#is the way she allows the gods to be very present in their worshiper's lives

[12pt-times-new-roman]

I am chewing on the description of the Matron of Ravens being "panicked... and maybe a touch cowardly." hell yeah, give me tender, bleeding flesh on the god that used to be human. give me humanity underlying the monstrosity of the divine. for the god whose whole deal is hiding her face and name behind her mask, let that facade slip in the way she's so afraid of because now, something else scares her more.

[balkanradfem]

So I've found Alyssa Grenfell on youtube. She shares her experience of leaving mormonism, and the inner workings of the religion. I had very little ideas about what mormonism is, only that it's a high-control religion, very difficult to leave, and has people knocking on doors trying to get converts. I've been interested to find out more, and I ended up watching almost all of her content, and some of the information I've got from it opened my eyes on other feminist topics, and I believe is relevant to the current discourse!

So if you, like me, don't know how mormonism works, it started when a guy decided that he too could be a part of the bible; he wrote a bible part two: mormon, and proclaimed himself a prophet. Then he started a religion based on his writings, decided it was more important than the bible itself because he 'translated it from gold tablets god gave him', and started gaining followers by convincing people he's the prophet. Once he had managed to get a following, he soon started to sexually exploit the wives and daughters of these followers, to the point where he had 20-40 wives and had married 14yo children. Families allowed it to happen because he would promise them to be royalty in the afterlife. He eventually got into a lot of trouble for stealing and raping children so he was killed by an angry mob, but the religion continued.

The religion is same as christianity except more rules (no coffee, no alcohol, no smoking), eternal worship of the predator who wrote it, followers are pressured to follow the rules exactly, and, the vital part, the followers have to give 10% of their income to the church. They developed a culture where once every young mormon kid comes of age, they have to go on a 'mission', which means they're removed from their home, and have to spend 2 years (1,5 for women) living in a foreign area, knocking on doors, sharing the gospel, trying to convert people. The conversion rate is extremely low, but at that point kids have invested so much time, effort, energy and passion for the religion, they become devoted to it and start to feel alienated in the world that rejects their religion. And even with the low conversion rate, every new convert means another continuous source of income for the church. So it's very profitable to send out young adults to make these sales. The kids are told that if they don't complete their missions, they will not be able to marry, and marriage is presented as their only life purpose.

So how rich is the church at this point? 230 billion dollars. I've been shocked to hear this because I had no idea. Alyssa explained that the mormon church is as rich as Pepsi, they have more money than Disney and McDonalds. So you might be wondering, like I did, well what are they doing with all that money? I've been left to wonder this for a while, until I watched the video called 'Why are so many influencers mormon?', which explained it. I didn't even realize a lot of influencers were mormon. But, this video showed me something both disturbing, and eye opening.

Before I go into that, I have to point out how patriarchal and misogynistic this religion is. Women are not given any options except marriage, and it's presented as the only righteous way to live. They're groomed for marriage from a very young age, encouraged to start writing letters to their future husbands at the age of 9. They're taught cooking, sewing and childcare, and to coddle any males in the family. It's taken for granted that m*n won't respect women, to the point where male children are allowed to harass grown women and their families will not intervene or consider it a problem. Chastity and purity are promoted to the level where members of the religion are expected to wear special underwear at all times, which hides their entire torso, shoulders, and legs down to their knees, and their clothing is expected to cover this up completely. They're rejected by the religion if they dare to have sex before marriage, or drink alcohol or coffee, or in some cases, tea. The church has a history of allowing and promoting polygamy, in the sense that a male was allowed to have as many wives as he wanted; they've since stopped this, but refused to break up the existing marriages. They're also promoting anti gay and racist propaganda, which Alyssa observed in school where she'd been teaching; a gay kid almost ended his life due to extreme homophobia.

I know all of this is somewhat common in all areas of society, all religions, and all cultures, but in mormonism it seems to be written into the core of it.

So now, why are so many influencers mormon? I didn't even know they were. The influencers themselves are not promoting the fact that they're mormon, nor does it come up in viral discussions. Ballerina farm is mormon. Tradwives are mormon. Whataboutaub, Rachel Parcel, brooklynandbailey, tanner_mann, thebucketlistfamily, Taylor Frankie Paul, Sarah Beeston, Ruby Franke, these are all mormon. Most of the Utah-based influencers are mormon, and there's a bigger amount of successful and popular influencers from Utah, than from LA or NY.

For me it immediately explained why this viral content is like that. Why we're having such influx of highly patriarchal, anti-feminist, very dangerous and sexist content, put in front of the eyes of young women. Why it's being promoted as an ideal way of life. How are these women able to share this life as if they truly believed it was good and ideal. How could they think it's harmless? If they're using the internet to the extent that they're creating content, how would they not be exposed to any feminism at all? And they wouldn't because it's against their religion to engage with content like that, or with people talking about it. Because being raised in a high-control religion, they would truly believe their lives are the ideal. They would be presented with it as their only option, the only way of life possible for a woman.

It's heartbreaking because I can now understand why it was so easy to push Ballerina Farm to give up her entire life ambition to get married and carry children for a male she didn't even want to go out with, the pressure from the religion to do so would be immense, she would have been raised to see this as the only option, everything else in her life would be considered pointless. She wouldn't have an actual choice, she'd be groomed for this from the moment she was born. Mormons don't advertise 'looking for your soulmate', they only instruct women to marry a mormon male who completed his mission and make it work.

So how does the immensely rich mormon church play into this? I couldn't see it until Alyssa explained in a very detailed way how youtube content advertising works. I didn't know about this either, but here's the overview:

How much you get paid on youtube, instagram, tik-tok, or other online content platform, depends on what type of content it is, based on how much advertisers are willing to pay to put adverts on it. For instance, you get paid much more for finance content, because banks will pay premium prices to be advertised in a finance-related video. If you're making content on cooking, you get paid way less, because it's not such a lucrative field. If you're making content on christianity, you get similarly low price as for cooking, christian church is not that rich. But, if you're making content as a mormon, that's showcasing some aspect of a mormon life, even if you don't specifically say you're mormon, the price goes way up, to the point where it's as lucrative as finance. The mormon church is making sure that the mormon influencers are being paid premium prices for their content, because people who get massively interested in the influencers, eventually find out that it's the mormon life being advertised, and some of them consider taking on mormonism. Which gives church more converts, which means the church will earn more money. The content we're watching is one huge advert sponspored by mormon church, and we don't even know it.

Alyssa figured this out because her content falls under the keyword 'mormon', and her comments warned her that the church is advertising on her videos, even when she's making mormon-critical content. She then realized that she too was being paid a premium price for her views, just because they're mormon themed. She went on to discover that even just being an influencer in Utah will fetch a premium price, because most of mormons are based in Utah. For more detailed and comprehensive explanation on this, watch her video!

Advertising is not the only way the mormon church is spending their money, they've also built a shopping mall, and are basically spending their money by investing and gambling and everything any corporation does with their profits. It's making me mad, and also makes the members of the church mad when they discover where 10% of their income goes, because they're told it's being used for charity and community service, and not advertisments and building malls.

For me this solves a mystery of how is it possible, in this day and age to have such influx of tradwives and influencers of 'traditional life', they're being sponsored by an organization making a profit off of it, making sure that anyone making this content is so well paid, they're able to live off of it, and keep creating more of it, and in the process of doing that, groom young women into their lifestyle.

Learning more about religions, specifically high-control religions, makes me realize just how much of it is happening all around us, but invisible, not naming what it is. It's similar to MLM's, the people inside are constantly trying to lure more people in, to make profit for those on the top, while the organization keeps changing names and hides their business structure in order to save their reputation. People can get influenced by it, and sucked in, without even knowing about it. Somehow most MLM's are also in Utah.

Mormon church also asked to no longer be called that, in order to stop being associated with the words like 'cult', which people have identified it as. Now they're working under more secretive names, and hidden business practices, so we wouldn't even know what we're being influenced by, and why is the content in front of us what it is.    

[eldritch-spouse]

How would Belo be with a cult leader s/o?

She already has followers consisting of both monsters and humans who rave about how perfect she is, and they think Belo is a testament to that.

I mean, not just anyone can receive the affection of an angel; she must be akin to a god!

There is a hierarchy in the cult, and Belo is at the top of it. He can rest his head on her lap and watch as the others worship the very ground his lady walks on (he doesn't have a choice; the leader demands it this physical contact, otherwise she will be unhappy the whole day).

They validate Belo in every thought he has of his lady and also obey him as he is basically the leader's right hand (or so he believes, but in reality, they respect him so much because he is their leader's precious).

And what if more angels started coming out of the woodwork to serve his lady? If he was able to handle the cultists, surely this would be a stretch.

I can just imagine the cultists praising Belo as they dress him up in lingerie fitting to their leader's taste, then tie him up, mindful of his wings, and leave him in his lady's quarters. His lady comes in and gets on top of him, caressing his wings and whispering something about being her 'pretty little canary' and 'give yourself to me, show me your devotion.'.

This is the ideal situation for Belo.

Unlike most angels, who tend to have a mindset favorable to sharing with other celestials, Belo gets intoxicated when he realizes he's the only holy entity in a location, that he no longer has to share, that his tier hardly matters because he's the only celestial present and automatically the authority in a plethora of matters. He feels special in a way he never has before and his ego swells almost incomprehensibly.

Which is exactly why he's living his best life in this situation. Not only are you a sacred being, your generosity blinds you to the misdeeds of your own following. My Lady they are clumsy, obliviously disrespectful, they hold no discipline! Someone who is built to serve and protect needs to teach them how to behave, how to conduct themselves before you and how to make sure that your love is not for naught.

It's only right that Belo be the only one allowed to touch you. His holy nature makes him incapable of corrupting you, and others live through him their own lecherous, selfish fantasies of being your favored.

With him at the helm of many secondary areas and tasks, your cult blossoms like the loveliest lotus and gains a level of steadfast efficiency previously unforeseen.

The arrival of other angels... Complicates things. They're immediately perceived as threats to Belo's position.

You may not know this, but he's only a power. If there's a dominion, throne or, Eden forbid, a seraphim... By their own laws, Belo could have to step down and allow the worshiper-tiers to overrule him in the hierarchy.

And he goes half-mad at the idea.

That's not happening.

No tier can understand and service you better than him, and Belo will personally confront the more powerful celestials about this. There is a very special balance here, in your wonderful garden of light, where the rank of an angel is not what makes them worthy of your love and guidance. Belo may be just a power outside of these blessed grounds, but in them, he is your second in command, your favored, your fighter, your whorshiper, your guardian. He's your everything.

And though he may celebrate the arrival of more angels beside you, he makes sure they always remember their place.

He's determined to keep this perfect balance.

In your name, he thinks as he placidly remains in position, bottom eye counting the patterns on his service gown and the jewelry on his spread wings, everything in your name.

This won't be like before. He's doing so much better now, the cultists are behaving perfectly, the workflow is stable and satisfactory, the other angels are impeccable. You wouldn't leave them. Not when everything is immaculate, when mistakes are non-existent. This time will he different.

You enter the room, and his thoughts vanish.

[lairofdragonagelore]

Flemeth / Mythal (part 2)

Flemeth is an enigmatic character along the series that seems to be related to the whole plot of Dragon Age since DAO. In the present post I will try to collect all the relevant information about her and about what she says, since she is one of the characters that I think we can rely more when it comes to digging the "truth" behind the DA lore.

The current post has the following bolded sections:

Flemeth in DAO

Story of Conobar and Osen

Flemeth in DA2

Flemeth in DAI

Mythal as an Elvhenan Goddess

Mythal as a Changed Goddess

Flemeth and Mythal

Mythal and the Well of Sorrows

Flemeth and the Music

Flemeth, Mythal, and Motherhood

Artwork of Flemeth

Flemeth in the books (or comics)

Conclusions

Flemeth and Mythal

If Kieran doesn't exist, the Inquisitor who drank from the Well will stop Morrigan from attacking Flemeth when she appears. However, if Kieran exists, Flemeth claims in this situation: "You will endanger the boy" meaning that this power she is planning to use may hurt him. It's hard to know if this is just a comment she does, a display of Mythal's motherhood, or simply a way to piss Morrigan off.

In another fragment of this scene, we have a cryptic explanation of how Flemeth can contain Mythal:

“Once I was but a woman, crying out in the lonely darkness for justice. And she came to me, a wisp of an ancient being, and she granted me all I wanted and more. I have carried Mythal through the ages ever since, seeking the justice denied to her. […] She is a part of me, no more separe than your heart from your chest." [...] "But what was Mythal? A legend given name and called a god, or something more? Truth is not the end, but a beginning.”

It's fair to question if this "ancient being" could not be a demon, as the Inquisitor says at some point. However, the voices of the Well say that Flemeth speaks the Truth. So, can we be [more or less] sure that Flemeth is not possessed by a demon? I personally have some issues about the accuracy and the reliability of the voices of the Well, because we know they are controlled by Mythal herself [read section below].

Flemeth also gives us room to wonder about who and what Mythal was. The fact she is cryptically telling us that Mythal was more than any other Evanuris makes me suspect and support the theory that Mythal is the one with double nature [instead of Fen'Harel], she is Evanuris and Forgotten One, and the Forgotten Ones were dragons that Evanuris and Elvhenan worshipped before claiming Divinity for themselves [details in Attempt to rebuild Ancient Elvhenan History  or in The Missing]

Flemeth: A herald, indeed. Shouting to the heavens, harbinger of a new age. As for me, I have had many names. But you... may call me Flemeth. Inquisitor: Flemeth appears in other legends, helping heroes for reasons of her own F: I nudge history, when it’s required. Other times, a shove is needed.  [chuckles]

These pieces of information also tell us and reinforce what we saw in DAO and DA2: Flemeth meddles with human history so the events go to a direction she wants. It's not clear what goal is behind all this, but I think it's fair to conclude she is preparing what she promised to Mythal: avenge her, a reckoning that will shake the very heavens.

When Morrigan claims that Flemeth "prolongs her unnatural life by possessing the bodies of her daughters" Flemeth answers

Flemeth: That's what you believe, is it? Morrigan: I found your grimoire, and I am no fool, old woman Flemeth: [chuckles] Yet here you stand, bound into my service. My daughter ran from me long ago. I've let her be... until now, it seems.

Again, we have no clear answer about the process that allowed Flemeth to live so much or if it is this body the one that lived for centuries, but considering the piece of information we obtained from Yavanna in the comic The Silent Grove, I think it's fair to assume that is not Flemeth who is living through different bodies, but Mythal, who is so entangled with Flemeth's soul that now they are one single entity. Flemeth told us before that Mythal and herself are one thing. This concept is also reinforced when we speak with Anders in DA2 about his possessed condition: It's impossible to determine when Anders finishes and Justice starts. They are one now. However, this brings into account a sharp observation: we don't see this same condition in Kieran.

Do Flemeth and Kieran suffered similar possession condition? If Kieran has the power of an Old God, he will be called by Mythal in dreams, activate the Eluvian by his own, and walk into the Fade [The Fade - Flemeth: Part 1, Part 2]. Morrigan will say "To direct the eluvian here would require immense power". This fact shows us that Flemeth/Mythal shares similar powers to Urthemiel [the soul inside Kieran] since she is in the Fade by herself. This would support a little bit the idea I've been exploring long ago about the Forgotten Ones being dragons, and Mythal being one of them; the actual real Evanuris who is Evanuris and Forgotten One at the same time [and not Fen'Harel, as the unreliable Dalish Legends repeat] since in the comic Until We Sleep we learn that the Great Dragons had absolute control of the Fade [dreamer/somniari's powers-like].

Kieran: I'm sorry mother. I heard her calling to me. She said now was the time . Morrigan [to Flemeth]: Then what is it you want? Felemeth, looking at Kieran: One thing and one thing only. Kieran: I have to go, mother. Flemeth: He carries a piece of what once was, snatched from the jaws of darkness. You know this. Morrigan: He is not your pawn, mother. I will not let you use him. Flemeth: Have you not used him? Was that not your purpose, the reason you agreed to his creation? Morrigan: That was then. Now he... he is my son. [Flemeth tilts her head, curious, as if she was surprised of a response she was not expecting]

From this exchange we see again how Mythal is deeply related to the Old Gods. Even though we don't know the reason why she calls Urthemiel nor why or for what there is no time, we can see that Mythal has some level of command over Urthemiel.

We also see once more the concept of "Darkness", as a metaphoric word to mean "The Blight".

And finally, the whole scene seems to encourage the suspicion that Flemeth has been testing Morrigan's sense of motherhood, which again makes some sense: thanks to the Dev's notes in Somewhere in the Crossroads, The Silent Grove comic, and Kieran's words about the inheritor of a new age, we know Flemeth has been raising Morrigan to become the next Inheritor. We can assume it means she will be the inheritor of Myhtal's godhood, who may need some sense of motherhood in her willingly host, maybe?

Morrigan: Flemeth extends her life by possessing the bodies of her daughters'. That was the fate she intended for me. I thwarted her, and now she intends to have Kieran instead. Inquisitor: The way she talked about Kieran... Flemeth: I am not the only one carrying the soul of a being long thought lost. Morrigan: He is more than that, Mother. Flemeth: As am I, yet do you hear me complain? Our destinies are not so easily avoided, dear girl. [...] Inquisitor: If Kieran is so special, why did you wait until now to come for him? Flemeth: I did not know where he was. Morrigan cleverly hid him from me... until now Morrigan: T'was the well... Flemeth: Always grasping beyond your reach, despite all what I taught you.

Flemeth seems to compare herself to Kieran in nature and destinies: souls of old creatures that were considered gone, that remain entangled with the soul of the body they inhabit, and have a particular destiny to fulfil [which is unknown to us].

Another curious thing: even though Flemeth has enormous power, specially in the Fade, she was unable to locate Kieran for a long time. Only when someone drank from the Well she was able to do so. We know that Morrigan lived with Kieran in the spaces in-between for a long time [the Crossroads], so we can assume that these spaces are not connected to the Fade and certainly Evanuris can't perceive it. Again, we learnt about the nature of these spaces in-between in The Crossroads [DLC Trespasser]: Elven Mountain Ruins, where the freed slaves tried to recover and hide from the Evanuris while gathering strength against them.

Inquisitor: You're... going to steal the body of a young boy? Flemeth: If my daughter believes it, that it must be so. [...] My daughter struggles. I expected no less of her.

Again, we see Mythal cannot care less to explain, and lets Morrigan to believe whatever she wants to. This coincides with what Flemeth told us in a previous scene: humans don't want the truth, and that's the true nature of their hearts. So, her approach is always “I will let you believe what you want to believe” and does nothing to make you change of opinion. In DAO, however, we find that she claims that the only wise attitude is to doubt about everything [Read DAO section in Part 1].

Mythal and the Well of Sorrows

If Morrigan drank from the Well of Sorrows:

Inquisitor: This meeting was not accident, was it? Flemeth: Clever lad/lass Morrigan: The voices.... came from you? Flemeth: The price of the Well seemed no dire thing when you saw so much gain, hmn?

If the Inquisitor drank from the Well of Sorrows:

Inquisitor: This meeting was not accident, was it? The voices from the well directed me here, and you direct them. Flemeth: Clever lad

This is also an important piece of lore: the Well of Sorrows, which gathers all the knowledge of all the high priests that served Mythal, and left their "will" in it [read Abelas' words about the concept of "will" that he lets transpire in Temple of Mythal-Part 5], are also controlled by Mythal. So this Well is not entirely a reliable independent source of information, it's as reliable as Flemeth wants it to be.

Inquisitor [If they drank from the Well]: So must I serve you now because I drank from the Well? Flemeth [chuckles]: Is that how you see yourself? A servant? I have no command for you. Not yet. Inquisitor [If Morrigan drank from the Well]: did you come here to make Morrigan serve you? Flemeth: [laughs] oh, what a servant she would make.

This piece continues supporting Abelas' words about Mythal's followers not being slave/servants against their will. Flemeth is amused to see how heavily the Inquisitor sees this position towards her, she jokes and laughs about it, and claims that there is no commands for the inquisitor. "Not yet", since she is also Flemeth, who will avenge Mythal, and will use any tool she can use to do so.

Flemeth: I wished to see who drank from the Well of Sorrows. It has been a very long time. [chuckle, if Morrian drank from it] Imagine my surprise to discover it was you. [if the Inquisitor drank it] Now I have, and he/she is free to go. Morrigan: and that's all? Flemeth: A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, Morrigan. You were never in danger from me.

This again shows how Mythal is not really fond of unwilling servants. She lets Morrigan/the Inquisitor free. And then, she claims that souls cannot be forced upon the unwilling. This line, as cryptic as anything that Flemeth says, seems to imply two things: Mythal never wanted slaves, but loyal followers. And if it's true that Flemeth's long life is because she transferred Mythal to her daughters, it should not be a process forced upon an unwilling host. Thanks to Yavanna in The Silent Grove, we suspect that Flemeth wanted Morrigan to be the next carrier of Mythal's fragment. Due to the Dev's note in Somewhere in the Crossroads, we confirm that Flemeth wanted this, and we suspect it is what she places in the Mirror before being consumed by Solas. Although if Solas took that piece of power/godhood, makes little sense to assume the same fragment was placed on the mirror, unless Mythal can divide that divine power [which is something she can do to some extent according to all what she told us about being a fragment of a whole]. In any case, we also know that Flemeth lets Morrigan/the Inquisitor free because she knows she will die soon at the hands of Solas [as the Dev's note in Somewhere in the Crossroads seems to confirm].

In the next scene, when the Inquisitor controls the dragon guardian of the altar, we see that, visually speaking, they use the same power that Flemeth cast on the one who drank from the well. So it seems to imply that the Inquisitor can control this dragon like Flemeth can control anyone who drank from the well.

Flemeth and the music:

It’s in DAO when we start seeing that Flemeth has a soft pattern of a music theme in her speech. When you find Flemeth for a second time, due to Morrigan’s personal quest, she speaks of “Morrigan’s music” as if it were a metaphor for Morrigan's manipulation. This image also brings us an analogy with the Blight and its sweet song, which manipulates blighted creatures into looking for Archdemons to awaken them [or most likely, to open the gates that keep trapped the entity in the Black City, the true origin of the song, according to Avernus in Soldier’s Peak]

Flemeth sounds very “done with” this potential assassination of her, again. This repeated situation where she sees that the ones she helped once return to kill her, may have given Mythal a bad taste in her mouth. In fact, she adds “It’s an old, old story [that Flemeth] even told. It’s a dance poor Flemeth knows well”, referring to Mythal’s. Back then, when we were playing DAO, it was impossible for us to understand the underlying meaning of these words even though we could notice there was something else. Now, thanks to DAI, all these lines are much clearer.

She doesn’t say the truth behind all this situation even if we ask her to do so simply because she knows the heart of humans: they do not want the Truth [this line was said in DAI], and she knows they prefer the comfort of the lies instead. “We believe what we want to believe”. Flemeth, then, turns into a Dragon and fights us if we choose that option. Only when we pick this option we can be sure she becomes a dragon. Up to that moment, we were hinted by Morrigan that Flemeth had polymorphed into a big unspecified creature and grabbed the Warden and Alistair in her talons.

Another reference to music that Flemeth uses appears in DAI:

Flemeth: You seek to preserve the powers that were, but to what end? It is because I taught you, girl, because things happened that were never meant to happen. She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! Mythal clawed and crawled her way through the ages to me, and I will see her avenged! Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance.

And considering the post Songs and elements that sing and whisper in DA Lore, we can agree that this line seems pretty curious and it almost allows us to link Flemeth's incoming avenge of Mythal with the Blighted song, specially if we explore all the hypothesis that sprouted in Speculations about the Vinyl Art.

Flemeth, Mythal, and Motherhood

The concept of Motherhood in Flemeth is controversial at best. Without going into a deep judgement of her character, we need to remember particular bits of lore and concepts we know about Mythal.

Mythal was always related to motherhood. It's not only something that is present in the unreliable Dalish legends, it's something we see clearly in the Temple of Mythal, and in her Mosaic [read Myhtal's section in the post Evanuris] and in Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal or Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara.

In DAO, Flemeth--as the owner of a fragment of Mythal--is presented too explicitly as a witch that will possess Morrigan, questioning her genuine sense of motherhood. I think DAO had a poor presentation of a "misinterpretation", clarified later in DAI, simply because in DAO, at the end of Morrigan's Quest, there are two questionable items: Flemeth's Grimoire and "Robes of Possesion",

The grimoire doesn't say anything relevant in its description and all what we learn about it comes from Morrigan's perspective, who understands it very wrongly. But the robe has a straightforward description:

"The original intent of these robes is clear: a "welcome home" present from Flemeth, designed to sap Morrigan's will and ease the ancient sorceress's possession of her daughter. With Flemeth dead, these robes no longer pose a danger to Morrigan--but Maker help those who get in her way."

Again, this vision is after reading the grimoire and trusting Morrigan's interpretation. This item has -1 will, which seems to be very contradictory to what Flemeth claimed in DAI: "A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, you were never in danger from me" which means, in my opinion, three situations happened in all those years in between games:

Or DAO had a different idea about what to do with Flemeth originally and it changed over the years [very likely],

Or this robe is a bad designed red herring [they are lying to the player to avoid spoiling the concept of Mythal in Flemeth]

Or there is a real lore-wise explanation of this that needs a re-interpretation of the grimoire without the biases that Morrigan had acquired along her life. Maybe a re-read of this item with the Well of Sorrow's wisdom may enlighten us differently. However, this is speculation and we can't do it ingame.

We know that Yavanna in the comic The Silent Grove claims that Morrigan doesn't understand what Flemeth is doing, and apparently, what she will receive from her is a "gift", not unwillingly possession.

Kieran, if he has the old soul, will claim that Morrigan is the "inheritor" of the new age, which aligns with what Yavanna implies and the Dev's notes in DAI say: what Flemeth was trying to do is to give Morrigan the "essence of godhood, a gift that Morrigan misunderstood as hostile possession", read  Somewhere in the Crossroads [Ending] for details.

The presentation of this issue in DAO makes us wonder a lot about Flemeth's sense of motherhood. On the other side, thanks to DAI, we know that Mythal was changed in a way that she abandoned her Children [the People she always seems to be so fond of], because "things happened that were never meant to happen". In DA2 and DAI we find that Mythal is also presented and perceived as a goddess that protects, with some degree of Motherhood, but also abandonment [especially in DAI]: She also abandoned Abelas and his people, as the new generations of guardians lose they deep devotion to Mythal [read Untranslatable Elven Writing, from Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal] .

On the other hand, we lack of context. We don't know how Mythal was killed, if it was due to a betrayal from the Evanuris because she trusted them, and why she raised Morrigan harder than she should have.

Even though this Mythal is changed and has a questionable sense of motherhood, we see in DAI a motherhood test: when Morrigan tells Flemeth to leave her son and take her instead, Flemeth takes Urthemiel's fragment and leaves them both alone. Later, Morrigan will claim this was a test she was not sure she had passed.

[Kieran looks at Flemeth] Flemeth: As you wish. [She looks at Morrigan] Hear my proposal, dear girl. Let me take the lad, and you are free of me forever. I will never interfere with or harm you again. Or, keep the lad with you... and you will never be safe from me. I will have my due. Morrigan: I will take my chances. Flemeth: I found you once, girl. What makes you think I will not find you again? Morrigan Take over my body now, if you must. Just let Kieran go. He will be better off without me, just as I was better off without you. [Flemeth seems to make a face of hurt, as if those words reached her. Then, she looks at Kieran, and it seems to look like they can communicate in silence. Then she smiles at him as a blue glow passes from Kieran's body to Flemeth's] Kieran: No more dreams? Flemeth: No more dreams. [As Kieran returns to his mother] A soul is not forced upon the unwilling, Morrigan. You were never in danger from me. Listen to the voices. They will teach you... as I never did. Flemeth: [...] I will have my due. Morrigan: He returns to me. Flemeth: Decided so quickly? Morrigan: Do whatever you wish. Take over my body now, if you must, but Kieran will be free of your clutches. I am many things, but I will not be the mother you were to me. [Flemeth seems to make a face of hurt, as if those words reached her.]

So, what seems to transpire in both scenes is that Flemeth ends up hurt by Morrigan's words about her bad motherhood. Another detail is that those who have ancient beings in their body seem to have "dreams", hard to understand what that means. We can't say if these dreams are, in truth, walks through the Fade, or something else.

Another thing that stands out is that these scenes seem to show that Flemeth has been testing Morrigan's sense of motherhood. And if the player doesn't suspect this earlier, the next scene is explicit about it:

Returning from the Fade: Morrigan: Are you alright, Kieran? You are not hurt? Kieran: I feel lonely. [kieran leaves] Morrigan: she wanted the Old God soul all along. Is it worth reminding myself that perhaps I do not know everything after all? My mother has the soul of an elven goddess—or whatever "Mythal" truly was—and her plans are unknown to me. [...] I knew she kept the truth from me. I even suspected she was not truly human... but this? I always thought the so-called "elven gods" were little more than glorified rulers, now I have doubts. And doubt is... an uncomfortable thing, Inquisitor. Just be thankful you did not drink from the Well. I am evidently tied to my mother for eternity. Inquisitor: So Kieran had... the soul of an Old God? Morrigan: [...], yes. He has never known anythign else. I am uncertain what effect this will have on him. [...] I told you at the temple. The magic of old must be preserved, no matter how feared. Kieran had a destiny, and now it is in Flemeth's hands. I suppose we shall see what she does with it. Inquisitor: For what it's woth, I think you did the right thing. Morrigan: Did I? She was testing me, and I cannot tell whether I passed.

Kieran's sense of loneliness brings immediately to our mind the case of Sigrid Gulsdotten in Frostback Basin [DLC]: Stone-Bear Hold Avvars - Part 1, who did not want to be separated from the being she was possessed by because she would feel lonely. What we can see in this scene is that removing a soul from a possessed body is possible and won't leave them scarred as the Dalish believe [Marethari Talas tells us this in DA2 and in Merril and the Eluvian].

We see that Morrigan continues in keeping and preserving magic of old times, as Flemeth told her to do all her life, and at the end of the scene, we are assured, if we had some doubts up to that moment, that Flemeth has been testing Morrigan in something she doesn't understand. We can suspect it may be related to her sense of Motherhood given the overall scenes, as Mythal is a mother before anything else. Maybe Flemeth is preparing Morrigan to be a better host for Mythal, with a better sense of motherhood, since she is the "inheritor" of a new age [could it mean the inheritor of an age that came after the revenge was taken?].

Artwork of Flemeth

Artwork of flemeth is broad and varied and may hide some extra details about the figure of Flemeth.

One of the pieces that brought my attention the most belongs to the Book of Thedas Volumen 1:

We see Flemeth in her dragon shape. The dragon has a beautiful foreshadowing detail: it has some swirls that we can find in Mythal's dragon shape statue in DAI. This dragon is not only telling us that it's Flemeth in her shapeshifter form, it's also Mythal [not only the shape of the horns is similar to the statue's; it has a central spike, read the Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The single spike].

Then, we find Flemeth in her war attire, depicted with a yellow sphere that coincide with the curvature of her staff. This ball can be interpreted in many ways: a mere design effect to make it look like glow, a sphere that can represent the orb power we see as an asterisk in many murals [Murals in DAI], the symbol of Mythal destroying a Titan [The Death of a Titan], or a sphere related to those red sphere explained in the Ancient Elven codices, Temple of Mythal and Ancient Elven codices; Vir Dirthara. The sphere combined with the shape of her staff also seems to create an effect of an eye, also related to Mythal [at least in concept art]. The extreme of this Staff also appears in DA2, in Merril's loadscreen when we see the eluvian being broken [skim over the post Merril’s Eluvian to find the image].

This staff has a similar shape to the original design of Andraste's helm in her statue version of DAO, and it is also related to Flemeth several times in DA2 [in the background] or in other pieces of art where we see her holding this staff. We find in Patterns and Styles: Tevinter that some concept art seem to show a Tevinter staff inspired in this one, which again, makes a link between Tevinter and their dragon worshipping, with the Evanuris in a very indirect way.

However, this staff never made it into any game; I cannot say it was due to lore-wise reasons or simply it was hard to design in the games.

Finally, we see at the very right corner of the image an old woman with an apron that has a shape of an eye. This eye is the same one we find in the concept art of the Mythal's Temple guardians that did not make it into the game but we can see in the artbook of Inquisition. We can associate Mythal with a deep knowledge of the future that this eye may represent. We know Flemeth has been nudging history and [through the books], we can even suspect she has some foresee ability [read, for example, the meeting with Maric and Loghain in The Stolen Throne, several sections below].

The Eye may also be related to some presence in the dreams/Fade [let's remember that the Fade is a reflection of the Waking World, and you just need to "read and observe" the right way to have the information you need, according to Solas and several unreliable sources of Enchanters' codices]. In posts like Andrastian Design: Stained Glasses, the comic Until We Sleep or in Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun, I've talked about the impressive and yet easy to miss event of an elf in Val Royeaux who claims to have been visited by Mythal in dreams and after that conversation, he has his face burned with her vallaslin [Elven Servant Dreams of Mythal, another videos here]. The fact that Mythal can be related to the symbol of the eyes may show her relationship with foreseen powers and her ability to visit people in dreams and change reality through them. This is, so far we learnt in Feynriel quest [Feynriel - Somniari and Fade], the powers of the dreamers, and thanks to the comics Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep we know these powers also belonged to particularly powerful dragons.

In DA2, Flemeth's art can be found in the game itself in one of the Varric's narrations [Act 1]. In it, she looks like a mountain, with details of veins that make us suspect some relationship with titans and lyrium [design and visual detail discussed in Design of Kirkwall]. It's only in DAI where we learn through the codex and the mural “The Death of a Titan” that she was able to destroy a titan and, probably, took a unique power from it that may have encourage the Evanuris to kill her. It could also be the mere use of lyrium that the Evanuris started to implement in their magic to acquire more power and divine status. We can see in this image that the symbol of her staff is also in the background, cutting her in half: below the mountain, above the humanoid-dragon-like woman.

In this image, we see Flemeth wearing her war attire, which has a lot of parts that reminds us the statues of the Emerald Knights in Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin or in the warrior version of Andraste herself. She is surrounded by dark smoke that reminds me the power that the elvhenan displayed in DAI: Abelas when he is killed by Morrigan, Flemeth when she is summoned as Mythal in her Altar, and Solas when consumes Flemeth's powers. In all these cases, they use dark smoke around them or in their powers. Read Somewhere in the Crossroads [Ending] to see the visual details of this. We see again the importance of the staff placed at the almost centre of the piece of art.

The "yellow mosaic" possesses a strong assumption: it has four shapes at the corners that may represent eluvians or something related to Mythal.

In the mural of “the Temple of Mythal” from  “The actions of the Inquisitor”, we see that Solas draw a particular star of 8 points inside a door frame that resembles this “eluvian outline”, but it’s also the shape of the doors of the Temple of Mythal which represents Mythal herself in her dragon shape. All these symbols seem to reinforce the idea we explored in “The Death of a Titan”: Mythal seems to be related to the core power of a Titan represented by an asterisk that evolves into a golden ring and into a sun. However, it's curious to highlight that the sun was always a symbol related to Elgar'nan.

As I repeated several times in Speculations about the Vinyl Art, at times, we find some hints where stars or balls of fires [also understood as suns] are related to Mythal and Elgar’nan, making us suspect that, maybe, Mythal and Elgar’nan share a nature similar to Falon’Din and Dirthamen’s: apparently, the same creature with two different aspects from them. If this were the case, associating Mythal with the Sun would make sense, and it would also explain why, if Elgar’nan was so central in the Elvhenan culture, there are so few representations and statues of him, while Mythal overwhelms it.

The center of the mosaic displays the Asterisk Symbol [made of 8 points], which may be related to the core of a Titan [asterisk of 8 points too]. The link is immediate when we see that this asterisk is outlined by a shape that looks like a star or a Sun, inside a big ball with triangular-shape ends. This same symbol appears in the Trailer of DA4, behind Solas, when he is presented like an Hermit, mysterious, apostate mage. Around this “sun” we can make out several concentric lines that may refer to a “Golden Ring”.

The Asterik symbol also appears in murals such as  “The Creation of the Veil” or “The Death of a Titan”, which allowed us to relate them with the core of a Titan and its immense power of “making real what you imagine by reinforcing the reality”, but this symbol also appears in a corner of Solas’ tarot card. For more details, read Dragon Age Iconic Patterns: The Sun .

Her art in Heroes of Dragon Age shows her more like a chasind mage, with a painted fave [1,2], and a curious staff of an appostate [1,4], which is also depicted, sometimes, in Solas' art. This staff made it into the game, and was reused many times in DA2 making it a bit meaningless. We can clearly see the similar design in her dress as a chasind mage [1,2] as well as in Flemeth's war attire [3]. In [3] we see again the staff that looks like an eye.

The vynil: I made a whole post about the potenciality of understanding the dragon we see in the Vynil as (a fragment of) Myhtal. Since it's a strong hypothesis, I will leave it there, so you can read more about it in Speculations about the Vinyl Art.

Flemeth in the books (or comics)

The Stolen Throne

In this book, we see Flemeth when Maric Theirin and Loghain are captured by Dalish that delivered them to her. As an exchange to leading them out of the Wilds, Flemeth requests Maric to make a promise we don't know about it, as well as giving him the knowledge that a Blight will occur in Ferelden. She also gives him a cryptic warning about Loghain: "Keep him close and he will betray you, each time worse than the last." These details reinforce the idea that she has foreseeing powers that were implied in the art through the symbol of the eye.

Flemeth is presented as a decrepit woman: " She was the very picture of a witch, wild white hair and a robe formed mostly of thick black furs and dark leather. Hanging down her back was a heavy cloak trimmed in fox fur, quite striking and delicately stitched. She carried a basket filled with large acorns and other items wrapped in red cloth".

She also uses sylvans. At some point, Loghan is attacked by a sylvan, what forces Maric to beg forgiveness to Flemeth. She is surprised, and once again, we see that she really appreciates "good manners":

Sweat trickling down his brow, Maric cleared his throat and carefully lowered himself to one knee. “I beg your pardon on behalf of my companion, good lady.” His voice was quiet, but the old woman appeared to be listening, fascinated. “We have been running for days now, and after the Dalish attacked us . . . we expected more of the same, despite the fact that you have offered no provocation. I apologize.” He bowed his head, trying his best to remember the courtly manners so painstakingly taught to him over the years by his mother. To think he had rolled his eyes at those lessons, assuming that he would never have an actual use for them. The witch laughed shrilly. “Manners? My, but that is unexpected.”

We also can see again Flemeth's foresee abilities:

“So you are he,” the witch said, nodding with approval as she studied Maric. “I knew you would come, and the manner in which you would come, but not the when.” She let out a sharp guffaw and slapped her knees. “Isn’t it marvelous how very capricious magic can be with its information? It’s like asking a cat for directions—consider yourself lucky if it only tells you where to go!” She howled with laughter at her own joke.

This also makes sense with the image of the temple of Mythal and its guardians in the concept art, with eyeball tattoos or armour. We can assume this comes from her ability to present herself in the dreams of some people, as it happened with the elven man in Orlais. This symbol of eyes, also presented in the first art piece of the section of Flemeth Art, can be considered a way to represent her omnipresence due to her ability to visit everyone in dreams, or foreseen powers.

“Fortunes change.” The witch’s gaze shifted to far off in the distance. “One minute you’re in love, so much in love that you can’t imagine anything wrong ever happening. And the next you’re betrayed. Your love has been ripped from you like your own leg, and you swear you’d do anything—anything—to make those responsible pay.” Her eyes focused on Maric, and her voice became soft, caressing. “Sometimes vengeance changes the world. What will yours do, young man?”

This part seems to reinforce the concept that Flemeth and Mythal are allied in order to perform a revenge. Through the tales of Conobar and Osen, we know that Flemeth may have been avenged thanks to the help of Mythal, and now it's the turn of Mythal: for which Flemeth has been changing and modifying the events of the world in order to accomplish this so long-awaited reckoning.

Loghain stepped forward angrily. “Leave him alone.” The witch turned to regard him, her eyes delighted. “And what of yours? You’ve rage enough inside you, tempered into a blade of fine steel. Into whose heart will you plunge that one day, I wonder?” “Maric and I are not friends,” he growled, “but I don’t want him dead.” Her chuckle was mirthless. “Oh, you know what I speak of.” Loghain paled, but regained his composure almost immediately. “That . . . doesn’t matter any longer,” he stated evenly. “Doesn’t it? Have you forgiven them already, then? You no longer remember her cries as they held her down? The laughter of the soldiers as they held you back and made you watch? Your father when he—” “Stop!” Loghain shouted, his voice filled with as much terror as fury. Maric watched in shock as Loghain launched toward the witch as if to strangle her. He lurched to a halt before he reached her, hands clenched tightly into fists as he struggled against his impulse. The trees around the hut seemed to creak in anticipation, like coiled springs. The witch merely rocked and watched him quietly, unconcerned. “You see too much, old woman,” he muttered. “In fact,” her tone was dry, “I see just barely enough.”

We can see here Flemeth's powers: she sees Loghain and can see when he had to watch Orlesians rape and kill his mother in front of him, who was a mere powerless child at the time. She sees into a person and sees the most traumatic events in their past. And probably this is why she can see the future as well. Hence, another reason more why her original concept implied an eyeball.

Loghain also didn’t want to think about what sort of promise the witch had elicited from Maric. He had gone into her hut and had remained there for hours, long enough that Loghain grew concerned. He had been trying to peer in through its one filthy, grit-covered window when Maric walked out the door, alone. The man seemed shaken and quiet and was resistant to even the most casual efforts Loghain made to inquire about what had gone on. So it was to remain a secret, after all.

Later we can suspect that Maric was in shock because Flemeth told him the destiny he had to fulfil in the next book: The Calling.

The hut was empty of everything but dust and rot, as if nobody had lived there for years. They searched about, but there was no sign of the witch. There was also, he noticed, no sign of Dannon’s body or his makeshift grave. It seemed they were free to go. It took them four days’ travel to leave the Wilds. Supposedly, the witch had told Maric they would see the way out once they left her hut, and sure enough, not an hour away a bluebird appeared in the trees before them. It was so out of place, and sang so sweetly, that both Loghain and Maric took instant notice. As they approached, it flitted to the next tree and to the next until Loghain realized it was leading them. So they followed. When it reappeared the next morning, there could be no doubt. The only thing Maric didn’t talk about was the witch.

Loghain and Maric are guided out of the Wild, showing the powers that Flemeth had in the Kocari Wilds.

[As they returned to Ferelden and out of the Wilds] It wasn’t long after leaving the ruins that they encountered wolves again. For the first time, Loghain was truly beginning to believe that the old witch had called on greater magic to aid them than just summoning a bluebird guide. Loghain stood with his bow at the ready, eyeing the wolves warily, while Maric remained breathless beside him. The entire pack, however, maintained its distance and watched, but did not threaten. Loghain and Maric moved cautiously through the trees, with perhaps twenty large wolves sitting and staring at them silently with their feral yellow eyes. Still, nothing happened. As soon as they were out of sight, Loghain let out a long breath. He swore that he never wanted to encounter magic again as long as he lived, and Maric murmured agreement. [...] When the sun went down that day, the bluebird vanished.

Interestly enough, Flemeth also uses the help of wolves to guide Maric and Loghain out of the Wild. The curious detail I liked to highlight is that they all share the yellow eyes, a feature that has been very unique of certain characters: Flemeth and her daughters [Morrigan and Yavanna], Abelas, some Qunari [we can notice this in more detail in the comics], and Titus [a Magister who performed dragon blood drink rituals]. All of them related to Mythal and/or dragons. However, in DAI, the feral wolves always appeared with Fade-like coloured eyes.

Dragon Age: The Calling

Fourteen years later, Flemeth's words inspire Maric, now King of Ferelden, to accompany the Grey Wardens on their expedition into the Deep Roads. He later relays her words to Loghain, who disagrees with them and points out that she may have been deceiving them.

Maric steepled his hands together and considered. He hadn’t wanted to tell Loghain, but it seemed like he had no other choice. “Do you remember the witch we met in the Korcari Wilds?” he began. “Back during the rebellion, when we were fleeing the Orlesians?” Loghain appeared taken aback, as if he hadn’t expected a rational explanation. He hesitated only a moment. “Yes. The madwoman who nearly killed us both. What of her?” “She told me something.” Loghain looked at him expectantly. “And? She babbled many things, Maric.” “She told me that a Blight was coming to Ferelden.” He nodded slowly. “I see. Did she say when?” “Only that I wouldn’t live to see it.” Loghain rolled his eyes and walked a step away, running a hand through his black hair. It was a gesture of exasperation with which Maric was well familiar. “That is a prediction that almost anyone could safely make. She was trying to scare you, no doubt.” “She succeeded.” He turned and glared at Maric scornfully. “Did she not also tell you I was not to be trusted? Do you believe that now, too?” There was a tension in that look, and Maric knew why. The witch had said of Loghain, “Keep him close, and he will betray you. Each time worse than the last.” It was the only one of her pronouncements to which Loghain had been privy, and obviously he remembered it well. Perhaps he thought that if Maric believed one, he believed the other. Loghain had never betrayed him, not to his knowledge. It was something to keep in mind. “You think it’s a coincidence?” Maric asked, suddenly uncertain. “I believe this witch was serving her own purposes, and would lie about whatever she thought convenient. Magic is not to be trusted, Maric.” Loghain closed his eyes and then sighed. He shook his head slightly, as if what he was about to say was madness, but he opened his eyes anyhow and spoke with conviction. “But if you truly believe that the witch’s warning has merit, let me be the one to go into the Deep Roads, not you. Cailan needs his father.” “Cailan needs his mother.” His voice sounded hollow, even to himself. “And he needs a father who isn’t . . . I’m not doing him any good, Loghain. I’m not doing anyone any good here. It will be better if I’m out there, helping the kingdom.” “You are an idiot.” “What you need to do,” Maric ignored him, “is to stay. Look after Cailan. If something happens to me, you’ll need to be his regent and keep the kingdom together.” Loghain shook his head in frustration. “I can’t do that. Even if I believed this cryptic warning, I would not agree that it was worth placing you in the hands of these Orlesians. Not without an entire army to surround you.” Maric sighed and sat back in the throne. He knew that tone. When Loghain believed he was in the right, there was no dissuading him. He would sooner call the guards in here and attempt to have Maric locked up in the dungeon than see him do this. In Loghain’s mind, the Grey Wardens were Orlesian. The First Enchanter was Orlesian. This had to be some manner of plot—not that it would be the first. There had been several assassins over the years, as well as more than a few attempts by disaffected banns to overthrow him, and while Loghain could never prove that the Empire was behind them all, Maric did not disbelieve his theories. Perhaps he was even right about this. But what if he wasn’t? The witch had been crazy, almost certainly, but Maric still found it impossible to discount her words entirely. She had saved their lives, put them on the path out of the Korcari Wilds when otherwise they would have died. He had almost forgotten her warning about the Blight, but the very instant First Enchanter Remille had told him of the Wardens’ request for an audience, he had remembered. The thought of a Blight here in Ferelden was almost too much to bear. [...] Surely such a disaster was worth risking almost anything to avert. Loghain could dismiss the idea, but Maric was less convinced. What if the witch was correct? What if the whole point of receiving such a prophecy was that it gave you a chance to try to prevent it?

Here we have the mystery explained: Maric was told about the incoming Blight and that he would be dead by that time.

[...] “And here I thought it was the Commander’s charm,” Duncan quipped. Maric ignored him. “After my mother died, Loghain and I were lost in the Korcari Wilds trying to get away from the Orlesians,” he began, his voice solemn. “We met an old woman, a witch who saved us. She gave me a warning. She told me that a Blight was coming to Ferelden.” There was something more to his story, Fiona could see it. But he stopped there, snapping his mouth shut. Genevieve pondered the tale, and looked at Maric curiously. “A witch hiding in the Wilds? And you believe what she said?” “There were . . . other things she said that were true.” “Magic cannot see the future, Maric,” Fiona told him. “But there are visions. Mages can see them; you said so yourself.” He let out a long, ragged breath. “I don’t know if I trust her. I paid a high price for the witch’s words, however, and it just seems like too much of a coincidence if it isn’t true.” Fiona saw the shadow behind the man’s eyes. She didn’t know the full story of this witch, but she could see that its implications disturbed him. And he believed in what he had been told. But that was not so incredible, was it? Fiona believed in Genevieve’s vision. They all did. It was not difficult to believe that at the root of these visions lay the Blight, warnings against the coming disaster.

We learn that Maric was disturbed by the warning of the Blight, but also that he had paid a high price to be saved and informed of these things. The only thing I believe he was locked in a promise is what Yavanna says in the comic: He had to awake greater dragons that were sleeping, but somehow, he failed to his promise due to the kidnapping under Titus. Read the details in The Silent Grove .

Dragon Age: The Silent Grove

Flemeth is mentioned by another daughter, Yavanna, the Witch of the Wilds in the Tellari Swamps of Antiva, who reveals that Flemeth made Maric promise to come to the Silent Grove once his children were grown. She also says that Flemeth's ritual of possession that Morrigan feared is, in fact, a "gift."

Yavanna: I had no idea you had met my sister Alitair: Then you'll be shocked to hear how I encountered your mother. Flemeth likes sunsets, turning into things, and talking about how clever she is. I'm also told she possess her daughters. Y: Is that right? Ha! Alistair: What's so funny? Morrigan found out what Flemeth planned and we stopped it Y: That poor, confused child. It is a gift.

This coincide with the notes that Gaider shared few time ago about the planning of the scene of Flemeth's death or with the dev's notes inside the game [read Somewhere in the Crossroads [Ending]].

Conclusions

If we gather all the bits of information along the games, we have a more complete picture of Flemeth, her relationship with Mythal, and some degree of enlightenment about her goals:

She polymorphs into a Dragon [DAO], but we have a good amount of reasons to suspect she is a dragon, and probably one of the Greater Dragons that only are mentioned in the comics [The Silent Grove]. Since we find in Elvhenan ruins her mosaic as a mother of many [see Evanuris] but also as a dragon in the shape of a gate, we can suspect a double nature in her: Dragon and Evanuris/elvhen. This duality is one of the main reasons why we could suspect that the Evanuris who was Forgotten One and Creator [according the unreliable Dalish Legends] was her instead of Fen'Harel [since Solas told us he never was a god, and he has always been this elvhen we see, read Solas sharing Lore: Part 1 - Part 2 for refreshment]

She has a set of beliefs that justify and make her behaviour more understandable:

She believes that we have to doubt all what we know, which makes sense since the repeated theme in DA series is how unreliable history and stories are due to the nature of the political, social, and religious conditions in which they develop. She also reinforces a level of disinterest in trying to push the "truth" onto others. She is so tired and worn-out, and understands the "nature of humans" too deeply, that she knows that they will believe only in what they want to believe. It doesn't matter the truth, hence she does not put energy in sharing it, not even in those who are willingly to stay open minded for it ["They do not want the truth"]. When it comes to the truth, she claims it's not the end, but the beginning.

For her, names are useless. She is known across history by many names, and gives them no importance. This detail may say a lot: elvhenan put their goal and purpose in life in their own name; if she keeps part of this tradition in her Mythal mind, having no name is almost an equivalent of not having purpose.

Bodies are useless too: Mythal can take different bodies and be in different places at the same time. Flemeth has put a fragment of her in an amulet that allowed her to be raised in DA2 after potentially being killed in DAO. When you talk to her, you are informed that bodies are things that annoy her. This makes sense when we think in the shapeless culture that the Elvhenan had long time ago. Flemeth is a piece of a bigger thing, a bit lost and wandering in Thedas, a shadow that dies slowly under the sun, but also a flotsam to cling to in a chaotic storm. All images of someone broken, diminished, tarnished, agonizing, that still tries to survive because has one thing to accomplish: a destiny to fulfil. This terrible change in her was product of “things that happened that were never meant to happen" .

Flemeth has a clear goal and purpose, deeply related to the Revenge of Mythal. For that reason, she has been meddling in the History in order to orchestrate a big plan, which we, as players, have no idea about.

Betrayal and Revenge: Flemeth has this concept deeply attached to her persona. It's not only the Betrayal of Mythal by those "who attacked her Temple" and assassinate her, it's also Flemeth and a Betrayal from one of the men she was involved with, according to the unreliable tale of Conobar and Osen. If Mythal changed after the assasination, and her motherhood and Justice purpose were twisted and changed into Revenge, we may have conflicting lore about Elgar'nan and her [both with the same purpose of revenge]. This point is never clear with the games up to DAI.

However, via the Altar scene, we know she used to be called for revenge, even before the assasination, so Myhtal always had this aspect related to her.

"She was betrayed as I was betrayed - as the world was betrayed! " This line, so iconic, and in combination with all the proofs gathered in these posts, makes us suspect that the Betrayal of Myhtal is her assassination [at the hands of those that attacked her Temple, according to Abelas' words]. The Betrayal of Flemeth is also unknown, but we know it is related to a mixture of the several versions of her story with Conobar and Osen. But the betrayal of the world could mean the creation of the Blight that required brutal measures to be contained: hence the creation of the Veil and the destruction of the Elvhenan empire with it.

Flemeth remembers promises: According to Marethari, Flemeth always keeps her word, and has a good memory about those who made a pact and a promise with her. This is confirmed when Flemeth is surprised that Hawke kept their word.

Mythal, the elvhenan goddess: We know that Mythal is the embodiment of motherhood thanks to the unreliable Dalish legends, but also thanks to the only mosaic that shows her as an elvhenan [see Evanuris]. In this mosaic, she is depicted with a flaccid breast and five small creatures in her arms, as a symbol of breastfeeding babies. This version appears in the Temple of Mythal [Part 3], in the Emerald Graves: Din'an Hanin, and in the last platform where we fight Corypheus in DAI [Frostback Mountains: Somewhere North, although it's focused only on her elvhenan face]. However, there is another depicture of her: the dragon one, usually present in her Temple where she imparted Justice.

Motherhood and Justice: We know that Mythal represented these two concepts, and they were kept in the unreliable legends of the Dalish, as well as her "terrible" side, related to a certain degree of Wrath. The Dalish seem to justify this side as the "angry mother" side, but as we explore the games and focus on Flemeth, we discover that she always had a Revenge representation. Solas even confirms it in the Altar scene. This Revenge may be an interpretation of Justice, so it would still make sense. But it all depends on the degree of rationality that this revenge has in itself. Otherwise, it would have been crossing the same paths that Elgar'nan [if we can trust the representation that we have of him, since most of it comes from unreliable Dalish sources and elvhenan ones]. However, we always need to keep in mind Solas' words: Mythal was always a complex creature [hence more reasons to suspect her duality as Elvhenan/Evanuris and Forgotten One]

Blight and Grey Wardens: She seems to be aware of all the rituals and treaties related to the Grey Wardens. She also has enough power to always keep the darkspwan away, even when she lives in the place where the main outbreak happened [Kocari Wilds]. This is also implicity seen in Solas`case, in the comic The Missing; thanks to these powers that he absorved from Flemeth, he can hide in the Deep Roads overwhelmed by darkspawn while keeping himself safe from Venatori and other human dangers. This makes us suspect that Flemeth and/or Myhtal have a certain degree of command over the Blight. That Solas and Flemeth have a deep knowledge of the Blight and the Joining ritual of the Wardens is not surprising if we rememeber that these things may have come from the knowledge of ancient Arlathan elves [read Tarohne, the Fell Grimoire, and Xebenkeck for details]. Like Solas, she explicitly says that there is a bigger Evil behind the Blight, and it's what humanity should be worried about, not so much about the darkspwans [DAO].

Magic and powers that once were: Flemeth taught Morrigan a great deal of ancient magic related to forbidden rituals [DAO ending] or blood ancient magic. She encouraged in her daughters to preserve the powers of the Old at all cost [Morrigan] as well as give them the position of guardians of Dragons [Yavanna]. This makes us suspect that a lot of the ancient magic that Flemeth was always interested on preserving is related to ancient Dragons. Maybe this is a potential hint about the Forgotten Ones and the hypothesis that they may have been ancient powerful dragons that ruled the skies once [this was informed by Yavanna in The Silent Grove]

Foreseen powers: She seems to have a certain degree of foreseen powers, letting her know that Maric and Loghain will visit her in the Wilds, that our Warden in DAO was key in the survival of Ferelden, and that Hawke was useful for her due to a potential death at the hands of the Warden. Related to these powers comes the well known line "It's fate or chance? I can never decide". She also foresees a radical, inevitable change of the configuration of the world: "We stand upon the precipice of change. The world fears the inevitable plummet into the abyss." These powers don’t seem to be triggered at will; it seems she sees it in the moment she interacts with the person. She sees Loghain’s betrayal in the moment she sees him directly, as well as she sees Hawke’s usefulness in the moment she speaks to them face-to-face.

Via small hints in the concept art, we can relate Mythal with eyes that may represent her foreseeing abilites as well as her power of changing reality throuh dreams, giving us a clue that she is a dreamer, powers that we know via the comics Those Who Speak and Until We Sleep were part of the original powerful dragons that ruled the sky in the begining of the times.

Music: Flemeth talks about songs and music as a metaphor of the concept of "manipulation". Morrigan's song is the manipulation of the Warden to kill Flemeth. At other times, the concept of music is merely a metaphor of facts: Flemeth also is "dancing the same song", related to be killed by those who she helped or had some dedree of her trust [this may be a reflection of Mythal's story as well as Flemeth's with Conobar and Osen].

Dalish as the young, bright, and vibrant People: Flemeth, unlike any other elvhenan we saw in the series, has respect for the Dalish. She always claims they are vibrant and young, and they do not need to bend the knee before her [Merril] unless they truly know who she is [Elven Inquisitor].

We also know via Solas that the Evanuris are hard to kill [reason why he trapped them instead of killing them long ago], so we can assume the same characteristic applies to Mythal. If Mythal was “killed”, we can assume that whatever it happened had a big power considering how hard is to kill an evanuris, and even more so a powerful one as Mythal. Maybe this is the reason why she changed so much: death itself or the event that killed her changed her radically because it was too traumatic and extraordinary.

Worshipping of Mythal: Via Abelas, we know that Mythal does not like slaves; serving her has to be an act of volition; the person has to work on in order to acquire the "right to serve her". However, she abandoned her followers after the assassination. It seems that she changed so much that she could not or do not want to answer the prayers of her people [Abelas] nor the Dalish ones [Elven Inquisitor]. Even though it is not explicit, it seems to imply that answering those prayers would have been disastrous because she stopped being the Mythal they believe in, and now she is the embodiment of a terrible thing [maybe Vengeance itself? Maybe corruption? Hard to say]. If it's because she is now too related to Vengenace, it would bring some conflict to the lore and the representation of Elgar'nan. However, we were already warned that Mythal took Elgar'nan's place long time ago to pass judgement upon The People [The judgement of Mythal].

Mythal can use and activate eluvians to walk into the Fade, and this is a testament of her immense power. Apparently, Mythal and Flemeth are the strongest when they are in the Fade, or at least, in that part of the Fade when we meet her with Kieran [DAI]. This could be because the evanuris-elvhenan nature of Mythal, as a creature of the Fade, but it could also be due to her dragon nature. If we remember the comic Until We Sleep, we find out that dragons and their blood had a particular power in the Fade, they are basically Somniari or Dreamers, able to modify the Fade and turn it into reality.

Regrets: Flemeth claims she is so filled with regrets that they poisoned her [DA2]. Unfortunately, there is no more information about this aspect of her in other scenes.

Possession process: Flemeth describes her relationship with Mythal in a similar way that Anders does with Justice: they are one, hard to separate one from the other. We can suspect that the tale of Flemeth using her daughter’s bodies to extend her life may be a lie. Yavanna seems to laugh at that idea, as well as Flemeth does, but following her philosophy of “let them believe whatever they want”, she doesn’t clarify the idea. The strange thing in this piece of lore is that we don’t see this process in Kieran, who has a similar condition, in principle: an ancient being was hosted in his body. In his case, Flemeth is able to remove it without hurting the boy. The only other case we see in lore about de-posessing a person without harm is with the Avvar: the spirit is willing to leave the host without scarring them. Maybe this is what happens with Kieran, and thus his following commet after the process: he feels alone, like in the case of Sigrid Gulsdotten [read Stone-Bear Hold Avvars - Part 1]

Urthemiel piece: it seems that Flemeth has some level of command over Urthemiel to the point to ask him to reach for her in the Fade via the Eluvian. Both of them have a destiny to fulfil, whatever that is. We may suspect it is related to the revenge/justice of Mythal.

The Well of Sorrows is a device made of the will of all the high priests of Mythal. Despite being shown in the game as a reliable source of information, I would consider to treat it carefully since we are told it can be manipulated by Mythal herself.

[alpaca-clouds]

Some more mythology geekery

Or: Let me talk Pan. (Or the other god I know a lot about.)

Folks found the stuff about old mythology and Persephone interesting... so let me do Pan. So, as I said: Persephone is a very old goddess who might well be one of the first in the Greek pantheon. But... She is not as old as Pan. Because within Europe Pan might in fact be the oldest god that we know about. In fact he very probably predates the ancient Greek religion and was just so popular, that the Greeks just decided to keep him in the pantheon.

How do we know that?

This is the moment, where this geeky twink squeals with excitement, because he gets to talk about proto-indo-european stuff. So, allow me for a moment: SQUEEEEEEEEE! 🥳

Okay. That needed out.

So, what you need to understand is that most mythologies from Europe, Asia and Northern Africa you know about are actually decendents of the same mythology. Talked about this in regards of the Roman Gods not being the Greek Gods. But... yeah. So, there was once this culture, who we call the Proto-Indo-Europeans and they had the great idea of putting wheels on things and the things behind horses and then got around a lot. And wherever they went, they brought their language and mythology with them, which is why the Indo-European language family is so fucking giant.

We can see some of their stuff shimmer through in common themes in mythology. Like, almost all the mythologies in Europe and Asia have a "sky daddy", aka a godly father figure who is associated with the sky. He is not always the big guy of the pantheon, but he is important in all the cases.

And while when we talk Greek, Egyptian, Roman or even Chinese and Hindu mythology we have a surprising amount of writing going on that dates back at times more than 3000 years... the earlier we go, the less writing there is.

Now, with Pan we have some stuff in Mycenean art and what not, that hints that he was around at least as early as 1700 BC, though - obviously - we do not really have written sources going back to this time.

But there is also the fact that... One of the earliest mythologies to split from the Proto-Indo-European one is the Hindu mythology. An the Hindu mythology has Pushan, who is not only associated with the same stuff (pasture, roads, travel, the wild and so on), but also has some goat imagery in older versions. Just like Pan. And if you look at the names P(ush)an you can see there is a parallel. Which makes those geeks who study stuff like that for a living fairly certain that those two once were the same god. A god they call *Péh₂usōn. And no, I will not go into Proto-Indo-European language right now.

The word "pasture" in English comes from the same Proto-Indo-European word, by the way.

Current theory goes, that Pan was actually worshiped by the pastoral people living in Greece before the advanced Greek civilization spread. And given that Pan was associated with so many aspects the folks were not giving him up. So, as it goes with pantheons... He just got integrated into the pantheon as was........ though he got split into two pieces. But... Gotta talk about his other piece tomorrow.

Maybe due to the age of Pan, but maybe due to him turning into mostly a god of wilderness, he tends to be a much more openly manecing deity compared to other gods. While most polytheistic cultures absolutely feature an aspect of: "Our thing is that we bribe gods into being nice with us, because those gods are so freaking dangerous," most of the pantheon gods are actually mostly cultured. Even if they are horndogs like Zeus.

Pan meanwhile is a god of the wild. He has this animal imagery (that probably all early gods had) still very present, he gets associated with all sort of wild behavior in humans, and of course the word "panic" comes from Pan. Because it is said that his scream could create panic in the humans.

Enough geekery, lets get back to Stray Gods. Because other than with Persephone's situation I am fairly certain that at least some of this was known to the creators, given the role Pan plays as someone who is not quite inside of the Chorus and acts more as an outsider to it.

[laylawatermelon]

The Tennis Throuple Is A Triangle

(a slightly unstable one but one nonetheless)

Spoilers below (first watch)

Tashi is the top at the center.

She is the love of their lives. In a way both of them end up for her.

Art exists for serving her (as seen as he wasn't on her level in the bed scene).

Patrick exists for challenging her. She hates him for viewing himself as her peer (when you get two dominant personality types...) but respects and lusts after him nonetheless.

Art is loved by both of them.

As Art is more of a submissive kind of personality type (granted very manipulative he is still a wealthy white boy) it displays in different ways.

Patrick's love is fine and soft, due to their shared history. His dynamic is similar to Art and Tashi's.

In return Art is then soft for both of them due to his nature. He is also incredibly selfish at times but then again he's human🤷🏾‍♀️.

Tashi allows herself to be vulnerable with Art unlike Patrick because she feels safe/comfortable with him because he isn't a challenger.

He usually does what she wants and worships her.

(ah yes this is reminiscent of Japanese shows about love and obsession... My beautiful man I'm looking at you another toxic ish worship dynamic)

This is evident of him acknowledging her as Jesus. He literally views her as his diety that he's lucky enough to obtain (god this really resembles that dynamic in my beautiful man).

Meanwhile the two more dominant personality types clean constantly.

It's say Patrick's dominance towards him it's more caring and soft like you can rely on me, while Tashi's is you better really on yourself but I do love you. Sometimes (🤣)

I love her she's a savage.

Tashi and Patrick reflect each other in the best and worst ways. They understand each other as passionate to get what you want and keep moving forward.

Art had always persued love, shown in his focus on Tashi and Patrick on the championship she'd won.

It was kind of obvious who'd end up with what in the end.

Patrick will fight with fried teeth until the end to get what he wants. Fire.

Art will do anything for the one he loves. Ice.

And Tashi will do both.

She will achieve the best in both love and work as that's what she's always wanted.

Tennis is the most important thing to her yes, but she also has the capacity to use it as a communication tool.

She even said it herself that it's a relationship that everything falls away. In the last match she feel in love with made them special in the first place.

Fire and Ice working in harmony.

I honestly smiled at the end as they got into the relationship and she got into the the game.

She was interested in both at the beginning as she recognized them as they were able to give her a good game of tennis.

Now I'm the present that they're all together they now have the same dynamic as the beginning.

She enjoys a good match (heehee voyeuristic Queen love that for you) that she sets up and seeing a game play out in front of her eyes.

Patrick wants to connect (and dominate) and Challenge Art like they used to.

And Art just wants to be Loved. He wants to love and be loved. He'll follow them both to the ends of the earth because he believes in them.

And in return they believe in him. Both on different levels/avenues on life but their relationship is unstable without three of them present.

They've been constant in each other's conversations, both metaphorically and literally.

They're obsessed with each other and that's why they work.

They're messy but at least they challenge each other to be better.

Whichever form that takes.

[bharv]

So, I’d love to hear some commentary about ‘Even If Love,’ specifically regarding Lae’zel’s chapter.

One day she calls her Darling in front of the others, and they laugh at her. The Blade in his cloying softness explains that the word is a form of endearment, not usually a name, but the creature tells them all that it is as good as anything else. That she doesn't know what else she is, or could be. Astarion proposes more; Red Reckoning, Freckles, a game that amuses the others to no end as they wander through this endless, dull rock, but nothing is proposed that stays.

She hates the dawn that brings the day here. She hates the muted browns of the earth, the rolling hills, the leaves on the trees and the constant sounds of chittering. She hates the rules of this place, the look the Cleric Shadowheart gives her of disgust, she hates the way things are not-said in the places between, she hates the lack of discipline, the children expected to frolic with no training, the sad face of the Blade of Frontiers when he says they should just be allowed to be children. Children, indeed. Darling looks on them with a similar confusion, and she asks her why as they leave the grove with their new ally on their heels.

Lae’zel literally so autism creature to me ❤️. My wife with poor social understanding. Also, she and Manva are incredibly similar. Objectified as weapons, violence is power, etc.

Is Manva Lae’zel’s darling from beginning to end of BG3? Does Manva care about her at all? Does it mean anything to Manva that she is the source of Lae’zel’s bruises? And finally, I’m curious about this stanza:

She will betray you too, you know that, don’t you? Shadowheart tells her before she leaves. The Nightsong is with Ketheric, and the Cleric will never fulfil her destiny. She is the last to leave them, and was not the first. She places her forehead against hers with a sharp grip on her neck, an intimacy not earned that she squirms against, but is held fast to. Do not let her, Lae’zel. You will ride a dragon one day. I believe it.

She had almost forgotten.

She will not forget.

Explain!

- 🫀

Weee I get to talk about my fave! I love this fic honestly.

Answering this director's cut question... about my fics!

I'm probably going to jump straight under the cut as this ask is quite long!

So the first thing to say about this fic is that these little things are short, typed-into-the-browser character studies so they're very much vibes led. I just have a thought, take a moment to sit down and just type away with no real edits!

With Lae'zel I had been thinking about names and what she knows and doesn't know. I had, as I often do lmao, been thinking about a line in @popiellart's seminal, beautiful, masterful The dark urge sleeps alone which is my favourite bit (hard to choose but it just about wins) when Wormwood and Lae'zel are fucking nasty and this exchange suddenly happens:

"You remind me of my sister." "What's a sister?" Lae'zel demands breathily, and drops her hips down, spearing herself on him without hesitation, drawing a desirous, possessive growl from his draconic muzzle. His eyes, half-lidded with hunger, have that foggy, far-away look that vexes others, but she doesn't mind. He is living, yawning death on the battlefield, his scales turning regal crimson whenever he's bathed in blood, and when he violently grips her and slams her down on the crumbling altar, bruising her back and cracking this font of worship to some dusty, dead god with the roaring fire of their living, he is a dragon red enough for her. "I don't know," he admits, finally. "Something sharp, I think."

(God what a FIC.)

It got me thinking a lot about what words probably don't have a direct translation in Tir'su, and forms of affection was something I came back to a lot. Lae'zel has no real choice but to take things as they are presented to her, and I thought it was odd and kind of sweet that she might take a term of endearment to be a name and, without anything better to give her, Manva allows it.

I think Lae'zel is a tremendous love interest for a Durge on the middle to relapsing path. Astarion, Wyll, Gale, Karlach and Shadowheart offer so much for a resist!Durge, and of course Minthara and a full evil run is sublime. But there's something so beautiful and sad in the fact that Durge and Lae'zel meet each other in a similar space, both understanding violence, passion, a calling to something potentially. But as Lae'zel has the potential to grow into a new part of herself, Durge kind of either goes far away from what made their love beautiful or hurtles so far into the violence that it leaves her broken. It's just...!

With Manva specifically, post-Kressa she's a very reduced version of herself. She's not completely different, but there are gaps, uncertainties, and she falls back very much on relying that the energies given to her will guide her right. You're right, they are SO similar, especially in the tentative steps into the world in act 1. Again, they're both very much taking the world as they see it at the beginning of the game. Lae'zel is so forward with her affections, but when it comes down to it, although she cares for her very much, I don't think Manva loves her in the way Lae'zel needs her to. She's also dazzled by Minthara, and she reserves a lot of (eventually non sexual) intimacy for her friendship with Astarion. It doesn't end technically, but it doesn't grow into something deeper because Manva just craves more and more blood and passion, and it ultimately will destroy them both if Lae'zel doesn't stop (she'll never love anybody as she loves her father, anyway.)

As for this final bit! I thought it might need a bit more set up but I left it as it was. Manva's relationship to Shadowheart was always very much "You can stay, but you stay for your oath." and Shadowheart follows because she thinks that Manva understands the importance of a higher call. It's a very tense relationship. Then Manva doesn't take her to the Nightsong and instead gives her to Balthazar, a decision that I don't even think Manva understands at that point (she doesn't really understand her relationship to Ketheric, but there's something left that makes her decide to hand her over.) That's the betrayal. Manva promises them all something; that Astarion and Minthara will have their revenge and take their power, and that Lae'zel will ride a red dragon, but Shadowheart sees her for who she truly is. She will never do right by them, and they must not be drawn into her web. And she's right.

(I also can't resist a little Shadowzel moment. Poor Lae'zel should have gone with her when she had the chance!)

[victo1re]

i'm having a bit of a think about the secondary theme i've touched on some for vic before - the dichotomy of Society tm and the wild, nurture and nature, learned behaviour and core instinct. i've described (pre-canon) her in the past as walking doctrine; personhood is a luxury she has willingly given up in exchange for meaning. she has spent three centuries learning to be the perfect extension of bhaal. as his blade, she is forever cemented into the canon of toril as something important. she has very willingly steeped herself in the twin systems of religion and politics (and the secret third of academia, which is, to her, sort of both), devouring their structure and achieving what she views as the ultimate height of each. she has shaped herself according to the society she inhabits in three of the most archetypical possible ways. she wears it with utmost pride - this ability to insinuate herself into the upper echelon and make a home there, to play the game, to understand the rules so deeply that she is winning before most others can begin to see the board. the mask has fused to her face; she is nothing absent her titles, absent archmage and duchess and priestess. she has constructed her life that way intentionally. it is service. it is worship. when she is stripped of that, all of it, she almost immediately becomes something entirely else - someone else, because victoria without her memories is a person. she does not know that she is not supposed to be, though the urge does its very best to devour her fresh. and the person that she is... is feral when contrasted against the duchess and her renowned self-control. she is sharp-edged and angry, terrified, emotional, not to mention highly physical. she spends some time feeling as though the body she woke up in is someone else's, but she changes it to fit, and then she is more at home in it than the duchess ever was, because it is hers, then, not bhaal's. she becomes something wild in the woods west of baldur's gate, something untameable, by way of the burning desire to live. the cage she constructed to house herself falls utterly apart. specifically i'm thinking tonight about how this interacts with the slayer. bhaal has been attempting to break through to her in increasingly graphic, violent, horrific ways - puppeteering her body to do things she would never generally do, not even at the height of her devotion. they had an accord when it came to her worship and how she executed it. he's pushing her so that she'll break and in so doing, become something he recognises again. her attempt on her lover's life is the latest in that grotesque line. i do not think victoria ever took the slayer form in her past. her boons from bhaal came in other ways. her methods did not agree with that sort of overt brutality. she was in the eternal process of reinventing what it meant to be bhaal's chosen, and in the way of a god endlessly bored by pattern/cycle/repetition, he allowed her to. here, in the present, you have a victoria that has already transformed into a wild thing. she does not need to kill isobel to do that; it is currently her natural state. and yet bhaal-via-scleritas offers it to her anyway - the raw power of the slayer, which she has never before accepted or desired and still does not now, for vastly different reasons. you are ready now, he says. you are ready to receive this gift of mine, that only my most holy warriors have ever earnt, and she is meant to hate it so viscerally that it shocks her out of the fugue her memories have fallen into - but she only hates it with the ferocity of an agent of life that has been offered the tools of death.

[lilyandthegenshinbrainrot]

I think it's really cool how the different nations are all so loyal to their archons in different ways

Mondstadt is frequently mocked for their supposed weakness and negligent archon, and yet the people of Mondstadt are strong believers. I think the western fandom especially is so uncomfortable with the church and their faith bc it's so familiar for irl christianity, but in game there's no evidence for the things that many fics portray. I think the way that Mondstadt specifically treats Barbatos is almost like a role model of a god, where he's not their divine judge but he's the divine example. Their god who took down Decarabian for them, their god who fought out Durin, their god who returned when they needed him. Mondstadt believes in Barbatos very personable and honorably. He is something for them to live up to, and in this way, it's very easy to see him in a parental light. You could almost say the most dedicated believers are akin to children wearing their father's shoes, such as Barbara and the NPC Michelle, who cares for the windmills. I'll continue this thought process later

Liyue is so interesting bc their faith seems to be directly correlated to success and well-being, which isn't something that I'm directly familiar with, but it makes sense for both what I have heard of its irl counterpart and for the titles that Rex Lapis has. During the Liyue archon quests, we listen to these merchants who all speak of circumstances that allowed their business to flourish and how it brought them fulfillment. Just as Rex Lapis had wished for them, peace and prosperity. Unlike Mondstadt, Liyue does not believe their god to be "one of them," He is an Archon first, holy and celestial. A god of war and stone next, powerful and reliable second. Lastly, he is an adeptus, the Prime Adeptus, enlightened and divine. He is so far above their level of mortality, that to imagine him as a human is laughable. It comes across as something entirely unthinkable, and yet there is also Rex Lapis Undercover, a book series that is referenced frequently. This doesn't change anyone's perspective on Rex Lapis' holiness, but it simply goes to show him as a compassionate god.

Inazuma brings the first real complicated relationship with religion to the game, despite Keqing's best efforts. This nation is undoubtably loyal to the Raiden Shogun, and yet its the same shogun who led them to war and starvation. The relationship is complicated as a result, but not to everyone involved. As players, we placed emphasis on the Vision Hunt Decree, but what really hurt the general population of Inazuma was the closing of their borders. It negatively affected more families and the well-being of the country because it cut out the external resources Inazuma needed to live. How do you worship a god who brings harm like this? Well, Inazuma was around for many years and overcame many troubles, perhaps the average citizen simply hoped this would be another of their great accomplishments. We see the people here regard the Raiden Shogun as a "perfect, just king" so to speak. Now I use the word "perfect" in a philosophical way to emphasis that ultimately, the general population did not really think the Shogun herself was doing anything wrong. She was doing the ultimately best thing she could possibly do for the country, thereby being a perfect ruler (as see by the shogunate warriors in present time but also in Ei's second story quest). Most NPCs blamed the troubles they faced on the Tri-Commission or the Resistance in Watatsumi, not Raiden Ei.

Sumeru continues this theme of complicated relationships with religion, almost reminiscent of Watatsumi. They celebrated dead gods, Rukkhadevata and King Deshret. They were the foundation of the Sumeru's culture and belief system, to the point where many simply believed in gods loosely enough for them to be more of a symbol of their modern life instead of something genuinely divine. I think this is curious because this is not the take I would expect from Sumeru. I mean, the people of Mond are reassured by the wind in their city, people of Liyue are reassured by the mora and success they make, people of Inazuma recognize the Shogun in the storms around them never striking home. Sumeru is surrounded by gorgeous landscapes and unlimited knowledge, and yet if not for Rukkhadevata or Deshret, they would be a rather agnostic nation. Until, of course, Kusanali and her archon quest. I don't really. know how to describe the current Sumeru faith base rn bc of the changes made to Irminsul and unstable environment of the nation.

[sam-glade]

Happy WBW! Since my pain is acting up thanks to the weather rendering me a barely moveable blob, I like to know today all about how disabled folks are viewed in your setting. Are they active members of the society? Seen as touched by the gods? Or even cursed by them? What about medical aids such as wheelchairs, hearings aids and such?

Hi Wynne! Hope the weather will change soon. I do love the question though.

All right, this isn't going to be a happy answer.

In Days of Dusk (based on real world's second half of the 18th century), we're way before the times of universal healthcare, and the state of medicine is in general terrible (pharmacology and psychiatry are a bit ahead of the time, but everything else - way behind). There are hospitals sponsored by wealthy individuals or families (nobility, aristocracy, guildmasters, etc.), sometimes genuinely, sometimes as publicity stunts, and they try to provide various aids to those they can reach, but those tend to be unsophisticated and barely enough.

Since gods don't exist - there's worship of the Five Elements and a belief in the Fate creating the Tapestry of Life, in which everyone's story is laid out for them - people with disabilities are neither touched by gods nor considered cursed, just unlucky and not favoured by the Fate. The attitude of their families and others around them depends a lot on how independent they are - someone who has difficulties walking can probably do fine as a potter or a weaver, even if they have to ask a family member or a friend to sell their work at a market, while someone needing a full-time caretaker is unlikely to fare well. It also means that the better off the family is, the easier the life gets for them.

Some visible disabilities present at birth can be healed with magical powers, but good luck finding a Crystal who can do it in the first place (the Army kind of hoards them). And they probably can't do much about invisible disabilities, due to lack of knowledge.

Here are some concrete examples:

The White Dragon, the legendary First Prince, suffered a permanent contusion during his last field mission fifty years ago. He's now wheelchair-bound. But, seeing as he is the wealthiest, most influential person in the entirety of the Sunblessed Realm, he can afford any accommodations he needs. Wheelchairs that could be pushed by others were a thing before his injury, however he's the sort of stubborn, independent person who commissioned engineers to develop a wheelchair he could propel himself (I imagine like the modern ones, with push-rims), as well as a special saddle, so he can still ride horses, though he can't mount the horse on his own. Similarly, modifications were made to his home - ramps along the steps leading to the main and back entrance, and probably a manually-powered lift. Still, he used it as an excuse to abdicate and pass the title of the Prince of Light to Anthea. There were other political factors, but the fact that he'd have to travel from the residence to the townhall to attend his duties, and that the townhall isn't at all accessible played into it a lot. But of course that's a special case of a very wealthy individual, and there are few who can afford it. Still, while I don't go into the broader details on page, I slightly hope that the example of him helped some other folks with movement-related and especially acquired disabilities.

I want to bring up Erya as an example as well. She has albinism, and has the exact opposite background to the prince. She doesn't know her father, and her mother was living in poverty, and decided that a child who gets so easily sunburnt that they can't spend days outside, and who looks so different that the mother didn't want to be seen with them, was too much of a burden. She abandoned Erya to fend for herself when Erya was about ten and it was obvious that she'd never look 'normal'. Erya survived in part thanks to her Sword - it allows her to manipulate shadows, so if she wears a hat, she can make the shadows darker and larger - and as with any Sword, it makes her more resilient and helps her heal faster. And in part, it was thanks to having a more nocturnal lifestyle, when being a part of the criminal underworld. Master Varré was her mentor and they brought her to the military academy, where they pulled some strings so that she can wear a wide-brimmed hat, which isn't normally a part of the uniform.

And by the time of The Truth Teller (1960s-ish) universal healthcare is becoming a thing. Additionally there exist educational and other institutions for children with special needs - I've seen examples of such institutions starting from mid-19th century in Poland, so they seem to fit perfectly well in the setting. They'd teach sign language, tailor their teaching methods to the pupils' needs, probably have some staff with medical background. There are also state-subsidised workplaces that hire people with disabilities - quite often factories with repetitive manual labour, like making brushes or packaging products. Unless you're Knacked. Then you're screwed. Lirivan is an example here. He was born with clubfoot (affecting both feet) and to a rather neglectful family, who didn't see him through the full treatment when he was a child, despite it being fairly simple and safe. Also, no access to magical healing at this point in time whatsoever. His parents at least got crutches for him, but not modded shoes as he was growing up. And since he turned out to be Knacked just before reaching adulthood - well, his prospects aren't looking bright at the beginning of the story. At that point he relies on crutches and is visibly disabled, but doesn't qualify for any aid from the state, because of his Knack.

[ednaeflowers]

❛ kiddo—edna i— ❜ but he catches the rest of his words they spill onto the air as oral tradition. kratos’ days had been as clockwork long ago: wake up, eat breakfast, carry lloyd to primary school, work, leave work, meet his wife to pick lloyd up, home. it was a cycle always kept on rinse and repeat, that was until that one faithful day, until his route wasn’t so new day, same shit any longer. the one day he had to stay late with yuan to finish up the last bits of a presentation that was going to have cruxis ( the founder and pinnacle standard of all things magitechnology ): that he had first saw her, a girl that always seemed more half-wild and half-hallowed than a mere primary schooler.

it had started as all things, with small acts not meant to amount too much: a few extra sandwiches from work here and an old jacket or pair of jeans of lloyd’s there. that was in the beginning though and kratos aurion was far beyond the beginning. now, but he could recall it ever so bittersweetly. as how then his 5:30pms had been spent actively seeking the misplaced girlhood out whenever he could. she was always so shy and skittish, yet also forlorn ( a thousand yard stare filled with a million ghost eyes ): but, that was then and this is now. like genesis it started like so, but not as forbidden, but still forcibly as pulling teeth. she was snarky with massively spit fired tongue and quick witted enough to put yuan to great shame. yet, underneath kratos knows, had seen it all too well: that she was just a very sad and very alone little girl.

so, of course he begun gathering information here and there ( what was the point in being a high ranking member of cruxis if he couldn’t pull a few strings? ): but she, now known as edna, pulled and tugged and resisted as prey trapped inside a hunger hunters eyes. for naught but a moment, ephemeral and still closely guarded, the hollowness and snark within her seemed to disperse and she seemed to be so much more earthbound, so much more grounded in an assumption ( of remembering how it felt to be loved and cared for ): had she had let go of her walls, let the name of her only living family slip ( how she waited and waited and kept every letter as it was her own living gospel, as her own written alter of worship ): how the name of eizen tied with his military branch and deployment unit had connected far too easily, how shattered the lingering fragments of a girl whom now was lost amongst the pieces laid before his feet and kratos, even with his love by his side, wasn’t sure what to do.

but what else was kratos nor anna meant to do? it was the eve of nine months of … somewhat knowing her and kratos did what he could, what he was allowed to do ( a combination of what he thought was best, therapist advice, and what edna gave within arms reach ): but wasn’t this the purpose of abundance and adulthood, hadn’t this been the point of being able to provide in excesses for his family—to also give those without a home one too? grief did not have a time limit, even if we often wished it too. how could he compare ( kratos couldn’t nor would he ): maybe he could share the closest he’d ever been to loss, mayhap he could talk about the first women whom had ever loved him, before he even knew what he was to love and be loved: his dearest mother.

it is, however, a moment of sentimental frailty that is not meant to last: kratos wishes to speak on the love that can still be found, even within the loss, longing, and grief but would the words that he wanted to leave his tongue even come close to her, in the ways that he would hope would reach her? kratos’ soul twists and turns and bites at itself in a deplorable devoted act of self-punishment and within him is two beings chanting ( something about duty / something about god ): truly, even one blessed as he still held much sin between his teeth but where there was sin lay the grounds for redemption and repentance and divine self-sacrifice.

❛ eiz—he wouldn’t want you like this. to miss someone is a means of knowing how much you loved them. when it gets too much, ❜

it was spoken from experience, from a place of the purest love. in the doorway of her bedchambers was anna ready to jump need kratos find his words giving additional trials to the living embodiment before him, but his will and kindheartedness had gotten them to this point and it was an attempt, a closer attempt, and for kratos, that would be enough.

❛ whenever i miss her, my mother. ❜ because even a living god king could grieve, what was a man if not the grief of all those he loved and would ever love? ❛ i recall all the parts of her i loved, and yes it was everything, her laugh, the way she would hum while cooking stew, the smells of her favorite perfumes. ❜ but, as with all things, grief was still grief and it had no time limit. ❛ everyone, including myself at times, wants you to stop being sad but you, like myself: will never stop being sad. how could they ever expect you too, how could we? how could i? ❜

its the way he looks at her tucked in form, she was already incredibly small but this way she looked even smaller ( all the more childlike, all the more wounded ): and mayhap, he would have found some piece of beauty in this grotesque decadence ( death held much beauty, for it had once held life ): if only it had come as the payment for love, without the transaction of loss and for stolen happiness—but all he feels is sorrow and grief, sainted yet acrid, as in his soul festers a venomous blasphemous maw: the weary bones of a man only trying his best.

❛ it has been said time heals all wounds but i do not agree. much time has passed since the loss of my mother and i long for her embrace everyday, i have never once stopped. like you, i nearly lost myself or… did lose myself for much time within the sadness and grief. but, with time also brought the acknowledgment of accepting but never forgetting. even discussing her with you now, it hurts, my heart weeps but my soul doesn’t shatter, not anymore. ❜

that is, what kratos doesn’t say. he doesn’t say how his soul cannot shatter any longer because the soul of whom he had been before anna, before lloyd—before his family, edna included, had been broken into pieces that could never be put back together. his mind, having gone insane, had covered the hollowed memory with scar tissue to cope, but the pain had never left him and much like edna, would never leave him. ❛ when you no longer are lost in the grief, in the longing for, in the loss. ❜ gently, his hand extends to gently pat her hand, his eyes noticing how her sleeves had become soaked from her snot nose filled tears. ❛ we’ll be right here, edna. ready for you in whichever way you will permit us. ❜

because, sometimes life gave too much unhappiness and tragedy to those whom did not deserve it, least of all the flowering youth of tomorrow. kratos and the budding flower child before him where grief-stricken and desperate for the warmth of a summer that never came during their coldest and loneliest of winters but mayhap, together his family, their family could make even the closest of winters bestow upon their lives the warmest of sunlight upon their blossoming earth.

she is angry; she is enraged; she is indignant—she is crying.

this is not how she wanted him to find her: curled up underneath the blankets of her new bed, her eyes horribly sore and red, and the sleeves of her hoodie are left in dreadful tear-stained condition. it has been like this ever since she first arrived in this house: the sheets are different, and the walls aren't of the same wallpaper, and the furniture is all different, and the windows. the windows were normally small and showed a view of the oak tree just outside the apartment complex if the curtains were pried apart, and beyond that would be the sidewalk she usually treks on the way to school, and there'd sometimes be dried leaves sprawled all over the asphalt for her to crunch with her shoes if she's bored— and that, that's all gone now. it's all gone just like how onii-chan is gone.

she'd gotten the notice herself this morning, actually: the phone call received at 8 in the morning, a voice telling her that 'the body was confirmed dead at around the crack of dawn a few days prior,' then everything else became a blur until reddy found her during the usual 5:30 time in the early evening. she, of course, offered more bite to her barks, as it is usual routine between them, but each time, reddy still remained patient; unmoving, anchored, as stationary as the tall, sturdy lighthouses at the sea onii-chan sometimes shows her from the books he'd read on oceanography for fun. it annoyed her. annoyed her so much.

edna doesn't quite know how to describe their relationship. they aren't like her and meebo from school: meebo has the same long-suffering patience as reddy does while sitting through most of her shenanigans—but meebo is easier to talk with, and she hasn't exactly shown reddy the same non-hostile willingness yet. it was just weird to her, really. she and meebo are classmates, so it makes sense to talk with him. she pesters meebo all the time for homework answers, and pilfers his pens and eraser from his pencil case whenever he isn't looking, and occasionally swipes something random from his bentō during lunch before rubbing it in his face as he complains. reddy, though. she has no affiliation with him. he's just 'that one overstressed old man who likes feeding the alley cat on his way home,' or whatever analogy of an alley cat that exists. edna wouldn't know. all she knows is that reddy offers her things like one would to an alley cat. edna likes cats. she doesn't like reddy.

he should, realistically, have nothing to do with her: he's married and has a son a little younger than her and a busy job, as she had unwillingly learned from all of his unnecessary chitchat, and she has no parents or relatives—or a brother anymore. what does he do? he still somehow comes by at 5:30pm; suggests that she goes with him, implies that she doesn't have to be alone. it makes edna wonder if he's a masochist. he sure seems to act like one. she has seen him weary and tired, like he needs a really good shoulder massage, and thinks he should go to a retirement home already rather than dealing with her. he should leave her alone and go back to his wife and son, who are both waiting for him. he should take his pity and swallow it up like a fruit pit. he should vanish from her life just like how onii-chan vanished.

but no, he does none of that. instead, reddy takes her in; into his house, into his life, into his family's life. this room they're in right now, her new bedroom, is something that belongs to them. she should, realistically, not be here. she is not one of them, after all. it was always just her and onii-chan. there is no 'reddy' in the equation. ( there is no 'kratos' in this equation. same with 'anna' and 'lloyd,' and even 'noishe.' ) even though she very reluctantly accepted his offer to be here, she still shouldn't belong here. she needs a roof over her head, and food, and a nice pillow—but this place is not home. how can it be home when it doesn't feel like home despite reddy and anna having helped move her belongings in already? she reasons to herself that she can at least accept the hospitality because she feels guilty to impose on reddy's wife when edna's never even met her before until a few hours ago.

anna was... very kind to her when edna arrived. she doesn't tell reddy anything, that she actually likes anna for the warm welcome, but it still feels very odd. after all, edna has no idea who her mother was, and was raised with only onii-chan by her side. there was never an adult female in her life, excluding teachers, and now anna is suddenly here. surreal. anna is why edna chose to suck it up and bear with being in this new environment, if only to not disrespect the hospitality. ( and there's also reddy, who has been dealing with her even longer. he still annoys her, but he has never once tried to hurt her either. a sort of stalemate. )

when most of her things had been properly moved in and arranged, that had been when reddy and anna decided to leave her alone. that made sense to her, because it's late and people should be sleeping at this time anyway—but sometimes when you're in a brand new bedroom, lying in a brand new bed, having learned within the same day that your older brother died in the military, edna thinks there is nothing else one can do but cry, so she cries. she's wrapped in the brand new blanket and is crying. she's a quiet crier: she's always proud of that, still is—but tonight, she sniffles a little because there is a gap in her heart now, and it's a big, enormous, irreplaceable gap that's in the unmistakable shape of onii-chan.

and that's when reddy came back in the room. doesn't he know that you should leave a girl alone when she's crying? ugh, really, it irks her so much: how he tells her these things so easily, how he talks like he knows what she's going through, how he talks like he wants to understand her. he talks about his mother, the things he loves about her. edna tries to do the same; tries to think of onii-chan greeting her each morning with a smile as he pats her head, how he lets her have the bigger half of whatever he's eating, how he lets her have the tv remote when she wants to watch her cartoons even though he's still watching something else, how he labels the salt and sugar containers specifically for her—all the trivial, little things that meant something to her. it makes her eyes feel hot, and she is frustrated at herself for letting reddy see her like this. how did he even know she was crying anyway? stalker, she halfheartedly accuses, just to feel even a smidgen better. ( it actually works. )

but the most frustrating part to her is that she actually considers his words. she is angry. angry, angry, angryangryangry— angry at him for knowing what to say. onii-chan may be gone now, but life still continues on. ❛  all right, i get it already. i'm not going to mourn forever,  ❜ she grumbles, hoarsely. eloquence is not possible for edna when she's emotional. she also does not shake off his hand either. that makes him rather special, she supposes, because she doesn't even let meebo touch her. or anyone, really, other than onii-chan. but reddy is not onii-chan, and she's pretty sure he's too old for that role anyway, but she'd rather eat a pair of eyeballs than to call him anything synonymous to 'otou-san,' or 'dad,' or even 'father,' and definitely not 'papa.' it makes her grimace disgustedly as she rubs at her eyes again. ❛  i'll be better by morning.  ❜ she'll get up at dawn, lock herself in the bathroom to clean her face, and—

she pauses and squints. ❛  this—  ❜ she warns darkly, gesturing a finger vaguely between them, and knows that her threat isn't exactly convincing with her red eyes and wet cheeks and disheveled hair, ❛  —is only a one-time thing. got it, reddy? you do not tell anyone.  ❜ he'll probably tell anna, though. oh well. she grumpily wriggles and turns until she lies on her other side, her back facing him to hide her face, then curls into the blanket. she demands, ❛  and close the door when you leave,  ❜ as she rests her eyes. she doesn't turn around to look at him again. edna only planned to cry now, then clean up her face before breakfast, her first official breakfast here. it's impolite and uncouth to eat breakfast while looking like a raccoon's nest, so she needs sleep, and sleep she does.

it's enough, she thinks, drowsily, before everything turns black and flashbacks of onii-chan appear. they transition one by one, like old, grainy sepia films—then reddy's face suddenly pops up, and instead of sepia, it's full of color as he extends his hand to her, all welcoming and inviting. it's only a dream, she knows, so that's why she accepts it. it's a secret she'll take to the grave, she decides as she follows him, then he nudges her inside a house, one that is bigger than her apartment and full of homeyness and life. she enters, he closes the door, then everything is black again as she continues dreaming and dreaming of a new beginning: maybe she is throwing one of her normin dolls at reddy for another wisecrack comment, maybe she is helping anna rinse and chop vegetables for dinner, maybe she is helping sneak a cookie for small lloyd, maybe she is putting on a cat-eared hairband on noishe while he naps.

this brand new, unknown home? it's... enough.

reddy is... okay, for now.

( also: she never kicked him out. she really hopes she won't regret that in the morning. )

[tomepact]

tell us more about hymnal. what does he know and believe about the world? what was he taught growing up in the age of arcanum or in the post-divergence world where gods are just out of reach? why sarenrae? what is mercy to him? what is redemption?

hymnal's been dealt a helluva hand over the years, and i think he's fascinating as a study of rebirth and the effects of people who want for that outside of you as a person.

he's a lot more free in the age of arcanum, but he's also trapped because that narrative is a known story with a known ending. it doesn't matter how much he knows about the world, because in the end, he's the catalyst for one of the great ends of the gods.

for post-divergence, he's. . .very naive for a long time. he's the beast in the tower, he's raised in a reclusive little temple where he sleeps under bells and dreams about the distance and knows the names of everybody in the town he's from without any of them knowing him very well. he's intensely perceptive and intelligent and he's also been put into a box his whole life.

age of arcanum-hymnal was the kind of hero like the saints who woke up having visions of something bigger than they are and deciding to dedicate their lives to that cause. just like a lot of things in the age of arcanum regarding the gods, many of them are chosen because that's just what is done. post-divergence, he's been taught a little about the way things used to be and why they're different now. why clerics and paladins are much, much rarer now, why spells aren't as powerful or carry a higher penalty, why some magics just don't exist anymore. a lot of it has to do with the possibility that gathering the lost objects of the past will bring with them a piece of that old divinity.

sarenrae is his dearest friend. she always has been. she always would be. there's a seat out there waiting for him in celestia, eventually.

mercy and redemption are. . .they're interesting concepts that heavily influence the current worship of the everlight. there's an argument to be made for calamity hymnal to be a devotion paladin instead of a redemptive one, but redemption is the path he walks. there's almost certainly a schism in how the worshipers of sarenrae classify his domain nowadays.

i think the differences in them can really be felt by the different tenets that have come up over the years:

for calamity, it's the tenets of sarenrae that more influence his life:

lead with mercy, patience, and compassion. inspire others to unite in fellowship.

aid those who are without guidance. heal those who are without hope.

those who are beyond redemption, who revel in slaughter and remorseless evil, must be dispatched with swift justice.

meanwhile, the present hymnal very much embodies the tenets of a redemption paladin, rather than the ones of his goddess specifically:

all people begin life in an innocent state, and it is their environment or the influence of dark forces that drives them to evil.

once you have planted the seed of righteousness in a creature, you must work day after day to allow that seed to survive and flourish.

most importantly of all is this, which i don't think is something that calamity hymnal ever understood:

your heart and mind must stay clear, for eventually you will be forced to admit defeat. while every creature can be redeemed, some are so far along the path of evil that you have no choice but to end their lives for the greater good. any such action must be carefully weighed and the consequences fully understood, but once you have made the decision, follow through with it knowing your path is just.

in the end, it's why the hells could act through him. he never admitted defeat until it was too late.

[wolint]

ALABASTER BOX WORSHIP!

THE ALABASTER BOX WORSHIP

Luke 7:37-50

 

Alabaster is a box or vessel made from Fosbroke stone, used as a container for holding ointments. The Bible speaks of an alabaster box in two separate incidents involving women who brought ointment in the box to anoint Jesus. The Greek word for “alabaster box” means “flask,” “jar,” and “vial” in other translations.

This woman came to give her testimony in a very public way, expressing her gratitude to her gracious deliverer (Jesus) for freeing her from the darkness and guilt of sin with an expensive box of oil.

How do we show our gratitude to the Lord for His faithfulness and goodness towards us? Our worship is important and should not be done irreverently or with disregard.

Shaha, the Hebrew word for worship, refers to the worship of God. Deep worship of God involves prostrating, bowing down, crouching, laying flat, humbly beseeching God, making obeisance, and showing reverence.

Our deep worship is the place where we take our position according to Ephesians 2:6 to declare and wage war against the enemy. As spirit-filled and led people, we must learn to always approach the throne room and the Father in awe, reverence, and respect. We must come before the Lord in reverent celebration, expressing our devotion to God by singing His praise with shouts of joy, songs of praise, and with our substance for His unfailing love and faithfulness.

Any offering we bring to the Lord should be a form of worship. This nameless woman came with an alabaster box of oil—an expensive and unique perfume. Instead of a towel, she chose to use her hair to bathe the Master’s feet in reverence and awe of His love. Her tears were both of thankfulness and reverent awe as she sensed the presence of God in Jesus. Her act would have been considered improper by many, and it would have taken great courage on her part to honour Jesus in this way, with a precious seed and action.

Romans 12:1 says to present our bodies—a metaphor taken from bringing sacrifices to the altar of God. The person offering picked out the choicest of the flock and brought it to the altar, presenting it there as an atonement for his sin. This unnamed woman picked an alabaster box, her hair, and tears as her sacrificial offering—she literally presented her body. We are exhorted to give ourselves up in the spirit of sacrifice as the Lord’s property, as done with the whole burnt offering.

A living sacrifice—in opposition to those dead sacrifices which we are in the habit of offering the Lord. Allow the anointing of the Lord to fuel our worship if we want to experience God’s glory. When we come into the place of deep worship, the Alabaster Box Worship, we create an atmosphere where nothing is impossible, where no sickness or disease can thrive, where nothing can hide, and where all things are possible because the anointing, according to Isaiah 10:27, breaks every negative thing down.

There are many profound examples of deep worship in the Bible that can inspire us, starting with Abraham’s Sacrifice of Isaac in Genesis 22:1-14: Abraham demonstrated ultimate devotion and trust in God by being willing to sacrifice his beloved son, Isaac. This act of obedience and faith is a powerful example of worship through complete surrender to God’s will that we should all emulate.

When the astrologers came to pay homage to baby Jesus in Matthew 2:2,11, they came to prostrate, to express reverence because they saw His star—bringing expensive and unique offerings of worship.

What can you bring to the Master as a sacrificial offering for deep worship? Take it to the Lord as an Alabaster Box Worship.

PRAYER: Father, may I learn to praise and worship You with reverence and awe for who You are. In Jesus’s name, amen.

Shalom

WOMEN OF LIGHT INT’L PRAYER MIN.

[sgenvs3000f24]

Unit 1 blog post

Before I sat to write this blog post, I was certain my viewpoints on nature were going to be more bleak than the rest of my peers. Being in touch with nature was never a priority growing up because “studying was more important”. Like most Indian households, it was much more commendable to spend sunny days inside doing schoolwork than being outside, so I didn’t spend too much time exploring the outdoors. Since nature was always present in the background, I also tended to not give it importance and appreciate it. My mom was very cautious about nature and would always warn us about how dangerous it could be. She grew up in India, where nature often had ways of becoming deadly in the rural town she lived in. Whether it was deadly insects, wild animals, or extreme weather, it seemed that nature sometimes made life harder for communities who did not have the ‘luxury’ of viewing it for leisure. As I was reflecting on this, I realized how different cultures and places form their own unique relationships with nature. I think it is fair to say that most people living in Canada see nature through a much smaller scope than those living in eastern countries. While Canada hosts a beautiful array of natural parks and animals, most Canadians can be selective about when and how much nature they want to absorb. Many countries in the east (i.e. Thailand, India, Nepal) have cultivated a lifestyle in which nature plays an integral role, particularly to their religious and spiritual beliefs. It is precisely these beliefs that sprouted my current relationship with nature in my adult years.  

To those not familiar with Hinduism, what I’m about to say next may come across as somewhat peculiar. Many of our gods are theriomorphic (having animal characteristics), anthropomorphic (having human characteristics), or a combination of the two.  This is to say that nature and its components (particularly animals) are meant to be highly regarded and worshiped. Many aspects of our culture center around how connected we are with nature.

(Nature worship is not limited to just Hinduism, it is a core practice in most reliogions/cultures in India. I've personally travelled to a holy site in India where people lined up for hours to worship and get blessings from an ancient tree)

Something that I personally resonate with is the concept of reincarnation (the belief that we can be reborn as another living entity) and animism (a belief system which recognizes the divine presence in all living things). Looking through nature from these particular lenses allowed me to have a much more meaningful connection to it. Even though nature was surrounding me, I used to look at it as something I was detached from. There was nature, and then there was me living in my air conditioned house. As I became more religious and spiritual, I was able to find a “sense of place”. My relationship with nature deepened to a  highly personal level, in ways that helped to ground me and find peace. I now see the deeply symbiotic relationship that humans have with nature. This may be insulting to some, who believe that humans are at the top of the natural order. Not only do I disagree with this (because it gives us an excuse to treat the Earth however we please) but I believe the complete opposite. I believe that humans are merely guests on this miraculous planet and guests should not destroy the house they are temporarily living in (it's rude!). The Earth has been here for billions of years so it will do just fine after our species has left. This is a reminder that we need nature more than it needs us. We are not just dependent on nature, we are wholeheartedly a part of nature too. As an interpreter, I want to inspire my audience to think more spiritually about nature and realize that we are part of something greater than ourselves. 

[sylvidoptera]

It's a weird way to make a living, I know, but it's very lucrative in more ways than one. In exchange, I not only get payments of everything from ancient coins and gems to electronic deposits in my hidden bank accounts, I get extra time added to my life. However long they borrow the decay that is inherent in every human body, my own time line expands that much further into the future.

For as long as I had been doing this - so much longer than anyone could have guessed - I'd never had a request from a customer like the one currently standing before me.

"Let me get this straight. You not only want to give me everything you own, but you want to buy my entire mortality?" My brow furrowed in confusion as I looked the man over. "Is that even possible?"

As the inhumanly beautiful being before me hesitated, my brain flashed back to all I'd learned about my ability since I was a child. It wasn't much. The first encounter apparently happened before I was old enough to form memories. My parents told me that they had wondered why I was growing so slowly. It wasn't until they found the nymph from the tree outside my window rocking me in the night that they realized that their offspring was extremely different.

The nymph had wanted to be mortal long enough to have a child. A year of my growth was delayed for it, but she was grateful and provided us with treasures that had been hidden in a buried cache in the forest. After that, word spread among the supernatural and my parents had everything from vampires wanting to experience the sun again to forgotten gods who wanted to walk among humans to try to lure back worshipers.

Thankfully, my parents loved me and were protective of me. They would initially only allow sips of my mortality for enough of a donation to live by. Not only did they refuse to risk any complications from whatever process was happening (we never could figure out HOW I did what I did), but it was extremely hard to hide the fact that your child was a child for a lot longer than they should have been. It wasn't until I was old enough to understand what was happening and make my own decisions that we started offering longer and bigger trades.

My parents died when I was in my early fifties. They were old and frail and I still looked like I was barely out of my teens. But they died in luxury, holding my hands and knowing they were loved. The only ones I had ever loved, in fact, since it was nearly impossible to make friends when you hardly age. We had moved so much to hide that fact that they were my whole world.

The pain I'd felt at losing them solidified my desire to avoid finding a spouse of my own, since I'd have to give up my "trade" if I didn't want to outlive my love. I'd seen that pain on some of my clients' faces. The ones who had ignored their immortality after a while and tried to connect… only to lose that connection to death.

It was, in fact, nearly time for me to move again. Not only had I been in this region too long - my youthful appearance being put down to good genes and the mild weather - but I had begun having flutterings of feelings for my neighbor next door. Over the last few years, our friendship had grown. In those deep brown eyes that crinkled with bright smiles every time we met, I saw what could have been a life of beauty, joy, and heartbreak. I'd been alone for hundreds of years now, and the idea of being as close to someone as I had been to my parents - of not having to hide - was overwhelmingly tempting.

Brought back to the present by the shifting of my possible client's slender fingers twisting around each other, I waited for an answer.

"This world was beautiful when it was made." He paused, emotions far too complex for me to decipher flickering across his face. "Now the mortals devour each other and gut the planet. I can feel the decay coating me like slime. Even the most remote and hidden places are starting to be affected." Tears that looked like molten silver slid down the perfect skin of his cheeks. "I can't watch it any more. Please."

Shuddering at the almost palpable grief and disgust exuding from him, I could feel my stomach churn. He was right; I'd seen it myself even in my much-shorter lifetime. Why was I continuing to do what I'd always done when I had no idea how much worse things would get? I was wealthy, but what was money when you couldn't fix an entire world? It only meant added guilt as I watched countless others suffer because my reach only extended so far, no matter how many zeroes were in my account.

I thought about being alone and watching the world die… never having risked love. At that moment, something inside me snapped in a bittersweet way and I looked up at the hopeful face in front of me. "I'm sorry, but I'm afraid I'm no longer in business. I wish you the very best."

…

The funeral was beautiful. Not only friends, but the families of all the foundlings we had fostered in our decades together were there to pay respects. My partner and I had been adored by everyone for the safe haven that we had provided to lost and hurting children in the ever more turbulent world. The beloved brown eyes had dulled in color over the years, but the sparkle and love for life didn't leave until they closed for the last time. The atmosphere of celebrating a life well lived was only lightly tinged with sadness. That would set in later.

But the sadness would only last a little longer, and then Death could be met as a friend instead of a business associate. I still felt a little regret about dooming that beautiful immortal to their eternal life; but, in looking around the home we had created for so many and feeling the love that still filled it, I knew I would never go back and change it.

Text: I sell mortality of all sorts to those who come seeking it. Often they want just enough to appear human, to bleed, or cry. Some want to meet with death for business, and need to die to do it.

[errantabbot]

Jesus, the Mystic

Beyond the shadow of any doubt, Jesus was a mystic. There is really no other way to frame it in the lens of historical-critical inquiry, and when examining those teachings most closely identified with his life and work.

In Matthew 22 Jesus teaches us to “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind. This is the first and most important command. And the second command is like the first: Love your neighbor as you love yourself. All the law and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands.”

This set of commandments it something that is frequently cited but very seldom embodied by contemporary followers of the Jesus movement. Love, after all, is a flippant thing today, which is to say it’s cheap and fleeting. Hardly what Jesus was after. Indeed, we can love our morning coffee, or love our favorite TV show, we can even love a celebrity whom we’ve never met. And we do. At least for a time of passing sentimentality for the pleasures these things bring us. But is this a love defined by the totality of our being- heart, soul, and mind- being utterly wrapped up and even consumed in its expression? I think not. Very seldom do we cultivate this type of love, or even pay mind to its possibility, as it is intuitively understood as a dangerous mode of being.

Jesus’ first and chief command is to love God in this way. But I would argue that clarifying what is meant by God here is of quintessential importance. Any God that we love simply because of the things he/she/it can do for us, or because of the power they purportedly have over our lives is intrinsically cheap. It can’t be an all-consuming love, in which the whole of one’s being is wrapped up in, when it’s born of token favor, or outright fear.

Arguably, in the modern world, that type of abusive dynamic between God and humanity is becoming more and more scarce. Manipulated dynamics such as these are increasingly difficult to find in anyone’s experience, that is, any evidence of an anthropomorphic deity’s omnipotent grip over reality in general, let alone the minutia of our lives. Indeed, ours’ is an era when even mainline Christian Bishops have been called to publicly contend with the reality that “the God of theism is dead.” So, what then are we talking about?

If we’re honest, omnipotence, omniscience, and omnipresence can only be truly ascribed to one thing, and that is reality itself. Only reality, can be in itself everywhere present, all knowing of itself, and universally powerful in the grand potentials it is capable of. The human mind, for millennia, has been most able to relate to reality and its myriad phenomena through the lens of anthropomorphism. There is even some evidence that an animistic perspective in which the divine is perceived as occupying nature with relatable (human) characteristics is quite useful in allowing our psyches to approach wonder and gratitude with relative ease. However, animism and theism unaware is a dangerous force; history has unequivocally proven this time and time again. And when it fully runs its course, it is also a heart-breaking force, ultimately.

I contend that God is in essence, a profound metaphor for the totality of reality. And, that it has functionally always been so, regardless of the additional characteristics and traits that we have ascribed to it - flourish, that is. And with or without that flourish, perhaps most strongly without it, being able to, with the whole of our being, love reality in its fullness, is quite a task. Being able to, as the Buddhist’s might say love what is happening now, to be totally invested, accepting, and in accord with this very moment, with God and all God’s complexities. This is the heart of mysticism.

If we can truly love reality, be utterly invested in it, and in intimate communion with it variegation, our lives change. There is no if, and, or but about it. In this place our call is not to worship reality in hope of manipulating any of its potential outcomes, but to rather stand in wonder of it, and to appreciate deeply the infinite chains of cause and effect that have given rise to our own being, and ability to perceive and know, even a fraction of reality. It gives pause, brings peace, and ushers in a nearly unshakable sense of equanimity. Truly, the metaphorical “Kingdom of God,” is reality, wherein everything fits, and where beginnings and ends fall away, and we, in communion with it, can touch infinity, life everlasting.

It is only in a firm rooting of the love of God as reality itself that the love of others, our neighbors of all sorts, can blossom. Indeed, it is a natural evolution of this awe-struck, wonder-laden love of God, and one with practical, society transforming implications.

If we love God and then love others, with the whole of our being, with the full understanding of our utter enmeshment as children of God, born of reality’s infinite potential and somehow living, aware of one another, on a common ground, rather uniquely capable in our observable universe of upholding such a state, we cannot hate, we cannot ignore, and we cannot willfully harm one another. This is the functional mystical vision, common of all strands of contemplation throughout all of time. Indeed, “All the law and the writings of the prophets depend on these two commands.”

~Sunyananda