#hierarchy in the image

[swordscleric]

I can't stop thinking about the post from a few days ago about how Critical Role has been great at doing personal faith but didn't put the necessary work in to discuss the religious/god angle of c3 in-depth. Like the fact that Cardinal Respa was linked to both the Dawnfather and the Chained Oblivion is, on a personal level, very interesting (fallen/corrupted priest goes hard) but like does that mean that there's a Papacy somewhere in Exandria dedicated to the Dawnfather? If so, are there more cardinals who ordain the bishops of the Dawnfather? Are there Conclave-level intrigues going on in the Dawnfather's Sistine Chapel? Why is the Dawnfather so Christianity-coded in vibes alone if there's no actual outline of his religious organisations? With Downfall the Dawnchild/Dawnfather thing makes the allusions to Christ as Son of God co-existing with the Father textual - was there a Dawnfather Schism around whether the Dawnchild was a separate mortal? Was there a Reformation about how the Dawnfather's Pope kept selling indulgences? Is that why the priest of the Dawnfather Grog & Pike offer a drink to doesn't partake because of a cultural shift between Protestant-Temperance-League-coded and Catholic-coded Dawnfather congregations? Why do I have so many questions about the religious organisation of one of the most important Prime Deities in Exandria and to Critical Role's 3 campaigns? How on earth were the cast (and us as the viewers!) meant to care about the gods if all they had were "really tall kings" instead of interrogating how religious organisations provide both a place of healing and community to a wide range of people and also a place of horrific harm and abuse for a wide range of people?

[mister-a-z-fell]

I was asked to provide a guide to the Celestial Hierarchy, so this is a very rough guide, with certain details omitted for various reasons.

The ‘alt text’ thingy didn’t seem willing to contain a full description, so I include it below:

An attempt at describing the informative ‘graphical’ representation.

The image describes the Hierarchy of Heaven, with the titles of angelic choirs and notes on their roles and functions.

God is, of course, at the top (although in a more dimensionally accurate depiction, this would be the centre).

Beneath God is the Metatron - Voice of God. The appended note reads ‘TECHNICALLY PART OF THE SERAPHIM’ but further information is blocked out with ‘REDACTED’ in its place.

There are three groups of angels below Metatron. They are the First, Second and Third Spheres.

The First Sphere includes Seraphim, Cherubim and Thrones.

The following notes are attached:

1: ARCHANGELS (this is written with a capital A)

Senior management, drawn from the ranks of Seraphim and Cherubim.

Theirs are CENTRE-FACING ROLES (Enacting the Will of God, facilitation of the Plan, long-term strategies and Angelic Resources).

2: As a point of etiquette, Seraphim and Cherubim are only to be spoken of as a plurality. Do not refer to one Seraph or one Cherub.
3. Cherubim are not to be confused with Cherubs — young/neonate angels, or cherubs — quasi-sentient firmament devices. (The word ‘cherub’ is written with strangely accented letters, suggesting that the words may sound different.)

Thrones have their own role description: LOGISTICS & LARGE-SCALE

MACROCOSMIC FORCES, and an additional, emphatic note: NO WHEELS. NONE OF US HAVE WHEELS.

The Second Sphere includes Dominions, Virtues and Powers.

The role description for Dominions and Virtues reads: ARCHITECTS. ENGINEERS, FIRMAMENT-SMITHS, but the description beside Powers has been redacted.

The Third Sphere includes Principalities, archangels (with a small a) and Angels.

A note on etiquette regarding archangels reads ‘don’t forget the small a. But don’t bring it up in conversation’.

This Sphere is characterised as ‘EARTH-FACING ROLES & ADMINISTRATION — Guidance, observation, soul-conservation & procurement, record-keeping’.

A note on Principalities warns ‘Don’t make jokes about how few of them there are’ and ‘This means you, Sandalphon.’

Conversely, regarding Angels, the advice says ‘There are so many of them. Millions. Don’t try to remember every name when you can generally get away with ‘Mumble-iel’.

[splankie]

thanks james islington for giving your character in an ancient roman setting a name that starts with a sound that did not exist in classical latin

[aerisxblade]

can someone swirl their tongue around the tip of my girldick. as friends.

[shrimpbat]

Who's your favorite oc from each of your stories and why?

Aaa man that's a hard answer :') I love all my characters dearly and I put everything I can into writing them, this should be tricky! I'll include one or more, probably not more than three but again all of them mean a lot to me individually! (I have a lot of stories sorry in advance)

Insanity's Universe - Bonnie and Carly. I relate to these two the most out of the main cast, I've inserted a lot of myself onto them. Bonnie's anxiety is a direct projection of my own and Carly's cling to childhood also stems from me! I also just really love cats.

Royal Macabres - Callie, Briar and Niratap. Callie is my favorite here just because of her sarcasm, which is something I have in private lol. Her comebacks are great especially to Damon and Junior. Briar is similar to Bonnie in which she has a reserved and quiet personality and is usually forced to overcome that. Niratap's just my goofy 'villain' guy. I love my goofy shadow villain guy.

Websurferz - Vista. This is hard since I included my favorite computer elements into all of them. But I do love Vista, she's a silly little epic face girl who loves her gf and adoptive computer daughter.

Freakshow - Nikki and the three sisters. Nikki is basically the "you gotta fit into the social norms" character, which is something I've had pressured onto me way too fucking much, so I dearly love her. Violet is me and I am Violet, Pixie is just a little silly thing....in a little silly world. Lizzy is Lizzy. I love my three clown babies.

Extraterrestrials - Nora and Pri. Need I say more about how these two are basically each other's driving motivation and they're special to me and I want to hold them in my hands and-- but rly Nora is the curiousity I've had about space and Pri is the fear of the unknown I have about space. Fatima's a close third just because of her ability to have the best dry wit in the whole Space Camp.

Shroom's Dream - Shroom and Jangle. Shroom is my childhood innocence and wonder and she's got the same level of caution as I do, ofc I love her! Jangle is a tiny brain-matter clown how could I not love them.

Food Animals - Pepper. Now yes Pepper is just a food mascot that makes cameos in my other stories but he's a silly dog in a mean world I love him to bits.

Daisy Belle - Daisy Belle. Illusion bunny daughter who doesn't frown.

[boyczar]

I am very sick of the notion that codependents are empathetic people. Codependents are extremely narcissistic in terms of their goals and behaviors. (Narcissistic, not saying they all have NPD, though some of them certainly do.) You are not an “empath”. You are not even in touch with your own feelings, you are simply hyper-vigilant, and often times your fight, flight, freeze, and especially fawn responses, are extremely off-putting and uncomfortable to even a slightly more well-adjusted person. I believe codependents and even Cluster B’s are capable of (total, not impaired) empathy, but only after reversing toxic patterns of relationship behavior. This, however, is in no way their FAULT. I would not say that being codependent or someone with any Cluster B personality disorder (who all have narcissistic traits) is in any way that person’s FAULT. But it unfortunately is their responsibility now. I do not view this relational style (of codependency or narcissistic) as unfixable or irreversible. I would argue that every single person who is codependent or has a Cluster B PD one hundred percent has C-PTSD. (There are people with C-PTSD who have done more healing work and do not fall into these categories but that’s not who I’m talking about.) If you are codependent or are in Cluster B, you have sustained significant trauma, most likely from your parents, and you now have a warped idea of healthy and acceptable communication. You most likely have sustained a thousand little cuts from them while growing up. Being belittled, shamed, degraded, devalued, discarded, threatened, ignored, neglected, silenced, and deemed completely unworthy of genuine love. That is unacceptable and even unforgivable in some cases. I would never condone that. I wish you healing forever.

But this trauma has created a shame core at the center of your self concept, causing you to set off on a lifelong journey to try to feel good about yourself, rather than actually give or receive love. I am sorry that this is harsh and blunt, I mean it with all compassion and understanding. I have been codependent myself and have struggled to be direct with people in the past out of fear and I became an enabler of some really terrible behavior. I was terrible myself. I was (unintentionally) manipulative, as are all codependents. I was selfish when I should have been brave enough to tell those around me what my intuition was warning me of (that we were all falling down a bad path.) I do not like who I was. It was not my fault but it is my responsibility to continue the forever journey of gathering self-awareness and growing. I am not done and I hope I never tire of learning how to be better. I hope you can take something away from this. I’m sorry I’m all over the place, I have a lot of thoughts and I’m over seeing codependent and narcissistic behavior continuing to be the norm. This is not from a self-righteous place, I most definitely have work to do, truly for the rest of my life, I just wanted to speak about the patterns I have noticed since starting to dismantle my own trauma and toxic patterning. I wish you all well.

[tdh-official-book-blog]

Chapter 3

word count: 451

tw: injury, blood (man i suck at trigger warings, if im missing anything please tell me)

[itspileofgoodthings]

Guys, I read Flipped and I loved it.

[yourworldiseternallycomplete]

literally you guys have to stop tying your self image to some sort of ontological queerness!!!

[somewhere-in-a-microwave]

Who even are you...?

Yeah, this is stupid.

I know for a fact that most of them try copy Kirito's fit, but their story is completely different from Kirito.

[rxttenfish]

honestly miranda's a lot more insecure than she will ever let anyone else know about or even mentally recognize and realize in herself - its just also in such specific and bizarre ways that no one ever picks up on it

[eveydeevey]

the world's most prettiest elf has been found fucked beyond recognition

[happyk44]

[ID: Edited version of Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs pyramid to split between the three groups of tiers rather than the five individual tiers of the pyramid. The edited pyramid now reads:

Basic needs: More sleep

Psychological needs: Love, affection, and stimulants

Self-fulfillment needs: Weird depraved kinky shit

/end ID]

[icharchivist]

this game has their abandonned capital due to magical reason still divided between upper city and lower city specifically to showcase a worldbuilding on class and how it was still an important notion of the old hierarchy, even though everything is in ruins,

meanwhile da4 that talks about Solas' rebellion against the Evanuris, which was about ending slavery, never ever showed any idea of class or even society from the old elven ways, and Arlathan itself is a mess of corridors that means nothing leading to status that means nothing

Like yes the whole city is supposed to be gone, at least according to the codexes, but it's not exactly the vibe of Arlathan forrest and we still learn absolutely nothing about the world of the Elven. Because god forbid we give any weight to the (new, retconned) arguments Solas make about "restoring the old world"

[burntblueberrywaffles]

[I.D. an edited pyramid graph of maslow's hierarchy of needs where large text covering every section of basic, psychological and self-fulfillment needs read "people online telling me they like the thing i made". end I.D.] (image description by @lemondoddle )

[knuckleduster]

i tried coming up with a structure for my theoretical framework for my thesis yesterday and like i have notes on paper that i can build a text off of but I'm still really not sure how i want to be ordering this section