#origin of caste system

[novella-november]

Is this fanfic friendly? I feel like an outlier.

I guess this is my sign it's time to throw together a FAQ post to link to lol.

Yes, every event for this blog is fanfic friendly :D

Though as I mentioned on my Ominous October post, for events that include multiple short stories, I encourage everyone to flex their creativity and take one of their planned short story fanfics, and at least *attempt* to turn one of them into something entirely original; rebuilding a character and story from the ground up to stand on its own two legs is no easy feat, and that is what makes it so fun!

It really gets your creative gears turning, to make an "au of an existing material" to be something entirely original, and you can be pleasantly surprised about the things you come up with!

As a few people say, its not just a matter of "filing the serial numbers off" -- you have to add in just as much *or more* as what you take out when you are turning a fanfiction into something that is original and completely divorced from its original source material / inspiration, and that is a hard, but very rewarding challenge!

Obviously, this is not a requirement (there's no hard requirements for any of the challenges, other than no cheating, including no using AI),

but if you would like an extra challenge for the short story events and you're planning on doing entirely fan-fiction, I highly recommend trying it out at least once, and seeing where it leads you--

you may find yourself pleasantly surprised by what you find down that rabbit hole!

[magneticmage]

What are people's thoughts on a transgender Brosca or Aeducan?

Like we're told that Orzammar's caste system is based on one's same-sex caste, right? But, like, how complicated are someone's feelings towards their sex and how it differs from their preferred gender when the entire foundation of their culture is so sex segregated?

(Disclaimer; I'm cisgender so I'm not sure how to word all of this right without coming off as lacking understanding of nuances, accidentally coming off as rude and ignorant, or something, but I will do my best. Please be understanding that I am trying to NOT be rude, just might be a bit ignorant on phrasing things? Under a cut because it can be a bit ramble-y and maybe off-topic in some spots)

So transgender Brosca/Aeducan thoughts are hard to word, especially since I usually play my main ones as being cisgender, but even that is...a whole field of Thoughts.

Like I am aware that cisgender female Aeducan should actually be a different caste (probably some kind of noble or upper warrior caste, if I had to warrant a guess but your mileage may vary) than she is, but is considered functionally royalty in what probably amounts to no small part of her being her father's favorite child (because who cares about rules when your father is the king?). And that cisgender female Brosca is already defying some form of cultural expectation by being a casteless Carta thug rather than being a noble hunter like her sister Rica (nothing against Rica here, as I adore her, but Brosca not being one definitely seems to be a Choice, ya know?).

And if they are lesbian or any other orientation that isn't heterosexual, this also has added dimensions of its own as well. All of which is super interesting on how it comments on Orzammar society. Blah blah blah.

But like....what about transwoman Aeducan? Or transman Brosca?

Like how accepting is Orzammar society of such a thing? I'd assume not very much because of all the implications around potentially changing castes, which is socially frowned upon? Like it may not as big a deal for someone whose parents are roughly equal in terms of caste, but when there's a huge disparity between social ranks like, say, a noble lord and a servant caste mother? And, to digress slightly, it does make me wonder if some lower caste/casteless mothers have ever tried to pass off their assigned female children as sons, regardless of gender identity, all in hopes of a better life for their children. Like how Mary Reed's mom dressed her as a boy to keep getting money from her father's family. I mean, that's happened in our world to some extent as well. And how would someone whose intersex be viewed in this society? Do they just...like get to choose? Or is it a guess?

I don't have any answers.

Back to Brosca and Aeducan though.

How much does Trian's sexist comments about women being breeding flesh sting an Aeducan who views themself as a woman and choses to be one? Does their father most likely acknowledging them as his daughter publicly affect things? What about a Brosca that knows that their assigned sex at birth matching Kalah's is what cost them whatever caste their father was? How do they see those born the same sex as them that then go on to become noble-hunters wishing for a son, so their lives can get better? Does it make them angry or sad? Maybe a mixture of feelings?

Like I know that suffering and issues like these are not all that makes up a transperson's identity and I'm not saying it has to either. I know that some people face enough of these kinds of issues in the real world and would rather not have to deal with it in their video games and that's also okay. They can just decide their character is trans and not make it a big deal and that's a perfectly okay thing to do!

But I just...I have questions and am curious about how it might work in cases where they might want it to be a big deal? Is that a bad thing? That or maybe I worded things badly here or in a way that doesn't quite hit the mark because I'm not transgender?

If anyone else wants to weigh in here with their thoughts, like, please do? Or if there's better worded-meta out there, let me know because I'd love to read it.

Thanks for your time.

[lovelessactv]

FINAL FANTASY SEVEN WHAT A GAME

[animalpetcel]

if anything, these EoS warnings should tell me I should invest more in single-pay games then gacha games...but it's been so long since I've been head over heels with a single-pay game's cast

And also I have so many I need to finish that Idk where to start anymore...

[ladyimaginarium]

from mikjikj-mnikuk/turtle island to inuit nunangat to kanata to kalaallit nunaat to anahuac to abya yala to alkebulan to the levant to moananuiākea to sápmi to éire to bhārata to zhōngguó to nihon to aynu mosir to siberia to niugini to nusantara to bandaiyan to aotearoa, from coast to coast to coast to coast, from sea to sea to sea to sea, none of us are free until all of us — men, women, enben, children, queer people, disabled & neurodivergent people, elders, animals and the land and the sea and the sky — are free!!!!

[constantvariations]

Deep diving into the White Fang arc just feels like I'm just right-click-thesaurusing Lindsay Ellis's video on Bright :')

[curator-on-ao3]

Wednesday (Quadruple) Drabble: The Lost and Found

She had been lost before.

Moving as a child from the Illyrian side of the city to the non-Illyrian side, hope for increased safety as consolation for leaving a part of her identity behind.

He had been lost before.

Refusals overridden, his would-be captors gaining control of his computer to falsify assent for a descent into fantasy, life in unreality as corrosive as the battery acid that powered his radiation-damaged heart.

Starbase records made clear Spock’s betrayal and, once Una reached Talos IV, it didn’t take long to locate Chris— his illusion screaming in pain from fire-borne punishment, his true form immobilized in his support chair.

The rage she needed to defeat Talosian mind control came easy.

In the shuttle she’d… procured… Chris declined her algorithm to match his speaking voice, choosing instead to use a computer default, no intonation of anguish or joy, no movement in his scarred face or change to his mechanized, steady respiration as he answered her questions.

“My best guess is Spock exploited that you’d be away from Starbase Eleven for a few weeks. He knew he was disobeying my orders and committing mutiny. He did it anyway.”

“If the Illyrian doctor is willing to try, I understand the risks.”

“Leave Vina behind. She made her alliances clear.”

So it’s at an Illyrian colony far from Federation arrogance or authority that his DNA unfurls and re-forms. Genetic engineering is usually performed before birth, but this is his rebirth, no longer the Christopher Pike who upheld Starfleet ideals but a Christopher Pike who is wary of a Starfleet that would tolerate a sham court martial rather than search for a greater truth.

Is Una reborn, too? Her belief in something greater than herself, in a Starfleet that could, in fact, become what she had hoped it to be in her idealistic younger years, that belief is withered, gone, replaced by allegiance to people, not an organization.

His skin is pockmarked, his voice reedy, gait unsteady. Genetic engineering isn’t a miracle cure.

Her sense of purpose has telescoped from appreciation for differences to appreciation for those who share her values.

Are they still lost?

Isn’t everyone?

But to be lost together… a shuttle course laid in toward a curious-looking cluster of stars, his hand a comfort on her shoulder, her soft hum the music of his naturally-beating heart… to be lost together… is something like being found.

•

Christopher Pike drabbles: 3, 2, 1/?

[nando161mando]

"The hierarchy of caste is not about feelings or morality. It is about power—which groups have it and which do not. It is about resources—which caste is seen as worthy of them and which are not, who gets to acquire and control them and who does not.

It is about respect, authority, and assumptions of competence—who is accorded these and who is not."

— Isabel Wilkerson, Caste: The Origins of Our Discontents

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[needlesandnilbogs]

Thinking about a specific thing (that lives in my brain and my drafts app only right now) and now I really need to spend hours considering forgotten magic that is still a legend but now thought to be an impossible spell, theoretically possible in the sense that known magic wouldn’t preclude it but it’s thought to be an exaggeration and/or someone’s dying spell, and the teenage-equivalent spellcrafter trying to figure it out through sheer stubbornness

[lepetitfruit]

AHHHHHHHHHHHHH(sound of me being so so so insane about this series)

[pausegame]

Did nothing but play Inquisition yesterday and it was ✨ magical ✨ 🥲😭🙏❤️❤️

[falseandrealultravival]

Characteristics of the Caste System in India

The Indian caste system was formed to systematically discriminate between the Aryans, the conquering race, and the conquered races. It is divided into five large, non-intersecting classes. There is no detailed study on the population ratio, but it is roughly as follows.

Brahmins (priests) 5%, Kshatriya (warrior) ₊ Vaishya (commoner) 54% Sudra (Slave) 27%, Untouchable 14%

59% from Brahmin to Vaishya are treated favorably and the bottom two 41% are despised.

All religions of Indian origin are formed on the grounds of endorsing such discrimination. These are despicable.

Rei Morishita

インドのカースト制度の特徴

征服する民族アーリア人と被征服民族を、制度的に差別するために、インドのカースト制度は形成された。大きく,相交わらない５階級に分かれる。その人口比率についての詳細な調査は存在しないが、だいたい次のようになる。

バラモン（聖職者）５％、 クシャトリヤ（武人）₊バイシャ（庶民）５４％ ス―ドラ（奴隷）２７％、不可触賎民　１４％

バラモンからバイシャまでの５９％は優遇され、下の２つ４１％は蔑まれる。

インド由来の宗教は「全て」、このような差別を是認する立場で形成されている。これらは、唾棄すべきものである。

[suck-mein-pokeballs]

I think it’s funny how Wednesday and Enid are like one skin tone apart and yet gringos will draw her as almost black because she’s supposed to have Mexican background

[sonicthedestiel]

I RAN OUT OF ROOM IN THE TAGS FCKN HELL

[tomework]

This semester I’ll be reading “Caste: the origins of our discontents” by Isabel Wilkerson for one of my classes. As a future social worker I’ll be reading a lot of hefty and heavy texts like this. I have a lot of thoughts on the book but I haven’t yet finished it.

As I finish part three of the book I can’t help but see a lot of common themes with a book I had to read at the sam institution almost 10 years ago on my first go around. The book is brutally honest but borders on being a bit repetitive at times. I understand what I assume is the thought process behind the seemingly redundant examples found throughout the text and that is to reiterate and nail down just how pervasive caste has been, and currently still is, in our society in the United States.

None of this is news to me. I’ve learned most all of this through other classes, personal readings and research, and simply just exposure to culture but it is definitely a book I’ll be putting on my “recommend to others” list for those new to material like this. Easy to read and understand, clear and concise, makes the point known with plenty of evidence to back it up.