#katabasis...

[3liza]

I'm reading Greek and Roman Necromancy by Daniel Ogden and once again encountered the trope of oracular locations and temples keeping snakes for various ritual purposes and "feeding them" on a kind of honey cake, which as far as I know would not be interesting whatsoever to a snake and even if a snake ate a baked good it would probably have trouble digesting it (I assume). so I was mulling this over, and naturally Ogden doesn't address it, I've actually never read any writer on these subjects address the animal husbandry involved with ancient rituals, which is always frustrating , and it occurred to me that snakes wouldn't eat a Twinkie but rodents and insects absolutely would.

if your ritual snakes are just being kept in some sort of enclosure, especially something like a pit or a katabasis (the Greeks were really big on a Amigara Fault-type procedure where people would go into holes in the earth in various ways and then come out of the holes in various ways and during this process be understood to have visited the underworld or received a vision from an oracular ghost such as Trophonius, the mechanical details of the process aren't clear), you probably aren't directly observing them very often except for any part of the rituals that involve handling, during which the snakes wouldn't be eating anyway. but alone in their enclosures with a bunch of bakery snacks, the rodents and bugs could sneak out of hiding and get grabbed by the snakes.

also I imagine a lot of the smoke and mirrors of the staff at these temples involved managing the various sacred animals somewhat like a petting zoo or a feeder goldfish tank at PetSmart, and just disappearing any of them that died so the clients wouldn't see them. it's likely the staff were cleaning, feeding, and taking care of the snakes at various locations and the dogs at the Asclepias temple and so on.

one has to imagine that most temple priesthood were probably just people who had gotten that particular job somehow, and not the ecstatic true believers that are depicted in every classicist romantic painting and most mythological or fictional imaginings of such places. of course there are tons of modern fiction books that imagine the same thing I do, I read The Jaguar Princess by Clare Bell when I was about 13 and loved the plain and practical descriptions of Aztec temple life, the process of creating art, and the anatomical approach to the idea of a were-jaguar (i have no idea if this book stands up, probably not), I think it permanently contextualized my thinking about ancient ritual as practical and pedestrian for the people who worked in that field. it's fun to imagine the blood-soaked ancient temples in any part of the history of humanity being as ho-hum as an Anglican church service, but they probably were for most people.

[chthonic-cassandra]

You will need to be brave and to go into the woods. It is dark and cold, close and damp. You will be there for a long time. You will be on foot. By the time you come out, flashing lights and bright colors will confuse you. You will not be able to respond to them. Your open eyes will not focus, and you will not remember how to turn your head. You will long for the woods and you will not understand how to leave, how to be in the world outside of the woods. The woods will be the only real place. That is why you must bring bright colors with you - dressing all in black is a mistake. You will carry a torch in each hand as you search. Your feet will bleed. If the dead drink the blood, they will be able to speak to you, but they will not come back with you. Be careful. Do not let the person you want to bring back drink your blood. You will travel for a long time, holding your two torches. You must not stray from the past and you must not pick the flowers. You may ask for help. You will ask the sun for directions and you will ask the moon. Neither will help you; the moon is not able and the sun is not willing. Triple Hecate will have heard something and she will tell you where. You may ask an old woman who sits by the path mumbling to herself. If you walk by without a word she will reveal herself to be a witch and eat you in two bites, but if you ask her for help and offer to share an apple with you, she will give you guidance. Do not throw stones at ravens. You may ask wolves for help, but you should not believe what they tell you. They do not think carefully. They do not think as we do.

Veronica Schanoes, "How To Bring Someone Back from the Dead" in Burning Girls and Other Stories

[dont-offend-the-bees]

Trick or treat!! (Spoiler: it's a treat :3)

I had the pleasure of taking part in the Love Of My Afterlife server collaboration, celebrating Payneland's First Halloween — thanks to @manicpixiedreamedwins for organising!! And I had the absolute DELIGHT of illustrating the gorgeous, soft autumnal hug of a fic that is Season of Mists by @laiqualaurelote !!! Thank you darlin', working with you has been a joy and an honour 💛

Due to time constraints etc. I couldn't even do half the scene illustrations I wanted to do, so I may be back at some time in future with a few bonus sketches! In the meantime here's a soft little portrait of one of Edwin's several oh moments, and a snapshot of The Attic, his beloved and esoteric book warren!

Go forth, and experience the most perfect, gentle, lovely and loving autumn romance read this fine October day 🍂

Some art process pics (as well the Actual Size of the bookshop illustration) under the cut!

Started by very roughly sketching out the shop layout (I imagine it has a more warren-y shelf arrangement than this, though!) And doing a quick sketch. Of course then I liked the quick sketch so much I decided to try and recreate it but better!

Basic pencil layout (amazed at my accidentally decent perspective)

In with the detail sketch — trying to incorporate a load of esoteric little trinkets from the Agency! Although based on the fic I really should have honed in and done even more whimsical shelf decorations!

Sketch over the top in biro so i have something less messy that won't rub away to colour in

Basic colour with watercolour pencils. Looking at this stage makes me wish a bit that I'd not gone in as hard with the ink wash, as the colours are brighter and more autumnal, but you live and learn!

And finally, in with outlines and ink wash, aka my usual art style/medium!

Behold!! A very tiny and fussy work of art 😊

[rathayibacter]

Rath's TTRPG Post!

Hey yall, been long enough that I should really write another of these. I'm Rath and I make weird tabletop games! I've got a lot of games already out there, and even more in the oven, so this post exists to help organize them all and give you a jumping-off point if you want to check out my work. Without further ado,

[BXLLET>

BXLLET is a post-apocalyptic cowboy game about the nature of violence. It hands players incredibly lethal characters, then asks those characters to try and find their way in the world. If all you have is a hammer, how do you stop seeking nails?

Every BXLLET character begins with a single bullet on their person, and can always spend a bullet to kill someone. Collecting more bullets unlocks your archetype's unique powers, making you an increasingly imposing threat—and juicy target. However, even as you become bloated with potential violence, you'll find plenty of problems escape easy solutions. Sure, you can always kill, but can you cut out the rot that runs deeper than any individual bandit, warlord, or capitalist? In a world fighting to rebuild itself from disaster, are you a wandering hero, or just a murderous tool of the old age? Can you help build a better future, or are you doomed to haunt its outskirts?

Thanks to two game jams and a whole lot of love, BXLLET also has a ton of additional modules, spilling over with scenarios, archetypes, factions, mechanics, and alternate settings. Here's a big list of them! Check them out, they're fucking incredible.

KATABASIS

KATABASIS is a tactical combat afterlife-crawl, where spirits fight using weapons and armor made of their emotional baggage to try and escape a surreal concrete afterlife. It's all about putting together strange builds to face off against bizarre monsters, all while meeting other stranded spirits and exploring the tangled world you're trapped in. If you delve deep enough, fight hard enough, maybe one day you can find a way to return to life.

KATABASIS is a work in progress, with the full game still a ways off. I'm currently working on the next update, The Highway Down, where players will fight their way across perilous highways tangled through a hanging city. Even so, the game's already packed with characters, equipment, monsters, and maps.

So go! Gather your painful memories, bare your petrified heart, kill the psychopomps and shatter the gates of hell. There might be no escape, but we'd rather die a thousand times more than give up looking.

Disparateum

Disparateum welcomes you to the Named City, a place at the edge of our world and the center of all others. Residents of the Named City wander across the full spectrum of possible worlds, visiting them as one might visit another neighborhood. Like KATABASIS, it's also a work in progress, but already contains pound-for-pound more raw ideas than anything I've ever written. It's a dense, strange, silly, and colorful game, and a gushing love letter to roleplaying in general.

Disparateum is a game for a Knight, a Thief, and a Seer, who explore the Named City in search of adventure and change. Here, shared dreams settle over the city at night; here, our reflections plot revenge from the opposite side of every mirror; here, dragons hold court to debate ownership of stories; here, museum corridors tangle their way through the past and into other histories; here, spiders weave a network of WiFi connections and host dense egg sacs of websites; here, sprawling statue gardens grow beneath our souls. Welcome to the Disparateum. Enjoy your stay.

Unskilled Labor

Unskilled Labor is a game about struggling to get by in the rotting corpse of capitalism. But this time, you have superpowers!

Unfortunately, the superpowers will not let you steal back the time you wasted in dead-end jobs, nor will they let you topple the system and fix everything singlehandedly. But, hey, did you really expect them to? The work to make a better world remains to be done, and maybe now it'll be slightly easier. Manifest a customer service persona to fight your friends' landlord, use perfect timing to escape the cops, coordinate supernaturally disruptive protests of an oil pipeline. Play using resumes as character sheets and calendars as battlemaps. Manage your well-being (as much as you're able), struggle against the tides of Western society, and spit in the face of authority. It's not a glamorous power fantasy, but hopefully it reminds you not to give up the fight.

Charcuterie

Charcuterie is a series of zines, each about 40 pages long, collecting various little experimental games, writings, and doodles. The first two have five ttrpgs each, four being updated versions of games I'd previously released and the fifth being exclusive to the zine. The third is instead a collection of poetry and short stories, though I'd be lying if I said there wasn't a streak of game design through it all anyway.

IMMORTAL Pop!bat 2: funK.O. (Definitive Edition)

Have you ever wanted a miniatures wargame with thirteen thousand seven hundred and ninety-nine unique statblocks? Have you ever wanted to microwave your friend's limited edition metallic blue Batman Funko Pop, but lacked the game mechanical justification to do so? Have you ever wanted to waste an entire paycheck on a terrible idea? IMMORTAL Pop!bat 2: funK.O. (Definitive Edition) has you covered. With two pages of rules and sixteen hundred pages of Pop!batants, with IP!b2:fK.O.(DE) you'll be making terrible life choices in no time.

Stationkeeping

In Stationkeeping, you've inherited a run-down satellite from your late aunt. Slowly you'll patch it up, add new rooms, and fill it with memories. The game's contained entirely on a small stack of handwritten index cards which you can carry around with you, slowly progressing the game by going out of your way to enjoy the little things in your day-to-day life.

And More!

I've got even more stuff over on itch, and I sneak occasional glimpses at my current projects into the #ttrpgs tag here on tumblr. Keep your eyes peeled!

And of course, I'm always happy to chat. If you're ever curious about something I've made or am making, if you enjoyed something or had thoughts on it, if you just wanna say hi, please reach out! Games are my passion, and I love nothing more than to talk with other passionate people. Until then, I'm signing off!

[deadmegumi]

I hate when a lecturer says something and I make a genius connection and then later on in the lecture they reference that exact thing I was going to comment on thus rendering my genius commentary on the topic I was going to make to my friends later obsolete

[spineless-lobster]

Note to self DO NOT listen to achilles come down while writing patrochilles I was inconsolable for like an hour and I’m not even sure if what I wrote makes any sense but fuck me is it full of emotion

[cakemoney]

the way it happened is truly everyone's worst fear, and the episode puts a spotlight on what those fears are. k trying to fix something and fucking it up massively. when she airdrops all her stuff, it didn't feel like "k's still thinking about her network etc", it felt like defeat, giving up the work she was doing as itsy for someone else, cause she's lost all confidence in her ability to fix what she was trying to fix. sam tries to help with magic, and her wand doesn't work, and she's confronted with how helpless she is without it. she hosts a show with magic in the name but when she needs it, when she calls for it, it doesn't come, and without it all she is (all she fears that she is) is just being shiny on the outside with nothing on the inside. jammer having less than a minute to feel grief and fear before he just locks in on what he needs to do, where they need to go, because jammer feels responsible for everyone he cares about so he feels responsible for this, he can't face evan's shadow because he can't fail evan again because he's already failed to be there before. and then evan! having to be rescued, being inconvenient and throwing off their mission, and then coming back with no clothes, is the worst! he's so sad about how his presence is making his friends' lives worse because k and jammer can't even look at him, he tried to help sam in whatever way he can and it just upset her, and then he socially trapped sam into assuring him she cares about him. he has to ask a magic goat a question and he doesn't know how and even though the goat ends up giving him the theoretical right answer, now it's disappointed in him because he used a cop out! very bad no good day for evan. man.

[yearningwitherrors]

A katabasis or catabasis is a journey to the underworld, can take a long time, one meanders through what has been, the world that both is and is not, starting to forget how the real world looked like, how do strawberries taste, how do you even exit, who are you even? In myths, it used to be a common theme, nowadays, sadly, it is more trickier to do, and is usually called doing a PhD.

[flagellant]

[ijustkindalikebooks]

2025 books I am looking forward to.

[elucubrare]

i realized today that i was envisioning my upcoming three-day drive as a magical time-without-time where i might have to get a hotel every night but i wouldn't have to do something so mundane as eat during the day. i also realized that that wasn't true.

[annalyticall]

Chapter 9: Erebus: Part I

Rating: Mature

Warnings: Graphic Depictions of Violence

Relationships: Dabi/Hawks, Hawks & Lady Nagant, Aizawa & Lady Nagant, Aizawa & Dabi

Summary:

Katabasis (ka·​tab·​a·​sis): A going down or back; a journey into the underworld

The curated cogs of Hero Society can operate only on two conditions: villains will wreak havoc on the innocent, and heroes will bring those villains to justice. What might happen, then, when four outliers defy their world of black and white to repay the blood they owe?

An illustrated, canon-divergent Vigilante AU rotating POV between Aizawa, Lady Nagant, Hawks, and Dabi. Written by Annalytic and illustrated by LooseLeaf.

Preview:

Shouta opens the door to the main room, where Dabi and Hawks are taking turns carefully balancing their playing cards on top of each other to form an impressively high house of cards on the table.

“Aizawa said you two were playing poker,” Kaina comments as she removes the tray of sushi from the fridge. “What happened to that?”

“Hawks kept fucking cheating.”

“I wasn’t cheating, I was bluffing. It’s part of the game.”

[catoswound]

ohh... oh... orpheus...?

[rathayibacter]

look at my horrible toad, boy

[olive-nothere]

MET REBECCA KUANG TODAY

[spineless-lobster]

Babe wake up new chapter of katabasis dropped and this time it’s within a reasonable time span

Achilles fights, and begs, his way through Elysium, getting one step closer to finding Patroclus.

Not only is it released early but it’s also extra long! A lot happens so you should go check it out I think it would be really cool if you did