#hibi religion

[interlagosed]

Religion talk!!

I feel like everyone, Muslims and non-Muslims alike, need to understand that the Qur’an was for a society and people recovering from the brink of obliteration, trying to make a more equitable society from the guts of a deeply patriarchal, oppressive one. It’s a highly aspirational but also practical book that tries to do several things at once (inter alia):

- Provide an account of and preserve contemporary context

- Provide background theological/eschatological confext

- Offer clarity on a nascent religion

- Give practical guidance, religious and non-religious

- Give aspirational guidance, short-term and long-term

…all You CANNOT extricate any of this from the others. All while being written in the Classical Arabic poetic tradition!! It’s a persuasive document as much as it commands! Like! You’re appealing to a people who used to BURY THEIR INFANT DAUGHTERS ALIVE to hey don’t do that and also here are some rights for them. It was REVOLUTIONARY, truly revolutionary, given the time! It was an emancipatory document that told slave-holders to not only free their slaves, but commanded them to give up a portion of their income every year to charity without caveats, and gave rights to debtors, and at every single turn told people “It is better for you to forgive any crime against you,” and reminded everyone over and over—by forcing them to repeat it every time they opened the Qur’an—“In the Name of Allah, Most Gracious, Most Merciful.”

Of course it wouldn’t be revolutionary to us (even though I argue it is tbh), it was meant to persuade. But it’s a document that is meant to serve as guidance for all people. How can it achieve that successfully? By ensuring that anyone reading it does so with context. That so many people, including an especially Muslims, ignore that crucial context is a disservice to the emancipatory spirit of the Qur’an.

We have to think: what would the Qur’an, its aspirational values, have to say about the society we live in today? How would it ask us to march boldly on towards progress now?

[zephycluster]

Precolonial HWS SEA Rant Post, feel free to ignore

If you're still reading, then you're probably looking for evidence or some juicy tidbits to throw back at me or to try and find dirt to cancel me, like typical Tumblr/Twitter. Go ahead, I don't really care.

First off, let me just say that If you like Precolonial South-East Asia AUs, feel free to keep enjoying them. I will respectfully support your passions from afar. This post is just to explain why I don't like it, especially the way they keep insisting/portraying PH in it.

Still here? Then let me begin.

Since the recent confirmation that the ASEAN Six Majors (Can't really say ASEAN 10 atm since it's still missing some people) Were completed and the Ma-Phil-Indo Trio was included, there has been a large surge in 'Precolonial' fanarts and portrayals of South East Asians, those three especially.

Even long, long before, circa 2010's ish, a rather well-known fan universe known as 'Maaf' dealt with their story and how their Author thought their intertwined histories went. Written by (my best guesstimate) an Indonesian writer who wants to explore the old, SEA bond.

When I first stumbled across Maaf (I was in Highschool at the time, around age 16-ish), I took a casual interest in it and tried to read it through. But, I will wholeheartedly admit that at the time, Pre-Colonial cultures of South-East Asia in general, let alone Philippine, did not really interest me that much. The focus (I think) was mostly on Indonesia, a country I didn't really know back then, and the liberal use of 'ancient' names and artwork just made it feel like an entirely Original Work (that needed a degree in History to really appreciate) and not something from Hetalia. I also completely disagreed with what I could gather was the story's portrayal of PH but I'm getting ahead of myself.

Do I hate 'Maaf'? No, I don't hate it. Do I wish I never came across it or that it didn't exist? Of course not. Just because I didn't enjoy it or appreciate it that well doesn't mean I wish any ill toward it, its fans, or its creator.

Fast forward to April 2021, the long awaited inclusion of South East Asia to the canon Hetalia verse. I was happy, the other fans were happy, all was good.

Then started the questionable fanarts, fan theories and fan pairings.

Especially the expansion of Precolonial! PH.

Let's go back to Maaf for one moment. From what I understood of Maaf, PH there was a character who once was like all the other South East Asian cultures, trading with them, all around being a nice family.

But all that changed when the Spaniards attacked, so cry the precolonial buffs. They destroyed everything, ransacked and marginalized the tribes, erased everything that PH was!

Did that happen? ABSOLUTELY. The Spaniards had this vision in mind that they must spread Christianity to all of the 'savage, unchristian heathens' of their realm. :V /s

But back up a second, back to PH's portrayal in Maaf. The way she (yeah, she) was portrayed there was that she was slowly losing her memories of being a 'true' South East Asian and grew more and more westernized in the process, like some sort of Culture-specific Alzheimer's or something.

Firstly, that is seriously depressing, and secondly, I just really don't see that happening.

Here's why.

Point 1: Even before Colonial Masters, Filipinos as a people cannot agree on anything.

I'll just begin this segment with a Philippine proverb that outlines what Filipinos call 'Crab Mentality' or 'Crab Bucket Mentality'.

"You don't need a lid for a container when you're keeping multiple crabs. If you keep at least two crabs together, they will just pull each other down instead of helping each other up."

I don't know how it goes with Indonesian or Malaysian history class, but what I know of my homeland, both pre- and post-colonial history, we were never really 'united' or 'together' in the sense that Indonesia and Malaysia were (from what I assume).

Let me pull up a somewhat related question on r/AskHistorians.

The reason I brought this up as it shows the reasons why, in my opinion, a single entity that is 'Precolonial Philippines-tan' is an impossibility.

The answers are long and would extend this already long post to stupid proportions, so I'll just quote relevant sentences. The link is here for those that wanna deep-dive into the answer.

"All this to say that there wasn't a name used for the entire Philippine islands before the Philippines that people now would agree to. An interesting comparison would be the Holy Roman Empire, which might also be characterized as disparate politico-geographic groups of relatively small size that had a history of relations between each other, but one thing they had that the Philippines did not was a common language, or at least a family of mostly mutually intelligible languages, so that the name Deutschland or Germany isn't terribly offensive to anyone. If you called the Philippines the 'Lupang-Tagalog' or even 'Lupang-Tao' the other ethnic groups would protest."

For those in need of translation, 'Lupang Tagalog' means 'Land of the Tagalogs' and 'Lupang Tao' means 'Land of People', specifically. The first one is already exclusive and offensive, as the Tagalog peoples are but one of many ethnicities here.

And for the 'Lupang Tagalog' suggestion specifically, it's even more offensive as they are the majority ethnicity (not by much, just around 28%) From this chart from Geography Now! It would basically be alienating everyone else in the 72% remainder that isn't 'Tagalog'.

And even 'Lupang Tao', the most generic name in a local language you can think of, would be met with contempt because the name itself is in the Tagalog language.

Just travelling between two individual island groups today would sometimes require a translator because the words can change very rapidly and very drastically. Here's a sample of some differences coming from a friend living in Visayas (in Red) vs. the words I know living in Luzon (In blue).

Ate vs. Manang = Older Sister

Ibon vs. Pispis = Bird

Tumawa vs. Kadlaw = To laugh

Takot vs. Hadlok = Fear

Kain vs. Kaon = To eat

Ngayon vs. Subong = Now, at this point in time

Iyak vs. Hibi/Gibi = to cry

Talampakan vs. Tiil = Foot (in Tagalog, the word retains its 'body part AND unit of measurement' meaning)

Tulog vs. Tuyo = to sleep (Tuyo in Tagalog is either a dried salted fish or 'to dry')

The kicker is that just like Tagalog is just one of many languages here, so too is the language my friend speaks. Ask an entirely new person, like someone from Mindanao, they'll probably have an entirely new set of words.

It's not just Luzon vs. Visayas vs. Mindanao, either. Here's a map listing some of the ethnic groups here.

Even the way they're written differs from location to location.

While we're on the subject of Island divisions, a casual skim across Twitter and Tumblr has shown that their Precolonial PH has been one of the following ancient civilizations: Tondo, Butuan, Sugbu, Namayan. There may have been others but that was what I have found.

Notice how even today, the posters of Precolonial PH can't seem to agree on what he's supposed to be? With Indonesia it's either Majapahit or Srivijaya and Malaysia it's usually Malacca iirc.

What is the big deal? Well, let's go back to the Ask Historians post. "Why didn't the Philippines ever change its name to remove the colonial mark that being named after a Spanish King has?" The answer: "If you suggested something dating to precolonial times, the other ethnic groups would protest."

Since we're on a roll with maps, let me bring this up.

As you can see, the precolonial PH posts have a reason to not be able to agree on one thing, as there is a LOT of options. Do you also see how THAT list is also split up?

It's split up into those aligned with China (Sinified), aligned with India (Indianized), aligned with the Middle East (Islamicized), and no alignment (Animist). Now, let's go back to the main suggestions for which Kingdom/Polity/Civilization/whatever Modern Philippines used to be.

If the Filipino peoples' couldn't agree on something as simple as WHAT TO CALL THE LAND THEY'RE LIVING ON, what more a living, breathing, walking, talking entity that is supposed to be a beacon of all of their 'unified' culture? ESPECIALLY if that entity used to be a currently existing Kingdom/Polity/Rajahnate/Sultanate/whatever.

Tondo? "Of course, always the damn Tagalogs. Tagalog this, Tagalog that. First the capital city, then the language,* THE REST OF US EXIST, YOU KNOW! What about us in Visayas? Mindanao?"

*The national language known as 'Filipino' is just standardized Tagalog*

Butuan? "Wait, you want Butuan to represent us? They're they only Indian-aligned city in the Islam-majority Mindanao! They're not even that many of them! I'm not gonna change my religion!"

Sugbu, the other name for the Rajahnate of Cebu on the map? Lemme bring back my Visayan friend again. According to her, she hails from the Hiligaynon part of Visayas.

"Sure :v and the other islands are what?

Chopped liver?

Not to mention the language and writing barrier helloooo"

And Namayan? Well. I'll let this pic speak for itself.

To summarize, no matter who you pick as Modern PH's previous identity, it will not end well nor be accepted by the other Kingdoms at the time.

"So where does that leave Modern PH, he had to have been ONE of them, right?"

Well, not really. He doesn't HAVE to be one of the Ancient Kingdoms that lasted till the modern day. I mean, predecessor representatives exist in Hetalia canon, after all. Like Modern Greece is a different character from Ancient Greece, Ancient Egypt and Modern Egypt, heck even England and his brothers have a canon mother that was the rep before them.

Or you could even use the same logic that Germany does, in that each specific region has/had its own representative and that Modern!PH is just the 'mediator' between them (cause gawd does PH need one). There could be a Tondo, a Namayan, a Butuan, and a Sugbu, all arguing and this Proto-PH is just trying to make headway in making them all satisfied.

But, even after all this, there is another reason why I personally don't subscribe to the 'Precolonial PH' idea, and by tangential extension, the Indo x Phil pairing.

Point 2: Even without intending to, Precolonial Indo x Phil just comes off as patronizing

This second point is just ENTIRELY personal preference and barely has any facts to back it up.

Again, if you like the pairing and disagree with me, You do you. I will respectfully support you and your passions from a distance.

But for me, Indo being Phil's seme/bae/boyfriend and consistently bringing up precolonial times just comes off as patronizing.

Just one more time, I'd like to point out that I am NOT bashing Indonesia, its people or the subscribers of Indo x Phil. This is just how the pairing feels to ME specifically.

The way I see it, Indo x Phil as a pairing, especially if it extends back into precolonial times, reads the same way as a long-since married couple where the husband/wife CONSTANTLY brings up that ONE outing you had together, or that ONE prom night where you kissed while dancing, even it happened like 30 some-odd years ago and so much more happened since then.

Even in a platonic sense, It reads like two besties where one ALWAYS mentions stuff like 'Yeah but you looked so much cooler back in High School' or 'Back in Grade School you would've known that', or 'Remember back in Pre-school we did X? How could you forget that?'

How does one respond to the notion that no matter what you do now, it will never compare to a past you've already forgotten or barely remember? That the best version of 'you' is already long gone?

"That's because the westerners made you forget your culture! You gotta take it back!"

While it is true, yes, as a collective we barely remember the Kingdom that commissioned the Laguna Copperplate, or created the Banaue Rice Terraces, or created the millennia old bonds that we still share with Indonesia and Malaysia.

But to keep pushing the precolonial identity would be to neglect and cast aside the one REAL binding belief and culture that spans the entirety of these islands we call the Philippines.

We take on all the bad stuff that happens to us, conquer it, and make it our own. Be it natural disasters, foreign powers, or negative stereotypical mentalities.

Yes, we've forgotten the ancient kingdoms of old and are just now digging through the closet for those remnants of the past. Yes, the colonizers imposed that on us, and made us forget. But in the process we've also taken everything that they left behind, everything that they threw at us, and created something that can only come from us.

The lanterns that the Spaniards used to light the way to the morning masses they made us attend became our globally known symbol of Christmas. The junked vehicles that the Americans left behind in World War 2 are now rolling works of art that announce themselves loud and proud on the streets (for better or for worse). The iced dessert recipe that the Japanese forced us to learn while they were occupying the country is now so distinct and famous it is synonymous with us, and is so delicious even Italy has taken notice.

Even after all this? Even after all the 425-ish years total we have been under a foreign power, with all the progress we've made as a country, a people, and a nation, you would still imply our fragmented, jigsaw puzzle state of being in the past was better just because it was pure 'South East Asian' like everyone else?

We might not be as well put-together as Indonesia or Malaysia, but we made this melting pot of angry, leg-pulling, dogpiling, Native, Mestizo, Chinoy, and Fil-Am crabs OURS, damnit!

It's now 4:30 AM and I have work in 5 or so hours. I'll be going to sleep now.

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Darius I of Persia and the Egyptian Temple of Hibis

The Persian King Darius I offers lettuce to the Egyptian god Amun-Ra. Temple of Hibis, Kharga Oasis.

Source of the picture: https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:HibisGate3Dareios1AmunRaKamutef.jpg

Darius I has completed the construction of the Hibis Temple, which had started some generations earlier under the Pharaoh Apries of the 26th Dynasty. 

See also on Darius and the Hibis Temple Jonathan Winnerman  The Cryptographic Titulary of Darius at Hibis, https://pourdavoud.ucla.edu/video/the-cryptographic-titulary-of-darius-at-hibis/

Now, Herodotus informs us that Darius I visited for some time Egypt in the decade 500-490 BCE and that, during his visit, he put to death the local Persian satrap who had shown tendencies of independence by minting his own silver coin. It is known that Darius showed respect for the Egyptian religion and traditions and played the -rather fictional- role of Pharaoh -  a mostly abstentee, non-Egyptian Pharaoh who was believer of a non-Egyptian religion. Given this particularity of the situation, I think that it is rather improbable that, even during his visit in Egypt, Darius I would have participated dressed as Pharaoh in any Egyptian religious ritual such as the one symbolically depicted in this picture and the portrayal of his offering to Amun-Ra must be seen as of purely ideological-propagandistic nature. And, although it is accepted that through his political skills Darius was relatively popular in Egypt, I don’t think that his image showed in the picture above has been defaced by archaeological accident: I think that it is plausible to suspect that Darius’ image at the Hibis Temple has been defaced on purpose in one of the Egyptian anti-Persian revolts of the fifth and fourth centuries, in a statement of the Egyptian feeling that he and the other Persian kings who ruled over Egypt were not legitimate Pharaohs.

[recentanimenews]

So I'm a Spider, So What? - Crunchyroll Winter 2021 Spotlight

  The latest series to launch as part of Crunchyroll's Winter 2021 lineup is a doozy of an isekai adventure. Today marks the premiere of the anime adaptation of So I'm a Spider, So What?, and whether you've already watched the first episode or not, we have all the details you need below. 

  Official website

Twitter

      Navigation

Launch Info

Official Trailers

Synopsis

Characters and Cast

Staff

Additional Info

    Launch Info

Launch Time: January 8 (Live NOW!)

Territories: North America, Central America, South America, Europe, Africa, Oceania, the Middle East, and CIS

Show Page

  Official Trailers 

        Synopsis

  I, the protagonist, was just an ordinary high school girl, but suddenly I was reincarnated as a spider monster in a fantasy world. Not only that, but I awakened in a dungeon filled with vicious monsters. Armed with only my human knowledge and my overwhelming positivity, I'm forced to use spiderwebs and traps to defeat far stronger monsters just to stay alive... So begins the labyrinth survival story of a girl with incredible mental strength living as one of the lowest-ranked beasts!

  Characters and Cast

  Kumoko

VA: Aoi Yuki (Tsuyu Asui in My Hero Academia)

    A high school girl of self-professed low standing who has reincarnated as a spider. In her former life, she lived as a shut-in and immersed herself in video games, but now she uses her remarkable mental strength to fight for survival. She uses battle tactics that make up for her low stats with her mastery of agility, spider thread, and poison fangs.

  Schlain Zagan Analeit (Shun)

VA: Shun Horie (Enta Jinnouchi in Sarazanmai)

    The fourth prince of the Kingdom of Analeit. His name in his previous life was Yamada Shunsuke. He was a textbook example of the average high school student and retains that quality after reincarnating. However, he has a deep admiration for his older brother Julius, the hero, and spends every day working hard to catch up to him. 

  Karnatia Seri Anabald (Katia)

VA: Nao Toyama (Yui Yuigahama in My Teen Romantic Comedy SNAFU)

    The daughter of Duke Anabald. In her previous life, she was a boy named Ooshima Kanata, but she reincarnated as a beautiful girl. She’s a prodigy on a par with Shun, and has been his best friend since their former life. Her speech is normally elegant and refined, but when talking with others who have reincarnated, she talks like a boy.

  Feirune

VA: Eri Kitamura (Cana Alberona in Fairy Tail)

    Shun’s pet Earth Wyrm. In her previous life, she was a girl named Shinohara Mirei, but she reincarnated as a monster instead of a human. As a monster, her stats grow at a very fast rate, and she has excellent situational judgment. She has a cheerful, open personality, but she was a bully in her former life, and this shows in her behavior.

  Filimøs Harrifenas

VA: Kaya Okuno (Kaya Kikuma in Wake Up, Girls!)

    In her previous life, she was Okazaki Kanami, homeroom teacher to the kids who were reincarnated, and they affectionately called her “Oka-chan.” After reincarnating, she began attending school with Shun and the others as their classmate. Since she reincarnated as an elf, she looks younger than she actually is. She’s a caring teacher who continues to follow her students after their reincarnation, but she has many secrets.

  Suresia

VA: Yui Ogura (Kyoka in Princess Connect! Re:Dive)

    The second princess of the Kingdom of Analeit. As Shun’s half-sister, born to a different mother not long after his birth, her talents rival his. Her obsession with her brother Shun is extreme enough to put others off, and she’s noticeably hostile toward all girls who get friendly with him.

  Hugo Baint Renxandt

VA: Kaito Ishikawa (Tobio Kageyama in Haikyu!!)

    The crown prince of the Renxandt Empire. In his previous life, he was Natsume Kengo, and he was regarded as the leader of the class. His skills are the real deal, but his habit of exaggerating his own abilities detracts from the magnitude of his power. He’s as belligerent as he was in his former life, viewing Shun as his rival.

  Yurin Ullen

VA: Aimi Tanaka (Ryuzu Birma in Re:ZERO)

    A Saint candidate in the Holy Kingdom of Alleius. Her name in her previous life was Hasebe Yuika. She’s very serious and well-mannered, but often loses sight of what’s going on around her. After reincarnating, she inherited the life of a girl who was abandoned by her parents and raised by the church, and she is now a fanatical believer in the Word of God religion, which follows the creed of “We improve our skills so that we may hear the voice of God.”

  Julius Zagan Analeit

VA: Junya Enoki (Takeru Takaishi in Digimon Adventure tri.)

    The second prince of the Kingdom of Analeit. Julius is Shun’s older brother and the strongest hero among all humankind. Despite his mastery of both swordsmanship and magic and his achievements in combat, he remains virtuous and not at all proud. He is a true hero, devoting himself to fighting for world peace.

  Staff

  Original Story

Okina Baba

  Original Character Designer

Tsukasa Kiryu

  Director

Shin Itagaki (Berserk, Teekyu)

  Assistant Director

Shinichiro Ueda

  Series Composition

Okina Baba

Yuichiro Momose (Africa Salaryman, Infinite Dendogram)

  Anime Character Design

Kii Tanaka

  Monster Design

Hiromi Kimura

Masahiko Suzuki

Ryo Hirata

  Art Director

Shinji Nagaoka

  Director of Photography 

Hideki Imaizumi

  Chief Animator

Tomohiro Yoshida

  Color Designer

Chieko Hibi

  Producer

Jotaro Ishigami

  Music

Shuji Katayama

  Opening Theme Performer

Riko Azuna

  Ending Theme Performer

Aoi Yuki

  Animation Production

Millepensee

  Additional Info

  The So I'm a Spider, So What? light novel series (known as Kumo desuga, nanika? in the original Japanese) are published in Japan by Kadokawa Shoten under their Kadokawa Books imprint, and English language versions of both the light novels and the manga adaptation are published by Yen Press.

     If you're dying for more info on Spider, be sure to check out our interviews! 

  INTERVIEW: So I’m a Spider, So What? Voice Actors Shun Horie and Kaito Ishikawa

INTERVIEW: So I’m a Spider, So What? Lead Voice Actor Aoi Yuuki

      -------

Joseph Luster is the Games and Web editor at Otaku USA Magazine. You can read his brand new comic, MONSTER FLIGHT, at subhumanzoids. Follow him on Twitter @Moldilox.

By: Joseph Luster

[atopearth]

Subarashiki Hibi (Wonderful Everyday Down the Rabbit-Hole) Part 6 - Jabberwocky II & Hill of Sunflowers, Wonderful Everyday and End Sky II Endings + Overall Review

Jabberwocky II Oh..so we actually get to see the past!! Lmao at Hasaki being scared of Tomosane at their “first meeting” since they lived separately. Although it’s kinda crappy to think about how Takuji and Hasaki lived with the mother that betrayed the dad and it seems like they don’t treat Hasaki well. In Takuji’s case, I assume he treats her badly because the mother forces the most strict teachings etc on him? I guess it was “lucky” for Tomosane to be able to live in Sawaimura and become friends with Yuki (the real one, not the personality!) etc. And I guess the father is too stressed and sick to really be able to take care of them all… I see… Tomosane had to come here because he had no qualms with hitting his mother back whenever she hit him for fighting with Takuji. And Tomosane has no respect for her after what she did to betray the family, he doesn’t even think of her as his mum. Omggg the incident that led to Tomosane having to live here isn’t his fault at all! Takuji and his mother were consumed by their religion and thoughts that Takuji would be the saviour, so they bullied Hasaki for being “nothing” I guess? And the dad couldn’t stop them since he probably wasn’t always home and he didn’t want to treat his wife and kid badly I guess. But then every time Hasaki was bullied, Tomosane would protect her, except one time, the crazy mother took out a knife and she ended up getting a stab wound when Tomosane tried to stop her. Omggg, seriously, they were such a crazy family before Takuji even died yet… I’m such an idiot…lol I should have known that the most probable reason for them to bully Hasaki was actually because she’s the illegitimate child, not Tomosane. Her mother probably looks at her and thinks about all the mistakes and pain she had to go through because of her existence.

Just like the Yuki personality said though, Yuki-nee really is older than Tomosane huh? She really is practically his big sister haha. Yuki teases Tomosane so much, it’s hilarious. I think I can see how deep Hasaki’s feelings went when she told Tomosane/Yuki how she wanted to stay like that with them forever now, they were such good buddies in the past. Lmaoo at Tomosane picking a swimsuit with man-eating rabbits for Hasaki hahahaha, Hasaki is so adorable to say she thinks it’s cute and that she’ll take it since she likes Tomosane, and likes that he still remembers who she is and what she likes. The rabbit in the shop isn’t as cute as the one Tomosane made for her~~ but omg, the reason why Hasaki is fond of rabbits is so saddening… It’s because rabbits die when they get too lonely, so she thinks that even if she’s useless, she can at least stay beside it forever (since she’s always alone), that’s why she always carries the rabbit around when she’s older… It was so nice to see them making a sandcastle together~ As expected, the father died and we get to see an extension of Hasaki’s memory of her looking for the edge of the world and Tomosane coming to find her. So that’s where Wakatsuki came from huh? Wakatsuki is the name of the shop that sells the big rabbit. And Hasaki gave Tomosane her little twin rabbit dolls that their father initially gave to her and Takuji (but he didn’t want it) because Tomosane said he’d get her the big one, so she said she’d become the big one’s twin so it won’t be lonely. It’s really cute and heartwarming, but at the same time pretty devastating since you know what happens in their future. It was hard to watch Tomosane and Hasaki cry over their father’s death though, it was heart wrenching to think about how he was the one keeping everything together, but it also made me think whether he died because of all the stress from the betrayal, the current family situation etc since he’s such a nice person, it was probably difficult for him to have to experience all this…

I guess it’s not surprising that Takuji is basically what the Tomosane personality looked like, he probably swapped the appearances in his mind because he thought of himself as the “evil” one. It’s so cute how Yuki is now treating him more like a guy than a kid now, especially when she blushed at him seeing her underwear, if it was before, she would have instead teased him for blushing at seeing it lol. I think it would have been so nice if they really did get the chance to be together, it’s just saddening that it won’t happen. I never thought I’d hear about Footprints in the Sand in this game hahaha! But wow, it really seems like Yuki made up Tomosane’s whole world, I feel like his whole three personalities, his philosophy and his knowledge all stemmed from Yuki and he only expanded his knowledge on these things due to her existence, but I guess that’s normal, she’s a big part of his childhood, a big part of himself before he “broke”. Ohh, so the reason they’re obsessed with trying to kill Hasaki is because they think that she stole Takuji’s powers from him since they’re “twins”. Yuki is so strong and brave, Takuji pushed Hasaki off the cliff and she didn’t even hesitate to jump and hold her to take all the damage from the fall to save Hasaki… Although Takuji is terrible, the mother is the worst. She’s the one who brainwashed him since he was a child about this whole saviour thing after she got thrown away by that pastor that took advantage of her and made up stuff. If it wasn’t for her, nothing would have gone wrong! I can’t believe she would make her child kill her other child, it’s just crazy and disgusting, I don’t care how delusional she is, it’s absolutely unforgivable. I wonder if they were ever able to take her to a psychiatrist or something tbh… But I can see why Hasaki blames herself so much, since it was her existence that made everyone suffer. But at the same time, I’m sure they would have made up some other delusion for his lack of powers even if she didn’t exist, so she really isn’t to blame at all, what’s to blame is the mother that couldn’t accept her wrecked life. Wow, Takuji staring into Tomosane’s eyes saying even if he dies, he’ll just take Tomosane’s body must have been the creepiest thought and moment ever, I’m so not surprised Tomosane became how he was with Yuki’s death accompanied with this… It’s also no wonder why in the previous chapters, both Takuji and Tomosane wanted Yuki to always be the one personality to “survive”, I’m sure Tomosane loved her so much, he wanted her to keep existing even if it was in this way. I’m glad that in his last moments (most likely), Yuki was able to call Tomosane back, and he could talk to Hasaki and protect her again (since she refused to let go of him when he was about to fall so they ended up falling together).

Wonderful Everyday Ending So…the reason why Kotomi (their mother) ended up getting tricked by that pastor was because she was trying her best (in her own way) to find a way to save Hiroo (their father) since they knew about his illness? Is that why no matter what, Hiroo wasn’t able to leave her? Because he felt that he drove her to this and caused her to get tricked? He understood how much of a victim she was so he couldn’t blame her regardless of what she did? Honestly, that probably just made his condition worse though. I don’t blame her for getting tricked because it’s not like she wanted to, but the fact is, Kotomi caused everything by continuing to believe her delusions that everyone would be saved if Takuji became the saviour that can then revive Hasaki and Hiroo. The moment she believed the pastor’s words was when she should have realised this was a mistake and that she shouldn’t continue, but she refused to believe it could possibly be a lie when she already sacrificed her body to someone she didn’t love, and what happened? It only caused Hiroo to probably die even earlier, and with so many regrets as well. And then she destroyed Takuji’s life by brainwashing him. She also made him turn against his siblings and nearly kill them both, all because she chose to believe in this delusion that everything would be okay once he killed Hasaki and everyone, she didn’t want to accept that everything was all for naught even when Hiroo became a journalist to show her evidence that the pastor was a fraud that took advantage of heaps of other women! He was so sick already and he still had to try and help her come to her senses! She was supposed to support him and help him for everything he had done for her (eloping from the village, caring for her when others persecuted her), and yet she made his last moments to be full of worry and regret because he had to leave behind his young children! Hasaki can say all she wants about understanding her and empathising with her feelings, but that doesn’t mean you can destroy everyone around you to keep your “dream” that everything will be okay if you did something like this alive. I don’t think I could ever forgive her tbh. She also caused Tomosane to become who he was and practically ruin his life alongside all those “believers” at school, her actions caused such a big chain reaction and such repercussions that even if everything was done in good intentions (which I honestly find rather meh as a “conclusion”), it’s just…terrible.

Honestly, I’m surprised Tomosane was not guilty of anything. I like Tomosane and I want him to be happy, but really as an outsider, if I were to know about everything “Takuji” did, who can really prove he is really okay now and is really just Tomosane? It’s rather shocking that he didn’t need to go to rehab or anything etc. Overall, the chapter was nice but also unnecessarily long winded imo, however, I do think that the long winded slice of life stuff did add to the story since it shows how happy their childhood was despite their problems, so it was important. It can just get kinda tiring though haha. Especially when they tried to kinda like “redeem” the mother’s actions. Not too fond of the ending either since it felt rather lacklustre compared to everything else, but I guess achieving a wonderful everyday is probably a boring thing to be happy about haha.

Hill of Sunflowers Ending Ooh, so Takuji does go to see a psychiatrist every week or so and he’s kinda been forced to live in Sawaimura to “recover” with the doctors here, which in a sense doesn’t feel like a punishment or anything at all since I’m sure he’d be glad to stay here. Although it’s where most things happened, it’s also a happy place after all. And it’s nice to see that in this ending, Yuki is still here! I think it’s wonderful for Yuki to still be “alive”. Oh and lol, so many CGs for their H-scene but I guess that was to be expected, since it’s Yuki, but dang, if you think about it from an outside perspective, he’s practically doing it with himself (or a ghost?) hahaha, so it’s weird but at the same time not weird since Yuki feels like such an individual by herself lol. Oooh, she’s separate from him!? She’s a ghost or a hallucination? But Hasaki can see her…so maybe she is a ghost hahaha. Either way, it doesn’t really matter I guess, since it means that the three of them really can live together forever. I loved that they went to visit the hill of sunflowers together and Yuki joked about disappearing loll. But it is true that she could disappear at any time without any warning since it’s not like she’s “real”, but as they say, humans can die/disappear at any moment as well, so it’s fine for them to just enjoy their everyday lives. I definitely prefer this ending tbh hahhaha, I feel like it felt more personal and more like a happy ending haha.

End Sky II Ending Hmm I guess this ending was to round up all the inner world, outer world mysterious stuff that Down the Rabbit Hole etc kinda showed. I’m not sure what to think of it since it kinda just tells you that whatever you think it could be is what it is, so rather than giving an explanation of what exactly went on and all the mystery, it kinda leaves you to interpret it yourself. Whether it be something like Yuki has a soul that transcends everything and basically appears as different people to reach the ending she wants for her or Tomosane, or that this world is really just her and every single thing and person in this world was her and her dream, and it repeats until she gets the conclusion she wants etc, as Ayana says, there’s more than one hypothesis and who knows what is true~ But I do feel more like it’s something she repeats until she’s satisfied at the wonderful everyday achieved and that doesn’t mean there’s only one ending, there’s many different wonderful everyday scenarios and that’s why there’s Tsukasa and Kagami endings etc. In those, Zakuro never interfered with whatever Yuki did because she was happy and satisfied with “her life”, so I think it’s just kinda like that? It’s just that for the Yuki in Tomosane’s life, it was a bit more complicated so there needed more to be done to achieve that life?

Overall Review

Hahaha, oh well, whatever it is, it doesn’t matter, I’m not too fascinated about that part anymore because I honestly thought the whole Tomosane, Yuki and Takuji thing was the most interesting thing about this novel. Although I wouldn’t say it’s a masterpiece for me, I did enjoy it more than I thought I would when I read the first chapter. Honestly, the fact that Steam only has the first chapter is ridiculous and useless because if I only read that chapter, I would have instantly just dropped this novel as this silly confusing thing that I didn’t care about. After It’s My Own Invention, my impression of the novel vastly improved because I really liked how it presented a different perspective but also kept to the storyline. It never really deviates, it focuses on the different thoughts and feelings of each character’s perspective and what they came to learn about what happened, and in this way, it helped you as the reader to slowly unravel the mystery of the story itself alongside the scenarios. The story explains to you what it implies and gives you answers bit by bit on what questions you would have whilst reading it and I really enjoyed that it did that. It slowly gives you answers through the story and the characters and it really makes the experience fulfilling because what you thought was right, mainly because the story gives lots of hints and everything to lead up to what it does.

Aside from the philosophical stuff about the world and everything, even if you just enjoy the story for what it is, it’s great because it depicts people’s emotions very well imo. I felt like I could really understand each character’s thoughts and feelings because of how detailed things were (to the point that it was such a long novel lol! I took ~59 hours to finish it all!). Honestly, I felt like a lot of things could be cut shorter such as the Kiyokawa stuff etc because they weren’t “necessary” to the novel and it made it unnecessarily long imo, especially a lot of the H-scenes loll, but I guess if it has a market, it’s understandable, I just skim through them lol. For me, Tomosane’s perspective in Jabberwocky I was my favourite chapter because I felt that it really showed how great of a character he was. I went from knowing nothing about him (aside from being violent) to him becoming my favourite character because you get to see his whole growth, his whole experience and how he handled his relationships and in fights with being a “personality” etc. It was really interesting, really fun and very emotional, it also answered the most important question of the existence of Hasaki. The bullying was so terrible that I’m not sure I want to feel all that again tbh because it really pained me and it was so uncomfortable to have to witness, but I do agree that it’s important to the whole experience of the characters. But yeah, I definitely liked the novel more than I thought and I would recommend it for people who don’t mind quite a bit of graphic stuff, it’s more to do with the imagination and thought of these things happening but there are some CGs accompanied with it that make it more disturbing though lol. Otherwise, I really enjoyed the story of how one person with multiple personalities could create such a complicated situation and cause such repercussions, yet make you want them to be happy haha.

[gildedink]

Writblr Introduction

I've kinda realized I never wrote an introduction. Oops! So, a proper introduction. You can call me Lillie (or Amaranth, either or), daytime office lady, nighttime procrastinator and a writer whenever I can. I tend to write fantasy, focusing both on the human condition (good and bad) as well as divinity and the way humans and non-human beings might interact. I also tend to include heavy subject matter topics such as xenophobia, the lines of love, friendship and obsession, self-empowerment and trauma. As such, my stories tend to be for adults, not YA. If you ever have questions about any of my works or just want to chat, please feel free to drop me a line on here or on my main, @ofmoonlightandthesun.

Below are my WIPs:

Legend of the Red Comet: Part of the overarching The Legend Saga. Consisting of 3 volumes, it follows the adventures of Tenshi Tanaka and Sasami Jurai as they reunite after a decade of separation, take on the mantles of their fathers to lead their regions, and dealing with the millennia-old blood feud between the two lover's families. Along the way they discover both the truth of their world and the sins committed by their far-flung ancestors that they must now correct.

The is the current WIP I am fully focusing on and plan to be my writing debut. Themes explored include love, friendship, found family, fate vs self-determination and the line between good and evil.

Legend of the Moving Mountain: Part of the overarching The Legend Saga. Consisting of 4 volumes, Moving Mountain occurs a millennia before Legend of the Red Comet. It follows the current Oracle of Humanity and his desperate attempt to stop the world-ending prophesy he gave from coming to fruition. In order to succeed, he must find the two humans who are Blessed by the Golden Phoenix and Silver Shark, find the Dragon's Eye and kill the Demon King. All while trying to escape the abusive iron grip of the King that rules his kingdom and navigating international politics.

While time-wise this comes before Red Comet, I highly suggest reading Red Comet first for maximum emotional impact (aka hurt your feels the most). Themes explored include the blurring of hero vs villain, abuse, sexual assault, homophobia, human depravity, the supernatural vs humanity, incest and whether the ends justify the means.

Legend of the Masks: Part of the overarching The Legend Saga. Consisting of 7 novella, it follows the lifetimes of Zenshou Jurai, one of the heroes of Moving Mountain and ancient ancestor of Sasami Jurai, one of the protagonists of Red Comet. Each book represents one lifetime, highlighting key events witnessed within Tenruon'ou's history as a country as well as personal revelations of Zenshou as he deals with his emotions and fate.

Themes explored include self-identity, grief, mental illness, sexuality, abuse, rape, sexual assault, suicide, love, fate and what it means to be human. Volume 4, Hibi, in particular is very graphic in nature as a caution.

Memoirs of a Goddess: The very first story I ever thought of and have refined for over a decade, consisting of 4 to 5 volumes. It follows Elena Zlatariva, a first-generation Bulgarian American who discovers that while her body is human, her soul is a brand new divinity. Due to the nature of her soul's creation and its current circumstance, she falls in neither the positive nor the negative aspect of the machinations of existence, with her human vessel allowing her to chose which side to fall to. Due to her potential, a war breaks out in the heavenly world for ownership of her decision and future influence. The series follows Elena from age 12 to 22, dealing with growing from a girl to a woman as well as growing as a divinity, including the repercussions of her actions both on a personal level and higher.

Themes explored include puberty, womanhood, xenophobia, the 9/11 terror attacks and the fallout, the development of technology and its impact on the world, gay rights, religion vs faith, war, mental illness (particularly PTSD, depression and self-loathing), cults, mob mentality, racism in the 21st century, globalism, abuse, bullying and the experience of those born as the first generation in America. This book IS NOT for children or even young adults due to the graphic, difficult and complex nature of the series.

Star-Stained Hands: Currently in the proto stages. A novel about twins Malina and Yasen who, after their father is killed by bandits attempting to steal a horse they are to deliver to a noble in the eastern region of the Skrita Empire (based off of the real-world ancient Scythian Empire), go on a journey to discover who killed their father. Along the way, as they wander through the expansive empire, they meet and befriend many people. When they finally uncover a conspiracy to overthrow the very gods they worship, the twins take it upon themselves to try and stop the coup.

Themes explored include friendship, religion, cults, the origin of mythology, cultural exchange and blending, family ties, and selfless love.

Please let me know if you would like to be tagged for any of the above works and I'll happily add you.

[broken-hxrts-n-dreams]

About Hibiki

Full name: Hibiki Miyata

From Japanese 響 (hibiki) meaning "sound, echo".

Miyata -  ‘rice paddy of the shrine’

Nicknames: Hibi-kun 

Age: 16-17

Birthday: TBD

Sex: Male

Preferred Pronouns: He-him

Sexual orientation/romantic orientation: Bisexual

Species: Human with Quirk 

Nationality: Japanese

Religion: Atheist

Occupation: 1-B U.A. Student 

Hobby: Skateboarding, composing music, playing different instruments

———————————————————– 

|Personality|

General personality: Anxious, timid, sensitive, caring

Often smiles and tries to be cheerful in school to avoid being a burden 

Can get very serious and actually scary when very passionate about something

Likes: Cats, fluffy/furry things, soft textures, classical/pop/electronic music, soda, chocolate 

Soft electronic pop with those little pops of sound is his favorite (like the beginning of Such Great Heights and Fireflies) 

Dislikes: Lies, being yelled at, false claims/promises, rock/metal music, coffee with no sugar or milk, bullying, anyone hurting his sister

Fears: fear of not being good enough 

Horoscope: TBD

Talents/Skills: Soundwave Echo Quirk, skateboarding, knows how to play different instruments (piano, guitar, drums), singing

Language(s) known: Japanese/English

———————————————————–

|Traits|

Skin: Fair

Hair: Chocolate-brown; messy 

Eyes: Blue

Height: 5’9

Slightly taller than Shiori/Gou

Clothing: 

Wears orange goggles usually around neck kinda for Quirk but mostly when he rides his bike

In school wears headphones around his neck to lessen sounds and prevent sensory overload

Likes long-sleeve/oversized shirts because they make him feel safe (he only wears big hoodies when he’s in his room where no one can see him tho...later with Gou too) 

Faceclaim: Leonardo Watch from Kekkai-seisan 

Voiceclaim: TBD

———————————————————–

|Other|

Attack: TBD

Quirk: 

Soundwave Sonar Quirk:

Makes his eyes glow all blue and technology-like

Allows him to see sound waves like his father but also lets him emit his own varying soundwave by pushing his own energy into the air to make it vibrate a certain way

helps him locate certain things if he knows what the frequency of the reflected soundwave is

Enhanced hearing

If panicked or overwhelmed emotionally, he can start subconsciously emitting energy that creates a low frequency that gradually gets higher that normal people can hear, kinda sounds like radio static/whining 

Kinda like echolocation

The more emotional he is, the stronger he can make the range/loudness of the soundwaves

Weaknesses: 

He can only see sound waves when activating his Quirk, so he can’t see color or certain surfaces if they don’t reflect or absorb sound waves 

Overuse of quirk leads to headaches, fatigue, and a ringing in his ears that make him unable to properly hear things for a while 

Sensory overload occurs if they’re too many sounds or noises

Doesn’t even need to be actively using his Quirk to get sensory overload due to his heightened hearing and synesthesia 

Family: Neglectful/always-working parents; Kaoru (little Quirkless sister)  

One parent has eye quirk while the other has a sound quirk was 

Father has eye quirk that allows him to see sound waves via eyesight; he can’t do anything about it, but it helps with his job of being a security officer 

Mother has a sound quirk called “Echo” where she can amplify any sound  (though it can’t be a sound created by her; the longer the distance, the fainter the amplification) 

she works multiple low-paying jobs like waiter and dishwasher and stuff 

She’s the reason behind Hibiki’s love for music as she used to be a musician before she met his father, and then due to the sister being very sickly, she had to take multiple low jobs to pay for the bills 

Because the parents spoil only the little sister + she takes advantage of his sensitive emotional state, it caused him to be depressed/anxious/suicidal 

Sister jealous of his powers whereas Hibiki actually lowkey doesn’t like his powers at all

Sister frequently in the hospital because of a weak constitution (Immune system and bones are weak which is why she doesn’t have a quirk)

She always hates taking meds and sometimes doesn’t and doesn’t do what the doctor says she should to get stronger so she never improves

Sister can’t understand why he’s so hesitant about his powers; she’s young and doesn’t understand that Hibiki doesn’t really know what he wants to do in life but forces himself to be a hero anyway and can’t understand the inner turmoil within him with his parents being neglectful but not wanting to complain and wanting to contribute to helping to pay the bills but never being paid attention to and yeah 

Mind: depressed, anxious

Has suicidal thoughts/tendencies 

Romance: Crush to eventual lovers with Shiori

Past: TBD

———————————————————–

|Additional Information|

Fandom: BNHA

Alternate Universes: TBD

Misc: 

Tends to a stray cat that he found when it was really young that he’s basically adopted without his parents knowing 

Someone who dances in his bedroom when listening to music AKA likes to move to the beat because he can mentally see the sound waves bursting in his vision 

Feels really horrible @himself for not getting into top class of UA 

Is really friendly with everyone in 1-B but doesn’t get close to any one of them 

Enrolled into UA because he feels bad if he doesn’t use his powers for something good, especially when his sister is always making him feel guilty

He takes her words seriously because deep down he loves her in some way so her words really sting and he takes them into account 

Also does it in order to help his parents pay the medical bills but like,,,it’s mostly guilt driving him forward, and when it becomes too much, well……...

Has an aesthetic crush on Todoroki (the boi is just too handsome man) 

When dating Shiori, loves using her clothes/scarfs as a pillow or blanket or smth

Just,,,soft boi, dat it 

Likes to compose music but mostly for himself

Mostly mixes the beats that are the most aesthetically pleasing for him to see and hear 

Has synesthesia

Show Shiori once they start dating, but usually very anxious over his music because he thinks it sounds bad to the normal person but it actually sounds pretty nice 

[monstermonstre]

'Najaf always called for a fair ___, regardless of his religion or what sect he belongs to, there's an important argument and fundamental principle form Najaf who became one of the most important scholars, saying of Hibi in the 7th century, he said : 'If I have to choose between the unjust muslim and the just non-muslim, without any doubt I'll choose the non-muslim who is just' this is what the bakkoush parents were listening to, do you think it means Yousana still has a chance??

A lot of people think so. I think it’s too on the nose. But at this point, sure, why not? What do I know.

[neopies]

Quick place to put my neopets character so I know who is who

Hara - guard to king Hibi (Hibi is a royal boy bori but is a she) her petpage so far is the most developed. She’s also the queen, she started as a guard but because of her families status they have an arranged marriage (royal girl bori)

Hibi - king. She doesn’t want to admit that she likes Hara but she does. Very withdrawn and often gets jealous of Haras friends. Lashes out at Hara a lot.

Maki - nurse, she’s young runs her own clinic. Very kind and easy to deal with. (Striped acara)

Mame - town witch and often stays hidden, One of haras best friends, and often comes to visit her at night to keep her company, loves to braid flowers into her hair. (Stealth cybunny / also my neosona) Rachie is Manes best friend and most important person.

Sapporo - no character right now? May trade?

Shinto - rich town jeweller and mine owner, calm and calculating, is immortal because of Hatsune. Doesn’t mind because Hatsune (royal girl Mynci) she’s also very interested in learning about different religions and stuff, often meets with town astronomer to learn about planets and life.

——————

Calligraphy - small young woman who owns and keeps flowers and gardens, she’s also the royal scribe, Callie is Hara and Mames other good friend. She keeps up flowers since she knows Hara loves them so much. (Striped blumaroo with beautiful customization)

Izumi - no character yet, used to be water god but I traded his wife away so. Well come back to him.

Peacefulness - trading for Tangy (next month)

Rachie - best friends with the town witch / apothecary. Rachie is a pet keeper, she owns different pets and sells them to folks who want a life companion. She can almost always be seen with her small bunny as homage to her best friend (chocolate yurble)

Tattooed - no character yet.

————————

Astronomer - town librarian and night owl, keeps up with the arts and loves to teach folks about the different and hidden meanings (invisible techo I think?)

Bento - fae, fairly isolated. His character used to be that of a childlike god, it’s transformed to a bit more malicious. He looks nice but he’s also kinda crazy, tricks people into eating his food without paying and then feeds them to his dog. (Baby buzz)

Cursed - small demon on outskirts of town, keeps watch over town, encased in ice, causes freezes by accident (ice ice bori)

Hatsune - town guard, not palace guard, watches over town and her lady Shinto. Immortal due to gift from the fae. (royal girl Kyrii)

Scenario - character in the works.

—————

Daintiest - small Druid lives in the pond in the garden, watches the Gardener Callie a lot, often hides when she comes near the pond. Very happy and very gentle (sponge koi)

Muto - character coming soon?

Rome - fast driving, racing queen, often participates in royal horse races and duels. She’s very handsome, and often playfully tries to woo Hibi, much to Haras distaste. (Darigan ixi)

Tapioca - character revamp in the works

Yesterday - character will tie in with Scenario.

——————

Bobtail and Borzoi are guardians of a small shrine, they coincide with Bobtail being more catlike and solitaire and Borzoi being lovey and super excited. (Spotted kougra and island Gelert -respectively)

Fangirl - character right now is of a crazed woman who town hops and kills people but that’s not really neopets friendly. She’s a stalker.

Macchiato - Chi the third of Haras friend triangle, and the best baker in Glamorgan! Chi is a relaxed girl who adores feeding people and lounging about, she’s got a crush on Pio but would never let her know. Or would she. (Brown Aisha -hopefully will be chocolate eventually)

Remnant - Rem is the other magical being in Glamorgan, he’s a wizard and a pretty good one. While Mame runs an apothecary, Rem runs a class teaching people how to combat magical attacks and how to use basic healing magic. (Fire Aisha)

[interlagosed]

Quran really get me through tough time, i was on my low when i felt the urge to randomly open Quran and my eyes fell on An-Nisa 29 i never cried harder than i did that time. He really love us and will always open the door of forgiveness to anyone who asked, its also fascinating when you read some kind of ‘new’ invention but it was actually always there in Quran.

That’s Surah ad-Duha for me. That whole succession of Surahs, knowing the history behind them, when and why they were revealed, what they were meant to do, how much hope and compassion and sweetness is in there…ugh I’m getting teary eyed just thinking about it 🥺

[ibisegypttours]

Have a great Egypt Holiday Packages

Egypt has many wonderful places to go on your vacation with Egypt holiday packages. If you like classic tours like going to pyramids to know about ancient Egyptian and the three pyramids. And you can visit museums around Cairo, Alexandria, Luxor, and Aswan to know about history. You will find all that at the Egypt classic tours. Loving the sea and the sunny beaches and relaxing try the red sea package and traveling to Sharm El Sheikh and Hurghada, you will be able to try the holy land tours in the holy land packages like going to mosques and churches to win more knowledge about it and you will get more different tours in ibis Egypt tours.

Be ready for your simple tour around Egypt, like Cairo and Luxor and Aswan with Egypt holiday packages. Cairo is a great place to take a tour around it it’s full of tourists because it has one of the greatest things in the world (the pyramids), the pyramids are good choice to know more about ancient Egypt. Get ready to your new package of knowledge around Luxor, Luxor has too many old places and historical places you can hear about it on your tour around Egypt. Try to travel to Aswan. In Aswan you will amuse your eyes while visiting Abu Simbel temples and Philae Temple, The name of Philae is a Greek name means beloved. The second thing that you can go in Aswan is the high dam, the high dam is a successful project starts at 1960 and finished at 1971 after finishing the area behind the high dam flooded with water and become the lake Nasser high dam provides water and electricity to Egypt.

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Adham Ali

Ibis Egypt tours

[interlagosed]

Psst if you don’t like religion talk feel free to filter hibi religion as a tag ❤️

I’m thinking a lot about how in the Quran, Allah SWT makes sure to repeat certain verses, or certain messages, consecutively. For sure there are certain ideas repeated throughout the Quran, but I’m talking like one verse after the other. I’m re-reading the Quran with translation, and it strikes me that in Surah Baqarah, He says, over and over, that it is better for us to give charity without fanfare. And this idea is repeated and given more emphasis than even the later structure against usury (which is even like caveated with “hey if you repent, of course we’ll forgive you”). I always read the Quran as poetry (which it is) and the emphasis always hits me harder because of that. But if we construe emphasis as importance, which to me it intuitively is, then it’s so hard to avoid the conclusion that it’s more important to Allah SWT that giving charity (ideally silently) is more important than refraining from usury. And stuff like this is why I struggle with this notion of Islam as an inherently forbidding religion, or Allah SWT as inherently punitive, because HOWWWWWW could you POSSIBLY come to that conclusion when it’s like “Hey PLEASE do give charity????? Support the poor in your community????? Give without wanting anything in return??? PROMISE you will never want for the money you lose in giving charity!!!! Oh also interest is forbidden to you try to avoid it but of course we’ll forgive you if you repent we always do ALSO PLEASE WAIVE PEOPLE’S DEBTS IT’S BETTER FOR YOU AS A PERSON TO WAIVE ANY DEBTS IT’S CHARITY have we discussed how good charity is?”

Anyway. ❤️ I love!!!! So much!!!!! Feeling ooey gooey I love u Allah mwaaaaaah ❤️❤️❤️❤️❤️

[interlagosed]

i just saw something that said "Allah showed you your whole life from your birth to your death, and you still chose to be born, so that must mean you saw something worth living in it" and SubhanAllah. SubhanAllah. the way I teared up.

[interlagosed]

Hi Hibi, hope you’re doing well.

I’ve just started my final writing project for uni and I’m trying to write a fantasy religious system. How did you write Revolución and duotheism to be so believable??

First of all, thank you for saying those stories are believable!! I feel like Revolución was a fever dream so I can't really say how that came about because even *I'm* still shocked that happened lol BUT at least with duotheism in TSOR, I can describe my thought process a bit! This is going to be long and possible unhelpful I'm so sorry lol.

TL;DR: what is the central tenet of the religion (if you had to boil it down, what is the elevator pitch of the religion?); what are people's motivations to follow the religion?; if the religion is successful, why is that (either geopolitically or individually)?; if the religion is a niche/persecuted religion, why?; if people leave the religion, why?; what are the consequences of leaving the religion?; and how does this serve the story? Another thing I would consider: is the religion/are the deities "real" within the universe?

I don't think this is dispositive at ALL but it helps that I myself am religious so I can put myself in characters' shoes and think "Okay, what would need to exist in a religious system that would compel basically an entire continent to follow a religion?" And then, the second question: "What would compel heresy to such an extent that an entire country would leave the religion?" Religions are super simple at their heart: what is the core tenet? There tend to be a few common organizing principles, and I thought it would be cool to play with the idea of balance as the core principle of my religion. Monotheism would look too similar to real world religions, and I didn't want to deal with the complexities of a pantheon, so I figured a two-deity religion would be both unique and well-positioned for balance. But I also didn't want to have it be as simple as light/dark. I wanted to think about balance as something other than a scale. So I created the Goddess first, as a deity that is much more like familiar to us: all-powerful, containing multitudes, but also capable of being basically what each individual worshipper needs her to be (which is why Charles sees her as a mother figure, but Carlos, for example, would see her as an Amazon warrior). But to make her more fallible, I gave her the trait of needing to be worshipped in order to protect her faithful, and of then manifesting that through a chosen family that would basically assure her worship.

The Unknowable One comes in as the left hand of the Goddess, basically. The way They manifest balance in Duotheism is by intervening to maintain the Tapestry (or fate). So the Goddess is much more grounded in the day to day of worship, and of human lives, whereas the Unknowable One has a macro view of the entire universe and all of time. They work together, but to very different ends. So the Goddess has her chosen family, and the Unknowable One is much more reclusive. They do not need worship in the same way—but they need individual agents with whom they can work to keep the general throughline of the universe straight. Hence Lando and Blanca, as the two heirs of the Duotheist countries, being chosen as the Unknowable One's agents.

Everything else just sort of came together as I wrote the story. Because it's fantasy, I could make things more magical, which is always fun! But I wanted to keep actual magic limited to the Leclercs instead of spreading the magical elements too thin. Other stuff is fantastical, but only the Leclercs are magical. Also I'm a geopolitics girlie so I really enjoyed thinking about how religion would work in this context.

As for the Heresy, it was as simple as looking around the world and being able to say "Some people will abandon their deepest held convictions for a shot at power" and also "Some people love their power so much that they mistrust anything that brings about change in their status." It's just a matter of thinking through how those qualities can be manipulated by politics.

NO CLUE IF THIS IS HELPFUL. I added the tldr questions up top hoping they'll actually be useful to you. GOOD LUCK AND KEEP ME POSTED.

[aboutanancientenquiry]

Atum, Osiris and Achaemenid theology during the First Persian Period in Egypt-III

A Pharaoh and the Apis Bull. Bronze, Late Period Egypt, currently at  the British Museum  Height: 15.50 centimetres: Length: 28 centimetres Weight: 2.19 kilograms (Weight combined. 1.64 kg bull and 0.55kg king)  Depth: 9 centimetres. Source:  https://www.britishmuseum.org/collection/object/Y_EA22920

This is the third part (conclusion and bibliography) of the paper of Pr. Jared Krebsbach  “ The Persians and Atum Worship in Egypt's 27th Dynasty.”  I will presesnt also some thoughts of mine on it.

“Conclusion

It is well documented that the Persians left their conquered subjects free to practise their native religions throughout the Achaemenid Empire. But numerous Persian inscriptions also indicate that the Persians held strongly to their own religious beliefs. Examination of 27th dynasty religious texts reveals a pattern in which the Egyptian god Atum was given a place of prominence by the Persians because of his similarity to their own god. The Persian theological ideas of the Lie versus Truth also paralleled the Egyptian concepts of Maat and Isfet . Ultimately, the Persians’ elevation of Atum had to do with this particular god’s association with kingship and the Persian concept of kingship. In Egyptian texts Atum was the “Lord of All” while the Persian king was described as the “king of the world.” It is clear that Persian theologians made a conscious decision to elevate Atum to a place of prominence in the 27th dynasty. This elevation helped them legitimize their rule over Egypt while never forfeiting that which was important to them on a spiritual level.

University of Memphis, United States of America

Bibliography

Allen, L. (2005) The Persian Empire. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Allen, T. G. (1974)The Book of the Dead: Ideas of the ancient Egyptians concerning the hereafter as expressed in their own terms. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Boyce, M. (2001) Zoroastrians: Their religious beliefs and practices. London, Routledge. 

Brugsch, H. (1878) Ein wichtiges Denkmal aus den Zeiten Königs  Sêsonq I. Zeitschrift für Ägyptische Sprache und Altertumskunde 16, 37- 41.

Clark, P. (1998) Zoroastrianism: An introduction to an ancient faith. Portland, Sussex Academic Press.

Cruz-Uribe, E. (1988)The Hibis Temple Project. Vol. 1.Translations, commentary, discussions and sign-list. San Antonio, Van Siclen Books.

Faulkner, R. O. (1969) The ancient Egyptian Pyramid Texts. Oxford, Clarendon Press.

Faulkner, R. O. (1973)The ancient Egyptian Coffin Texts. Vols. 1 and 3. Oxford, Aris and Phillips.

Frankfort, H. (1978) Kingship and the gods: A study of ancient Near Eastern religion as the Integration of society and nature. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Gomaà, F. (1973) Chaemwese Sohn Ramses II und Hoherpriester von Memphis.  Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz.

Griffiths, J. G. (1980) The origins of Osiris and his cult. Leiden, Brill.

Herodotus (1996) The Histories (translated by Aubrey De Sélincourt). London, Penguin.

Joisten-Pruschke, A. (2008) Das Religiöse Leben der Juden von Elephantine in der Achämenidenzeit. Wiesbaden, Otto Harrassowitz.

Kent, R. G. (1953) Old Persian: Grammar, texts, lexicon. 2nd edition. New Haven, American Oriental Society.

Kienitz, F. K. (1953) Die politische Geschichte Ägyptens vom 7. biszum 4.Jahrhundert vor der Zeitwende. Berlin, Akademie Verlag.

Lichtheim, M. (1980) Ancient Egyptian literature. Vol. 2: The New Kingdom. Los Angeles, University of California Press.

Lorton, D. (1985) Considerations on the origin and name of Osiris. Varia Aegyptiaca 1, 113-126.

Malandra, W. W. (1983) An introduction to ancient Iranian religion: Readings from the Avesta and the Achaemenid inscriptions. Minneapolis, University of Minnesota Press.

Malinine, M., Vercoutter, J. and Posener, G. (1968) Catalogue des stèles du Sérapeum de Memphis. 2 Vols. Paris, Imprimerie Nationale.

Manetho (2004) Aegyptiaca (translated by W. G. Waddell). Cambridge, Harvard University Press.

Muscarella, O. W. (1992) Fragment of a royal head. In P. O. Harper, J. Aruz and F. Tallon (eds.) The royal city of Susa: Ancient Near Eastern treasures in the Louvre, 219 -221. New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art.

Olmstead, A. T. (1959) History of the Persian Empire. Chicago, University of Chicago Press.

Oppenheim, L. (1992) Babylonian and Assyrian historical texts. In J. B. Pritchard (ed.) Ancient Near Eastern texts relating to the Old Testament , 265-317. 3rd edition. Princeton, Princeton University Press.3rd edition. Princeton, Princeton University Press.

Otto,  E. (1964) Beiträge zur Geschichte des Stierkultein  in Ägyptien. Hildesheim, Georg Olms Verlagsbuchhandlung.

Posener, G. (1936) La première domination Perse en Égypte: Recueil d’inscriptions hiéroglyphiques. Cairo, Institut Français d’Archéologie Orientale.

Simpson, W. K. (1957) A running of the Apis in the reign of ‘Aha and passages in Manetho and Aelian. Orientalia 26, 139-142. 

Vallat, F. (1974) Les textes cunéiformes de la statue de Darius. Cahiers de la Délégation  Archéologique  Française en Iran  4, 161-170.

Vercoutter, J. (1962) Textes biographiques du Sérapéum: Contribution à l’étude des stèles votives du sérapéum:. Paris, Honoré Champion. 

Yoyotte, J. (1972) Les inscriptions hiéroglyphiques: Darius et l’Égypte. Journal Asiatique 260, 253-266 

Zaehner, R. C. (1961) The dawn and twilight of Zoroastrianism. New York, G. P. Puntnam’s Sons.”

Source: https://www.academia.edu/824587/The_Persians_and_Atum_Worship_in_Egypts_27th_Dynasty

Jared Krebsbach

As I have already said in the first of my posts on Pr. Krebsbach’s paper, the subject of a possible Egyptian-Persian religious syncretism during the first Persian domination of Egypt is a very interesting one. My remarks on this paper are the following:

1/ Technically speaking, when does the “27th Dynasty” (Persian rulers of Egypt seeing themselves as Pharaohs) end? It is sure that Cambyses and Darius I tried to play the role of Egyptian Pharaoh, but what about their successors (Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, Darius II) till the Egyptian revolt of 404 BCE and the appearance of a new series of Egyptian rulers, which ended with the reconquest of Egypt by Artaxerxes III in 343 BCE? Is there any evidence that these Achaemenid rulers took the title of Pharaoh and tried to perform the duties resulting from this title, even through delegates? I ask because it is known that when Xerxes ascended to the Persian throne, he chose not to take the title of king of Babylon, a title that his predecessors had taken since Cyrus’ conquest of Babylonia in 539 BCE, in a move not without political but also perhaps theological significance. What about Egypt?

2/ It is sure that the Persians have shown a remarkable “political acumen”, as Pr. Krebsbach says: the Achaemenid Persians were the greatest empire builders the world had seen till then and obviously their success was due not only to their military, but also to their political skills. Religious tolerance was an aspect of the Achaemenid policies toward the conquered peoples crucial for the consolidation of their empire. However, the Achaemenid Empire was not some kind of commonwealth of free peoples, as some enthusiastic historians of ancient Persia tend to present it, and skillful policies were not the only means of consolidation of the Persian imperial power: the Achaemenids were conquerors and violence or the threat of use of violence played a major role in their domination over conquered peoples. The Persian Great Kings knew also very well how to inspire terror to their subjects and rivals, as the inscription of Behistun and other sources clearly indicate, through the frequent use of cruel punishments such as impalement, crucifixion and mutilations. The Achaemenid religious tolerance too had its limits, as for instance the Persians have destroyed systematically the Greek shrines in Asia Minor and mainland Greece during Xerxes’ campaign, for reasons that are still debated among historians.

Darius I on his tomb, Naqsh-e Rustam, Fars Province, Iran 3/ It results from Pr. Krebsbach’s paper that the Persian theologians and their Egyptian collaborators operated essentially an identification between the Iranian Ahura Mazda and the Egyptian Atum. It is also beyond doubt that this effort of syncretism had mainly a political purpose, namely to legitimize Darius I as Pharaoh of Egypt but also as “King of the Universe”. However, it seems that there was also a theological basis for this identification, as Persians and Egyptians believed respectively to Ahura Mazda and Atum as gods Creators of the universe, a common belief with an obvious important theological, but also (proto-)philosophical potential. 

This effort of Persian-Egyptian syncretism, with its genuine religious basis and its political instrumentalization, is to be compared with Herodotus’ effort in the Book II of Histories to show that the Greek gods were adaptations of the Egyptian ones and to establish a fundamental commonality beyond the cultural differences between Greeks and Egyptians, but also with his reticence to speak about the Egyptian gods when this was not absolutely necessary for his narrative, out of respect for the Egyptian religion or because divine things were for him beyond human investigation. 

Moreover, we should not forget that, as Pr. Krebsbach shows in what he writes about the Persians and Osiris, despite the common belief in a Creator god the Egyptian and Persian systems of religious beliefs and practices were very different and this put serious restrictions on the efforts of syncretism between them. This is not without relation with the fact that, although Darius I enjoyed as it seems some popularity in Egypt, most Egyptians have never believed that the Achaemenids were legitimate Pharaohs and they revolted against the Persian rule when they could.

Ethnicities of the Empire, on the tomb of Darius I. The nationalities mentioned in the DNa inscription are also depicted on the upper registers of all the tombs at Naqsh-e Rustam, starting with the tomb of Darius I.[6] The ethnicities on the tomb of Darius further have trilingual labels over them for identification, collectively known as the DNe inscription. One of the best preserved friezes is that of Xerxes I. Source:https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tomb_of_Darius_the_Great

4/  Beyond the Persian-Egyptian relation, what I find very important in Pr. Krebsbach paper is that the claim of the Achaemenid kings that they had a Divine Mandate to be “Kings of the World”, “Lords of the Universe” and “Kings of the four rims of the earth” not only confirms Herodotus’ report that the Persian nomos was to “always expand”, but also sheds light on what we could see as a crucial ideological aspect of the conflicts between the Achaemenid Empire and the Greek free city-states known as the Persian wars.