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pomefioredove · 15 days ago

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so yesterday I theorized that the fae in twst could be french, possibly breton inspiration, and was mercifully corrected by @tresgansosenunabrigo who actually knows things about french folklore unlike meee

we had a really good talk, which breathed life into a thought of mine about Briar Valley being parallel to ancient Irish mythology, that I had brushed off as insane months ago

some of the following is an old essay that I wrote, that I now find very very... um, incomplete at best, incorrect at worst. I've done my best to put out something more accurate, relevant, and interesting

but, for the sake of this essay: this is only for speculative purposes in the context of fiction. I am only drawing small parallels, and this is not a theory. I am not a teacher. I am not claiming to know everything. I'm just some guy who reads

a brief forward:

my credentials are "religious studies major" and not much else. I am not Irish, nor am I pagan, and my knowledge/study in Irish mythology is very secondary to Catholicism. I have been close to and spoken to a handful of experts within the field but am not one myself.

furthermore, I look to old/historical sources for knowledge, and reject eclectic and appropriative wiccan ideas. this has been a seven year long labor of love, but I'm still not perfect, and continue to sift through my sources every day. The misinformation that eclectics have created about Irish mythology have made way into books, into articles, into common belief, so it is, in fact very difficult not to internalize misinformation. I'm trying </3

and I am begging anyone in this field to correct any mistakes I make.

additionally I've only read a little bit of book 7 so I may be totally crazy. this is just a speculative piece, after all.

a glossary of knowledge:

for the purpose of this essay, I may use "fae" as an umbrella term, which includes pixies, medieval French fae, the aos sí, and the Tuatha de Danann*

*please note that the Tuatha de were gods in their original sources, but were changed to fairies, other supernatural beings, and occasionally kings in later Catholicized retellings.

I will be focusing most on ancient beliefs, with vague mentions of medieval/post-Catholicism ones. Catholicism is extremely important in the context of these stories, as it was the Catholic monks who preserved them in written form, and it's quite literally impossible not to mention. it's had a huge influence.

etc.

when talking about folklore, mythology, or religion, it's literally impossible to draw definite lines. it's why I hate when people say "well this religion stole this thing!" because religions intermingle, they share, they swap, they sometimes even meld with each other into something unique. ever-changing and different and the same. the Romans adopted their beliefs from the Greeks, and they shared gods with the Gauls, and then Christianity used the image of Jupiter as God. a big part of being a history major is understanding how to draw connections between cultures and peoples.

Admittedly, I am not familiar with the French idea of fae. I know that it is medieval. post-Christianity. it's a fairly loose term that denotes a "magical woman, skilled with words, herbs and stones" (via Wikipedia) and not much else. this is relevant to the Sleeping Beauty story, in which all the fairies are women. Maleficent's guards are not fairies, but ghouls (is that the right word?). I couldn't tell you the exact origin of French fairies, but it's not far-fetched to say they could have had "Celtic"* influence

*in reference to more than one culture in this context. scottish, manx, welsh, irish, etc

It is, perhaps, more important to add that French fairies are romantic figures in nature. very... fairy-tale esque. characters such as the fairy godmother and the good fairies in Perrault's version of Cinderella and Sleeping Beauty are good examples of this.

TWST fae... are... a little different. obviously. while it may be easy to simply argue that "it's twisted, so they're darker" or "Briar Valley is based off Maleficent's domain so of course it's dark", it's implied (and shown!) that good entities come from Briar Valley, too. pixies exist in TWST, for example. then there are the good fairies from Sleeping Beauty, which have to exist alongside Maleficent in the canon of TWST. The fae here are layered, much more so than in their sources.

This is where I start seeing shit.

war, weapons, and invasion

When speculating on the influence of French folklore in Briar Valley, I was told that "war" is a rather uncommon thing in their stories. Invasion is, of course, an imperative theme in Briar Valley history, in Lilia's background, and in book 7 as a whole. So. I get thinking.

The war between the fae and the humans carries significant parallels to the war between the Tuatha de Danann and the humans in the Lebor Gabála Érenn, the Book of Invasions, wherein the "fae" and the humans warred over land and resources until the former were driven out of Ireland and the humans became the ancestors of the modern Irish. And by "parallels" I mean this exact thing happens. THE EXACT THING. The Book of Invasions was literally the first thing I thought about when in Lilia's dream.

War is, of course, a recurring theme in Irish mythology. Ná Morríghan is associated with war, there's that entire book of invasions, like, anything about Cú Chulainn, etc.

I also, very quickly, want to draw a comparison between Lilia's magearm and the four treasures of the Tuatha de Danann, which are described in literature such as the Lebor Gabála and Cath Maige Tuired (iirc). magical weaponry is a fairly common motif in various Celtic mythologies. in Irish mythology, it's the Spear of Lugh, and various swords, clubs, etc. The magearm just struck the same chord for me.

nature

I fear this is about to get very ~ohooo magical pagan connection to nature!~ please bear with me.

The mythology of Ireland is very, very, very tied to the land. You can still see this today, actually. Various natural formations- hills, islands, etc- have mythological names. Much like Olympus in Greek mythology, places mentioned in Irish mythological sources have real-world counterparts, such as Tech Duinn, the House of the Dead, being Bull Rock- a tiny island off the coast of Cork (cool post about that and the ancient Irish belief in death here). Trees had important religious, cultural, and linguistic (see: Ogham) connotations. Many of the Tuatha de had animalistic attributes and associations, such as Morríghan and crows. Even more were associated with fertility and agriculture, which was kind of a big deal. Symbols that which represent fertility, are rather common motifs (such as the Lia Fáil on the Hill of Tara, which I've read is theorized to be phallic).

That's not even mentioning the oceans, the cliffs, the forests, or the sidhe (a "fairy mounds", manmade or natural features that connect our world to the otherworld of Irish mythology).

At multiple points in Lilia's dream do we hear the fae talk about how important nature is to fae. I am unsure if this strong love for land is a theme in French folklore.

I also want to briefly point out that, in reputable sources, the "Celtic" day began at sunset. Darkness- night, winter, cold- were important to the ancient Irish, both in culture and in mythology. It's probable that their "New Year" began at Samhain (soh-wen), the holiday that celebrated the beginning of winter, to put it briefly. Here's a discussion post about this (and I sent this ask!!!!)

I just find the significance of darkness and night to hold some ground with the concept of "nocturnal fae" in TWST. "Night's blessing's", they say.

form

I also want to add, very quickly, that there are multiple different iterations of "fairies" in Irish mythology and folklore. The Tuatha de resemble humans. The modern aos sí are more mystical. The Fomorians (whom are or are not fairies, depending on who you ask?) are described as more animalistic and monstrous. The nature of fae in TWST is unclear, but they read, to me, as human-like with different abilities, different physical attributes, and a different connection to land and nature. Which is, in form, similar enough to the "fae" of Irish (and other Celtic) folklore.

Lilia

Head in hands. Shall we talk about the importance of the paternal figure in Irish mythology. I feel I have to.

I really really hate saying the word "fertility" so much because I start sounding like a Wiccan, I promise I'm going somewhere with this.

In the Nature segment, I briefly touched on the importance of fertility and the phallic symbol. I know that usually, when talking about ~fertility~ in reference to paganism, people are talking women/goddesses, but throughout my readings of Irish mythology, I've found that male fertility is just as important. More specifically, fatherhood. I, unfortunately, couldn't find much input on this, but I think it's safe to say that The Dagda, for example, is considered an important father figure and is associated with fatherhood.

It's just important.

Head in hands again. Now let's talk about fostering. Fosterage was, by most sources, a really big thing in ancient Ireland. Raising someone else's child, including that of your enemy, was not only acceptable, not only common, but traditional. And the themes of fosterage exist in the mythos, too- in Tóraigheacht Dhiarmada agus Ghráinne, the demi-god Diarmuid was fostered by Aengus Og. Aengus Og was also fostered. Fosterage is a theme in Cú Chulainn's story, so on and so forth. The gods/fae/etc foster humans, they foster demi-gods, they foster other gods.

I wanted to mention both of these as important themes in both Irish mythology and Lilia's story because like. come onnn lol.

And One More Thing!!!

This isn't super relevant to this essay, I just like to bring it up: Lilia is vampiric? Well, there's vampires in Irish folklore (or close enough, anyway. the link gives a few different versions of the story and their origins). Some think that Abhartach was actually the true inspiration behind Bram Stoker's Dracula. I don't know how much credibility this theory has, I've read a few essays on it. I just think this is fun.

Silver

Much of what I said in Lilia could be said here, too. All I really want to bring up is the symbolism of acorns. I've mentioned that certain trees had mythological connections, and the oak tree was. Um. A big one. It's a recurring theme, past, and present. Even the "Celtic Tree of Life" is an oak. I don't know, it's just important.

I could also draw some pretty stark comparisons between the story of Fionn mac Cumhaill, a heroic figure in Irish Mythology, and Silver, but that would be a bit much.

Sebek

Half-god and half-human heroes, fae, whatever etc are very much present and important in Irish mythology. That's all I can think of for now.

Malleus

I suppose I could, if I tried very hard, find something to say about Malleus, but this is where the ~medieval Europe~ starts to seep in. I am unaware of any dragons or dragonlike creatures in Irish, or other Celtic, myth.

Nobility is, however, a major theme in Irish mythology. There are many rules, there are laws, there are gods and goddesses of sovereignty, it's huge, and sort of parallels Diasomnia's structure, in a strange way. I'd need to know how their housewarden is chosen, lmao.

conclusion

Do I think the TWST writers have an intimate knowledge of ancient Irish mythology and are purposefully making allusions to drive me insane specifically? no. obviously not. is it possible that these myths have influenced the general idea of fae, and thus were included in the writing process unconsciously? yes. absolutely!

Ultimately, this is more of a thought exercise and an analysis than a theory. Take it as you will.

so on and so forth.

#writing this almost killed me. IT'S SO LONG

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msbunnat · 4 months ago

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thank you for your answer, in any case I was already very excited by your comic and I cannot wait to read more about it!

I honestly cannot understand the people hating on your work. I feel like fandoms has been invaded by a wave of purity/moral policy that shouldn't exist anymore. it's even more wild to me knowing you're working on a greek myth, and the greek myths are KNOWN to have many versions. that's the beauty of them in my opinion, the way these authors all wrote their own versions and they passed them to us. I love the fact you picked Ganimedes, and you decided to explore both Zeus and him. And the mystery you keep about your relationship really makes me wonder which take you will follow!

and speaking of take, I really enjoy yours on Zeus. Gods are complex beings, and sure they're problematic (like duh) and bad, and everything but it's funny how people will decide which pick for who. Like everybody love Poseidon but oh boy, he can be as bad as Zeus people. So yeah, I am actually excited to read the way you're gonna write him! I don't hate Zeus, sure he does seem one of the "worse" when reading most of the myths, but my favorite thing is the way you can love one god in one story, and hate him in another. they're immortal beings. they're not just black and white. so I happen to enjoy when authors write Zeus as more than just a big bad villain. But I also enjoy when they just don't make him a "sweet lovely daddy".

Oh by the way, I didn't know the version of Metis abusing him and I'll have to look into it! We had a more "feminist" vision of her myth in my class, so it's not something that was talked about hmm.

Also, my bad for saying he died. It was a sum up because of him turning into a constellation. I cannot say we studied this myth so unfortunately I don't have sources to help you on it! It's assumed he lives on forever young but the fact he turns into a constellation is why people think he died?

Thanks! I want to post soon, but I'm so tireeed ;w; I prefer to make people wait and do a good job tho.

About the hate... People re affraid (artists have to much power kkkkk) and we live in a time that you need to share your opnion to get validation. In my case, they need to say that Zeus is bad and hate on him and me so they know they re on the rigth side and have good morals. And even after all this, I think its a good thing they just warning people, that way I can get to my real target that can enjoy characters more complex that re not good or evil, but mess up beings (that includes Ganimedes). And even if people in the end critizied my aproach, its also fine, I dont claim to be perfect and just hope that even to the mad ones, they feel inspired to create their version as well. I think they forgot that, like, they can have their version and will be as valid as mine, dosent matter the story.

(I really enjoy everything about Ganymede, if people go and do their versions, its a plus to me! More about him is best for me heheh. I came across two versions of Ganymede on tumblr and I LOVE BOTH!! I really want to do a fanart of the second one, but I'm a lil afraid if they dont want to interact with me, which is fair, but I'm just judging by the dark aproach on the myth, as a horror story).

Thanks for liking my Zeus u.u I'm really more found of him, as I think about his past, but I'm trying not to focus to much on him! He steals the scene to much!!!

About Metis, its not a version, but a interpretation. I'm looking to see if I find a sourse, but anyway, its intresting, since they met when Zeus was still young. And there re some greek myths with female abusers, so... its something.

Oooh! I see. hm... I never see the constelation as a death, so its not clicking with me, but I understand. Any way, I kinda dont like the constelation, for some reason looks wrong to me, but its a valid version and Im totally using the aesthetic kkkk

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genericpuff · 1 year ago

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Hello, I want to say that I enjoy reading Lore Rekindled. I used to try and get into Lore Olympus back when it was starting, because I'm a huge Mythology Nerd, especially when it comes to Greek. But, even though the comic had so much potential, I really hated it. The art style was very inconsistent and messy. Like I see why it was appealing because it was striking and unique for the time on Webtoon, but it strained my eyes because it was hard to tell who was who half the time. The writing was all over the place with so many plot's that were supposedly to exist but were either settled in an anti-climatic way or just never were addressed at all. And the characters... by gosh, they act more like fake celebrities' and cardboard cutouts than their actual counterparts. It's so laughable when people say "I can relate to Persephone" like... the girl doesn't have any set traits, she's just a self-insert with no actual flaws! And the fact LO labels itself as a feminist retelling, while it pits women against each other, labels them as objects for men and vilify them for having justifiable concerns... yeah that is a laugh. And I'm not even gonna touch on the Apollo plot... you know the one. But when I heard about Lore Rekindled from Dazzling Kate on Youtube, I decided to check it out because I figured a fan version could not be any worse than what Rachel herself created. And holy Hades, I can see the un-to god effort and care this comic has! This is the complete opposite of LO: it has consistent character models with stunning backgrounds and art, the plotline makes way more sense and is easy to follow with no unnessearcy subplots, and the characters actually have separate personalities! I know Lore Rekindled is still in it's early stages, but already it has shown more promise and potential than what Rachel has created in the last six years! This is why ghost writers and fanfiction have a special place in my heart, because they care more about the stories than the authors themselves! Seriously, what you are doing is incredible! I really hope you continue with Lore Rekindled and I will be following the story because you have sparked my interest! It takes a special kind of talent to turn something that an individual like myself loathes, into a piece of work that I can find joy and entertainment in.

On that note, because I really love your story so far, I wanted to ask your permission on something. I have a YouTube channel, it's a small one but I do a bunch of things there like voice dubs, reviews, theorizes, and writing advice. So if it is alright with you, would it be okay if I could do a review of your Lore Rekindled Series and maybe potentially do a comic dub of the story as well? I'll be sure to credit you, I just want people to see this story that you worked hard on.

Ahhh I'm so glad you like it! Everything you mentioned about LO's missed or lost potential was exactly why I set out to make Rekindled, so it always brings me so much joy when people tell me it connected with them, means I gotta be doing at least something right LOL Though I've had to adjust Rekindled's update schedule to make room for other projects and priorities in my life, there's still loads left with it that I wanna tackle.

If you wanna do a review or any sort of video content with it, by all means! DazzlingKate's review took me by surprise (in a good way) because I had no idea it was happening until someone linked me to it after it was posted haha It's a little nerve-wracking sometimes to see it breach outside of Tumblr, but so far all the occasions of such have been generally fair game without any issues so I don't see why not! ~ <3

Thank you again, I hope Rekindled continues to entertain you and bring you joy ( ´ ∀ `)ノ～ ♡

#lore rekindled #lore rekindled ama #ask me anything #anon ama #anon ask me anything #ama

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burntoutwaxwings · 10 hours ago

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I find it weird that the other Myacaenean kings would follow Odysseus's command in the siege of Troy. Agamemnon especially, as he was like, so great he had his own set of armor in AC odyssey. All Odysseus had was a journey named after him. (Odyssey isn't even a good odyssey. In fact, it's a reverse odyssey. The good ending results in you coming back with more people than you left with.)

Also, Achilles, in the original Myth, was just too good. He couldn't die. The Achilles Heel shot? Likely an exaggerated fact added after the fact so the shot could sound more important and better than it was. (Note: if you were to not have an Achilles Tendon, you could not move your leg. It was still an important shot.) So Achilles taking orders? Idk. I feel like he could just go in and kill them all by himself with the help of arches shooting the defending archers. I have no idea who little Ajax is.

Basically, what I'm saying is that Epic the Musical, and the Odyssey itself, is still an amazing Greek Tragedy. It was indeed very Epic. (I'm only at like album 2, give me a bit.) I also don't believe that the Reigning King of Ithaca is that powerful. He is the King of an Island Nation off the coast of another Island Nation, which also happens to be the main Island of Kephallonia. If anything, he has a really strong Navy. (Ithaca is indeed a real island you can go to in real life, but it's only suspected to be the actual island. We don't know if Ithaca is the two islands together, or just the one named Ithaca. We don't even know if Ithaca is actually real. It's like, unfalsifiable information. Last I checked.)

So yeah. That's my only complaint. (If any of you, a single one of you, say that this complaint is stupid because the gods in the series and story are real and can speak and have children; I will block you immediately. I do not care that Odysseus fought Polyphemus or Scylla or Poseidon, it's a greek myth series after all. I do care that we are over hyping a man with the control of one, maybe two, at most three islands. Not that much. But I still care.)

#epic the musical #greek mythology #greek gods #greek heroes #odysseus #Odyssey #okay rant over #rant

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godlike-enigma · 5 months ago

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°•*⁀➷ INTRODUCING MYSELF ! ˘͈ᵕ˘͈

bani ☆ she/her ☆ entp 5w4 ☆ minor (𝘀𝘁𝗿𝗶𝗰𝘁𝗹𝘆 18+ 𝗼𝗻𝗹𝘆 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗴𝘀 𝗯𝗹𝗼𝗰𝗸 𝗺𝗲) // side blog: @ilubeau

HI GUYS !! i post daydreaming-related stuff here but it's also kind of a mix of everything, i'll also post anime related stuff, i'll never really stick to just one thing but what i CAN tell you i'll be sticking to is my centrecosm mostly (my main paracosm, i'm staying loyal to the one i've been building for the past 4 years) it's also a blanket paracosm so there's loads of subcosms inside it but at the end of the day it's linear and takes place chronologically.

i have a few paracosms here and there so that's why i call myself a paracosmist but really and all they'll never compare to my main one. ಠ_ಠ

❤︎ this is a safe place for all madders (ง'̀-'́)ง, i really wanna make friends that are passionate with opening up about their little daydreaming worlds, i'll listen to you yap about it all day long.

PLEASE DO SEND QUESTIONS ABOUT MY PARACOSM(S) OR ABOUT YOURS !! i'll always reply ^-^

MY CENTRECOSM ✧

i have 68 paras (characters). yes. you heard that right. SIXTY EIGHT. i have a whole pinterest board on it and i update it regularly -

https://pin.it/4Yvd42Asm

also yeah i'm a microcelebrity on pinterest idk if you've seen me around but yeah wtvr 😭😭 ALRIGHT LEMME GIVE YOU GUYS A LIL SYNOPSIS ! (i've never done one it's kinda scary)

my paracosm consists of 50 Gods, 7 archdemons, 7 archangels, 2 minor characters including a nymph and Satan's helper, Satan himself, God themself (God doesn't have a gender), and 5 monotheistic Gods, my paracosm has its own lore of different mythologies. greek, norse, and egyptian mythology. fiction has no limits, so i can bend it to fit my desires, i LOOOOOVE mythologies of all kinds, so i made my own lore using the names you see on the pinterest board. all of the Gods have the same power and no ones more powerful than each other except for God and Satan. the Gods are the most beautiful, ethereal, alluring individuals in heaven. Satan made it so that whenever someone who is not a God sees a God's appearance, they physically feel like they can't say anything. this is to prevent any romantic relationships. so whenever, for example, a human who is granted permission sees them, obviously, their initial reaction would be shock and the need to compliment them. right when they're about to do that, they start to feel choked up like they can't get the words out. it'll go on like that until they give up. the gods have noticed that a lot of the time when they show their selves to other people and they start reacting like that.. they start thinking its because they're ugly or something. LMFAOO, they'll be like "damn i'm THAT ugly???" and its so ironic bc they're actually trying to tell them they're more than beautiful, but they CAN'T because of Satan. he has a lot of unreasonable rules, and the Gods just put up with it because they appointed him as the leader whilst God is gone, so they kind of did to themselves... to put it in a nutshell, the Gods have never been complimented. like. ever. so 😭 its only factual that they'd feel like they're the ugliest individual alive. Satan is currently acting as the overseer of the Gods whilst God is away, so he gets to do whatever he wants to. the Gods are the main characters, the archdemons and archangels are side characters, Satan is the antagonist, and God is... mysterious. they don't pop up. ever. so the Gods just assume they don't like them. i can go on and on about this, but i feel like i'm yapping too much ... this isn't even 0000.5% of the story. sorry, guys, this is a really bad summary, but trust me, you'll find out more about it if you follow through with my posts 🙏🏽

tags i'll use (＞﹏＜) :

#𝗻𝗼𝘁 𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗱 -> posts that are not daydreaming-related

#𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗶'𝘀 𝘆𝗮𝗽 𝘀𝗲𝘀𝘀𝗶𝗼𝗻𝘀 -> original posts

#𝗺𝗮𝗱𝗱 𝘃𝗲𝗻𝘁 -> vents about madd

#𝗮𝗿𝘁𝗯𝘆𝗯𝗮𝗻𝗶 -> art i make about my paracosm or anime and stuff

#actually madd #madd #paracosm #daydreaming #immersive daydreaming #inner world #paraportal #girl blogger #maladaptive coping #writers on tumblr #madd things #maladapting daydreaming disorder #writing #story

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sangreprince · 3 months ago

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Headcanons: Zagreus, The God

Who Zagreus is as a god is a complicated question, but one that boils down into a semi-simple answer: He is the god of blood, sweat, and tears. In other words, determination. This is gonna be broken into a few parts to avoid yapping so people can easily find the lore they're interested in.

1. Overview & Sources

2. Abilities

3. Personality / Alignment

4. Following

1. Overview & Sources Borrowing from his etymology first, I'm sourcing mostly from Dionysos by Karl Kerényi. A lot of what he is as depicted by SSG comes from that and I'm similarly drawing from those sources. There's other conflicting information out there such as some of the materials in the Greek Epic Fragments by Martin L. West, but I personally won't be referencing it since I don't believe much of that was sourced for his character in this specific portrayal. That said though, I do recommend people check it out regardless as there are some things in there that also seem to be the basis for what SSG establish (Such as some lines cited by Timothy Gantz). That said, I also borrow (what I can) from the Sisyphus epic as detailed in the Aeschylus, which you can find online under West as well. Mainly this pertains to not only his nature as the Son of Hades but also his specific function within the Underworld. My portrayal is kind of a mix of those sources, heavily inspired by the tones SSG set in their own interpretation of the mythology.

Because we don't actually know a lot about the historical Zagreus and some of the information is conflicting, especially regarding Orphic tradition and his relationship / identity with Dionysos, most of my portrayal is going to be a mix of filling in the blanks with my own narrative based off of (primarily) the sources given. There's a lot of mixup there regarding Zagreus and Dionysos that I won't really be touching for the purposes of this blog. That said, I strongly believe in being authentic and respecting the source material! If you know of any good sources. That said, if anyone has any ideas or thoughts regarding this please let me know some source materials I can go over!! Mediterranean history and mythology is something I'm going to try and respect and acknowledge, even if some liberties are taken for the sake of distinction. Comments should be open for this so if you've got sources, feel free to paste them below!

I'm using these two sources alongside the story established by SSG to sort of form my own narrative with Zagreus. That said, if anyone wants to read them I'll source them here!

Kerényi, C. (1976). Dionysos : Archetypal image of indestructible life. http://ci.nii.ac.jp/ncid/BA52740670

West, M. L. (1990). Studies in Aeschylus. In De Gruyter eBooks. https://doi.org/10.1515/9783110948066

2. Abilities.

Zagreus is Hades's son. He is undying, unable to die except by extremely unconventional means that would sever his link to the cycle of life and death itself. But that isn't to say he can't be killed. He is still partly, even if only by a small margin, mortal. This allows him to be vanquished by any conventional means that would otherwise kill a regular human. Even if he's a god, he bleeds. He can be bested.

'Zagre' has its roots with 'zoë' and 'zoön', the Greek words for 'life' and 'living thing' respectively. I take this to mean he can be killed as any living thing can, a narrative the game-play supports. Taking a 'Yes and' improve approach to that, I also feel like part of what makes him formidable however is his influence over the blood of living things. This can extend to the ability manipulate the blood in an individual's body to a number of effects, such as making wounds that never heal on their own or stop bleeding. This would reflect the casting ability he has, and possibly was even one of the sources of inspiration for SSG in regards to that mechanic. Secondly, taking that prescient I'd like to think he could also control the flow of blood in a living creature to varrying effects. Heightening senses, accelerating heart-rate, even using the blood of living things to heal himself. But nothing on the level of say, water bending. His power is a lot more subtle than that.

Additionally, his name (and even Artemis in game) suggests he's a fantastic hunter. And that, I think, is where much of his actual formidability comes from. An exact translation of his name would be something like, 'catcher of game' and I think that's appropriate. He is a fighter trained by Achillies and a hunter favored by Artemis that cannot die. What makes him frightening as an enemy is the fact that, no matter what you do, he's just going to come back. And every time he does, he gets a little bit better at fighting you. And that should be terrifying, were it not the fact that Zagreus can be reasoned with. It would be a nightmare if you couldn't avoid him simply by laying down your weapon and engaging in a dialog. In as much a way that he is a god and an unstoppable force, he is still his own individual with principles. Among said principles is mercy, understanding, and compassion.

But to those that don't heed that? Zagreus is and should be frightening. Because he is stubborn. In that way he is Hades' son. And he will never stop until one day, eventually, he bests them. It isn't a matter of 'if', but when.

3. Personality / Alignment

As a god, Zagreus is... Fairly outgoing. He doesn't believe himself above anyone else, living or dead. In much the same way his name derives from 'living things', he's very compassionate towards mortals and doesn't place himself on a pedestal regarding them. If anything, he views his power as a god as a responsibility, a trait his Father instilled in him after much effort. In this way, he uses his power and influence as a god in service of the living despite being a chthonic god of the Underworld. But from a distance. He knows that power can corrupt, and his influence carries weight among the mortals that acknowledge him. So he prefers to be more of a distant but dedicated figure, one who only intervenes when inaction would be detrimental to all parties involved. Including his conscious.

For the same reason, he doesn't to reveal his nature as a god too often to those that don't already know. He understands that others might perceive him differently as just another being with their own agenda and morality if they view him through the lens of a god. They might think because he is a god and thinks these things, his opinion should be held with more regard than somebody else's. And Zagreus just doesn't believe in that. And more than that, it often introduces a power dynamic he simply isn't comfortable with in most instances.

4. Worship Zagreus is often misunderstood by mortals. Often, they see that him and Ares are close and, considering his affiliation with blood, make him out to be somewhat more of a sacrificial deity than he is. Mostly they perceive that he's the good of blood without contextualizing that he's more than that in a literal sense. Zagreus's domain more subtle, less 'blood and conflict' as it is 'blood sweat and tears'. He's portrayed as a stubborn, defiant, persistent and I'm inclined to believe he's the of god of effort and 'bleeding for your passions' so to speak.

While this does have relationships with conflict and battle, as you would naturally expect, it's hardly what he represents on the whole. In regards to most of the people that follow him, he almost has this bitter and hesitant relationship. He doesn't necessarily endorse the collection of people who see him as a sort of god of passionate violence and bloodshed which. Is only a partial truth, and one he isn't fond of.

Ironically, a lot of the times the mortals he actually admires don't' even worship him at all. To an extent, Zagreus actually prefers this. He doesn't seek worship. So when people actually come around and understand him and pray that fit that niche of being stubborn and passionate people who bleed for their convictions and invoke his name? He's' probably one of the easiest gods to talk to individually, as well as work with on a practical level due to his compassion and natural intuition.

#| headcanons. |#| headcanon 01: divinity. |#WHEW word vomit I'm so sorry #my autism won the battle there #anyway I've been rambling to people about zagreus as a god so there it is #the definitive post that I will absolutely add to as time goes on

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chireikiden · 1 year ago

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Do you think there's any reason for Hecatia being one of the strongest characters in the series? Someone from a religion that isn't believed in anymore being powerful, doesn't seem to fit with the rest of the series. If someone from a dead religion showed up in Touhou, the first question should be how they're even still alive.

I'm sure you could reverse-engineer some headcanon excuses, but my personal guess is that rather than any particular in-universe justification, once ZUN decided that he wanted to have a powerful, "independent" Hell goddess (outside the Ministry's hierarchy), it wasn't a long leap - if a leap at all - to "Okay, so let's make her more powerful than the Ministry".

I mean, I don't know what led him to go for specifically Hecate/Hecatia in the first place, so we don't really have any first principles to start from.

She didn't have to be especially powerful just to be an independent Hell goddess; could've just been someone from the middle or bottom of the pecking order. But the story of LoLK is about her and Junko clowning on the Moon, so the tone is pretty different depending on whether she's super powerful or some scrappy underdog (and DDC had just come out). I'm sure that like any other writer, a lot of the time ZUN just does things because the end result is what he wants, rather than every step following naturally from the previous one. Or hecc, maybe the only Greek goddess in the series just had some exotic prestige in his eyes that Japanese gods don't, I don't know.

If you really get into some weird... comparative mythology, you could make a decent argument for Hecate the pre-Olympian titan-killer (cherrypicking the best of all versions, as one does) to be more powerful than most of the gods we see in Touhou, but cross-mythological power level debates are probably even less fruitful than Touhou ones. The very question of characters that in human belief predate humanity and how they might come into being "retroactively", and what that actually means for their backstories or power levels, is a whole swamp I'm not gonna wade into. (This may include some Lunarians, but it's hard to say which - humans just kinda appear unannounced in Japanese mythology. In the Kojiki, they already seem to exist by the time of Izanami's death.)

Somehow the matter of fading faith and belief has never come up in relation to any characters outside Earth and Gensokyo, that I can remember. I can easily imagine that the afterlife itself and maybe the oni there still have enough belief in the present day for it to not be a problem, or that ZUN as the writer simply has other things to talk about whenever those characters appear. But whether the otherworlders are actually protected somehow or ZUN just doesn't bring it up, faith or lack thereof has never seemed relevant there on a meta level.

#ask #anonymous #hecatia lapislazuli #general disc.

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taylortruther · 6 months ago

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a little adjacent to heteronormative relationships and the public eye, what are your thoughts on how the media crafts certain narratives in balancing, say, clickability/interest with actual information being received (either by a publicist, paparazzi, or common sense)? and how those things feed into each other to tell certain stories?

obviously, there's the way taylor and travis are reported on, but i'm also thinking of someone like JLo and Ben, who's narrative abruptly shifted from "true love after 20 years" to "on the verge of divorce" and how JLo's perception as someone ( a woman, specifically) who's more fame-hungry/self-obsessed has fed into that. then you have your over-idealized young love (olivia rodrigo and her actor boyfriend! millie bobbie brown and her husband!!) (jesus christ lol) and the way the media is just so much kinder and in adoration in a way that we know isn't going to last

idk, was just thinking about how the love/hatred cycle of the woman in the relationship feeds these cycles, but wondered if you had any other thoughts about that switch from 'adored couple' to 'get the popcorn ready for DIVORCE' and how much is driven by what's actually going on and how much is driven by, well, everything else

love ur blog <3

idk! i wrote a lot! not sure if this really touches on what you wanted because tbh to me, the media drives much of it, but it's hard to say "the narratives" without really talking about "the society" that creates the narrative that the media exploits. it is a big question for one blog and i'd be interested in more thoughts because it is more fun for me when it's a dialogue and not just me opining.

i think celebrity can often cast a magnifying glass on what are otherwise normal, common human experiences. it's like when you read greek mythology, and the gods are so awful, but one of the reasons they're so awful is because they're afflicted with human flaws like pride and vanity, but with (often scary) powers. celebrities aren't all-powerful deities, but they have beauty, wealth, platform, public trust, privileges galore, at their disposal.

so there's interest in what they do because it gives us insight into other human stories. and one of the common narratives in our society (world?) is that of young love! young, sexy people being young and sexy together, who doesn't like that.

but, idk. people are judgmental. there's a lot to say about how human stories become content on the internet, but it's really more of a tale of how humans are judgy, and the internet makes it easier (and more satisfying, superficially) to do it. like, you see the same type of comments on taylor swift/travis videos as you do on jlo/ben articles as you do on the comment section of a 22-year-old influencer on instagram with 3,000 followers (or a blog on here tbh)... they can be kind, but they are often viciously cruel, about the same things: appearance, age, vapidity, superficiality, intelligence, damaging kids' psyches, whatever.

life and human experience is a narrative - we tell ourselves stories about our lives, but when we're watching someone else's, the narrative becomes clearer. jlo and ben can't just stay fun and sexy forever. the masses want a narrative: the buildup, the conflict, the climax, the comedown, the resolution. unfortunately, humans don't really get a whole story until they're dead and someone crafts a narrative about their life in retrospect. so we often get stuck in that cycle of conflict and comedown. (there's a lot to say about taylor's love for an underdog/phoenix rising from the ashes metaphor too tbh.) whether any of the conflict is real, or exaggerated, is kind of besides the point. it's not really about the celebrities as humans anymore.

and sexism/ageism is a factor too. like, society hates women. women are devalued and dehumanized as a matter of course. so, as a famous woman who literally commodifies part of herself in some way, that hatred will be loud and open.

we see that in how people talk about celebrity moms and their relationships/breakups. sophie/joe or angelina/brad are great examples of how the woman can't be trusted: she's too young, too wild, too irresponsible, lalala. meanwhile, no one truly thinks the man is essential in the parenting role (talk about a reflection of society!) so his lack of parenting, or his shitty parenting, doesn't quite damage his reputation the way lesser "crimes" affect a woman.

i also have some thoughts on how the internet has been ~gentrified~ (i use this term SO loosely/unseriously but it gets the point across) and how that changes what we talk about and how. but that's a separate topic.

eta: i will probably read this journal article when i have a good minute, because i think it articulates similar thoughts. it's about how celebrities fall from grace (like cosby), but i love the term "social myth":

Even if such determination can be questioned – stars and celebrities continue to provide cohering social myths to bind with – the issues of degradation, desecration and decelebrification are an integral part of the complex phenomenon of celebrity. Unsurprisingly the switch between steps related to consecration and degradation in celebrity life is a constant: the rise and fall narrative, a central component of star and fan identification streams, and media marketing.

#hot taykes

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khaire-traveler · 7 months ago

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I just stumbled upon your blog a few days ago and absolutely love it! I hope your days get better, I'll be sending good energy your way :3

Question: How did you first get into paganism? (If its a personal story, no worries!) I got started by getting really into mythology and then it just blossomed into way more than that

Thank you for the well wishes! I'm feeling better today. 🧡

My answer is way longer than I intended it to be, so I'm adding a "read more". Apologies in advance, but thank you to anyone who decides to read it. XD

I'm more than ok answering that question! Honestly, I wasn't really interested in paganism at all for a while. I was open to it, but it wasn't on my radar. I had just left Christianity about five or six months prior, given Wicca a chance to discover I didn't vibe with it, and decided I would remain agnostic while practicing witchcraft instead. I honestly wasn't even sure if any deities existed at all at that point and didn't really have faith in anything (which I've since discovered is a necessity for me). I was also in a pretty bad place mentally and emotionally at that time.

Without warning, I started receiving strange dreams that featured Greek gods. I had literally never known anything about Greek mythology beforehand aside from Persephone's kidnapping and whatever was going on in Disney's Hercules, so having dreams about Greek gods was very strange for me. I decided to look into it further since the dream contained a lot of symbolism I honestly couldn't decipher. I spoke to the one and only pagan I knew at the time - a follower of some other Greek gods.

Now, this person sucked a lot and decided that it'd be a great idea to tell me that my dream either meant that Hermes was reaching out to me, there was some spirit haunting me, or I was going to DIE soon!?!?!?! Like, seriously, who says that to someone with literally no experience in anything pagan related???? Anywho, the first option was the actual truth.

For the next three weeks after that dream, I was in HEAVY denial that a god would ever be interested in having anything to do with me. Instead, I focused on the more pessimistic outcomes the asshole person suggested.

However, Lord Hermes was absolutely not just going to throw up his hands and walk off into the sunset. No, quite the contrary! He spammed the shit out of me with sign after sign after sign, and I continued to dismiss them, although I was getting increasingly more hopeful because I had read up on him and thought he was really cool. I remember saying aloud to myself while reading his cattle myth, "Now THIS is a god I would want to worship!"

Despite all the signs I was being sent, I kept eventually dismissing it as coincidence or a weird one-off event. Until one day, I went into my kitchen to start my day, and in the backyard, the entire ground was covered by a massive flock of black birds. They were even sitting on the fence because there was no room on the ground! They were literally everywhere; I had never seen that in all my years of living in that house, and I had never seen it again. As soon as I saw them, they immediately flew away, and Hermes' name randomly popped into my head.

I obviously couldn't ignore that.

Within the next few days, I tried my best to research everything about paganism and deity worship that I could. I tried reaching out to my shitty pagan friend, and she did give me some helpful pointers but mostly left me on my own. Weirdly, I couldn't find a lot of information on worshipping Hermes at that time. I barely had any social media (I didn't have a Tumblr yet and had never used it prior), so I wasn't sure who to ask for good research options. I tried the Hellenic Polytheism Reddit and was told to "just search it up". The reason I try to answer asks sent to me is partially because of the extremely unwelcoming people I came across in that community. I'm not sure if they've changed since then, as it's been several years, but I sure fucking hope they did, god damn.

Anyway, I often felt a presence "looking over my shoulder" whenever I'd research the topic. It honestly freaked me out a bit because I hadn't ever experienced that kind of thing so strongly before outside of some one-off experiences. I finally decided to put together a small display of offerings. I used a tealight candle and gave him quite a few trinkets I had gained over my travels. As I lit the candle, I started writing a letter to Hermes because I wasn't comfortable praying yet. The entire time, it felt as if someone was looking over my shoulder and watching me write. It was freaky at first but grew comforting over time.

I had asked Lord Hermes for help adopting a specific cat that I wanted to train to be a service animal. The cat was already used to walking on a leash and was a few years old (I didn't want a kitten at the time). I told him that I wasn't sure if I'd be able to adopt him because the adoption center seemed weirdly hell-bent on not allowing me to adopt him, despite the fact that he had been stuck there for a year already. I was financially stable enough to take care of him and could even prove it, but they were extremely unfriendly with me for whatever reason. I asked him if he could please ensure the adoption, as I had sent a message to the center earlier in the day and was hoping for a reply.

Well, I woke up the next day, and the cat had apparently been adopted by someone else, despite there being no mention of anyone else with an interest in him to me. I was crushed by this, but my mom came running into the room to tell me to get dressed and that we were getting a cat. I was super confused, obviously, but she told me that someone she had reached out to last night about literally the only other Siamese cat she could find in the state (needed that breed specifically due to cat allergies in the household) and had confirmed we could pick up the cat. The cat was professionally bred and would come with all his toys, a cat tree, all his food, and his litterbox. Instead of being $2,000 as the owner had originally bought him for, he was $500. Thankfully, we were in a place that we could make that payment.

The only downside for me was how young the cat was. He was six months old. I decided to push that aside and meet him in person. He immediately loved me. He purred loudly and rubbed against me specifically. He barely even interacted with any of the other four people in the room; it was like he already wanted to be my best friend. I can't describe how wonderful that felt for me.

Suffice to say, we brought him home lol. On the way home, we passed a sign I had never seen in the city before. "Hermés", the brand, but I took as a very literal sign that my letter had been received.

Since then, I've been worshipping Lord Hermes! He means a great deal to me and has helped me through some extremely difficult times these past four years. He introduced me to many more deities, and over time, I found myself becoming a Hellenic Polytheist rather than a Hellenic Pagan. I'm happier with my religion than I've ever been, and I'm certain that I made the right choice that afternoon that I lit a tealight candle and wrote a letter.

Thank you for asking and reading this long ass answer lol. Sorry for any typos; I decided not to proof read it. I'm glad you found happiness in the pagan path as well! Take care, and have a wonderful day/night. 🧡

#asks #answered asks #personal

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superkooku · 1 month ago

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So, remember when I said I probably wasn't gonna watch Kaos ?

Well, long story short, my family members asked to watch it with me because they found it kinda funny and, out of curiosity, I did. The first 3 episodes at least.

So, for all the fans, it's not a hate post but I'm still gonna complain, because yeah, there are problems. Just know that you're free to enjoy whatever you want, I have no problem with it.

I'm gonna add a "read more" just in case you don't want to read a (mostly) negative rant about your favorite show 😝. But of course, any friendly debate or counterargument is welcome on this post.

There will be some positives but it's mostly in a "if we forget the source material" way. Which Kaos did multiple times. But it was quite difficult for me to do.

My impressions

You know when doctors watch hospital series and point out every mistake and/or inaccuracy ? Like "No, that's not how anatomy works" or smth ? And somehow kinda being entertained by the mess ? That was me 😅. The whole time.

I don't have anything to say about the actors. They did a good job.

About cultural accuracy, that's obviously not the priority here (unfortunately). But I honestly prefer letting actual Greek users criticize the details like @margaretkart , @katerinaaqu or @wordsmithic. Btw I feel this isn't the type of shows you three would like (I myself spent the whole time finding errors lol).

Why so many shortened names ? I thought it was only Eurydice (Riddy still sounds dumb) but here they are saying Ari for Ariadne and Nax for Astyanax. Three syllables isn't that much, guys.

I kept thinking "You're a wizard Ari" the whole time. (In my language, the H in Harry is silent)

Hades and Persephone were cute, ngl. I don't know, just seeing them work together not in a toxic dark romance setting is refreshing. I just wished Hades was more intimidating. Not evil, per se, that's dumb. But more kingly. Because the Underworld is his domain.

The video explaining how the Underworld works to the shades is fun.

For the 100th time IT'S HERACLES, NOT HERCULES !!!

Thank you @sarafangirlart for mentally preparing me about Hera X Poseidon because... WTH was that ???? I audibly cringed and explained why Hera would never do that.

And for Hestia being a dog... seriously. Why ? How about we actually respect the goddess of the hearth ?

But you did NOT mentally prepare me for Zeus "originally being a human". No he wasn't 🤣🤣. Again with the gods being killable. I really hate it.

I'll repeat it : Ariadne being in the anti-god prophecy is stupid. There are way better choices than a freaking olympian god's wife

Eurydice falling out of love feels weird. It's one of the most healthy pairings in mythology 🤦‍♀️. I prefer the Hades version, she feels more like a fleshed out character and has a more legitimate reason to be mad at him.

Zeus and Prometheus' relationship is kinda fun. Especially Zeus just seeking wisdom from him and teleporting him to the eagle again.

Conversely, I don't like Zeus himself. Probably one of my biggest pet peeves in the show. He just follows the modern "Zeus is 100% horrible" approach. I'm bored by it at this point.

And Zeus would NEVER murder his infant child !!! He'd hide it, protect it, like he did with Dionysus when Semele died.

Godly red blood my beloathed 😭. Where is ichor ?

And yes, Wikipedia is right, Theseus and Astyanax are lovers in this.

(I'm referring to this post. All my problems with this are still relevant) :

If they desperately wanted gay/bi Theseus, Pirithous is literally right here.

Btw why does Theseus work for Minos ? Why did both the Immortals movie and Kaos forget that Theseus is a king and not some financially struggling guy ?

Also, for Kaos alone, he tried to save Athenians by fighting for them, for his people... and to solidify himself as king too. But he still succeeded in saving them.

(here I am defending Theseus. Yup...)

I feel the one who'd bring Ariadne to bloody shows and encourage her to break rules would be Dionysus. Not Theseus. (The Dionysus X Ariadne shipper in me is talking)

Though I still buy him trying to charm her in order to get her help. But yeah, not as much a complaint than something I noticed.

I couldn't resist explaining to my family that they never met, Astyanax died as an infant in most versions and that Minos kept ATHENIANS captive, not Trojans.

When we saw the Minotaur's silhouette, my brother and I sang Batman's theme song 🤣. Because, again, why respect the "bull-headed" man depiction when we can make it lame ?

Polyphemus' depiction was also disappointing btw

Some characters should have more fantastical aspects imo. Like the Erinyes or the Fates. And I needed some time to recognize Charon.

I like some characters like Prometheus, Medusa (she's too attractive but I like her sass), Hades/Persephone and... surprisingly Dionysus.

Ok. I'll finish off with Dionysus (because I love complaining about him in particular)

So, on one hand, this version is pretty fun. I like his energy, how he's not afraid of anything and just chills with mortals. He has a very "cool bro" energy. I liked the scene where he drove the truck in a "idgaf" way. And his dedication to help Orpheus to find a purpose is really cool. Overall if he was an original character, I'd honestly really like him.

On the other hand, as a representation of Dionysus the god ? Not really.

I'll only say he's one of the best, not because he's very accurate, but because the bar is extremely low 🤣🤣. Like at least he isn't a stupid drunkard or a background character.

But it's still very disappointing. The fact that in Episode 1, he's introduced as the god of wine and madness. And yet the second part isn't used at all 🤣. Feels like a decoration rather than the core part of his mythological character.

Also, Dionysus isn't insignificant. He had a whole journey proving his worth, traveling, expanding his cult. I'd understand Hera calling him that (in his youth, before he helped her with Hephaestus), but Zeus ? No !

Zeus values his son, he even trusted him to go to India and make them believe in the gods. He saved his son twice if we count Orphism, then enthrusted Hermes to hide him from Hera. Because Zeus can be a good father at times, yk ? 😂. He's not a horrible demon, just a representation of kings.

Coming back to Dionysus, in my mind he's a fun guy 50% of the time... and a menace to society the other 50%. And a free spirit with zero limit 100% of the time.

Also, where are the maenads and satyrs ? Why is he alone ?? He has a big following !!! I'd feel like in his moments of doubt, he'd ask Silenus or hang out with them.

Finally, him helping Orpheus is hilarious considering that

1. Orphism. Orpheus should have recognized him instantly.

2. Orpheus dies dismembered by maenads. In a way, Dionysus DID help Orpheus to reunite with his wife, huh 😂😂 ?

The scene where he and another guy made love in the toilet reminded me of the Prosymnus myth... that comes from veeeeeeeery late sources. Idk how to feel about it. I would have preferred him to show his might as a god.

(plus I don't like sex scenes in general. Yeah, I had to skip these parts 😅.)

More about my opinion on this version of Dionysus here :

Global conclusion

Idk I'm mixed about this. I don't like how they handled most of the mythological depictions, but independently, it was kinda enjoyable. Some scenes are fun independently from the myth.

I don't have a lot to say about the plot : interesting for an original show, stupid for a mythology adaptation (wth is that prophecy ?).

I think I'll keep watching the show, just to laugh a bit 🤣.

Btw seeing how they handled the couples, I'm glad characters like Odysseus/Penelope, Perseus/Andromeda didn't appear 😅. I'm betting they'd be portrayed as misogynistic cheaters or smth.

And Penelope or Andromeda as women who hate their husbands and have no common characteristics with their myth versions.

#rant #kaos #greek myth discussion #greek mythology #not a reblog #when will we have a morally grey Zeus and a scary Dionysus ? Never probably 😬#kaos critical

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litcest · 10 months ago

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Hello! Do you have any bipoc incest books? I only know of "the god of small things" and i would honestly prefer the characters to be black or brown because i can barely think of any book that has incest between them

I actually can't recall any incest books with black main characters, neither from the ones I read nor from the ones I saw in passing. A quick google search brought back results of novels featuring non-consensual incest among black characters, which is not what we want.

For indigenous and brown characters:

Aztec by Gary Jennings, which I haven't read but I know that the main character had a past sexual relationship with his sister (both siblings are Mexica/Nahua);

The Blue Bedspread by Raj Kamal Jha, which I have read and although the incest is very important to the story, I wouldn't say it's an incestous romance novel. Like in The Good of Small Things, the characters are Indians (not sure which ethnic or racial group, but I'm almost certain they are not Anglo-Indians);

Lavoura Arcaica by Raduab Nassar follows a family of Lebanese-Brazilians (not sure if skin color is mentioned, but I assume that they are still considered BIPOC by having Lebanese ancestry;

Lily of the Nile by Stephanie Dray is about Cleaopatra's daughter. Not sure if the book portraits her a Greek or as Egyptian, light skinned or dark skinned, but I'll mention it anyways.

This is what I have for you at the moment. I'll try to find more books that fit the request. Probably some books I haven't read but have compiled in my catalogue have black characters and I just don't know it.

I hope my indigenous and brown rec list doesn't offend anybody. I googled and apparently the Lebaneses don't like to be considered brown, but Lebanese-Americans mostly said they consider themselves to be BIPOC. I actually know a family of Lebanese-Brazilians, and I wouldn't call them "brown", since their skin is the same shade as mine, but TBH, in the US I probably wouldn't be considered "white", even though in Brazil I am.

#asks #book recs

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nacricissa · 2 months ago

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Every Writer Has... Tag Game!

Taking @mysticstarlightduck 's open tag!

Rules: For your WIPs or OCs, assign one to each of the following, based on your best guess as to how your audience would vote: - The popular one - The fan favourite - The Experimental one - The cult classic - The best of all time - Meh

I will be making a great deal of guess here, because I haven't actually gotten any feedback as to character preferences for my work, people have generally been more interested in the worldbuilding (to be fair so have I)

Every writer has...

... the popular OC

Elise is the main character for a reason. That reason is that she's the most like me, but ALSO that means she gets more screentime more to like more popular I think it's pretty simple. Especially since she's going to be the most relatable character, in the sense she's from a human life on an Earth similar to ours in the same time period. She has a Tumblr account! This doesn't really come up but is 100 percent canon.

... the fan favourite

I suppose Eric is pretty much a Tumblr Sexyman. He's tall (I think? I have put very little thought into his physical appearance). He has shadow powers. He does bad deeds but with a deeply sympathetic motivation and he regrets them later. He's competent with a sword and kicks some Nazi butt.

... the Experimental One

My most experimental character is probably Kronos Dawnbringer. I haven't figured out his role in the story exactly, beyond being kind of a mentor figure to Elise, but he's certainly interesting. The result of Christianity being heavily syncretized with Greek myth in an effort to make evangelism in Greece easier, the character of Lucifer was given the name Kronos and the concept of being the Morning Star was mixed in with the concept of the Morning and of manipulating time. His being cast into Tartarus is recast as being God's doing, as part of the Fall, and all Titans are recast as angels-- either fallen or still loyal. Certainly one of my more ambitious endeavours.

... the cult classic

Even my most normal characters are kind of weird, to the point that trying to figure out which one would be a cult classic is kind of hard. So I'm going to cheat, and say Mlle Nefara, because she founds a cult.

...The best of all time

My best character? In terms of characterization, it's probably Elise in the sense that there's more of her than anything else. Runner up is probably The Whale That Swallowed the Sea, because it's a banger concept, and I don't need to get too fancy with her motivations to make her effective. She is the youngest god in the plot, and I will certainly be going out of my way to include more of her as I build the rest of this story.

... Meh

I guess Zeus is kind of a meh, the way I've written him so far? I could probably do more with the pantheon, now that I've hashed out more of the aforementioned Christian syncretism (Zeus is one of the 12 disciples, I haven't decided which exactly). Other than that there's The God of the Hunt, who needs more to do, and a bunch of side characters.

#tag games #every writer has a...#the forever project

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genericpuff · 1 year ago

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Unfortunately I bet Rachel is not going to give any Greek authors and creators the opportunity to tell about myths from...Greek mythology xd.

Considering hiw she treated the culture and myths in Lore Olympus as an downgrade American version is fair to say how she will treat as well other mythologies.

Also Rick is shady as well by saying how "Greek gods went to America because they go to advanced civilizations" as if saying Greece (their place of origina) is not :/

TBF, actual Greek authors and creators likely wouldn't go to her for help anyways.

It's gonna be interesting to see how the whole "Rachel Smythe Presents" thing works out, though as I mentioned already, I'm not really interested in continuing to analyze her stuff after LO. I'm trying to transition myself from hatred to apathy - I'd much rather just not give her more of my time and attention and thus allow her to fade into obscurity in my mind.

I have nothing really to say about Rick, he's also not someone who's from the culture attempting to write a "modernized version" of Greek myth, but that in and of itself was never really the root of the issue. I'll give him credit that he knows he's writing fiction for children and you won't see him advertising himself as a "folklorist" (and then using first page Google searches as his references LMAO). That probably seems like bare minimum at this point but he seems to have far more humility than Rachel.

I put PJO in the same camp as Hercules. They aren't Greek but you can tell they put in deeper levels of research and are writing Greek myth inspired stories with passion, effort, and respect for the source material. They might not be 100% accurate, but that's the fun of it all and they know they're just having fun with it (and they're still doing so relatively responsibly). And most of all, they make it clear they're making it for kids, not for legitimate educational purposes. Rachel tried to make that clear in episode one by saying not to use LO as a scholarly source, but then she never followed through on that by bragging about how she's an educated folklorist and averting her eyes when her fanbase harassed Apollo worshippers and edited Wiki articles about Greek myth to match LO. There's zero accountability happening and it seems more like Rachel used Greek myth as a way to make herself famous rather than as a way to tell stories and connect with an audience. I've said it tons of times before but she writes Greek myth like she despises it for existing.

#lore olympus critical #lo critical #anti lore olympus #antiloreolympus #ask me anything #ama #anon ama #anon ask me anything

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fluffykitteninabox · 2 years ago

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Hey... I'm curious about something. How do you and your family treat Greek mythology and superstitions? 👀

Do you believe in them to a degree? If there were Gods and Goddesses, why wasn't it a full religion?

I hope this isn't rude. I'm more than happy to talk about mine.

Don't worry, it's not rude

Sorry, this took so long, it's a surprisingly hard question to answer because I needed to think about how I view Greek mythology vs how the rest of the world sees it and this accidentally turned into a rant 😅

also some of my opinions might be considered controversial but... I don't care! lol I guess the 5 Greek followers I have can unfollow me if they don't like this or whatever 😂

Anyway have some sparkles because this is kind of long oops ✨✨✨

WARNING: me trashing on Americans

The Greek pantheon was like any other religion in ancient times, but it's not really treated like one anymore. The main religion of Greece now is Orthodox Christianity, and the largest religious minorities are Islam and Catholicism. My parents and I are atheists. I'm certain there's still people that practise it, but they would probably be seen as foolish by the general public.

We are taught part of our mythology in school at the age of 8 (unless they changed it idk 😂). It isn't taught like a religion, but more like fairytales.

The way it's taught is very lacking in my opinion. Instead of explaining for example how sexism influenced the creation of these myths and what a giant asshole Zeus was, we are just told Hera was "the jealous type" and that's why she's the antagonist in most of the stories she appears in.

Achilles and Patroclus were definitely gay, but no one ever talks about it. According to our school books, they were just really close friends! In fact, this specific topic is avoided so much that I first heard about it from foreigners on the internet! A lot of people deny this, even saying that "friendship was just different back then, it was deeper"!! I'm sorry sir, I don't think I'd ever ask to be buried with the ashes of my just a friend™ no matter how close we were! Technically speaking there's nothing explicit in the original text, but Aeschylus, Phaedrus, Plato and Alexander the Great all read it as a romantic relationship and the first 3 even had their own headcanons about it, so that's enough for me!

I'm guessing a lot of these depend on what type of teacher each person has, and it's been a long time since I was 8, so teachers might be more open about it now, but if you just read the 3rd year history (mythology) school book this is the content you'll get. I don't think withholding this information is done because it's being taught to kids, it's not a "they're 8, so they wouldn't understand sexism". That would be a silly argument considering our mythology is filled with incest, rape and gore, which our school books very openly mention throughout. They are just trying to avoid it.

From 9 and up, we are taught more actual history than mythology. We focus on real historical figures and events, so most of the less know myths get forgotten. At 13-15 we're taught the Odyssey and the Iliad (by Homer), and Helen (by Euripides). Yes, that is in fact the order that they teach us these 🙃!! Supposedly it goes from easier text to harder text for each year, but I personally think that's stupid because the story is completely backwards now, and we get it translated to modern Greek anyway, so what's the point of telling it backwards???? It's not convenient, it's confusing! Anyway, these are taught in a similar way to literature. We analyse the text and characters and all that.

Ages 16-18, I honestly have deleted most of these from my brain tbh 😂. OK, not exactly, the first and third year are more historical texts and philosophy. The second year we do another play, Antigone (by Sophocles). Actually wait, the first one was about a war and there was a ton of political intrigue in there, and it was super interesting. The third one was more about philosophy.

The plays aren't exactly the same as mythology, it's more like fanfiction about historical figures and gods! I mentioned them because..... I just like them lol

I kind of deviated a lot from what you actually asked me and answered more generally. For me and my parents specifically, religion isn't really something we participate in. My grandma is very religious though. She used to go to church every Sunday before covid. Now she watches it from the TV (there's a specific Christian chanel that broadcasts church service from different parts of the country). I personally hate how brainwashed some people are by Christianity (including my grandma). Thankfully, we haven't reached American levels of religious fanaticism.

Mythology isn't really something that's on our minds often. My grandma didn't go to school, so I doubt she knows much about it. My parents probably learnt some of it. Outside of the school environment, ancient Greek mythology isn't really a topic most people think about (maybe I think about it more than the average Greek person, because I'm an art student and a bit of a history nerd). But even then, I've seen more about Greek mythology from people who treat it like a fandom on the internet and make AUs with their characters and stuff like that. Now, I know I made jokes earlier about fanfiction and headcanons, so this is probably going to sound very hypocritical of me...

However, Homer's poems and other ancient Greek plays are not the same as myths. They're not treated the same. They are theatrical performances based on historical events/figures. I don't care much about people's modern interpretations of these, because they are fictional stories. Now, myths are also fictional, I even compared them to fairytales at the start. But they were still based on ancient people's religious beliefs. People practised it as a religion, they had rituals and traditions, some of which are still done today (though they have changed and evolved over time). The myths were more like the framework for what the Gods represented in their lives. Kind of like how most Christians don't believe the events in the Bible literally happened.

I'm fine with people taking inspiration from a myth and doing a modern retelling as long as they're respectful. I've seen some modern, more feminist retellings of Medusa that I personally really liked. I've even thought of making my own version of Arachne (=spider) but without the religious propaganda and classist undertones.

What I'm not ok with, is people wearing bedsheets to "dress up as Greek"! I'm sure you can probably relate to this because Americans do this with a ton of cultures. If you want to "dress up as Greek", do this:

I'll respect you more!!

(this is obviously a joke, don't do this either, you'll get laughed at. This dude is part of a parody show)

And secondly, I'm not ok with people taking mythology and twisting it into something completely unrecognisable that doesn't even seem like it's from the culture it was based on. Basically, Americans shouldn't be allowed to make movies about other people's cultures!!! Ok, I'm exaggerating, but if you're going to do something based on mythology/religion of some other culture, you need to do proper research and be as respectful as possible.

Good example: Dreamworks-Prince of Egypt, 1998

Even as an atheist who was only taught religion in school, I can tell this is a very respectful adaptation. The team that made this met with religious experts to make sure they got it right.

Bad example: Disney-Hercules, 1997

This is the most American a Greek myth has ever been! It's more like Superman than Heracles. Don't do whatever the fuck Disney did here guys. I'm actually planning on tearing this film apart in a future review, so I'm not going to say anything else right now.

I'm not saying don't make changes. Greek mythology is very "fluid" in a way. Every myth has multiple versions, with minor or major differences between them. Changes are fine, even making a parody is fine. But I think the end result shouldn't just resemble its inspiration on a superficial level. It's not enough to have your characters wear a tunic and sandals and have them say Zeus instead of God every couple of sentences. The important part is why a particular myth exists. What is the original message? What does the story/character represent? That needs to be kept the same, otherwise the adaptation won't be an adaptation anymore. It will be a different story disguised as an adaptation. At that point, you should just make an original story.

Alright last thing and then I'm done talking I swear 😂!

You also asked about superstitions.

Here's a small list:

if you spill coffee it's good luck

if your right palm is itchy, you'll get money, but if your left palm is itchy, you'll give money. The first one is usually interpreted as like: "you'll find coins on the street or win one of those scratch lottery tickets". The second one is like: "a sign that the electricity bill is coming, or you need to pay rent". (my dad believes this one)

if you're born on Saturday, it means you're lucky (I was born on a Tuesday 😔)

evil eye: a curse when someone "glares" at you/has bad intentions. If you have blue eyes you're immune to this, otherwise you can wear an evil eye charm. (this comes from the Middle East, I think. You might know about this, because there's a ton of different countries that believe it. I personally just like the charms)

when you visit a house for the first time, you need to enter with your right foot first for good luck. If you enter with your left, it's like wishing bad luck for the people who live there. This is also done for the first person to visit the house on New Year's Day.

if you enter a place from one door you can't leave from another door, you have to use the same one. (supposedly it ruins your matchmaking if you do that)

if you're talking with someone, and you say something simultaneously, you say "touch red" and then you need to touch something red before you continue speaking. (I remember doing this a lot as a kid)

if you talk about something bad happening hypothetically, you knock on wood or say the phrase "knock on wood", so it doesn't happen

if you get served the last drop of wine, you get bitches 😎!!

There are a lot of traditions that are really old that a lot of people still follow, even if they're not religious or the tradition comes from a different religion. I'll tell you one of my favourites that's relevant right now. Every first of March people in a lot of Balkan countries (Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, North Macedonia and others) wear a bracelet made from intertwined red and white threads. This is worn for the whole month of March, and it is supposed to protect you from getting burnt by the sun. At the end of the month, we take them off and leave them for swallow birds to use in their nests. Swallows are believed to bring spring.

hand reveal lol:

If you read this far, you are a legend.

It's your turn now. How do you and/or your family view Philippine mythology? What about the people in general? And also, do you have any traditions for spring?

#thank you for the ask #have some sparkles ✨✨✨✨#ask #krista answers

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gorgonarcher · 8 months ago

Text

10th Game - Scion 2e

A bit strange that it took me this long to get around to doing Scion 2e. But anyway, let's move on.

Scion is a game set in a modern day where all the mythologies of the world are true, even those that contradict each other. Correction: especially those that contradict each other.

Oddly, there is not a specific template for gorgons yet. Here are the options we could do:

A scion of a godly or titanic patron.

A denizen, a supernatural being but one without a patron.

A dragon of the naga wing, because they have multiple heads.

The system sort of differentiates gods and titans, but also says they can use each others powers, and lore implies that the distinction is largely more political than actual.

I'm going to go with the Godly/Titanic scion.

Step 1 - Concept

For concept we come to the basic idea of who the character is "gorgon archer" is a good seed, but we need to flesh it out a little bit here.

In this case, I'm going to go with the Theoi (Greek Gods). I've done prior versions of gorgons that were associated with either the Orisha and also as an independent tutelary scion devoted to protecting the impoverished.

In this case, where the supernatural is public, I'm going to say that she's been known as a gorgon her entire life and received some disdain for it, and as she's grown up she's been taken in by a goddess associated with the Liminal.

We're also supposed to choose some Deeds here. Deeds are goals that we have for the character over the course of play. They are a mix of the character's goals and our narrative goals for things we want them to face. So it could be "track down my father's killer" or "lose a fight."

By RAW we would create three of these Deeds. So each player would have one each of the following:

One Short Term Deed - something that can be completed within a single session.

One Long Term Deed - something that would take a story-arc to complete.

One Band Deed - something that may take several one or more story arcs to complete and is shared across every character in the same Band.

You get experience for completing these.

In any session you complete one or more Short Term Deeds, you gain 1 XP.

In any session where every player completes at least one Short Term Deed, everybody gains a bonus 1 XP.

In any session where you complete a Long Term Deed you get either 2 XP or 3 XP. This is based on how powerful you already are. Legend 0 "Origin" characters gain 2 XP. Legend 1 and higher characters gain 3 XP.

Once you gain experience for a Long Term Deed, you cannot gain experience for another until everybody in the party has completed one each of Short Term, Long Term, and Band Deeds.

------

My group tends to further homebrew this as follows:

You can have up to 3 Short-Term Deeds active at once and may switch some out at session start if they no longer feel relevant.

You can refill a list of 3 Short-Term Deeds once everybody has completed one-each of all three scales of Deed, just like for Long-Term bonuses.

The multiple Short-Term deeds is meant to provide a variety of RP options rather than laser focus on one. The limit of refilling them is to make sure no one advances far past the other players.

We're going not to use this homebrew, but I just wanted to note it.

------

So, for this character's three Deeds:

Short Term: Make an impressive shot.

Long Term: Prove yourself a champion to outcasts.

Step 2 - Paths

Now we move on to Paths which is where we establish some of the narrative backstory of the character. While there is no hard and fast rule as to what these Paths represent, the default suggestion is as follows:

Origin Path - Your upbringing and where you come from.

Role Path - What sort of skills and occupation you have.

Society/Pantheon Path - The overall society you're associated with.

Each of these paths will contain of the following:

A title that summarizes this facet of your character.

A set of three skills.

Group, contact, and access connections, people you know and places you can go.

A condition that occurs will you stress your connection to this Path too far.

I'm going to start with the Origin Path and define it as follows based on the example Suburbia origin path from the book:

Suburban Gorgon Outcast

Skills: Culture, Empathy, Technology

Contacts: Gamer clubs, the weird kids, FLGS, Doc Albricht her general practitioner that treated her and helped her deal with bullies.

Going with the default conditions of "suspended" and "revoked' for if she stresses her contacts too hard.

For Role, I'm going to go with the following as a custom made Path:

LARPing Cozy-Witch

Skills: Athletics, Occult, Culture

Contacts: Local LARPIng society, coven of witches, Martha Marrero archery and HEMA instructor.

Same default conditions of "suspended" and "revoked".

For Society, I'm going with the Theoi base, of course, which gives Athletics, Persuasion, and one my choice. And I'm going to imply her patron in the title.

Found on the Crossroads

Skills: Athletics, Persuasion, Occult

Contacts: Temple of Hecate, Isaac Finch, servant of Hecate

Same default conditions of "suspended" and "revoked".

As a note, the game allows you to have any number of Paths you want, but only three of them affect skills and it gets increasingly difficult to make each path significant to your character. So it advises not going past six paths, just for the simplicity of making sure they all stay relevant to the narrative. The leeway is probably because some of the birthrights you can take on basically function as extra Paths.

We need to prioritize these so I'm going to do so as follows:

Primary: LARPing Cozy-Witch

Secondary: Suburban Gorgon Outcast

Tertiary: Found on the Crossroads

This is going to be important in the next step.

Step 3 - Skills

We're going to set our starting skill levels. We'll get more points to add to these later and add some character, but this is what we're starting with.

This is pretty easy.

The skills associated with the Primary path get 3 dots. Those associated with the Secondary path get 2 dots. Those associated with the Tertiary path get 1 dot. These get added up to a maximum of 5. If any skill goes above 5 (which I don't think will happen here) then the excess can be applied wherever we want. Any skill with a level of 3 or higher gets a specialty associated with it.

As such this is what we get:

Culture 5 (Primary and Secondary paths)

Occult 4 (Primary and Tertiary paths)

Technology 2 (Secondary path)

Athletics 4 (Primary and Tertiary paths)

Empathy 2 (Secondary path)

Persuasion 1 (Tertiary path)

Athletics is the combat skill associated with archery. For Specialties we're going with the following:

Culture (Activism)

Occult (Witchcraft)

Athletics (Archery)

As a note, by RAW these would be the only free specialty the character gets, but my group plays such that the first time you hit 3 in a skill at any time, you get one free specialty. That might apply here when we get to the free points later on in the character creation section. For now we're finished with Skills.

Step 4 - Attributes

Scion uses the 3x3 grid of attributes traditionally found in Storyteller games. Which makes sense given that Storypath was developed out of Storyteller. This is another case of prioritizing stats.

We have:

Three Arenas: Physical, Mental Social

Three Approaches: Force, Finesse, Resilience

We assign these by choosing:

The priority of our Arenas.

Naming a favored Approach.

This gives us the following:

1 free dot in each Attribute.

2 free dots in each Attribute in the Favored Approach.

6 dots to distribute to the attributes in the Primary Arena

4 dots to distribute to the attributes in the Secondary Arena

2 dots to distribute to the attributes in the Tertiary Arena

I'm going to break my standard here and actually put her archery a bit on the lower end and make Physical her tertiary approach, Social her primary approach, and Mental her secondary approach. For Favored Approach, I think I'm going to go with Resilience since we I've established her as having weathered a lot of bullying.

And that will result in the following:

Physical Force: Might 1

Physical Finesse: Dexterity 3

Physical Resilience: Stamina 3

Mental Force: Intellect 3

Mental Finesse: Cunning 2

Mental Resilience: Resolve 4

Social Force: Presence 4

Social Finesse: Manipulation 3

Social Resilience: Composure 4

I usually distinguish favored dots with a different color and use a tiered list rather than labeling things as "Physical Force" but tumblr doesn't do that well. So I was limited to what you see and marking the Favored Approach by marking those three attributes with bold/italic.

That handles Attributes for now.

Step 5 - Callings and Knacks

Now, this is the first time we end up to a step where there's a difference based on whether you are building an Origin or Hero character.

An Origin character would get one Calling from her among her patron's favored callings and a Hero character will three Callings, one of which should be from their patron's favored callings.

I usually start from Origin and move from there, but in this case, I'm going to assume a Hero character.

This is where I'm going to say that the character's patron is Hecate, hence "Found at the Crossroads". Hecate's callings are Healing, Liminal, and Sage. I want Sage. For the second, I'm going to take an optional Calling from the Realms of Mystery and Magic supplement: Psychopomp. For the third, I'm choosing between Lover and Leader, and I think I'm going with Lover.

Note: I was going to take the Healing calling, but it is almost all about physical healing and I wanted to focus on emotional healing.

I thought about taking Titan callings, but the closest would be Monster and I don't feel this character is about predation. The way she's shaping up, she's more about sheltering.

So, one Calling gets two dots and the other two each get one dot. Callings can not be increased with XP, they only go up as Legend goes up and that goes up based on completing Deeds (each time you complete set of one Short, one Long, and one Band your Legend goes up by 1.)

I'm assigning as follows:

Lover *

Sage *

Psychopomp **

Now, each Calling gets a number of Knacks equal to their dots in that Calling. You can purchase others via experience, but your dots limit how many you can have access.

By RAW, an "Immortal" knack counts as two dots in character creation and how many they count as for being active, but they cost the same amount of experience points as a Heroic knack. So usually, my group house rules that you can take two Immortal knacks if you want, you'll still only be able to slot one at a time but you get a choice. I'm not expecting to pick Immortal knacks anyway, so this isn't going to affect this character, but did like to say it.

There are also a number of generic knacks that we can select from that I may also take. These can be slotted into any Calling we want, but do fill a slot.

So, I'm thinking of taking these Knacks:

Lover: Soothing Presence

Sage: Presence of Magic

Psychopomp: Cracking the Egg, This Isn't Everything You Are

(yes, there is an official Knack called "Cracking the Egg")

This allows her to:

Soothe feelings in an area, though this moves things toward a calmer degree so it calms positive attitudes as well as negative ones.

Detect magical and sacred energies without needing to roll.

Help encourage someone accomplish a change in their personal state and help people breaking out of a rut.

Another thing that goes with Callings are keywords and titles. Each dot in a Calling gives the Scion one keyword related to that Calling and each point of Legend (Heroic starts at 1) you get a Title which must include at least one of your keywords. Keywords and Titles can be invoked in play to improve your rolls. There is a list of examples, but you are encouraged to make up your own. Titles especially are going to be unique to each character.

So, this is what I'm going with:

Lover: Cozy

Sage: Witch

Psychopomp: Guide, Compassionate

And for her title I'm going to go with the following:

The Cozy Gorgon

It's very simple, but sometimes that's the best sort of title. I was going to get a bit clever and try to force a "Cozy Gamer" / "Cozy Gorgon" pun in there like "Gor-Gamer" but no... that sounds bad.

So... now moving on to the next step.

Step 6 - Birthrights

This is a step that doesn't happen if you're making an Origin character, because you don't normally get these until you hit Legend 1. That said, it is possible for an Origin character to start with some Birthrights as the "Finishing Touches" step provides that option, but all Heroic characters have a few Birthrights.

Birthrights in the core book include the following:

Creatures, strange supernatural beings that can perform tasks for the Scion.

Followers, people and beings that cooperate with the Scion on the scene. (Sort of function like equipment from a mechanical standpoint)

Guides, mentors and advisors, these act as extra paths and can give you access to extra purviews and callings.

Relics, magical or sacred objects associated with you directly.

Birthrights from other supplements include:

Cult, a sort of blend of Guides and Followers, people you have a responsibility to. (Mysteries of the World)

Covenant, an oath to stand for and protect a particular place or group of people. (Mysteries of the World)

Sanctum, a holy space sacred to the character, but mainly associated with Demigods rather than Heroes, so that's at Legend 5. We'll leave that alone for now. (Scion: Demigod)

A newly created Heroic Scion gets seven dots to distribute between Birthrights. I'm doing the following:

Guide 3

Relic 3

Cult 1

I'm going to hold off on designing the Cult for now, because I might add to that rating in Finishing Touches, for the others...

A Guide comes with a name, unique stunt, and Asset skills automatically. One Asset Skill at 1 dot, and two Asset skills at 2 dots. For each dot above 2 we can choose bonus Purviews, Callings, or Legendary Titles we can use as long as we have a good relationship with our guide.

Guide - Kaitlin DeVere, experienced witch

Asset Skills: Empathy, Occult

Purview: Wild

Stunt: Touch the Heart (1-3 successes) on a successful Empathy or Occult roll involving another person, you can spend extra successes to gain an enhancement bonus to your next attempt to adjust their Attitude toward you.

In this case, her guide has taught her how to reach out to the magic of nature. Probably Kaitlin is a sorcerer rather than a scion, so the scion (who we have not yet named) and she will interact with magic differently. Since one uses magic and the other is magic. The stunt lets her navigate emotional waters a bit more easily.

Now, for the Relic.

Relic - Caduceus Tatoo

Innate - This is physically part of her.

Purviews - Health, Passion (Compassion)

Motif - Turn Poison to Cure

She has a large tattoo of a pair of entwined snakes forming a caduceus on her back. The "Innate" aspect is not a RAW option, but it has been bandied about as worth about 1 Dot on forums for a while. The Purviews in the Core book each cost about 1 dot of Relic.

When a relic gives purviews, then it requries a Motif to explain how the relic's magic takes shape. So, in this case, the magic she does through her tattoo must be themed somehow with curatives or taking something toxic and purifying it. She may also require to have poisons and toxins on hand to make curatives out of them since that's how her magic works.

Not sure I thought that through... but its very thematic to a gorgon given the whole thing about blood that could be poison or cure.

As a note, all Pantheons have an innate motif to explain how they perform magic themselves. But I'll get to that in step 8.

Yes, I know we've done precious little of the archery so far, I'll get to that later.

As a note, if someone where to somehow steal her tattoo, they'd have access to its powers. There's likely magic that can do that along with more physical means.

And again, I'll handle the Cult later.

Step 7 - Purviews

As with birthrights, this isn't something an Origin character gets. Even more so than Birthrights since Purviews require Legend to use and Origin characters are Legend 0.

In any case, a starting Heroic Scion gains their Pantheon purview and one other Purview inherited from their Patron. For this character, that would be:

Metamorphosis (Theoi Pantheon Purview)

Fortune

So, this character is a bit about fate, prophecy, and foretelling and she has the ability to transform people and things.

This means our gorgon's purviews are these:

Metamorphosis (Pantheon)

Fortune (Innate)

Health (Relic Tattoo)

Passion: Compassion (Relic Tattoo)

Wild (Guide Kaitlin DeVere)

Each of these comes with a basic innate power:

Metamorphosis: Trivial characters never see through her disguises, and she suffers no Complications for changing identity regarding height, age, gender, ethnicity, or other things. Essentially, she is mutable by nature.

Fortune: Sense Fatebindings and know who is bound to whom though not necessarily the nature of the bond. She can also tell when Prophets and Sorcerers use their powers to change fate.

Health: Once per session recovers one Legend when you successfully treat a storyguide ally (NPC) and resolve an injury or ailment condition.

Passion: Enhancement of 3 to Assess emotions in people around you. And can intuit when people have Bonds with each other.

Wild: Ignore any natural plant based hazards and gain 2 Enhancement toward stealth in areas with a lot of plant growth.

Regarding Fortune detecting Fatebindings and Passion detecting Bonds.

These are separate things.

A Fatebinding means that Fate has decided that these two people should have X relationship and it will constantly throw up coincidences to encourage that relationship. Like if the Fatebinding relates to a romantic situation, then they will constantly find themselves in situations that heighten the other person's attractiveness as a partner. If it decides they're going to be rivals, then they will constantly find themselves in competition somehow. It doesn't mind control the people involved, but does play matchmaker.

Bonds are the emotional bonds and loyalties that people have actually formed between each other.

It is entirely possible to have a Bond that seems counter to a Fatebinding you have with the same person. Like fated Rivals might really enjoy the competition and form a Bond of love between each other.

Step 8 - Boons

The third step that comes for Heroic Scions that Origin Scions can't get. Like with Callings, a Scion gains new Boons as their Legend gets higher. So let's explain what Boons are.

Purviews are the way Scions shape their magic. As we discussed earlier, each pantheon performs their magic through different means. For the Theoi the motif is:

The most high may grant their favor to those who beseech them.

Which means that in order to perform magic, our gorgon needs to call on the gods by name. As her Legend gets higher, she will eventually be able to call on herself.

The normal way this works mechanically is to RP the invocation or other motif and then perform what is called a Marvel which are improvised magical effects like creating magical attacks, placing blessings or curses, changing the environment, or otherwise performing strange esoterica.

Boons are basically specialized and more efficient applications of Marvels. These are specific applications of magic that your scion is especially good with. A Heroic Scion starts with two Boons and gains more as their Legend goes up. You cannot increase them with Experience.

To review, these are our gorgon's purviews:

Metamorphosis (Pantheon)

Fortune (Innate)

Health (Relic Tattoo)

Passion: Compassion (Relic Tattoo)

Wild (Guide Kaitlin DeVere)

We can only take two Boons.

Also, note that "Passion" is noted as "Compassion". Some Purviews imply a specialization. This includes Passion, which could be things like Joy, Rage, Fear, or any other emotion and Beasts, which would name specific type of creatures.

Boons are supposed to be powers you make up for yourself, but also you're allowed to use existing example Boons but theme them to other Purviews. In this case I'm going to re-work "Heaven's Fire", a boon from the Fire purview made to efficiently create a way to attack and re-work it into something like the Gorgon's Gaze attached to Metamorphosis. It's a bit counter to her healer's theme, but I had the opportunity to work in the gorgon gaze, so I took it.

For the second Boon I'm taking Healing Hands which allows for healing physical injuries, diseases, and other such things. This extends to mental illnesses to a degree, but the implication is it only affects conditions that are, by their nature, temporary. So she might cleanse someone of the immediate shock of encountering something terrifying, which might prevent PTSD developing but if PTSD has already set in, that wouldn't be so easily fixed. She can also cleanse magically induced mental illnesses.

Personally, my favorite thing for healing long-term conditions from Scion is a Sorcerer technique where you cause the illness to manifest as a creature which you can then beat up. So, you can literally summon your friend's anxiety and beat it up so it leaves your friend alone. The urge to beat up my mental quirks is incredibly relatable.

So her boons are:

Metamorphosis: Gorgon's Gaze (Reworked Heaven's Fire)

Health: Healing Hands

Every other Purview operates through basic Marvels. So, she could still attack via Wild, but it would be more expensive than using her Gorgon's Gaze.

Step Nine - Finishing Touches

We've come back to places the Origin Scions also do... somewhat.

First, there are some Finishing Touches that Heroic Scions have that Origin Scions don't:

Legend - Every Origin Scion has Legend 0 and starting Heroic Scions have Legend 1

Virtues - Origin Scions don't have virtues yet. Heroic Scions start in the middle of their sliding scale.

For the Theoi, their two Virtues are Egoism versus Kinship. They're a quarrelsome family but they are a family and will defend each other when it comes down to it. When our gorgon acts to support her loved ones and friends, she'll slide toward Kinship. When she acts for herself, she'll slide toward Egoism.

As a note, the virtues for each pantheon aren't a matter of good vs bad. Even with Egoism vs Kinship, there's danger in sacrificing too much of yourself to the people around you and there's times you have to act for yourself. When someone is at one extreme or the other, there are certain benefits, but it does mean they are prone to some unreasonable behavior.

Virtue is a sliding scale with five positions. For simplicity and ease, going to note that as a number from -2 to 2, but she starts at 0 by default.

We already touched upon other elements of Legend in the section on Calling (her Title and Keywords) But this brings her to:

Legend 1

Virtue: Egoism vs Kinship 0

We also determine Health and Defense.

All scions get a Bruised, Injured, Maimed and Taken Out slot, plus one Bruised slot if Stamina is 3-4 or two additional for Stamina 5. Our character has Stamina 3 so she gets an extra Bruised level.

For comparisons, mooks in this game usually are taken out by 1 level of damage and Scions require between four and six levels at character creation. For this gorgon it looks like this:

Bruised

Injured

Maimed

Taken Out

As these are filled, they will be named relative to the condition suffered like "grazed", "twisted ankle" or "contact burn" for minor things and "broken arm" or "third degree burns" as things get more serious.

Defense is based on how the character chooses to defend themselves but will be equal to which ever Resilience attribute best applies. So this gorgon's defense will range from 3-4 based on whether she uses Stamina, Composure, or Resolve.

Now, also at this stage we get:

5 more Skill points

1 more attribute point

A choice of 2 more knacks or 4 points of Birthrights.

For the skills we're going to do the following:

As such this is what we get:

Culture 5 (Activism)

Occult 4 (Witchcraft)

Technology 2

Athletics 4 (Archery)

Empathy 3 (Stress)

Persuasion 1

Medicine 2

Integrity 2

For the Attribute point, I'm going with the following:

And that will result in the following:

Might 1

Dexterity 3

Stamina 3

Intellect 3

Cunning 2

Resolve 4

Presence 5

Manipulation 3

Composure 4

So just going to max out her Presence here.

I'm also choosing to gain 4 Birthright points and assigning them as follows:

Cult +3 (total 4)

Relic 1

The Relic is a simple one, I'm just adding an extra Tag to the basic Longbow.

Soporific Bow: Arcing, Ranged, Two-Handed, Stun

The Stun is the extra tag here and it means that this bow can never kill anyone. At worst, it will knock someone unconscious. Bows normally have the 0 point tag Lethal instead of the 1 point tag Stun.

For the Cult, I said we'd get to this later, we have a total of four points.

So, this is the cult that our Scion is part of... and I'm going to name her here as "Taylor Quinn" because I've vaguely had cozy-gamer "TQ" in mind here this entire time. To be clear, I don't know what "TQ" stands for because I'm not a friend, at most I've seen her on Desert Bus or her own stream, or follow her on Twitter. But also there is a "Taylor" who is a major NPC on the Beacon Alien RPG actual play by the Streampunks (and you'll find other names from that show in this character) and maybe a passing reference to Kathleen DeVere in there as well.

My brain is simple, while I was writing this, I was watching Beacon and TQ was being active on Twitter. So....

Anyway... back to character gen.

So, this Cult is going to be one led by Kaitlin DeVere, her witchy Guide, and one that has recognized her as a sacred being chosen by Hecate. She has responsibilities to help them and they have responsibilities to her as well. I envision this as a healthy and mutually supportive cult. Probably a bunch of people that similarly felt outcast that came together as a found family.

As a note, Cult in Scion does not have the negative connotation that it does in real life. Any sort of religious organization is a cult, even if they are religious in name only, such as doing little more than patting a statue of Hermes on the way into work each day.

Anyway, back to mechanics. Cult provides the following:

Cult 1 provides a Foundation choice of Community (1 Light, 1 Shadow), Conspiracy (2 Shadow), or Company (2 Light)

Each point beyond 1 adds either 1 Light or 1 Shadow.

Three Asset Skills related to the cult.

A single Tag

A list of responsibilities for the Scion has.

Light represents public resources of the cult and Shadow represents private ones. Each point of Light must be assigned to:

Connections - 1 point per

Followers - 2 points per

Tags - 1 point per

I'm going to say the Skills associated with Taylor's Cult are: Occult, Technology, Culture and say they do a mix of game streaming and advice on witchcraft and supernatural issues. They're associated with Hecate specifically so they're a Theoi-based cult.

I think they're a Community with both private and public elements.

The tags available are as follows:

Coven - Good at finding secrets, keeps the Scion's secrets

Guild - lets you invoke Light contacts an extra time

Family Tradition - invoke Shadow access connections an extra time

Historians - Good at finding info on enemies, very traditional

Mystery Society - Light and Shadow are tracked separately for invoking

Reliquarians - borrow relics

Social Club - Invoke Shadow contacts an extra time

Temple - invoke any access connection an extra time as long as you're physically in a temple

I think since we're starting this as a public facing streaming group, we'll start this with the Guild tag.

Assigning Shadow and Light I think we're looking at:

Community base - 1 Light and 1 Shadow

Add 2 Light points

Add 1 Shadow point

Total: 3 Light and 2 Shadow

And then I think we'll assign those 5 points as follows:

Followers 1: Stream support (Consultant, Group)

Light Access: Fanbase, the fans of their gaming and occult-advice streams

Shadow Access: Private Housing, places to stay when need time out of public sight.

Extra Tag: Coven

There's one more thing I'm going to do and that's borrow and rework a persistent Condition from the Kitsune denizen. The original condition was this:

Fox Tail - You have a tail. It is fluffy.

And the version for this will be:

Snake Hair - You have snakes for hair. They are hissy.

And that leaves the total package as follows:

Taylor Quinn - Starter Hero

Role Path: LARPing Cozy Witch

Origin Path: Suburban Gorgon Outcast

Pantheon Path: Found at the Crossroads

Pantheon: Theoi

Patron: Hecate

Legend 1

Title: The Cozy Gorgon

Egoism vs Kinship: 0

Short Term Deed: Make an impressive shot.

Long Term Deed: Prove yourself a champion to outcasts.

Band Deed: (Blank)

Skills

Culture 5 (Activism)

Occult 4 (Witchcraft)

Technology 2

Athletics 4 (Archery)

Empathy 3 (Stress)

Persuasion 1

Medicine 2

Integrity 2

Attributes

(Resilience Favored, Social Primary, Mental Secondary, Physical Tertiary)

Might 1

Dexterity 3

Stamina 3

Intellect 3

Cunning 2

Resolve 4

Presence 5

Manipulation 3

Composure 4

Callings & Keywords

Lover 1 (Cozy)

Sage 1 (Witch)

Psychopomp 2 (Guide, Compassionate)

Knacks

Lover: Soothing Presence

Sage: Presence of Magic

Psychopomp: Cracking the Egg, This Isn't Everything You Are

Birthrights

The Crossroad Streamers - Cult 4

Community

Light 3, Shadow 2

Coven, Guild

Light Access: Fanbase

Shadow Access: Private Residences

The Soporific Bow - Relic 1

Longbow (Arcing, Ranged, Two-Handed, Stun)

Caduceus Tattoo - Relic 3

Innate - Part of her

Purviews: Health, Passion (Compassion)

Kaitlin DeVere, Experienced Witch - Guide 3

Asset Skills: Empathy, Occult

Purview: Wild

Purviews & Boons

Metamorphosis (Gorgon's Gaze)

Fortune

Health (Healing Hands)

Passion: Compassion

Wild

Health:

Bruised

Injured

Maimed

Taken out

Defense: 3-4 depending on how it is RPed

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