#knowledge keeper

[bumblehaven]

I saw your post reblogging about mythological creatures from other cultures that have been "creepy pasta'd" for lack of a better terms.

You mentioned how one that was tagged and censored "shouldn't be named" and I was hoping you could explain more???

Taanshi! I'm happy to provide. Please note I can only speak from the perspective of my peoples, the Cree & Michif, so it's very possible there are variations from different nations across Turtle Island.

The creature that was mentioned, often portrayed as an "undead" skull-headed beast, is part of a story with deep protocol involved. This protocol is important because the creature is said to be a very dark, twisted spirit, and even invoking its name brings bad medicine unto the speaker and those around them.

The Cree story discusses that this spirit possesses humans and leads them to commit atrocious acts, so we often try to avoid catching its attention in any way we can. The same can be said for the other creature mentioned in the initial post -- a shape-changing figure that brings about bad medicine if not handled correctly.

Unfortunately in this contemporary age, it's beyond possible to rein in and protect our sacred stories like these two, but it is not beyond possible to bring information to those who encounter the stories out in the wild. These creatures, these legends, myths, and teachings, are all an important organ in a very real, very alive body of people. So while we're still here -- at least while I still exist -- it feels right to remind those who're listening that our stories (and by extension, the people they belong to) are not free for the taking. They weren't ever free in that way, but history has shown a deep lack of respect that nearly cost Indigenous culture its life and memory. Not anymore.

Anyways, hope that clears things up a bit for you!

[qipsir]

no idea if this is a vent or not but

please, please tell me I am not the only metaphysical practitioner who is bored out of my mind over the concept of human life.

Please tell me I'm not the only one who looks at things humans do, maybe even something that people say makes life worth living, and your response is "isn't that counterproductive?" or "why do that when you can do something so much more interesting?"

Like it-

It can't just be me, right?

I can't be the only one grappling with my own exhaustion for something, anything interest to do on a metaphysical level

[southerndragontamer]

Egotober Day 10: Glitch

The Oxford Dictionary defined glitch as a sudden, usually temporary malfunction or irregularity of equipment or an unexpected setback in a plan. In human a glitch was defined as their body’s immune response or other systems acting up without reason or cause that was understood. Logan ran the definition through his mind as he paced in his room. He made a circuit of the space between his bed and desk. He knew as a Side he wasn’t a machine, he wasn’t a human technically but part of one. He shouldn’t have a glitch.

But that was what had happened wasn’t it? As impossible as it seemed to him when he looked at the evidence there wasn’t any other conclusion he could make. During his interaction with Remus he had momentarily become so angry, so insulted that he was being ignored even if he’d known that was what the Duke did. Remus got under everyone’s skin on pure principle, it was part of Intrusive Thought and how it functioned. That he had…that he had experienced a glitch.

It was the only explanation for the utter…rage that had consumed him for a few terrifying seconds. For the fact his eyes had went from cool deep blue to burning orange-Logan took a sharp, deep breath and locked away the feeling that might have been worry. He wouldn’t let himself linger on it anymore. He had experienced a momentary glitch, that was all. It was fine. He was fine.

He had to be….Thomas and the others depended on him to be fine.

[titsoutfornature]

do you ever think about how vulnerable specialized labor under capitalism has left us?

do you know where to get folate, calcium, iron, iodine etc without buying pills or mass-produced fortified foods? do you know how to process out anti-nutrients in edible substances (like corn, cassava, etc)? do you know how to save and store seeds from various types of edible plants? do you know how to preserve meat without a freezer or salt? how to remove bittern from sea salt? how to find water in a drought and how to purify it? how to treat dehydration?

what happens when it's your money or your life? when militaries target supply chains during war?

[thecrowslullaby]

there is something about drawing the mercs as animals.

i'm trying to figure out which version i like best.

[quinn-of-aebradore]

Oath of Devotion paladin Leylas. Echo Knight fighter Quana. Knowledge domain cleric Abrianna. Mastermind rogue Deirta.

[shuuenka]

It's been awhile, couple hundred of years.

Give or take.

It's not that bad, Cyno.

Just a bit of ache. A bit of yearning.

Ah, and missing you for all of the eternal life I was cursed with.

Selfish desires of the heart that was once moved.

[bookwxrmish]

Kotlc match list headcannons

-Sophie(if she could be registered) has Fitz at the top of her list with Tam second

-Keefe giving Tam the side-eye because he ranked above him by one spot on Sophie's list

-Keefe deciding that he doesn't need a match list because his Foster wouldn't be on it(but Sophie would def be first on his list)

-Biana having Tam and Dex as the top two positions, Maruca in third(no complaints)

-Linh and Marella being at the top of each others' lists and just going with it

-Dex didn't have anyone he knew on his list the first time(except for Stina, but he would never)

-Dex's next list had Tam, Fitz, and Biana- in that order. He's still panicking and hiding his list.

-Sophie found Dex's list and said she'd support his choice and she especially ships him and Biana.

-Fitz found out during a telepathy lesson and started blushing

-Fitz had Linh as number four on his list and no one else he knew(except Stina- but like Dex, ew)

-Fitz decided he may be better off as a Councillor

-Stina had Maruca in the 10th spot and started blushing furiously

-Maruca had Stina in her 7th and rumors say they went on a date(rumors also say it went very well)

-Nobody knows whats on Jensi's list, but they speculate Fitz may have been on it

-Tam got a list, but he has yet to show anyone. Though Fitz was rumored to be in the mix.

[blackbeardsheartbreak]

My Actual Career:

Reclaiming The Words That Were Taken By Colonizers

for fun:

“You wrote me a lovely letter”

is the exact same word as

“you tattooed something on me”

because our language is event-based (verb-based to you). we say “you wrote a lovely something to me”; we would only add that it was a letter for clarification.

word structure:

you-lovely-writing-for/to/at/on-me

my very favorite tidbit:

the root word for tattoo always contains the adjective lovely - a tattoo is always a lovely writing because language is where ancestral knowledge hides to survive

[perilegs]

every time there's a (chain) restaurant that stops using finnish meat i die inside a bit. like. first of all your image will suffer. it's more ecological to get things made near you. you should realize that even if you don't care about anything. and yeah i barely eat meat but i do care about animal wellbeing so i'm capable of understanding that since people at large will keep eating meat, it's good to support the industry in a country where it's actually mandatory to treat your animals somewhat well and raise them in clean environments and where antibiotics are only used if an animal is sick. and not as a preventive measure so you can raise them in dirty environments. does antimicrobial resistance say nothing to you. also this is exactly why, if i had a pet, i'd be unwilling to buy them food that has meat from a country where i don't know about how the butchery works. bc it supports everyone from the animals to the consumers and their pets and whatever to have meat that's raised with prevention of diseases with the help of systematic health care work and hygiene and literally just not dumping antibiotics into poor animals in poor conditions. thats how you get e coli. my god. all that so you can get slightly cheaper ingredients. insane.

[meadowsofmay]

i really like the point percy makes (and that vax eventually agrees with) about civilization during their conversation about westruun after umbrasyl was killed — a city built by very people's hands deserves preservation and saving as much as those same people leaving in it.

«the death of the city is such a blasphemy. it is the murder of the dead. and i am horrified.»

«building will give them [people of westruun] something to do. and if the dragon comes back, they will be safe underground. and if the dragon doesn't, we have saved thousand of years of inspiration and life. it's... you can't just abandon something like this! there's too much here.

vax: otherwise, what else are we fighting for?

otherwise, it becomes our friend pike from nowhere.»

it's such a beautiful point about history and culture being as important to keeping human civilization alive as saving lives of people. preserving knowledge build into the walls of cities can become a new starting point, a foundation that the new generation will be built upon, more equipped and smart. and just not entirely faceless. remembering the culture is important, it's an identity, it's a customized dress that tells about the roots of beliefs and explains people's behavior. it's a wisdom carefully interwoven into the tale of creation of this specific piece of the world.

the culture is important.

and percy being the one who lost overnight his whole family and his town knows about it more than a man of his age would want to. the history of his family was inseparable from the culture of whitestone and one of briarwoods' goals was to tear it down in the most cruel way. to smear the de rolo's name in their own blood and dirt and render their town faceless and hopeless, only useful of their own vicious plans.

and it now makes so much sense to me personally why vax was so determined to use pelor as a symbol of hope, spreading it as a signal everywhere he went. he understood it, too. he saw pieces of whitestone culture being destroyed and wanted to bring them to life in people's hearts in the form of symbolism carried over in spoken word. and yes, he wanted to help percy. yes, it was done for the rebellion. but one doesn't cancel the other. and in my opinion, it wasn't just about percy defeating the briarwoods but more about percy being a still alive and standing piece of whitestone history and culture that can be and should be a symbol himself.

a symbol of rebirth of the culture that there used to be, a culture attached to the de rolo family and hence attached to whitestone.

i just find all of this incredibly compelling in terms of character building and in terms of simply being a human being serching for what's important in life.

[qipsir]

kind of just a heads up to the people I talk with regularly, if you saw my previous post about an alternate term for shamanism, the word 'shaman' is a russian word for the Tungusic word 'saman' which basically means 'he who knows'. The practice of saman specifically is Tungusic HOWEVER as far as I can tell there have been relatively close equivalents throughout cultures worldwide? Usually called things that also translate to 's/he who knows' or 'wo/man of knowledge'

The post I retweeted notes that people have been using 'ritual specialist' as a substitute but at least to me personally that's still. not. really what we do? We know things, we help people with that knowledge, we're a conduit, a vessel more than anything. Rituals are a byproduct that, as far as I can tell, has more to do with the cultural practices than the spiritual ones? At least that's my take on it.

Which is to say that while both ritual specialist and knowledge keeper seem to be sufficient substitutions, if you want to meme it up you can use

Loremaster

And nobody can stop you. But that's just...a theory

[southerndragontamer]

Egotober Day 25: Cauldron

Patton couldn’t help but grin, giggling to himself as he stood over the giant pot on the stove. He felt a bit like a wizard over a potion cauldron, which was fitting considering the season and all the decorations around the mindscape. There was fake spider webbing, actually cute versions of spiders around, ghosts, jack o lanterns, bats, skeletons, you name it. There were even some with a bit of…bloody touch from Remus that was fine in small doses.

As he looked through his recipe book to think of what to make today, couldn’t ever go wrong with spaghetti and meatballs really he decided after a few minutes, he was reminded of the times the past week that the others had come into the kitchen and helped him make something.

Logan had come down first, a bit of a sheepish look on his face when he’d admitted an interest in learning food preparation and Patton had been ecstatic to take him into the world of baking, as he thought it would be more preferred to the logical Side as it needed precise steps. With his peanut allergy and how he liked things not completely sweet in mind, and of course his adoration for Crofter’s, they’d made jam thumbprint shortbread cookies with a bit of lemon to add that tartness. He remembered how Logan had eaten them alongside some finger sandwiches while they’d read together in the library later.

Virgil had been next, in the middle of the night looking for a midnight snack to calm himself down, Patton had talked to him a bit but hadn’t pushed on what was wrong as he’d looked a bit like a scared cat about to bolt. Then he’d gently coaxed him into helping him bake something. He knew that he liked something more subtle, maybe a little bit bittersweet and coffee, so they’d made espresso sea salt caramel semi sweet brownies and had them with a glass of milk while they’d talked about what had had him afraid until Virgil felt comfortable enough to sleep again.

Roman had been next, he’d come down in a sulking pout one day because of artist block and when Patton had seen how hard he was half glaring at his sketchbook, like if he could he’d set it on fire he’d redirected his attention with the offer of cooking. Roman loved strawberries and raspberries and he did not do subtle very well, plus he knew the prince liked to go overboard. They’d not only made a shortcake with layers of cream and mixed berry jam between the cake, but fresh bread and butter to go with pork chops, home fries and Mac and cheese. And Roman had been so delighted by the experience that he’d found his art again.

Remus had been soon after Roman, the Duke had almost scared Patton to death when he’d just popped up behind him. But when he’d calmed down he had kind of…not sheepish or embarrassed, he didn’t think Remus felt either of those things really, but sort of hesitantly asked if he could help make something. Patton had of course said yes and didn’t push why as he sort of felt it was a case of Intrusive Thoughts being too much even for Remus, though Patton had been the one in charge of knives. Remus was a bit like Roman in that he did not do subtle, and he liked contrasting flavors, and they’d made very messy, but very delicious subway sandwiches and a dirt cake with sour sweet gummy worms.

Janus had been the most recent, his opposing Side in a sense had just tapped his shoulder with a secretive smile on his face and asked if he needed help with dinner. Patton had naturally accepted and he knew that Janus liked things a little spicy, flavors that changed in your mouth from one to another like layers in an onion and that he liked lemon. They’d made chicken curry with rice and lemon bars. And they’d actually had a long talk that night that had gone from helping Patton with his issues on pushing too much to Janus’ need to hide when things got too much.

Patton knew things wouldn’t always be easy, there was him to worry over, Roman and Logan still needed to work through various things, but…so long as there was good food and someone to talk to. It would all be ok.

[knxwledge-is-pxwer]

@skxrbrand

"Who in all of the multiple worlds is this 'Tzeentch' you keep associating me with?!"

This world felt like a mistake already. He had only just gotten here, sensing a MYRIAD of magical and arcane secrets and hoards of knowledge being kept, and he simply could not resist the urge to find them. However, one of the stronger sources had pointed him to-- this being. A blood-red, muscled and frankly, quite thick-headed demonic being who kept accusing him of being associated with someone called 'the Architect of Fate', something called 'Tzeentch'.

"Whoever this 'Architect' of yours is, it has nothing to do with me. I am a visitor in these realms, and I will not be instantly met with falsehoods and hostility!"

[silveny-dreams]

desperately need to do a series reread. for sure so that I am refreshed for Unraveled and definitely not for consistency research for a fanfic-

[wildstar25]

Since Arsay is a keeper, does she really enjoy moonlit nights? Or attribute her found love to Minphina?

It should be illegal how cute she and Y'shtola/G'raha are!

Arsay is half keeper [south shroud] half seeker [u tribe] (I like to call her a greeter of the star☆ -w-) and raised far far removed from either of the two's culture. She was born in the south seas isles and grew up exclusively with Lalafells [Mostly 3rd-4th gen south sea inhabitants, but some recent migrants from Ul'dah and Vylbrand too]. Arsay was never taught the significance of the moon or Menphina pertaining to Keeper culture. In fact, the only bit of Keeper culture Arsay was taught was the bit about war paint. Something Arsay puts on herself everyday; bold red and black paint around her eyes. War paint was about the only keeper-ism Sapir Nun, Arsay's mom, shared with Emrara Emra, Arsay's adoptive caretaker.

So to answer the second question, no, Arsay does not attribute her found love to Menphina. She simply counts herself lucky that the people in her life chose to love her. For that kindness, in turn she continues to do everything she can to show her never ending gratitude. Arsay may love others unconditionally but that does not mean she expects to receive that same kind of love for herself. But that said Arsay has made a wish or two in Menphina's name. Either as an attempt to connect with her Mother's culture or in a "it's a long shot but if you do exist..." type of way (before the myths of the realm questline!).

For your first question, Arsay does enjoy a moonlit night! Most of her physical traits she inherited from her mother's keeper genes. She might be a bit more tolerant to daylight than other pure keepers, but the sun is still pretty harsh on her eyes. It's less of a strain on her to be out at night. She also just really loves stargazing (G'raha does too!!). Arsay learned how to navigate using the stars while she sailed around the south seas, so when she finds herself under a new sky Arsay will dedicate a night to observing and mapping things out in her head.

Thank you for appreciating them <3 Arsay brings a lot of joy into my life and I love being able to share her with everyone here. It makes me doubly happy that y'all enjoy the vibes I put into her relationship! I'm always trying my best to stay true to the characters, with enough flexibility that I can have some fun of course!!