#in a very specific niche in a specific domain

[mint-in-the-moonlight]

putting the poly back in polytheism

something that I've noticed in neo-pagan/polytheist spaces is this focus on one or a few deities. while this is a valid approach and seems to be working amazingly for many people, i wanted to write a short defence of a different form of polytheism that, while maybe less visible on social media, is equally viable.

the poly in polytheism necessitates the belief in multiple gods however modern forms of worship take many different forms on top of that. from my years being in pagan spaces on social media I have noticed that to many, being a polytheist means worshipping one or a handful of gods and having very close relationships with them. which deities someone chooses to have this kind of relationship with stems from multiple possible sources, for example, personal interest, the deity's domain being somehow related to a person's life or an inexplicable draw to them.

to me, this seems to be the dominant view on social media of the form that neo-paganism takes, however, after years of exploring my spirituality and practice, I have come to the conclusion that this is not how I want to worship. I am writing this post for more people like me, who are interested in exploring this often less mainstream approach.

an ancient template

reading about Ancient Greek and Roman civilisations I was always struck by the number of minor deities with hyper-specific domains and associations. as a modern pagan, I could not understand the appeal of worshipping such a deity, ie. using so much time and resources to build a relationship for only a handful of niche issues that you could approach them with.

but as I kept reading and exploring, I realised that I was approaching polytheism completely differently than the ancients did. they truly did live in a world full of gods and they did not require a relationship built over days, if not weeks or more, to approach a deity and ask for their aid.

as long as you followed the rules of reciprocity, you could approach any deity that was relevant to your situation because they were the best equipped to help you with your problem. now this is not true for all of the population all the time, there were definitely also for example, people devoted to one deity, but from my understanding, this seemed to be the general form that polytheism took in those ancient civilisations.

the influence of monotheism

I think another feature of online neo-paganism is this expansion of the major deities' domains which then removes the need to worship the smaller deities. now, don't get me wrong, I'm all for expanding the domains of deities, especially if this is done from a revivalist perspective in order to modernise them for the contemporary worshipper. but sometimes I feel like completely unrelated domains are added for the sake of convenience more than anything else, ie. so that someone can keep worshipping the same deity(ies) without approaching others.

this, in my opinion, goes against one of the core aspects of polytheism which is the idea that different gods rule over different domains and have power over them. following this idea, it would make very little sense to pray to Neptune during air travel as he has no influence over the skies. yet, I sometimes see the deities be treated more like monotheistic gods which are all-powerful and can influence anything in the world.

if this is your view of how the gods work, that's fine, but I feel like sometimes people accept it without questioning it much or thinking about their view of theology at all. after mulling this idea over for some time, I realised it made much more sense to approach those specific deities, even if they are much less known or minor because this fits into my beliefs about polytheism much better.

a poly-practice

so, how would a poly-polytheistic practice look like in the modern day? well, there are many ways to go about it but I will just share bits from my own experience.

what I have ended up doing is focusing on different deities as they become relevant in my life - I focused on worshipping Janus at the beginning of the year while also taking the time to pray to Fortuna in moment when I needed her aid. I then did some extra reading on Jupiter, but didn't forget to thank Mars every time I went to the gym. I no longer felt the pressure to have some sort of special "connection" to every deity or "feel their presence", just trusting that they are there and then catching glimpses of divinity in my daily life.

looking into which Roman festivals I wanted to celebrate also opened my perspectives to more deities I would not have otherwise worshipped on my own. like this, I feel like I am building an arsenal of deities I can turn to when I need and of course, it is also vital to remember that I can call on multiple ones at the same time, just like the Romans saw the gods aiding one another in their tasks.

I only have one altar, which is practical and thus quite minimalistic, but there is space for my prayer notebook as well as other supplies that I need for my rituals.

conclusion

of course, this kind of practice results in a much more "impersonal" relationship with the gods, but I never really felt the need to communicate with them directly or things like that, so it fits me well. I find comfort in imagining a world full of gods, who may only know me in passing but who look out for me nevertheless.

in the end, the goal of this post is not to change anyone's mind about how they worship, but to present an alternate perspective which you can learn from but also completely disregard. in the end I am just happy that you were interested enough to reach until the end of this post. thank you for reading!!

[sleepy-jei]

the thing about AI industry is to actually solve problems instead of creating solutions to problems that don't exist, you have to care about the domain, really dig deep into the domain and specialize. But the whole selling point of AI is that it's a black box, that you don't have to understand your data to get predictions (lol), so a lot of the people in the industry don't want to go into the domain they're in and then get confused why they cannot find problems to solve.

[urbestestwindgod]

mellowness, calmness, dizziness, makes you really lethargic,

Umm... hi Aeolus...

@og-aaaaaaaaaa

you good? you look a little…..unwell

[silverskye13]

Are saints allowed to serve their paladins, or is it mostly a one-way street? Are saints allowed to exist and act when unasked for?

Hmm. This turned a little rambling I apologise. Also I end up saying the word "domain" a lot, so in lieu of finding a good place to explain what I mean by domain, I'll just say it before the cut.

A Saint's "domain" is the thing about the universe they've learned to manipulate, using the faith of the people that believe in them. For large gods who maybe always started as concepts [Order of Remembrance for example], the domain is a broad concept like memory. If memory is involved, it will pull apart the universe to affect it. However, if it wanted to do some kind of miracle [calling a paladin to capture someone maybe, or healing a terrible wound], if doing so would have no effect on its domain, it could not affect change. Smaller saints might have more niche concepts attached to them. [Ie, I have a headcanon VintageBeef's hels is a Saint of Slaughter/Butchery, and is best followed by people who do hoglin hunts in hels. His following is small, and he channels his power for only This Specific Thing, and can affect nothing else.]

I think it depends a bit on the deity in question, and how much deification they get, whether their power is a physical two-way link. Something they use with the same proficiency they put into others.

Small Saints who have basically no followers, and have little to no idea what they stand for, or why, are basically Just Guys. They are Guys powered by someone else's faith, who have interesting powers that manifest on occasion, and they have a habit of collecting very dedicated friend groups. But they are still, at the end of the day, Just Guys. They can act when unasked for, they can help their priests and paladins literally, physically, or do the miracle they want to do themselves, because at that point, everything about them is small and personal, and human. If your neighborhood pastor could work a miracle under a set of memorized rules, and sometimes shook your hand and let you do it too, they would be a Small Saint.

[That's not to say a Small Saint isn't still powerful. They are people who can mess with the weave of the world. Anyone not prepared for that is going to get the shock of their life. Anyone who isn't a Saint who is channeling that, is going to suffer consequences. It's just that, a Small Saint could maybe channel through one person at a time, and they might not even know how they did it. *Coughing noises, glances at plot*]

Medium? Saints? Saints that have a following, that have too many people to have an individual relationship with, get a little more unfathomable and constrained. At some point, messing with the universe has repercussions for everyone. If the Hermits had a whole city of followers, they would default to this. The world looks different to them. They can see the edges, where infinity and coding lies. In hels, a Saint who reaches that point stops seeing people as people, and they themselves stop looking and feeling like people. They can affect several people at once. They can justify things like punishment, and creating a moral code for people to follow. Being able to balance between the universe and hels is more important. They could still intervene on someone's behalf, but it's no longer a personal decision, and now something measured in loyalty, faith, prayer. You are one person, and your Saint is changing the world for a dozen of you, but power has limits.

[I imagine Evil X is somewhere around here. He has creative mode. He knows he can break the world to his will. But he also still has a physical body, and can just walk across the room and move something. He's still a person, he's just a person who's taken on the Uncanny, and knows there are no true repercussions to his actions. He's not a kind Saint, if he can rightly be called one. I imagine he was very destructive when he discovered his power, and had to mellow out over time. His domain has to do with chaos, and breaking things for the sake of breaking them. He had to learn it's a power he can use, not a power he has to use.]

Big Saints [and gods], get eldritch. They don't really exist as people anymore. Maybe they went on pilgrimage one day and never returned, but an echo of them has manifested as something people can tap into now. Maybe they stayed a person as long as possible, but at some point so much faith elevated them into something Different, a change a simpler more human them would have feared, but they no longer remember that simpler person anymore. Instead they are the impulses and principles they ruled themselves and others by, and their only memories have narrowed into parables and legends that only show hints of the person they used to be. They can give their power to a select few people willingly, but they no longer go out of their way to intercede in their daily life. They have gifted a piece of themselves to someone, because that person can be trusted to use it well, but they won't mourn that person if they leave. One person is small in the eye of the universal.

To me, Helsknight's Saint of Blood and Steel is a large, old Saint, with a congregation that deals best with the impersonal. They are people looking to be swords in the hands of the divine, so their Saint treats them as such. If the Saint had no congregation, as a deity always looking for a sword, they would act on their own until they found someone willing, but they would always be looking for a sword.

I also feel like some of how personal and two-way the connection is, is dependent on the nature of the domain.

Tanguish, if he ever becomes a true Saint with a following, doesn't know what his domain is. All he knows is, Helsknight promised to protect him, and so when he needed help, he Called, and Helsknight Answered. It was terrifying. He pulled a thread of the universe and used it to change what should have happened. If Helsknight were suffering, as someone who is human, who can't even see the threads they're pulling, Tanguish would do everything he could to help, and if he stumbled into his domain along the way, he would use it for that purpose. The power he has, whatever it is, can be genuinely harmful when used, because helsmets were not made to feel the full force of the universe -- something that already seeks to devour them on principle. He is someone who just found out that sometimes, seemingly randomly, he touches a person and they're struck by lightning. Whether they willingly touched him, and whether he would willingly take the lightning strike in their place, isn't exactly the current issue.

The God of Memory, whatever gives the Blue Lady her paladin powers, probably feels small and personal despite coming from a large idea and probably never being human. Its domain is Remembrance, and that implies something that tries to be personal despite how Eldritch it is. When its power is channeled, it always harms the channeler grandly and dramatically [the Blue Lady saying a small prophesy and being blinded by ink is a very light repercussion. It doesn't know what humanity is. It doesn't know what a body is. Or eating or drinking, or that someone who needs crutches to walk can't just drop them and not hurt muscle and bone. It just knows its will is needed so it acts. It is learning. It doesn't want to lose its followers, because it wants to form long, lasting memories of them. But it will break a lot of people before it learns limits.]

Meanwhile, the Saint of Blood and Steel definitely started as a person. They have an origin point [the plot will get there someday], they even have a Known Ascension. But they are a Saint to things like Vengeance and Justice, distant concepts that are best when they're not personal, a swinging sword that Exacts A Price. Channeling them will damage because the nature of the power is damaging, but they temper that by only calling people for a cause worthy of dying for. If there is a chance jumping off a cliff will break your legs, they will first guarantee there's a reason to get to the bottom. The Saint of Blood and Steel knows who they are, and knows that every knight or paladin or priest to pass through their halls is, almost certainly, doomed. They might have tried to save a few, long ago when they were something closer to human, but now they know a universal truth: whether they succeed or fail in saving anyone, whoever served them will have done it willingly, and there will always be someone along to replace them. When a sword is broken, you do not mourn the sword. You pick up another. Though you may grow melancholy for something cared for, now lost.

No matter how large, or loved, or powerful a Saint is, the Universe will always be more so. It has to be. If every helsmet had to become a Saint to hold a fraction of the potential a Hermit has, and every Hermit has faith in the universe, in the fact that it exists, that it speaks to them when they fight the monsters in the world, that it loves them, the Universe will always be bigger than even the largest hels-born Saint could fathom.

[cetaceacyberia]

even MORE sillies from @superxstarzz's classpect fusions!! this time with a wee bit of analysis below the cut because i have the evil homestuck autism that makes me go crazy about this stuff. also the reason these guys look freaky is because theyre a human+troll fusion

OKAY SO generally i imagine fusedtiers would naturally be far stronger than a regular tier, though not quite as strong as a master class, at least depending on the development of each. They are also, of course, far more specific in nature, leading to highly specialized roles. Anywho, here's my interpretation of the classes featured here. I'll probably end up doing more later. Apologies in advance for my wordiness. I know there's a lot of speculation about the role mages play, so I'll provide a brief explanation of how I interpret them first.

Mages, in my opinion, are the active counterpart to seers, being able to take the knowledge they gain through or recieve from their aspect and put it into action. For an example, a Mage of Space as is a component here would be able to take the knowlege of the behaviors of elements and atoms, and be able to manipulate them at their will, provided they know what they're doing, and it's physically possible, alongside being able to ascertain. This can be seen with Meulins ability to form relationships out of seemingly nothing and Sollux's pension for causing doomsday esque events (aradia, sgrub, the like)

Prophet of Design

Prophets, in my opinion, would take the prediction abilities of the seer and the active knowledge mages can use and be able to speak events into reality.

Prophets tend to be extremely high strung people. The suffering that comes with being a mage and the all-consuming knowledge that comes so easily to seers create a scenario in which it's very common for them to slip into anxiety about the events they cause. The butterfly effect, if you will. Prophets do not use their powers carelessly, each move is thought out and incredibly calculated. Prophets are, naturally, blindingly intelligent, being the fusion of the two knowing classes. This can manifest itself in many ways, though the shortcomings mages often experience in relation to their aspect can often cut down their confidence, leading to a prophet underestimating themselves constantly. Despite their anxious tendencies and low self-conciousness, prophets can also be very snarky and sarcastic, when not gleefully oversharing about whatever piques their interest at the moment.

Design would be the merging of the concepts of fate and inevitability with the universe, creation and physics. Design players have domain over the physical outcomes of things. Reactions, from chemical to physical, even quantum at a higher level, all of that is within the control of a Design player. So!! i think a Prophet of Design would be able to speak into reality the outcomes of reactions they create or observe. For example, prophet would be able to do something like say "when i take a step forward, I will actually be twelve feet ahead of where i would have been" and just have that shit happen. As they get stronger, their prophecies can becomem more long term and more drastic, from being able to speak into reality an event that will happen some time in the future to prediting events that might not even be physically possible normally. Beholder of Birth

A beholder, a class that combines the insane growth potential of a page and the mage's expansive knowledge to produce a role of one that is able to expotentially build on the knowledge they have of their aspect. To create entire knowledge trees given the smallest bit of information. From a basic fact to the most niche, minute detail, none of it can escape the gaze of a Beholder. A fully realized Beholder would know, quite literally, everything there is to know when it comes to their aspect, which can be an enormously vast amount when it comes to Space or Time players.

Beholders are natural detectives, though it never comes easy. It starts as the beholder starts to make connections, faint at first but with a sure sign there's something more. Often ones to second-guess their findings, but once they dig deeper, and their ideas are validated, there's nothing stopping a beholder from uncovering everything there is to know from that one initial spark. For lack of a better word, beholders are quirky people, kind but stubborn, and their ascenion often is hindered by that trait due to the help they might need at first. They might get knocked down easily at first, but are wickedly determined, and bounce back quickly and eagerly learn from their mistakes, often brute-forcing their way out of problems. Thanks to the manipulation of knowledge that comes with their Mage counterpart, rising the ranks is far easier for a Beholder than a Page, though roadblocks are to be expected with their headstrong attitude towards growth.

Birth is the merging of creation, physics and the universe with the mind, logic and raw information. I think these would blend into birth players being in control of the inception of very nearly anything. How exactly they can control this depends on the class, of course, but birth players hold the essence of creation in their very soul,

A Beholder of Birth would have the ability to hold an object and see everything that lead up to its creation, how it was created, and everything that happened to it. Not just objects either, but people and other living things. A fully realized Beholder of Birth could potentially have the full knowledge of everything that has ever happened in the universe, from before the big bang to the very end of it that was no doubt caused by the activation of SBURB and everything in between.

[recklessronja]

Some thoughts about the Skills in Disco Elysium

I was looking at a Reddit thread where people discussed what skills they would have, and almost nobody said Esprit De Corps, citing that it would be specifically only for cops. Now even though there's nothing ingame to suggest this, i would headcanon that Esprit De Corps doesn't represent specifically a cop's connection to their coworkers, but a person's connection with others they associate with. A highschooler's Esprit De Corps would be how well they connect with and understand classmates, cavemen's Esprit De Corps would be how they mesh with their tribe, etc. Building on top of this idea that Harry's Skills aren't necessarily what everybody would have (if everbody were to have Skills, which i think is canonically not the case), i would also bring up Shivers, Electrochemistry and Visual Calculus. Since cities haven't always existed, i would say that Shivers just tags onto whatever area you're very familiar with. If you lived in a cabin in the woods while having high Shivers, i'd think it would tell you about the forest and whatever else is around you and that you're familiar with. Maybe a hunter would like to have a high Shivers because it tells them what direction the deer are headed this season. Electrochemistry is your body's urges to feel pleasure, even if it would have consequences in the grand scheme of things. Ingame this is mostly about taking drugs and other addictive substances, but it's also about sex, and i would assume maybe eating and sleeping even, depending on the person. Anything that feels good to the body in the moment is what Electrochemistry wants you to do, in Harry's case that happens to be relapsing into Alchoholism specifically, since it's something his body's been in touch with enough to start "needing". Now Visual Calculus is a bit of an oddball in my opinion for how specific it is. Math and calculations are usually in Logic's domain, so Visual Calculus seems a bit niche, and like it's made specifically for Harry and other detectives. Now this part is entirely my personal view, but i would wager that Visual Calculus is somewhat of a "free space" Skill, in that it can change entirely based on the person, meaning everybody has a different Intellect Skill in the place of Visual Calculus, depending on what they need and who they are. Personally, i'd love to see everybody comment or reblog with what kind of Skill they would have in this slot!

That's all, thanks for reading :3

[fatehbaz]

Because tuatara are very long lived - between 100 and 200 years by most estimates […] - the founding of Aotearoa/New Zealand as a modern nation and the unfolding of settler-wrought changes to its environment have transpired over the course of the lives of perhaps just two tuatara [...].

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[T]he tuatara (Sphenodon punctatus) [...] [is] the sole surviving representative of an order of reptiles that pre-dates the dinosaurs. [...] [T]he tuatara is of immense global and local significance and its story is pre-eminently one of deep timescales, of life-in-place [...]. Epithets abound for the unique and ancient biodiversity found in Aotearoa/New Zealand. Prized as “Ghosts of Gondwana” (Gibbs 2008), or as denizens of “Moa’s Ark” (Bellamy et al. 1990) or “The Southern Ark” (Andrews 1986), the country’s faunal species invoke fascination and inspire strong language [...]. In rounded terms, it [has been] [...] just 250 years since James Cook made landfall; just 200 years since the founding of the handful of [...] settlements that instigated agricultural transformation of the land [...]. European newcomers [...] were disconcerted by the biota [...]: the country was seen to “lack” terrestrial mammals; many of its birds were flightless and/or songless; its bats crawled through leaf-litter; its penguins inhabited forests; its parrots were mountain-dwellers; its frogs laid eggs that hatched miniature frogs rather than tadpoles [...].

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Despite having met a reassuringly temperate climate [mild, oceanic, comparable to western Europe], too, the newcomers nevertheless sought to make adjustments to that climate, and it was clear to them that profits beckoned. Surveying the towering lowland forests from the deck of HMS Endeavour in 1769, and perceiving scope for expansion of the fenland drainage schemes being undertaken at that time in England and across swathes of Europe, Joseph Banks [botanist on Cook's voyage] reported on “swamps which might doubtless Easily be drained” [...]. Almost a century later, in New Zealand or Zealandia, the Britain of the South, [...] Hursthouse offered a fuller explication of this ethos: The cultivation of a new country materially improves its climate. Damp and dripping forests, exhaling pestilent vapours from rank and rotten vegetation, fall before the axe [...]. Fen and march and swamp, the bittern’s dank domain, fertile only in miasma, are drained; and the plough converts them into wholesome plains of fruit, and grain, and grass. [...]

[The British administrators] duly set about felling the ancient forests of Aotearoa/New Zealand, draining the country’s swamps [...]. They also began importing and acclimatising a vast array of exotic (predominantly northern-world) species [sheep, cattle, rodents, weasels, cats, crops, English pasture grasses, etc.] [...]. [T]hey constructed the seemingly ordinary agronomic patchwork of Aotearoa/New Zealand's productive, workaday landscapes [...]. This is effected through and/or accompanied by drastic deforestation, alteration of the water table and the flow of waterways, displacement and decline of endemic species, re-organisation of predation chains and pollination sequences and so on [...]. Aotearoa/New Zealand was founded in and through climate crisis [...]. Climate crisis is not a disastrous event waiting to happen in the future in this part of the world; rather, it has been with us for two centuries already [...].

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[T]he crest formed by the twinned themes of absence and exceptionalism [...] has shaped this creature's niche in the western imagination. As one of the very oldest species on earth, tuatara have come to be recognised [in Euro-American scientific schemas] [...] as an evolutionary and biodiversity treasure [...]. In 1867, [...] Gunther [...] pronounced that it was not a lizard at all [...] [and] placed the tuatara [...] in a new order, Rhynchocephalia, [...] igniting a frenzy of scientific interest worldwide. Specifically, the tuatara was seen to afford opportunities for "astonished witnessing" [...], for "the excitement of having the chance to see, to study, to observe a true saurian of Mesozoic times in the flesh, still living, but only on this tiny speck of the earth [...], while all its ancestors [...] died about one hundred and thirty-five million years ago" [...]. Tuatara have, however, long held special status as a taonga or treasured species in Māori epistemologies, featuring in a range of [...] stories where [...] [they] are described by different climates and archaeologies of knowledge [...] (see Waitangi Tribunal 2011, p. 134). [...]

While unconfirmed sightings in the Wellington district were reported in the nineteenth century, tuatara currently survive only in actively managed - that is, monitored and pest-controlled - areas on scattered offshore islands, as well as in mainland zoo and sanctuary populations. As this confinement suggests, tuatara are functionally “extinct” in almost all of their former wild ranges. [...] [Italicized text in the heading of this post originally situated here in Boswell's article.] [...] In the remaining areas of Aotearoa/New Zealand where this species does now live [...], tuatara may in some cases be the oldest living inhabitants. Yet [...] if the tuatara is a creature of long memory, this memory is at risk of elimination or erasure. [...] [T]uatara expose and complicate the [...] machineries of public memory [...] and attendant environmental ideologies and management paradigms [...].

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All text above by: Anna Boswell. "Climates of Change: A Tuatara's-Eye View". Humanities, 2020, Volume 9, Issue 2, 38. Published 1 May 2020. This article belongs to the Special Issue Environmental Humanities Approaches to Climate Change. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me. Text within brackets added by me for clarity. The first paragraph/heading in this post, with text in italics, are also the words of Boswell from this same article. Presented here for commentary, teaching, criticism purposes.]

[dragonthunders01]

Spectember D22: Interspecific display

In the late Jurassic of north America, where titanic sauropods, ferocious theropods and a myriad of different dinosaurs should roam there I instead titanic dicynodonts and derived elephant sized Traversodontids wanders on the forests, hunted down by a variety of predatory Mammaliaforms and diverse cynodonts, and below many minor other synapsids and small new diapsids roams as middle size fauna, this world never saw any archosauromorphs rise as they became extinct in the Permian, leaving the Triassic and Jurassic to be fully dominated by the second wave of synapsids after the great dying and the minor constrains of an even weaker Triassic/Jurassic mass extinction.

With that and the time given it allowed some groups to diversify in ways they couldn’t have done in our timeline, specially for dicynodonts which apart of being the largest terrestrial animals here they also have been experimenting in other niches as aquatic herbivores, scavengers and even some small carnivores, and so many herbivores developing different fighting or extravagant ornaments in order to show their strength and good gene pool for any possible mate. This is where the Branched Warmcorns (Calenocristas multichromus) comes into play, coming from a lineage of more gracile forms than the usual beaked behemoth, they are around 2 meters long and they are the largest most flamboyant animals of the forestall regions, the young males and females are often dull colored with only a handful of prominent minor crests and horns, but an adult male in their peak would expose a series of very large ornamental crests and horns that bright in very warm colorations, including a variety of yellows, pinks, oranges and reds, all reflecting from a light blue face up to the back of the head. The bright adult has often to be dealing either with predators as well with other large males or just recently grown younger individuals that defy their domain over specific territories, normally with constant head ramming and even biting. They live in groups of 20 individuals, often a bull male is surrounded by different age females and just young individuals, which males reaching certain age have to leave before the main male could threat them or even kill them.

[tales-from-the-aether-ttrpg]

A Guide for Adventurers, Entry 1

On Mundane Creatures 

While some may deem categorizations as unnecessary bureaucracy best left in dusty studies or decrepit libraries, an Adventurer braving the wilds of our beautiful world should passingly familiarize themself with the expanse of diverse creatures that populate it. The most common of which are the Mundane.

Mundane creatures are you, me, your neighbor walking down the street. We are born of flesh and blood and rise and fall like the sun. Time, perhaps, is the true distinction between the Mundane and the Macabre, Monstrous, and Mythical. We are bound by time’s iron will while they are not. Even the Arcane touched elves eventually succumb to time’s inevitable passing. 

The four universally recognized subcategories of Mundane are Beasts, Humanoids, Plants, and Slimes. However, these categorizations are flexible and in no way denote intelligence or independent will. They are merely groupings of similar features or behaviors. 

Beasts are a catch all category for any creature that is not a Humanoid, Plant, or Slime. I could go into detail into the minutia of the hundreds of subcategories such as Arachnid, Canine, Feline, Aquatic Mammal, Aquatic reptile, Crustation - but I dare not bore you with such trivialities. Beasts are in near complete harmony with their environment and are far more focused on survival for themselves and their progeny than fighting the random Adventurer they come across. Providing food or making non threatening gestures to a Beast that challenges you will likely allow you to continue on your merry way without tangling with the wild life. Remember while traveling in untamed wilds, you are entering the Beasts’ domain. If a Beast challenges you, it is highly likely you are encroaching on its den or it is merely hungry. Treat them with respect and consideration and you will learn to traverse the wilds without leaving a bloody trail in your wake. 

Humanoids are generally categorized as beings with a vertical spine who stand on two legs but, as in all things, there are exceptions. Most humanoids have the ability to speak verbally with hundreds of languages documented either in active use or that have been lost. Additionally, there are many who prefer written or gestural languages. Language and our ability to record knowledge through art, stories and texts are one of the hallmarks of our kind but that is not to discount the various Beasts that have developed their own methods of communication or knowledge sharing. 

Plants are a tricky thing. Most plants are harmless - in fact I had a salad this very afternoon for lunch! However, that is not the case for all. The rare Plant has evolved in tandem with its hostile environment to defend itself, relocate from danger, and even hunt for its own food. Although most of these Plants are content hunting small rodents, insects, birds, or fish, some have evolved to hunt larger prey. The most common sign of a carnivorous plant would be the quiet. Birds have learned to steer clear of most Plants for their own safety and thus, are useful indicators to their presence. If you find yourself in open plains with only the wind whistling in your ears, it may already be too late. 

Slimes are often mistaken for Oozes but such a mistake often leads to unnecessary violence. Unlike Oozes, most slimes are completely docile. It is unclear where Slimes originated but their ecological niche is clear. They are nature’s custodians. Each type of Slime feeds on specific materials such as metal, plants, bone, or even dust. Thus, many Slimes are bred to maintain sewer systems, clean old ruins, or even taken as pets by warriors to keep their metallic armor clean of rust! Discerning the distinctions between Slimes and Oozes is a skill any Adventurer must learn both to avoid killing these harmless critters and to avoid the deadly mistake of assuming an Ooze is a docile Slime.

Professor Dara Ignatius of the Institute for Wandering Minds

This is a piece of lore from my ttrpg Tales from the Aether. To check out the premise of the ttrpg, see my pinned post. To support the project or read up more lore like this, give a follow!

[camping-with-monsters]

Oops! All Spiders!

(Concept) Designs for all of Anansi’s sons for Spider’s Tag! They all collectively play pivotal rolls in their own segments plus the entire plot itself! I’m not sure if I’ll be changing the names since the original ones are very literal in their abilities, but I’ve gotten used to calling them as such so they might just say with the original names as “code names” or something. We’ll see!

Also a fun deal is that they’re all based on different kinds of spiders! I wanted to match a spider species with the abilities each one is depicted with! Don’t worry about the implications of that, I’m sure it means very little.

Trouble Seer is based on a jumping spider! Jumping spiders are skittish and quick and known for their jumping capabilities of course! Since Trouble Seer could detect trouble from far away, this is meant to play on the idea of “jumping into action” and being “quick to react.” In actuality, it’s not just “trouble” he’s seeing, but he has an impressive emotional tap in that allows him to sense all kinds of emotions from further. This allows him to prepare a little easier for situations. However, too much negative energy can end up troubling him too!

Road Builder is a Trapdoor Spider! Trapdoor Spiders are self explanatory— they hide themselves in a little burrow with a trapdoor like mechanism to sense and catch prey from within (Or something like that)! Considering the idea of this spider building a mechanism, I felt this worked with Road Builder well. He has a special spinning drill top he can use to break terrain down and even use the dug up materials for other means. He’s quick to craft and tie loose ends in. He likes to show off a little but is a great shoulder to lean on.

(Click for a better look!) River Drinker is a Diving Bell Spider! Diving Bell Spiders create a little bubble for them to breathe out of and even make a bubble web type of domain. They’re predominantly aquatic spiders! River Drinker seems to have some special filter inside of a self-weaved straw where he’s able to blow floating bubbles from the water he sips and then blows into the straw. He can carry himself with these bubbles, and sometimes even smaller critters or his other brothers. They don’t pop from the inside! Probably a property of his own niche.

Game Skinner is a Brown Recluse! Brown Recluse Spiders have a devastatingly poisonous bite that opens the skin up in an awful open wound (only look this up if you have a strong enough stomach). Game Skinner likes to gather resources from other places or critters to dress himself all flashy with, even creating little trinkets or masks with them. Is it genuine creativity, or an assert of dominance? Who knows, he just likes be flashy and maybe a little full of himself.

Stone Thrower is a Bolas Spider! Bolas spiders use a weaved “capture ball” at the end of a silk thread called a bolas to toss at prey to knock them from the sky. This fits perfectly with Stone’s niche of stone throwing! However, this appears to be a practice predominantly by female bolas spiders by nature of their larger bodies… for Stone, he doesn’t need you to know that ;)

Lastly, Cushion is of course a Tarantula! You could think of him as a Cobalt Blue Tarantula to be a little more specific. Tarantulas have a lot of fuzz to them— their size and subtle fluff works for Cushion! He is the biggest of all his brothers. Cushion is able to inflate his fluffy abdomen to make it more like a giant pillow to help cushion falls of his family, smaller critters, or even his own. He’ll stick his fluffy hands to his mouth and blow, which forces the pushed air to the abdomen to make it grow. Seems as if it’s entirely indestructible— not even a needle can pop it in its biggest size!

Huge thanks to @shroingushour for helping me match spider species to certain abilities and @pazam for some design help!

Also a bonus, Stone without the red dye! There are times where he won’t be dyed in the story. Dying his entire body red for outings takes a lot of work!

[magicwithclass]

Gustha's Scepter

Gustha's Scepter costs 0 mana. That alone is reason to give the card a second look. Never underestimate a card that gets around the Magic the Gathering resource system. It costs mana to cast cards. Any card that breaks that rule is inherently broken as it spits in the face of one of the fundamental rules of the game. Personally, I try to have at least 4 of any card that costs 0 mana or can be cast for free in some way. If a card has an alternate casting cost that allows it to be cast without mana, I always make sure to keep those in my collection. Typically those types of cards are conditional but Gustha's Scepter always costs 0. There are decks that simply want you to chain together 0 cost artifacts like Jhoira Weatherlight captain, meria scholar of antiquity, or fblthp lost on the range. There are only a certain number of artifacts that cost 0 so sometimes you have to play cards like this to reach that threshold. Even ignoring those decks, gustha's scepter does actually have an effect. You can use it to store cards under it so that the cards are not in your hand but you still have access to them. This can matter for decks around the hellbent mechanic or decks that want a certain hand size. It can even be used in wheel decks to hold certain combo pieces as you wheel for the other pieces. Of course, if the scepter is destroyed the cards go to the graveyard. That is a real risk but one you are willing to pay in certain decks. Recently, the card has gone up in price. Is it because players have finally realized the innate power level of 0 mana cards? Do people finally understand that a card that can be cast for free, and is also on the reserved list, should not be bulk? No, instead, the card is spiking because of a new commander in Bloomburrow. There is a lot of hype around the new set and some reserved list cards are moving because people seem anxious to build decks with these new cards. In Gustha's scepter's case, the card is increasing in price because of Flubs, the fool. Flubs is a strange commander but is pretty unique and interesting. First, flubs is an exclusive buy a box promo. That fact alone draws attention to the card. I am not sure if flubs would be as popular or as hyped if it was just in the regular set. Being an exclusive promo offers the card a unique prestige and marks the card as special. I also think Flubs is an interesting look at society's views on art, plagiarism, artificial intelligence, homage and inspiration. The art for flubs is based on a public domain piece of art on a tarot card. Obviously, flubs the fool is meant to reference the tarot card known as the fool. The art is clearly an homage to a famous piece but the art is very similar. if the art was not in the public domain would it just be plagiarism? If the artist had the original artist's permission would that be just a source of inspiration? If an artificial intelligence spit out this image would it still be art? Does the fact that a human intended this to be a reference to another piece of art what makes this acceptable? If machines had intent would their creations be considered art because art is emotion? What makes it acceptable? Where is the line? How different does the work have to be to be considered unique? Is anything unique at all? Those thoughts aside, the scepter synergizes with flubs perfectly. It was almost like the cards were made in conjunction to work together. The card has such a niche use and this commander takes advantage of that tiny effect in the best possible way. This just goes to show that even the most narrow of effects can eventually find a home in a specific deck if the effect is unique enough. The scepter is over five bucks right now and some copies are going for as high as 13 dollars. With the number of decks it can see play in, plus the fact that it costs 0, plus the fact that it is a top card with a high synergy in a new popular commander, will this card continue to go up? I certainly do not think it will ever be bulk again. I would be surprised if this card dropped below five dollars again.

[baeshijima]

Hello! Would it be okay to ask you for advice on how to build some characters in Honkai star rail?

hi nonnie and ofc !! this will go very bare-bones into character building so, uh, buckle up 🧍‍♀️

the main principle is to prioritise one or two characters at a time. if you go for more than one, then preferably ones that either share the same trace material or their relics are in the same domain to make farming a lot easier and less tedious !!

the next question is: which character(s) will be the one built, and what are their stat focuses? for example, are they a dps who requires atk%, or one that needs a different main stat like hp%? are they a sustain (healer & shielders)? are they a general or a niche (specific for certain characters/situations) support?

once you know these, then you can narrow down what you need.

light cone

this will be a very short section in comparison to relics, as the main thing you really need to make sure of is that the light cone path matches the character path (i.e. a hunt light cone for a hunt character will allow you to make the most use out of it compared to, say, a destruction character, as they won't be able to use the passive ability and only gain the flat atk, hp, and def stats).

the next thing is to make sure the passive ability works with your character. for five stars, their signature light cones are of course the best and easiest tell, but if you don't have them then you will have see the effects. for example, support characters will want light cones that either help boost the team (i.e. dance! dance! dance! gives action forward to all allies when the wearer uses their ultimate), sustains will want something that boosts their defensive/healing capabilities, damage dealers will want something that increases their overall output (can either but dmg%, atk% or a crit/crit dmg% boost), etc.

of course, some may have specific needs (like ruan mei who would want memories of the past as her light cone for both the extra break effect & energy, especially at high(er) superimpositions), but it will always be found in the same path and are easily identifiable. there will also be more coming out in the future, so better options are still yet to come!

relics

the relic pieces have set main stats;

cavern relics:

head piece is always flat hp

hand piece is always flat atk

body piece can be: atk%, hp%, def%, effect hit rate, break effect, outgoing healing bonus, crit rate, crit dmg

feet piece can be: atk%, hp%, def%, speed

planar ornaments:

planar sphere can be: atk%, hp%, def%, type dmg bonus

link rope can be: atk%, hp%, def%, break effect, energy regeneration rate

cavern relics are what can be farmed in overworld domains. they have four pieces which can give you the full set effect, or you can have two pieces for the two piece effect and mix it with another two piece set effect (i.e. this is usually put on supports/sustains, but can also be used on damage dealers if needed).

planar ornaments are farmed from within simulated universe after each elite boss + from the final boss. these ones only have a two piece effect, and cannot be mix-and-matched.

generally, each archetype/class/role will follow the same or similar principle;

the main/sub dps/damage dealer role will want:

body piece: crit rate or crit dmg

feet piece: atk%/hp%/def%/speed

planar sphere: type dmg bonus

link rope: atk%/hp%/def%

certain main stats will depend on what they scale off of. some dps (like dan heng il) will want atk% if they can afford to be slower or have a support that can bump them up, other dps (like jingliu) will want speed to be faster to get more out of their kit, and some will scale off other stats such as hp% (blade) or def% (afaik we dont have a def% scaling dps, but we will probably get one soon).

the best cavern relics will be ones where the set effect benefits them. this can include ones with type dmg bonus as a two piece to mix-and-match with another that has the stat they scale off of, a full four piece that helps their overall output, or one a bit more specific which tailors to how their kit works, such as increased follow-up damage (jing yuan, topaz, blade (inert salsotto ornament only), dr. ratio, and possibly clara with the inert salsotto ornament), increased dot (damage over time) damage (kafka, black swan, sampo, and guinaifen) and increased damage against debuffed enemies (acheron and dr. ratio).

the ideal planar ornaments would be ones that focus on increasing damage output, and it usually again depends on the character's kit for what they need, much like the cavern relics, and with factors such as whether they primarily use their skill and/or basic attacks (rutilant arena would be best in this case), if they use follow-up attacks or have a high ultimate damage (inert salsotto), or if you want an overall damage output from high speed (firmament frontline: glamoth, though so far only characters like seele can really make use of it due to her high base speed + her bonus from her kit, but you can also have supports which buff the speed to meet the threshold) to name a few.

the sustain role will want:

body piece: hp%/def%/outgoing healing bonus

feet piece: hp%/def%/speed

planar sphere: hp%/def%

link rope: energy regeneration rate

the role has two sub-categories; the healer (abundance) and the tanks (preservation).

healers would want (sub)stats that prioritise hp% with an outgoing healing bonus body piece + speed + hp% orb + either a hp% or energery regeneration rate rope. (luocha however is an exception, as he scales off atk, so replace the hp% stats with atk% where you can.)

the best cavern relic sets would either be passerby of wandering cloud for the outgoing healing bonus (the extra skill point is nice, but usually the two piece + either another with a speed or hp% two piece is better) two piece longevous disciple for the bonus hp%, messenger traversing hackerspace is good for the increased speed two piece and party action advance four piece if the ultimate can be used on an ally, but the full set is better for supports rather than healers.

planar ornaments that either boost the character's scaling stat or buff the party are ideal (broken keel and penacony, land of dreams can be good ones, primarily broken keel if you can reach the effect resistance threshold).

tanks/shielders would want (sub)stats that prioritise def% and follow the same general set-up as healers, substituting the hp% for def%, and for the body piece to also have def%. (fu xuan is another exception, as she scales off hp for her sustain as she mitigates damage to herself.)

the best cavern relics would either be knight of purity palace for the def% increase two piece and shield absorption increase four piece (the full set is mainly for characters who provide shields), guard of wuthering snow is mainly good for the damage reduction two piece, but even then you would mainly use this for fu xuan with two piece longevous. there aren't any options, but there will probably be more in the future.

and the ideal planar ornaments would be either belobog of the architects for the increase def% and effect hit rate, broken keel if you want to buff your party + have some effect resistance, and possibly penacony, land of dreams if you want to have multiple/mono-typing (i.e. mono quantum with fu xuan as the quantum sustain).

the support role will want:

body piece: hp%/def%/effect hit rate/break effect/crit damage

feet piece: hp%/def%/speed

planar sphere: hp%/def%/type damage bonus

link rope: energy regeneration rate

general supports will usually have a defensive stats such as hp% or def% for survivability + speed boots + a sustain sphere. their main job is to buff a character/the party, so the priority is to keep them alive without having them be one-shot by the enemy.

the best cavern relics will be messenger traversing hackerspace four piece if they can use their ult on an ally/all allies (which is more often than not a yes since their purpose is to buff). there isn't really much else other than this set, as you want to boost your team and you will get a lot of survivability stats from your rolls, so you don't need anything that offers more.

the best planar ornament sets will be either fleet of the ageless for the bonus hp% + teamwide atk% boost after getting 120 speed, broken keel (arguably the best set), and penacony, land of dreams (again, good for mono teams).

niche supports will follow a similar set-up to general supports, with the exception of the body piece. this could either be break effect (such as ruan mei, whose kit relies on it despite being a general support) or crit damage (such as sparkle or bronya who need a high crit dmg to boost others). their role is to work with a specific kit archetype or boost a certain mechanic. topaz can technically fall in this category (especially with her light cone), but she would want more dps-centred sets as listed previously.

the relic sets are basically the same as those of general supports. the only difference are characters like ruan mei, who will want the thief of shooting meteor cavern relic for the increased break effect (messenger traversing hackerspace can still be used but isn't recommended unless you roll a lot of break effect stats to reach 160%, which can be lessened if you use the light cone memories of the past or the planar ornament set talia: kingdom of banditry for the extra break effect at 145 speed.

the planar ornaments will also be the same, unless future sets come out and are more in-demand.

debuffers (nihility) can be a bit more on the offensive side with the stats, but will mainly depend on the effect hit rate body piece + extra sub-stats of that where possible (could be from light cone as well). their main job is to apply debuffs to the enemy, so having a high effect hit rate is ideal in case some bosses have a high resistance.

the best cavern relic sets can vary, and you will typically use ones that increase their damage. for example, welt would want either the full set of wastelander of banditry desert, pela would usually want the full piece of musketeer of wild wheat or maybe even hunter of glacial forest if you want her to smack more, and silver wolf would want the full set of genius of brilliant stars. a recent set that came out is pioneer diver of dead waters, which can be good on them as the four piece (silver wolf especially), or you can use the two piece with their type bonus two piece.

the best planar ornaments will usually be pan-cosmic commercial enterprise, which increases their effect hit rate as well as increases their atk% based on 25% fo their effect hit rate. however, if needed, they can also make use of penacony, land of dreams and/or broken keel, but pan-cosmic is typically a better all-rounder for them. the debuffers will usually be the ones to have a type damage bonus sphere if you want them to do more damage.

another thing to take into consideration is speed. while there is a lot of back and forth about whether speed is necessary and when, i think it really just depends on whether you

a) actively participate in/complete end-game content and need the speed in order to be fast enough to have your characters take their turn at least twice in a cycle (i.e. forgotten hall/memory of chaos, pure fiction, swarm disaster, gold & gears, etc.)

or b) have a character who needs to meet a certain speed threshold in order to make use of a set's passive ability. there are currently five planar ornament sets that have this requirement:

space sealing station - Increases the wearer's ATK by 12%. When the wearer's SPD reaches 120 or higher, the wearer's ATK increases by an extra 12%.

fleet of the ageless - Increases the wearer's Max HP by 12%. When the wearer's SPD reaches 120 or higher, all allies' ATK increases by 8%.

talia: kingdom of banditry - Increases the wearer's Break Effect by 16%. When the wearer's SPD reaches 145 or higher, the wearer's Break Effect increases by an extra 20%.

sprightly vonwacq - Increases the wearer's Energy Regeneration Rate by 5%. When the wearer's SPD reaches 120 or higher, the wearer's action is Advanced Forward by 40% immediately upon entering battle.

firmament frontline: glamoth - Increases the wearer's ATK by 12%. When the wearer's SPD is equal to or higher than 135/160, the wearer deals 12%/18% more DMG.

this is just a general comment: of course there are other sets that people may use on their builds, but we will also get more sets in the future updates, so it really just ultimately depends on which sets you have the best rolls on, and you can always farm more later if you feel you need to!

[tantumuna]

Thoughts on Zora Biology

In this essay I will combine all the information I’ve gathered from the game with all the information I know about the real-life counterparts to the animals Zora are based on and from there I will not only make completely accurate assumptions about how they must be but also bring up a few things that are deeply concerning from an evolutionary standpoint.

Below a read more for your sanity and mine.

Overview

This is based solely on the Zora as they appear in Breath of the Wild/Tears of the kingdom with only minor consideration for how they’ve appeared in other installments. While chronically, BotW/TotK is very early in the Zelda timeline, the designs are the most recent iteration and likely a good representation for what Zora are supposed to be

The faults of this research -

They are obviously a fantasy species and may not correspond directly with their real-life counterparts, however, it’s about all we have to go on so this is what I’ll use

There is not a lot of diversity shown in the Zora, but the inclusion of a mysterious domain far far away in TotK implies there is more than meets the eye

I’m refusing to cite any sources because this is mostly me rambling about a niche interest so. allow me my peculiarities

This is very unorganized and stream of thought so godspeed

Methods include:

Research from the game, including both written and physical

I am a 3D modeler who likes to make fanart of these games, so I use the in game 3D models as reference

Research on real life counterpart animals and oceanology

Key Takeaways

Zora come in three main species

Dolphin (the most prevalent)

Ray

Only Yona and Muzu appear in the series, but Yona coming from another domain implies there are other Rays, for this reason, I am ranking them as the second most common type

Shark

Sidon is the only shark Zora present in the series, and based on the shape of his nose, I have deduced he is likely of the Hammerhead family, more specifically the Bonnethead shark, which has the curved nose crest, whereas most Hammerheads have a straight crest.

Side notes:

Other variations of zora have appeared in different installments and look most closely related to jelly fish, but we are counting this as an outlier for the moment because they are not even remotely related to any of the other species so what am I supposed to do with that

Dorephan is a whale and is likewise the only whale that is present in the series; however, all dolphins are whales. It might be more correct to say that Whale is the most prevalent type of Zora but since they look more similarly to dolphins (all dolphins are whales, not all whales are dolphins) i’m just gonna say Dolphin

Despite their difference in appearance, all Zora are of the same species or of at least close enough resemblance that they are able to intermingle - this is especially important to note for means of reproduction, as if they were all different species too far apart to reproduce, it would not make sense for Yona and Sidon to get married, as they wouldn’t be able to have children. More will be explained on this later down, including thoughts on lineage.

Physical Appearance

Teeth:

Dolphin Zora appear to have the most humanoid sets of teeth, including all flat teeth save for 4 canines in the 4 corners of the mouth

Shark and Ray Zora have all sharp teeth, implying they are primarily carnivores, as sharp teeth are not designed to chew on vegetation.

Outliers:

Dorephan has entirely flat teeth; he appears most similarly to a Blue Whale, which filter feed, but it is important to note that Dorephan does not have baleen

Mipha also has entirely flat teeth despite being more obviously a dolphin

Mipha’s model also does not include a bottom row of teeth, though this was likely done as a game optimization choice; her mouth is so small we never see bottom teeth and therefore it makes no sense to have the game load extra mesh when there’s no use for it

Neck:

All Zora wear some type of neck ornamentation

It’s also worth noting that despite not having much of a neck, Dorephan still wears neck ornamentation. not really sure what his deal is

Necks appear to be very long and very thin, which I believe makes the neck ornamentation entirely necessary. Zora have very large heads, and the size of their necks would not be enough to support them outside of water

Zora likely began to wear neck ornamentation as they left the water in early evolution in order to hold their heads upright. In water, the length/size of their neck would be less of a detriment

There are real societies today that practice elongating the neck and thusly wear rings their whole live to support their heads, so it’s not that crazy to think that the Zora either do it out of necessity or have a similar tradition

Zora cannot go without neck ornamentation or they will not be able to hold up their heads outside of water and would suffer a neck break.

Ray Zora have notably shorter necks, but they have much larger heads which accounts for them still having ornamentation, but it is shorter, as they likely need less support because their heads are closer to their shoulders.

Gills:

Zora can breath in and out of water, so they likely have a developed set of lungs in addition to gills

They have less gills than their counterpart animals tend to, but this is likely because they have the addition of lungs

Comparatively, species like sharks have the ability to breathe through their skin. Some can only breathe like this (which is where the rumor that sharks can never stop moving came from, though this is only true for some species), which would be applicable for Sidon and any other shark Zora we don’t see

We don’t know how much deep-sea swimming, if any, zora are capable of. This might be because they need to make up for having less gills by breathing actual air, or it might just be a weird oversight.

I believe in other installments, the Zora have been entirely under water; because of this, I think the less gills is probably just an aesthetic choice of not wanting to cover their torsos in gills (especially cuz some people find gills to be unsettling looking)

Zora can likely spend as long under water as they want.

The Dots:

I know it’s a common headcannon that the dots are bio-luminescent but I really just think they’re a cute way to tie all the Zora together; i can’t imagine what they actually provide from an evolutionary perspective

Furthermore, there is no IRL counterpart to show mammals emitting true bioluminesence

That being said they are a fantasy race so whatever who cares have your headcanons this is one i just don’t personally agree with.

Eyes:

Because Zora have eyes more or less on the side of their heads, they probably don’t rely on eyesight (especially in the water)

Dolphins and Sharks both have real life counterparts showing the use of electrolocation (the ability to detect electric-magnetic fields in order to navigate) or echolocation, so I’d like to think that the Zora have this ability as well

Yes, I know you can successfully scare Sidon if you ascend into the throne room in totk - i don’t think that disproves my theory, as these seem to be more manual things to use and not just natural things happening all the time

Dorsal Fins:

Despite IRL dolphins having dorsal fins, none of the dolphin Zora do. Sidon is again the only Zora with a dorsal fin, and he actally has two

Because of this, I don���t think Zora have any real use for Dorsal Fins and they’re likely just ornamentation/vestigial

Reproduction

The Physicality

Dolphins/Whales are mammals, but Rays and Sharks are not, however in order for the Zora population to thrive, they likely all need to be able to reproduce together, not just like with like

Because of this (and that they don’t really appear to be mammals in LoZ, even the dolphin/whale inspired Zora), I think it makes sense that they have more ~fish~ related genitals

Males would have claspers and a cloaca; similarly, females would have a cloaca

traditionally, species with claspers have two of them; only one is ever active at a time but go nuts idc

The process

Most Sharks, Rays, Dolphins, and Whales have live births, and because they all need to be compatible, it makes the most sense to assume they all give birth the same way

For the purposes of my long thought process - Zora have live births, but can likely have anywhere from 1-4 pups at once

Yes, I’m choosing to call them pups. Whale babies are called calves so i think pups is better

These species all have WILDLY different gestation periods, so to combine it all into one species, I’ll average it out and say about a 6 month gestation period.

Some sharks/whales have a gestation period of 11-12 months, some longer

some also have incredibly short gestation periods, for instance, the bonnethead shark’s gestation period is only 4-5 months

Obviously, just like IRL, there will be differences from Zora to Zora

Likely gestation period is 7-9 months depending on the Zora

However i could GENUINELY see arguments for Zora having much longer gestation periods especially considering we see so few babies in the actual game

That was a really long way to say They probably just have a normal 9 month gestation period like people do but whatever

Unfortunately, this is really hard to gauge since we don’t have a real gauge on how old any of the Zora are or when they reach maturity

We know Dorephan has been leading for 200 some years but that doesn’t tell us how old he was when he took the throne

we know Sidon is 100+ years old but we don’t know how old he was in his child appearances

It’s just as likely that they have 2-3 year gestation periods and take 50 years just to fully mature but WE WON’T KNWO UNLESS NINTENDO TELLS ME

Development

THIS IS ALL JUST PERSONAL HEADCANON IN ATTEMPTS TO COMBINE HOW THESE IRL SPECIES DEVELOP

I think Zora are born in a sort of tadpole state where they are MOSTLY just their heads + tiny stubby legs that haven’t developed fully yet

Baby zora would be kept in a communal nursery pool (incredibly shallow) while the rest of their development takes place outside of the birther

Kinda just think they develop like frogs do. eventually grow in the rest of their bodies and their legs/arms come in and as they get bigger they are transferred to deeper and deeper pool. they’re free to roam probably slightly smaller than we see the canon kids running around

Some of the kids in totk appear to be quiet young, as their head-side-fins are still growing in and haven’t reached full length

fins are likely one of the last things to develop as Zora get older because all they REALLY need to swim is the big head-tail but we like ornamentation in this species

So to put it simply, here is the development cycle

Vital development happens while still inside the birther, including gills and lungs and head-tail for swimming

Once outside - the head is the first thing to finish developing

While the head is developing, the stubby legs develop out into an actual body with legs and arms

the head finishes developing first and the body has to catch up (see: how fucking massive baby Sidon’s head is compared to his body i mean his head-tail drags on the ground!!! he’s so cute!!!!)

the side-fins will also develop faster than the body

Their development/growth likely never stops, but they will only grow as large as their eating habits can support

This would support Dorephan being a true herbivore as herbivores tend to grow the largest (the largest whales are baleen whales and dolphins, which are whales, tend to be carnivores and much smaller

Hard to say how long it takes them to fully develop or reach maturity, so I’m not even gonna take a guess. it takes however long to work for your fanfic tbqh

Diet

The difference in teeth makes it hard to pin-down an exact Zora diet, and it’s likely entirely decided by what kind of teeth they have

Shark and Ray Zora

They have sharp teeth exclusively, which hints that they may be carnivores

If they do eat any vegetation, they likely need to swallow it in large chunks or whole, as you do require flat teeth to grind vegetation down

Dolphin/Whale Zora

We have instances of omnivore teeth and herbivore teeth

to me, this only makes sense for Dorephan to be a herbivore since he is clearly based off a baleen whale; Mipha’s teeth I think are entirely a weird decision choice given that there are no recorded herbivore dolphins

With this in mind, the Dolphin Zora have likely developed an omnivore diet in order to better survive in their multi-environmental life (ocean and land); they also have the longer necks which to me says that land-life is a bit more important to them

Rays have likely spent more time in the water and their secret far away not-plot relevant domain may even be more akin to the domains we see in other Zelda games, where it’s mostly if not entirely underwater

What do they eat?

Probably fish.

For vegetation, it’s probably limited to larger vegetation for our poor sharp teethed friends whereas the omnivore Zora can eat anything they want; probably a diet similar to Hylians, though the Zora would eat more fish and Hylians eat more land-meat

Zora likely don’t need as much vegetation to survive/be healthy as other groups might given that they seem to have evolved from carnivores

Conclusion

This is meant just to be a fun deep-dive into fantasy biology; no offense is meant towards anyone who disagrees with me and I will take no offense from anyone who disagrees with me

Mipha’s lack of a bottom row of teeth haunts me

I think Sidon and Mipha had a shark mom because otherwise how did Sidon happen

[ilbound]

Many of Kaen’s verses have an ingrained MODERNITY to them ( to some degree ) ; film , video games , social media ⸺ Depending on which canon we look at , Kaen has participated in these things.  And no matter Kaen’s own prominent ubiquity across all their existing canons ( be it via ever-evolving godhood , or prevalence in the public domains as an upstarting on-screen talent ) , I had a moment where I considered : As a character often found in media themself , what media does Kaen like ?

Surprisingly ( or perhaps not ) , I came to the conclusion that ONE of Kaen’s dominant hyperfixations is actually … THE SILENT HILL FRANCHISE .

I’m not going to delve into the proclivities of Kaen as a “gamer” in their off-time , because - frankly - they do not HAVE the pleasure of leisure to consider spending hours at time to dedicate to a game anyways ( at least , not in the majority of their verses where they are constrained by either work or academics & don’t favor taking time for themself otherwise ) .  However , I’d like instead to look at the fact that this speaks to Kaen , psychologically and symbolically , according to the themes and motifs present across the games themselves which , to Kaen’s own admittance , resonate rather deeply with them.

Considering the domain of Silent Hill itself is , as far as I’ve interpreted it , a makeshift PURGATORY by proxy of the character’s making , a reflection of their repressed feelings , Kaen has latched on , quite intently , to the existential concepts amongst the games.  Now , I’m not an expert , so I can’t fully articulate everything as might someone who personally played everything , HOWEVER -- I think it says a lot to the effect that Kaen feels as if they , too , are repressing their shame , their guilt , their trauma , to the end of an inevitable self-destruction and needs find peace ( or punishment ) for it all.

There’s also something , I think , CONCERNING with how much Kaen adores Pyramid Head ( the so-called representative of atonement & judgement ) .  So I feel there’s a lot behind that with the way they constantly feel the need to “make up” for things / perceived wrongs or “prove a point”.  Well , that , and Kaen is just a downright SIMP for the creature.  Kaen doesn’t often purchase merch for anything , but they do … Have a very niche collective of Pyramid Head merch , specifically.  They also have the DVDs of both films and WILL MAKE YOU WATCH THEM .  And before you ask , yes , SH2 & 3 are Kaen’s favorites of the game series and yes , they did go ballistic over the SH2 remake announcement.

[youlooksogoodinblue]

Soo i have dnd brain rot and i havent been able to play in a while(like for years :[ ) so here r the fob albums as dnd classes and subclasses(not including eowyg and eps and stuff). this is honestly for a niche audience of just me.

TTTYG

Tttyg is an arcane trickster rogue. Tttyg is teen angst perfectly captured in an album in my humble opinion(and what suits that edge better than a rogue!) Tttyg registers as more of a martial class than a magic user but could utilize both, and definitely something more agility/dexterity based than pure strength.

FUTCT

Futct is a bard through and through, an edgy bard but a bard nonetheless. I think college of eloquence subclass. The lyrics in this album are a major highlight and the way they r delivered is just so good(its my fav album so i may be biased). The lyrics of futct is some of the most biting and/or horny of all of fobs discography.

Ioh

Definitely a druid, idk if its too derivative but maybe circle of stars? Of the pre-hiatus albums it feels the most grounded and like grown to me, which gives more druidic healer energy than anything else. This is mostly vibes based lol

Folie à deux

WARLOCK. FIEND PATRON. This is the one i feel the strongest about. Like the themes of fame and like disillusionment with it gives total deals with a devil/ monkeys paw kind of vibe that a warlock pact brings. And also vibes are right, argue with the wall

SRAR

Okay im not super certain for this one but as soon as the thought came in my brain it felt right, originally i thought barbarian, a specifically tanky one but the vibes were off bc this album feels very light, adaptive, and nimble while also feeling like sturdy. Way of the long death monk just fits the vibes in my brain so much better. Like it still can be used more defensively and the temp hp touch of death and the ki to hp thing gives off reborn/ not broken up just on break/ rise from the ashes come back vibes.

AB/AP

This is definitely a barbarian to me. Berserker or giant? Just this feels like a big strong person who can tank and deal alot of damage, and also while this album doesnt really have that much rage compared to other albums the angry harsher songs hit harder bc of that reason, you feel me? Also no disrespect this album would mainly thrive in battle is the vibe i get.

Mania

Wild magic sorcerer. Yeah. Of all the albums this feels like a magic user, simultaneously innate/natural yet unpredictable/uncontrollable. Fits the vibe of the reception of the album, a tone that felt out of left field yet still them.

SM(F)S

Once again maybe too derivative but twilight domain cleric? This album is the most healed in my brain so its definitely more of a healer and defender in my brain. Just the vibes, if this were a party, smfs would definitely be the parent figure and being a cleric fits that sort of energy sometimes.

I could also see this album as a divination wizard.

[madhogthymaster]

Down The Cabbit Hole: The Weird World of Klonoa Literature - An Archive (Part 3)

[PART 1] [PART 2]

This is where our burrowing ends, in the most awkward crevices of pro-bono fandom work: the oxygen-depriving hole of amateurishly translated Japanese comics. The older among you might recall the days where the only way to read your favourite unpopular manga was to rely on some random fellow on the Internet to provide it through the incomparable medium of "scanlations." That is to say, poorly scanned pages from a physical copy they somehow owned subsequently localized through the power of Grit, Determination and Google Translate. Right about now, your bones should have begun turning to dust. Before you're gone from this world, however, please consider holding on for a while longer as I share my last archived tweets on the subject of Fluffy Boy Literature. As you might have guessed, the covered works belong within the domain of fan-translated scans and, as such, they occupy a very specific, very niche place in that befuddling collective unconscious we all know as The Web. In layman terms, stuff's about the get wacky.

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25 July 2022

It is now time to enter the (forbidden) world of Klonoa's physical literary media - as scanned and translated by community hero, powerstone05. Appropriately, I will start with the much lesser known, unofficial and self-published story by Mofusuke, Dream at Night.

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I shall not rag too hard on the obviously unprofessional translation work here - it was done by a fan, after all. The awkward lettering and sentence repetition give it the distinct charm of something decisively made in the early days of "Scanlationns."

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Which is a surprisingly good fit to the adorably simple art style that was also drawn by a fan. I do like the sibling dynamic between Klonoa and Huepow, whereas the latter acts as an impatient older brother to the former. Grandpa reprimanding them at the end is the icing on top of this fluff cake.

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There isn't much else to say: it is a short, fifteen pages long doujinshi and it's pure slice-of-life. It is all it wanted and needed to be.

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As an addendum: the existence of the Namco x Capcom anthology manga, based off the Japanese-exclusive gaming crossover of the same name, has been made known to me. I've read the only Klonoa centric comic from it and it's just one dumb, obnoxiously protracted joke. I don't care for this.

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27 July 2022

I have been postponing the inevitable for far too long. This is Shippuu Tengoku Kaze no Klonoa (2002-2003) by Hiroshi Katou as questionably, yet valiantly, scanslated by powerstone05. It is the most "renowned" official literature within the Klonoa community.

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Ah, of course... puns. Bad puns. Bad Japanese puns localized into English. Those puns.

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This manga is a fast-paced, madcap comedy - emphasis on fast-paced. It moves at a speed of a million kilometers per hour, constantly shooting visual gags at your face on almost every panel without any proper sense of pacing and with flimsily established setups.

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The translation does not help but it's clear that this lack of focus and breathing time between jokes is an intrinsic issue. Frankly, I find this brand of "Machine Gun Humour" exhausting to read. I'd much prefer my comedy to be akin to a shotgun: powerful and deliberate.

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On the other hand, I enjoy the artwork. Take a look at this delightfully detailed two page spread of pure wanton destruction, capped by Klonoa's comically traumatized features.

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It must be pointed out that the entire premise of this manga is Klonoa being the biggest moron who ever lived. Your mileage with it may vary.

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Right! This manga is turning into a "Looney Tunes" short and I'm starting to warm up to it. Katou has a clear penchant for slapstick humour. The propeller hat made me chuckle.

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I finished reading the whole thing - well, skimming would be the appropriate term. It's a tiresome little deviation that could not quite distract me from its flaws. There isn't anything worth noting as all the over-the-top, frenetically paced gags tends to blend together.

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With that, I have successfully covered all the major, currently available comic book media related to Klonoa: a thoroughly mixed bag, overall.

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The fan-made web series Dream Crusaders sits atop the proverbial hill even with its troublesome connection to the insipid Sol Noctis storyline. Everything else is various degrees of forgettable or insubstantial.

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'Tis an unsurprising result considering how hard to follow the games are - the first two games, that is. Regardless, this was an illuminating experience in its own right from the perspective of how malleable (or not at all) this franchise can be. Thanks for reading.

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As a posthumous note, there was a final piece of literature worth mentioning to you, an officially licensed short manga that served as promotional material, introduction and basic tutorial for the 2009's Nintendo Wii remake of the first game, Klonoa: Door to Phantomile. The comic is readily available online if you're curious about it.

With that, the excavation has been halted, the dream has ended, my terrible analogies have been put to rest, my archive has been shared. As I lack a romantic way to see us out of here, I shall simply bid you a fond farewell and a good night sleep. Stay wondrous, fellow Phantomilians.