in language period, while also using the same language Of song and dance and music. And, while ambiguous, you could say the Leave ending, the endless joy of being with TSM as the world dies and is reborn over and over, presents a similar dynamic to the end of Adversary, where the two of you fight each other over and over with such fervent passion death itself no longer sits on your shoulders...

Stranger's so meta and so obviously a mini-Shifty, it almost feels like a waste to talk about how she's Shifty. A billion realities colliding into one, parts of them dead, parts that don't fit...even pre-awakened TSM says she's in the shape of her, but is unable to hold everything she is.

Witch brings our favorite dance metaphor back right alongside stories about love, change, and growth. While the Witch herself is a wretched little thing, in her own words, she contains so much potential to become something beyond that. Witch, Nightmare, and Razor are all some of the more playful sides of TSM. I feel like things get really interesting in Witch's chapter 3s, ESPECIALLY the Wild.

That's one where you and the princess are literally merged together, right where she believes you belong, and are so, so close to getting everything she wants before the nature of the construct and TSM kick in and the walls close. I can't do a playthrough where I intend to leave with TSM without getting the Networked Wild as a vessel-it just feels that important to Felina as a character, to see what her pre-awakened self describes as a literal shadow of herself, a much more vulnerable version, and for her to be right there...while Tower/Apo feels closest in terms of godhood and attitude, and Stranger feels closet in terms of what she physically is and experiences, Wild feels as though she's the most similar to TSM's inner heart and feelings, right down to the buried parts of herself that still want to get violent.

And then there's Beast/Den. You've probably heard this one from Nightmare and Razor before, get ready to here it from the lion's mouth this time: I am what I am, fledgling. There is no reasoning with that. Adversary says she's beyond words while still happy to use them-that's more than fine, TSM loves poetry despite (or perhaps because?) of her frustrations with language. Den literally gets to the point where she's beyond words. This is a princess who doesn't care for the pretenses that she's a normal, human, mortal being anymore, a princess who embraces everything she is and wants, and who will always be happy to show you exactly what she means...through biting you biting you biting you biting you biting you saving you from a collapsing tunnel biting you <3 Once more we see that repeating motif of merging with the princess, being one with her. Once more we see how badly the Shifting Mound wants to be with us, by any means possible, through the lens of her vessels.

Anyways I think it's really neat how these Princesses are all full-fledged and deep, nuanced characters in and of itself while still contributing to the gestalt of another woman who is made of all of them, and helping to inform her characterization as much as their own. It's like Slay the Princess is insanely well-written and good or something.

[nattikay]

OC lineup! All the characters that currently exist in this "story"

[a-scary-lack-of-common-sense]

I hate writing emotional scenes!! because I'd write someone cry and be like: "ugh lmao, literally no one would react like that to that situation" (<- literally everyone would react like that to that situation) (it is a normal and valid reaction to that situation) (you are just an emotionally inept dumbass that thinks crying doesn’t count as feelings)

[thedeafprophet]

the thing with Fallen London titles and using them in the narrative, I think is a very context based notion for how i approach them. ive seen people often assuming within name their own pcs that they have to capture all nuances of their characters into a title, but thats never how ive seen it.

to me the titles are a distancing aspect of the narrative, almost dehumanizing in a way. defining a character into a few select traits, and boiling them down to what they do. and often times titles are used to indicate a template of an npc, of which there could be multiple people under certain titles.

those titles arent who the character is. its how the narrative chooses to present them

i think in writing how a character mentally refers to a character, whether by a title or by a name, says a lot about the perspective. so using a title doesnt neccesarily tell you everything about a character, but more so indicates aspects of the pov perspective.

[dont mind my ramble i started typing this after responding to that poll XD]

[rad-roche]

if you dig the black and white ink look i do and want to pick that up yourself but aren't sure where to start, then notan studies are a great way to get a grip on it. you'll hear chiaroscuro a lot when it comes to art fundamentals and studies, and it's a great way of thinking about it, but notan is really useful for training yourself to pick out the big graphic shapes. more of a 'yes no' binary view of lighting. is this plane lit? there are only two answers

[danishphoner]

one thing that really fascinates me about alex is his devotion to art – and more specifically, how he chooses to get some inspiration from scientific works of what he aims to implement in his art. every time one gets to examine some of his lyrics, or even how he explains these lyrics in an interview, they can be greeted by some bits of actual scientific information. an example is how he named his taquería on the moon with the term “information-action ratio”, coined by the critic neil postman, and referenced it in the song four out of five, something that might also indicate an interesting articulation with postman's concept. the line “cute new places keep on popping up”, for example, can express his well-known sardonic discontent regarding the flood of information being generated and transmitted over and over and, as much as it seems visually appealing and does give the idea of benefiting from advanced technologies, it doesn't really add anything substantial to the receiver's critical thinking – and worse, it distances the information receiver from the sender in a communication channel, according to postman.

what i'm saying with this interpretation is, it's known that alex is enamoured with the idea of gathering a bunch of references and condensing them into a mixture of metaphors in his writing, but it's so thrilling how, at times, we can find some bits of science inside of it – and it's even more exciting, just like playing a puzzle game, to find these references and analyse them by doing a similar research to what he did to create his works.

[daughterofheartshaven]

Re the whole thing with Ace McShane and deadnames...

Her keeping her deadname around and still using it sometimes in a professional sense makes perfect sense to me as someone who also uses a nontraditional name irl. Sometimes it is just easier to pull the deadname out if I don't want to deal with "will the high and mighty so and sos accept this as a real name".

It's not that I think my name is any less legitimate, it's just that there are situations where I think explaining that is more effort than it's worth. And I feel like that is a judgement call Ace would also be having to make constantly.

It's notable that onscreen, the person to use Ace's deadname (Sarah Jane) has never actually met Ace and barely heard of her. Meanwhile, her actual friends (say, Tegan and Kate) never call her anything but Ace.

[aurantiumred]

as a man who has not only never read or interacted with the dc universe and has only had their partner ramble jason todd lore to them like. once or twice.i should not have the idea of a percy jackson/justice league crossover stuck in my head this hard.

trying to imagine the cabin counselors sitting in on meetings and absolutely causing havoc. falling over in their chairs, giving wonderful ideas like "kill that loser! throw a hairbrush at em!" about literally EVERY villain and trying to organize a capture the flag game with the JL vs CHB and/or CJ is hilarious to me

i would also love a jason todd/grace meet up. because the sillies.

[perfectwitchcrown]

Make the Exorcist Fall in Love - Witches Part 3

Links to Part One and Part Two

This is an update to my previous posts on the Witches in Make the Exorcist Fall in Love I’m adding another possible origin for Charlotte’s name, information on medieval conceptions of Virgil the poet, and a brief addition on demonological references within Ekuoto.

Content warning for reference to sexual violence and misogyny

Charlotte

Previously I mentioned that a potential origin for Charlotte's name was as a reference to a Charlotte Perkins Gilman short story, "When I Was a Witch." However, I recently found another possible source that I think is also worth noting, which is Jules Michelet's La Sorcière, a 19th century text on the history of witchcraft, including a witchcraft case involving a woman named Marie-Catherine Cadière, who in some versions of Michelet's book is referred to as Charlotte.

As background context, I was reading Marion Gibson's Witchcraft: A History of Thirteen Trials recently, and in one chapter she writes about the witch trial of Marie-Catherine Cadière and Jean-Baptist Girard from 1730-1731 in France. This is a fairly well documented event, so I'll only provide a short version of the circumstances as those who wish to read more can do so, although I should warn that the details are upsetting. Cadière had been a member of a religious group led by a Jesuit priest, Jean-Baptiste Girard. While a part of this religious group, formed mainly of women, she began experiencing religious visions, which Girard capitalized on. Later on, Cadière accused Girard of several things, including rape and witchcraft. In response, Girard accused her of slander. In the end, both were acquitted of their charges. The trial was highly publicized in it's time, including internationally. I was able, for example, I was able to find a 1730 English language text on the case in it's tenth edition.

Later on, in the 19th century, this case was also described in La Sorcière by Jules Michelet (known as Satanism and Witchcraft in English). The book "stated that medieval and Renaissance French 'witches' had been early pantheists too: revolutionary pagan priestesses, healers, and mesmerists, sexually liberated, and in touch with an old deity wrongly demonized as Satanic" (Gibson 150).

It should be noted that his historical analysis in this book is considered fairly inaccurate by current scholars (its style of historical writing is also painfully 19th century), but as a text it's had a lot of impact in the way witch trials are thought about in the popular imagination. I've paged through some of the translation available on Project Gutenberg. Here's some quotations I think are interesting in considering this text in relation to ekuoto:

"At what date, then, did the Witch first appear? I say unfalteringly, 'In the age of despair:' of that deep despair which the gentry of the Church engendered. Unfalteringly do I say, 'The Witch is a crime of their own achieving.'" (Michelet 9)

"In its earliest phase the Black Mass seemed to betoken this redemption of Eve, so long accursed of Christianity. The woman fills every office in the Sabbath. She is priestess, altar, pledge of holy communion, by turns. Nay, at bottom, is she not herself as God?" (Michelet 148)

Michelet also, according to Gibson, repeatedly calls Cadière the wrong name in the book, referring to her as Charlotte instead of Marie-Catherine. Here's an important caveat though. For whatever reason, the French edition on Project Gutenberg does not use this mistaken name, nor does the English translation available on it. I was, however, able to find another English translation that refers to her as Charlotte. Additionally, the wikipedia article on the book refers to her as Charlotte, which suggests to me that either that editor read one of the translations I came across or another one that also maintains that error. Now, I don't know exactly what is going on, but I have several theories that I unfortunately don't have the resources or the energy to fully investigate.

An early version of the original French may have mistakenly referred to her as Charlotte, and the version on Gutenberg is from a later reprint that fixed that error

An early English translation of the text mistakenly referred to her as Charlotte, and the mistake is not actually Michelet's but has been spread around in English

Control + F was not working right for me (I do not speak French and used control + f rather than scroll through)

Now, regardless, it doesn't really matter for our purposes. Ultimately, if the text is being referenced, depending on the edition the authors of ekuoto came across, it seems entirely possible that this mistake was present in that edition. Which, again, I don't find it improbable that they may have come across the text, as it popularized a sort of imagining of those accused of witchcraft in Early modern Europe as feminist rebels against the church, and while it's analysis isn't held as historically accurate anymore, it has popularized ways of thinking about witch trials outside of academic circles. This presentation also super lines up with how the witches have been presented in Ekuoto. The book is also less niche than the Gilman story. But, again, Charlotte is a majorly popular name, and the historical Cadière, although heavily referenced in Michelet's book, is not the main figure of it. I did however consider it an interesting enough possibility that I thought it was worth bringing up.

Also, randomly, Michelet's book was apparently the inspiration for the 1973 animated movie Belladonna of Sadness. The more you know.

Virgil the Sorcerer

Speaking of names: Vergilius. On one hand, his name is an obvious reference to Virgil from the Divine Comedy. However, if you were to page through Michelet's book, you'd also see several references to Virgil as a magician. This is because there was a medieval conception of him as a sorcerer. Which I think is hilarious. Virgil's all over the place status in stories is so funny to me because like, he was a real guy. People have been making shit up about him for centuries. Anyways, I read an article, which I'll cite at the bottom, about how this association came to be. The short of it is that he became associated with the idea of prophecy and people started telling stories about him as a magical figure at least by the 12th century and giving him increasingly complex backstories (that I should mention have nothing to do with his historical background LMFAO). Like, magical girl backstory shit. Like his mom was a fairy and he was born with a divine symbol on his forehead before becoming magical at age 14 level stuff. Unfortunately the article didn't include any of the stories, because I was so deeply fascinated. He's a fairy tale figure at this point, and often a mentor figure. As the article states, "Almost all the tales present Virgil as an essentially benevolent character who helps the underdog, and is always ready to punish the wicked" (Wood 94-95). He's like a helpful wizard archetype.

Now, there's a medieval story that sort of doesn't follow this storyline called Virgil in the Basket. It's a sort of misogynistic story with a big "don't trust women, they'll trick you!" theme, where Virgil is tricked by a woman who promises to pull him up into her bedroom in a basket. Instead, she traps him in the basket for everyone to laugh at. He then takes revenge by making all the fires in town go out, with them only being able to be ignited again from her genitalia. This second section seems to have decreased its appearance in artistic renditions of the story as time went on, with the basket section being more focused on.

Later on in the early 20th century, Andrew Lang included a version of the story called "Vergilius the Sorcerer" in his The Violet Fairy Book. In it, Virgilius is a young bookworm who's been sent alone to Toledo following the death of his father. He ends up tricking a spirit in a cave into giving him books to learn magic, which he then uses in various ways to solve problems he comes across. He falls in love with a young woman, who tricks him with the basket. The cruder punishment Lang changes to just having fire appear from her, so she has to stand in the town square for three days for everyone to get fire again. He later falls in love with a princess, who turns against her father for him, and they found Naples and it talks a lot about how a tower in Naples is built on a foundation made of eggs, which appears to be another Virgil legend: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Castel_dell%27Ovo.

Anyways, I think that's an interesting set of info on Vergilius--his name is both a Divine Comedy reference, and also referencing a period of Medieval folklore that places Virgil as a magician.

Lucifer and Others

Also, I thought it was worth mentioning that Make the Exorcist Fall in Love bases it's hierarchy of demons (with Lucifer as Pride, Satan as Wrath, etc etc) on Peter Binsfeld's description of them in Treatise on the Confessions by Evildoers and Witches, a demonological text from the 16th century. Unfortunately, it was not translated into English until 2024 so I was unable to read it, and the only copy I could find for free was in Latin, which I do not know. In all likelihood, Ekuoto is not directly in conversation with this text but rather it's lasting memory in the cultural consciousness, as this assignment of demons to sins is pretty common as the text was very influential. I wanted to read it though...

Book of Enoch and Paradise Lost

Others have explained the influence of the Book of Enoch on Ekuoto far better than I have, so I will only touch on it to say that I am in agreement with others statements that the section on the Nephilim is in reference to it. The presence of the flood is the nail in the coffin for me.

I recently made myself actually sit down and read Paradise Lost and found that it also appears to reference the Book of Enoch. As far as I can tell, the Bible does not actually connect the flood with nephilim, just generalized wickedness (and feel free to correct me if I'm wrong!). Paradise Lost, however, connects the two as does the Book of Enoch. Which, I think is interesting. I've seen lots of buzz about the potential relation Paradise Lost might play in this arc because of the role of Lucifer. I would be really interested to see if that's the case. My key things I'd be interested in seeing are:

how it might engage with the themes of gender and sexuality in Paradise Lost. I found it very very "yay patriarchal heterosexual unions!" in it's presentation of Adam and Eve, but it also simultaneously has a section where Raphael says the angels have like spiritual rather than bodily sex but also all the angels depicted are men. Since we've seen Ekuoto engage and subvert the themes of misogyny in other texts, so I'd be interested in seeing how it engages with this one

The singular Mammon dig in the poem that's like this dude wasn't even good in heaven he was staring at the gold sidewalks all the time

The fallen angels of the poem are punished physically by being turned into serpents after Lucifer/Satan causes Adam and Eve to eat the apple. The fallen angels in Ekuoto also seem to have experienced some sort of physical change in relation to their fall -> what caused that?

Other Assorted Notes on Names

I do want to really emphasize though that everyone's name in Ekuoto has seemingly been a direct reference to either a literary figure or a Biblical character, outside of Imuri it seems, unless she's also some literary reference I'm not aware of. Her surname, Atsuki contains the kanji for love and moon, but as for her first name idk what the deal is. I tried looking it up, and best I could find was that her name is also the name of a sci fi seinen manga that ran from 2006 to 2020, so I'll do research on that end. It does involve people frozen in ice though so like hrmm...

I still don't feel confident pinning down what Charlotte's name is in reference to. But, if we get more on her I'm sure it will become more clear, and I feel we will since we haven't gotten any of her past despite being a senior member of the witches , and since her romantic feelings for Vergilius haven't been fully dealt with.

Leah and Daniel are both names from the Bible. Barbara is the name of a Saint. Dante is obviously Dante (which idk if anyone cares but Dante was historical Dante's nickname, Dante is the shortened form of the name Durante). The Book of Mark from the bible is called マルコ福音書 in Japanese, or the Gospel of Marco so I guess that's where Marco's name is from.

As for the other people I'm unsure of: Mother Rosa could possibly be a reference to Rosa Mystica, a name for Mary. Idk about Asmodeus's nickname Aria. Aleksandra I am also not sure about. Manon, as I've mentioned, is possibly Manon of The Craft but that feels way too contemporary in comparison to the rest of the cast so I'm also holding off until we learn more about her. Mikhail -> Archangel Michael feels just way too on the nose, especially since Archangel Michael gets mentioned frequently enough so I'm also holding off on him. Tachibana is another shrug, although according to the wiki her name uses the kanji 立花 if that's of any help to anyone. Of Leah's friends and family, I feel certain her father Hans and her friend Ella's names are taken from Grimm's Fairy Tales, what with the (not Grimm's) fairy tale references to Baba Yaga in her arc. Not sure about her brother Leo though, although it's another very common name and was the name of several popes. Minor character Charles (church guy with a mustache who I also believe has one or two files in the volumes) is another shrug. Pope Johannes and Cardinal Heisenberg are two other shrugs. Luka is another shrug also but means light so that may just be the only deal w it. Yamato and Catherine are both demons whose names aren't taken from demonological sources or just general religious sources. Not sure what the deal is with Yamato, especially since he was such a minor character. Really not sure what the deal with Catherine is either. I was totally throwing my hands in the air with her and the best I could come up with is that there is a video game called Catherine and apparently there is a succubus in that, or Catherine of Wuthering Heights but that's just because she was the most famous literary Catherine I could think of. I was trying to see if there was any connection based on her headless horse and horseman, so I looked into some stuff along those lines but couldn't find the name Catherine in relation to any Dullahan stories or in Legend of Sleepy Hollow. Abbot Nicholas I'm also not sure, but may be a reference to Saint Nicholas of Myra.

I will say, while I was looking up Saint Nicholas of Myra, I found that one of his most famous legends is about trying to sneak money to a father who'd lost all of his money, could not longer afford dowries for his three daughters, and so the daughters were going to have to become sex workers (the father's role in this varies in the stories I was seeing, with some portraying him as more reluctant and others stating he would sell them to a brothel with less of an emphasis on reluctance. None of the stories I saw seemed to have any real interest in what the daughters thought about all of this whole situation, although to be fair I only came across a few) (this is also where Santa putting gifts in stockings came from apparently?). This could totally be a coincidence in terms of naming, but it did make me take note of it. But, again, he could be called Nicholas for completely unrelated reasons, and in reference to another Nicholas. Saint Nicholas of Trani, for example, was a Saint who repeated the Kyrie over and over again so much that his mother worried he was possessed, which again, is another hmm moment for me what with Nicholas ekuoto's possession. If anyone has any suggestions for any of these characters, or anyone I may have missed, I'd love to hear it! I tried going through the character poll to try and avoid missing anyone but who knows haha.

Anyways, that's all for now! I've got a meta on the image of the forests in the story in the works but I think I'm going to hold off on it until we get more Baba Yaga. I also have another meta prepped for when the latest case files are translated. I don't want to spoil it for anyone, but I parsed through a google translate of them and there's some really interesting stuff in there.

Citations:

Gibson, Marion. Witchcraft: A History in Thirteen Trials. Scribner, 2024.

Wood, Juliette. “Virgil and Taliesin: The Concept of the Magician in Medieval Folklore.” Folklore, vol. 94, no. 1, 1983, pp. 91–104. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/1260172. Accessed 12 Mar. 2025.

Was too lazy to write this citation but the version of Michelet's book I read: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/31420

[miyakuli]

I know this name will be unknown by a lot, but for french people, this is a very sad day because we lost one of the most iconic voice actor, Benoit Allemane. He was the official voice of Morgan Freeman, but also the voices of so many emblematic characters of our childhood, and he was THE supreme narrative voice ever x') and I love how open he was with the new generations, by collaborating with youtubers & streamers for video projects and more, so yeah, this man's voice was everywhere.

His deep & warm voice will be missed and his passion in his acting inspired so many people so he'll never be forgotten for sure.

Thank you Benoit Allemane <3

[serpentface]

Do you conlang? I was wondering if you had naming languages (or possibly even more developed ones) for pulling the words you use. I tried to search your blog but didn't find anything, wouldn't be surprised if the feature is just busted tho. Your worldbuilding is wonderful and I particularly enjoy the anthropological and linguistic elements.

Ok the thing is I had kind of decided I was not going to do any conlanging because I don't feel like I'm equipped to do a good job of it, like was fully like "I'm just going to do JUST enough that it doesn't fail an immediate sniff test and is more thoughtful than just keysmashing and putting in vowels". And then have kinda been conlanging anyway (though not to a very deep and serious extent. I maybe have like....an above average comprehension of how language construction works via willingness to research, but that's not saying much, also I can never remember the meanings of most linguistic terms like 'frictives' or etc off the top of my head. I'm just kinda raw dogging it with a vague conceptualization of what these things mean)

I do at least have a naming language for Wardi (and more basic rules for other established languages) but the rudimentary forms of it were devised with methods much shakier and less linguistically viable than even the most basic naming language schemes, and I only went back over it LONG after I had already made a bunch of words so there's some inconsistencies with consonant presence and usage. (This can at least be justified because it IS a language that would have a lot of loanwords and would be heavily influenced by other language groups- Burri being by far the most significant, Highland-Finnic and Yuroma-Lowlands also being large contributors)

The 'method' I used was:

-Skip basic construction elements and fully move into devising necessary name words, with at least a Vibe of what consonants are going to be common and how pronunciation works -Identify some roots out of the established words and their meanings. Establish an ongoing glossary of known roots/words. -Construct new words based in root words, or as obvious extensions/variants of established words. -Get really involved in how the literal meanings of some words might not translate properly to english, mostly use this to produce a glossary of in-universe slang. -Realize that I probably should have at least some very basic internal consistency at this point. -Google search tutorials on writing a naming language. -Reverse engineer a naming language out of established words, and ascribe all remaining inconsistencies to being loanwords or just the mysteries of life or whatever.

I do at least have some strongly established pronunciation rules and a sense of broad regional dialect/accents.

-'ai' words are almost always pronounced with a long 'aye' sound.

-There is no 'Z' or 'X' sound, a Wardi speaker pronouncing 'zebra' would go for 'tsee-brah', and would attempt 'xylophone' as 'ssye-lohp-hon'

-'V' sounds are nearly absent and occur only in loanwords, and tend to be pronounced with a 'W' sound. 'Virsum' is a Highland word (pronounced 'veer-soom') denoting ancestry, a Wardi speaker would go 'weer-sum'.

-'Ch' spellings almost always imply a soft 'chuh' sound when appearing after an E, I, or O (pelatoche= pel-ah-toh-chey), but a hard 'kh' sound after an A or U (odomache= oh-doh-mah-khe). When at the start of a word, it's usually a soft 'ch' unless followed by an 'i' sound (chin (dog) is pronounced with a hard K 'khiin', cholem (salt) is pronounced with a soft Ch 'cho-lehm')

-Western Wardin has strong Burri cultural and linguistic influence, and a distinct accent- one of the most pronounced differences is use of the ñ sound in 'nn' words. The western city of Ephennos is pronounced 'ey-fey-nyos' by most residents, the southeastern city of Erubinnos is pronounced 'eh-roo-been-nos' by most residents. Palo's surname 'Apolynnon' is pronounced 'A-puh-lee-nyon' in the Burri and western Wardi dialects (which is the 'proper' pronunciation, given that it's a Kos name), but will generally be spoken as 'Ah-poh-leen-non' in the south and east.

-R's are rolled in Highland-Finnic words. Rolling R's is common in far northern rural Wardi dialects but no others. Most urban Wardi speakers consider rolling R's sort of a hick thing, and often think it sounds stupid or at least uneducated. (Brakul's name should be pronounced with a brief rolled 'r', short 'ah' and long 'uul', but is generally being pronounced by his south-southeastern compatriots with a long unrolled 'Brah' sound).

Anyway not really a sturdy construction that will hold up to the scrutiny of someone well equipped for linguistics but not pure bullshit either.

[descendant-of-truth]

What I like about Rockman.exe is that. they push the notion that Netto is the wild card between the two so much, right, like he's the classic loud, reckless kid who jumps out of windows and runs into radiation on purpose. so, next to the sweet and mild-mannered Rockman, he's gotta be the crazy one of the two, right?

Except at every turn, Rockman proves time and again to be WAY more susceptible to unhinged behavior than Netto could ever be

And to his credit, the stuff with Dark Rockman and the Cybeast forms were caused by external factors, even if it still adds to a narrative pattern that I'm very invested in. But the part in the manga where he tears a navi apart with his bare hands was 100% pure Rockman rage, and Netto has to be the one to tell him not to give in to it while he's strangling his evil double in the background

The best way I can think to explain it is that Netto is a consistent level of insane across the board regardless of the situation, while Rockman switches rapidly between the extremes of being Actually Normal and needing to be physically restrained to stop his bloodlust. And truly, who else is doing it like them