#same with fucking balding!

[maletttyterarium]

Literally got some dishonest bullshit about testosterone and tumblr is saying its based on my likes???? What the fuck.

[serpentface]

A few birds of prey found in (and beyond) Imperial Wardi claimed land: the crow kite, dove eagle, and golden eagle.

---

The crow kite is a small, nimble hunter. This particular species is found exclusively west of the Blackmane mountain range and east of the Mouth seaway, though has close relatives elsewhere. They're mostly found in grasslands, where they can be seen hovering in midair while scanning for prey below. They primarily prey upon insects caught in flight, though will also regularly take rodents and lizards and can grapple with prey almost as large as themselves. Most of their diet consists of live prey, though they will opportunistically scavenge.

They are threatened by larger birds of prey, though are notably aggressive and proficient at mobbing most threats.

The crow kite has a particular partnership association with the (broadly unnoticed to be Sapient by humans) 'talking crows' who live here. Mutualistic and/or stealthily parasitic interactions with other animals characterize many crow cultures, and kites represent the only raptors that crows in this region partner with (largely due to posing no threat to themselves/their young).

Both (mostly) benefit from the overall relationship- the kite is slightly larger and notably more powerful than a single crow, while the crows are highly social and can keep more effective watch for predators as large groups. When foraging in association, they are highly effective at warning each other of threats and teaming up to drive them away. Crows will take on predators they wouldn't even dare approach as a large group with kites on their sides (notably the dove eagle, which is rarely outright mobbed by smaller birds due to their tremendous agility and capability of turning the tables on pursuers), and the two species are known to drive away substantially larger mammalian predators (occasionally even humans) from carcasses and resources. Kites also have beaks better equipped for tearing than crows, and can open some carcasses that crows cannot.

The most dramatic form of this association is the 'adoption' of kite chicks by some crow families. Kites rear clutches of 3-5 eggs, and the crows will occasionally steal an unguarded chick and raise it to maturity in order to fully monopolize the benefits of this partnership. Kite chicks adopted by crows do not heavily compete for resources (as the crows have a significantly more generalist diet) and serve as permanent attack dogs/can openers for their adoptive families while out foraging. This is not Particularly beneficial to the kite, who (having imprinted on their crow parents) will not readily mate with their own species, and will often be allowed to do most of the work of mobbing predators (when deemed too risky/too much effort for the crows themselves). An adopted kite's propensity to form one-sided pair bonds with their adoptive species is also utilized to assist in the labor of rearing chicks, where it can be coaxed into bringing kills for a nesting crow 'partner'. The crows generally do bond with their 'adoptees' (though not as fellow crows) and don't tend to perceive this relationship as wholly exploitative.

This association in of itself is widely noted by human observers, hence the kite's common name. Most peoples in this region have largely negative outlooks on crows (ranging from being despised scavengers to respected but frightful animals, and in all cases are considered potentially bad omens), which is extended to the crow kite. Crow kites are often regarded as omens of death and misfortune, sometimes even more intensely than crows. One of the most widespread beliefs (across several cultural groups) is that seeing a crow kite and crow perch together on top of a home indicates the impending demise of a mother and infant during childbirth.

---

The dove eagle is a mid-sized specialist predator of smaller birds, found widely across the temperate and subtropical eastern continental mass. It is most associated with the killing of doves (hence its name), though the majority of its prey is passerine birds and it is occasionally known to take small mammals and reptiles. It is a very powerful predator and exceptionally agile in flight. It also has notably long legs, and can occasionally be seen pursuing prey on foot. It is most abundant in savanna and wooded regions, as well as mountainous areas with high cliffs, as it usually hunts in short bursts from high perches. It can be somewhat of a pest in human settlements, where it poses a threat to poultry.

While often an irritant to people for its predation of avian livestock, it tends to be regarded for its beauty, with its bluish-hued feathers, sleek profile, and elegant flight. Its light blue-gray eyes are notably distinctive among predatory birds here. Light eye colors commonly have sinister and/or apotropaic associations among peoples south of the Viper seaway, which carries into folklore surrounding dove eagles. They are often ascribed the power to paralyze prey with their stare, to be capable of inflicting curses, and/or to be able to frighten off evil spirits with their glare. They are often left unharmed where other threats to livestock would be killed out of fear of receiving a curse.

The dove eagle has the most extensive significance in the Hill Tribes cultural sphere. This bird is one of many avian forms ancestors can take when visiting the world of the living, and the vast majority of its birdsign-omens are wholly positive. The dove eagle tends to be a signal of impending success and good luck in economic ventures, and its presence/gaze chases away bad luck and evil spirits (perhaps at the cost of some poultry here and there, which sometimes may be a message of ancestral disapproval as well as just a general bummer). Its feathers are considered lucky and utilized in magical practice (bundles are waved to banish malicious spirits from homes and objects, single feathers are sometimes worn as good luck charms), though feathers must be retrieved from around nests or by chance, as killing predatory birds is taboo.

---

The golden eagle is a very large, bulky predator. This particular subspecies (distinguishable by its dark, mostly solid colored wings) is very widespread and can be found throughout much of the northeastern hemisphere, adapting to a considerable variety of habitats and climates. It is occasionally a threat to livestock, being wholly capable of killing the tiny offspring of horses, and sometimes even a threat to newborn cattle (they are known to kill very young calves by knocking them off cliffs when the opportunity presents itself). They are noted for their dramatic courtship displays, wherein coupling pairs lock talons and spin towards the ground in freefall.

They tend to be highly regarded animals in most of this region. They tend to garner associations of regality, power and (usually masculine) strength. They are frequently used as symbols of monogamous romantic love and devotion, notably mating for life (most partnered pairs at least rear chicks together for life, though extra-pair copulation is fairly common and often goes unnoticed by observers). Their mating death-spiral makes frequent appearances in Wardi poetry as a romantic allegory, sometimes as a simple representation of foolhardy love and sometimes representative of the often challenging nature of first-time marriages (very commonly arranged, and often between strangers in the upper-class contexts that mainstream poetry tends to focus on).

Most proto-Wardi groups appear to have held the eagle as a high status sacred animal in ancient history, and very old outsider recordings of these earlier practices describe these birds as highly venerated in association with a non-personified but semi-deified sun and/or sky. Proto-Finnic groups that migrated here appear to have had associations with golden eagles in a funerary context (these migrants most likely practiced sky burials early in their history here) and to have adopted the golden eagle's semi-deified status from proto-Wardi groups they interacted with/absorbed/were absorbed by.

The centrality of the golden eagle has largely been lost in contemporary practices, but remnants of its status are still obvious. Cholemdinae folklore describes the golden eagle as one of God (who is the sun)'s most devoted creations, who tried to stop the theft of fire that would destroy the first world. Surviving 'heathen' North Wardi practices that similarly venerate the sky as a central deity describe the golden eagle as its messengers, also capable of traveling to and from the land of the dead. The King of Eagles, the first golden eagle (and first bird in general), father of dragons and the winds, is lightly venerated as a deity-spirit throughout most of the Hill Tribes religious sphere, and the spirits of dead ancestors are considered to frequently take the form of these birds. Contemporary Imperial Wardi animal-folktales also tend to cast the golden eagle as a king of birds, commanding and served by lesser flying creatures. While not outright sacred animals in the Faith of the Seven Faced God, they have noted solar associations. They are sometimes used as sacrifices to the Face Inyamache, and their feathers are given as offerings and worn by priests to this deity-aspect.

[dhmis-autism]

been thinking about them lately ok

[kissingagrumpygiant]

solas and morrigan can be so personal. to me

[m00ngbin]

Guys guess what. It's SMTWO Thursday. FOR THE LAST. TIME. (I think? Like 99% sure) As always I will update you as I read

[aelirus]

"I SWEAR IM NOT GONNA GET POLITICAL"

After 3 drinks:

"What is the topic of today's speech, you ask? Why, Pokemon liberation, of course!"

[psychicdelicz]

I win.

- @motorbikelover101

HEY GO FUCK YOURSELF

[3416]

re: your Mitch mustache point, yes 100% agree - weird thing to fixate on and just keep commenting on. I also feel like this about Auston’s hair and the ‘balding’ jokes; like, bro, what a thing to comment on about someone else’s appearance.

i get both sides of it to SOME degree in a jokey fandomy space but sometimes it feels like that's all anyone has to say for like days at a time or. i guess bc i make gifs/posts sometimes that's all the tags or comments are. and then i'll post a vid or pics on twt and THAT'S all anyone has to say to try to make an unfunny joke that's been made 4932842 times beforre. and i'm like. damn is anyone actually funny or insightful or is that all there is these days, like lmfao. i already really make it a habit with myself to not negatively comment on appearances irl or online bc i just think it seeps into the way you think about and treat people whether you mean it or not. and i get that these guys are untouchable millionaires and aren't gonna read all these "jokes" but they end up feeling so vapid and tasteless and shallow. i just have bigger beef with the general trends in society and the hyperfixation on pure aesthetics, no substance, and so to see it reflected even in mild forms in fandom spaces just over n over n over like. odd and dull.

[platonicfrendswithsocrates]

Tony Socprano: and who the fuck, best of men, would deny that gabagool is the highest good?

Glaucon: it is exactly as you say it is, T

[ultrasopp]

Bla bla bla sleepdeprived rambles and im not online enough for this (aka no tiktok) but. Is the obsession with trans men's hair truly that big? I see too much 1) the ideal of a hairy daddy body being pushed when testo just does not do that for everyone and 2) the CONSTANT list of products and treatments to avoid the gross receding hairline illness!!!!! Literally are we supporting trans people or are we not? fuck this honestly

(post is brought to u by cis friend 1 calling me 'hairy ass donkey' for having chest hair and cis friend 2 saying 'congrats on the receding hairline' like it was an inside joke??? girl we havent seen each other in months? hello??? i know this is tiktok's fault bc she said 'receding hairline' in english lmao)

[brawltogethernow]

Increasingly difficult to be on an affectionately disrespectful first name basis with Magneto the more names he accrues. Stop dodging I AM going to refer to you exclusively in the least formal mode possible.

[4mulaone]

while quoting lewis hamilton to ferrari as the biggest move in f1 speaks to the enormity of his influence outside the sport i do find the picture it paints unspeakably comical- the whole worlds eyes turning as one to behold ferrari at long last deemed permissible enough an option for the Greatest of all time and it being charles leclerc stood in the doorway like. Hello mate :3

[scary-ivy]

he is not balding he has a slightly receding hairline but he's already in his 60s so he'll probably always have some hair. Trust me I know bald guys

[angel-on-parole-archive]

Also I realize I have not been on as much. But the special interest of dragon age has me in a choke hold.

BUT ALSO. NOT SPOILER FREE IN THE SLIGHTEST AND ALSO HAVE ZERO IDEA WHO HERE EVEN CARES BUT I DO AND ALSO I HAVE WHAT I KNOW TO BE UNPOPULAR OPINIONS

(This post got. So long. I'm putting it under a read more.)

I've been a Solas apologist for a while and Veilguard has done nothing but affirm my goddamn stance on that shit. Yeah when I played inquisition the first time I punched Solas in the face that one time BUT I was 14 and did not know shit about fuck.

But in my older and wiser age (that feels like it ages me by quite a bit more than it really should-) I have never seen someone more goddamn relatable in my fucking life. Whoever wrote his character got possessed or has been through the shit he has. And I've been in many way too similar positions.

And I have no one to talk to about it the only person I could (... which was bunny) did not like him in the slightest and the only point she had to stand on was the shit with the titans. And the only reason she stood so hard on it is because she had a love of the dwarves.

Other than that, she felt like he was just a pretentious prick and hated the fact he *checks notes* lied about being divinity and passed himself off as mortal, while trying to fix mistakes he made in inquisition. And trying to fix his mistakes in general.

Like no one should ever try to fix their mistakes ever.

(I'll give the argument that I think he should have had more than his own opinions and thoughts, I always think something on larger scales should. Two (or more) heads are better than one. But I still entirely see why he does what he does and I can't say I'd do a whole lot different aside from, as said, getting people's opinions provided I trusted them enough. But I know he's divinity, at least in some sense, and I get why he felt like he couldn't do that. God do I get it.)

... this and the mage rebellion are two things we just had to agree to disagree on.

(She would have rather improved on the circles and kept the Templars and that Anders was entirely in the wrong as opposed to. Actually letting mages be free.)

(Do I think Anders is perfect and has done no wrong? No. Do I necessarily agree with him committing terrorism? Not exactly. But I do agree with the why, and a message needed to be sent. And no, having a mage as Divine does not magically fix things just because she's a mage and she's hot. I'd pick Leliana as the goddamn Divine because of her own position as originally being the left hand of Divine Justinia and also because she's far too cunning to let shit slide (she is literally the spy master in inquisition) and knows how to play the game better than anyone else I know of.)

Nothing against Vivienne, tho. Mostly. I do think she doesn't realize her privilege as a mage within the nobility. But that's a can of worms for another day.

[just-an-enby-lemon]

No one:

Absolutly no one:

My brain at 3 a.m: But what if Carlos was the Batfam support scientist and Cecil was a rogue but like the way Waylon eating cops to save his comunity is rogue behavior?

[homeless202]

#unimpressed