#survivor all star greece

[rastgeleticaret]

Acun Ilıcalı'dan Survivor'ın Gelecek Bölümü Hakkında Şaşırtıcı Açıklama!

#survivor #survivortürkiye #acunılıcalı #tv8 #survivor2023 Merhaba,’Haberin Sosyal Medyası’ Haber Aktüel’e hoş geldin! Türkiye’de dijital haberciliğin benzersiz örneği olan Haber Aktüel’in Youtube kanalındasın. Bu kanalda gündem ile ilgili özel içerikler ve röportajlar bulabilirsin. Tarihten siyasete, bilimden sanata her alanda içerik bulabileceğiniz kanalımıza abone olmayı ve bizi diğer sosyal…

[khaire-traveler]

☀️ Subtle Medea Worship 🐍

Be kind to children; play with them if offered

Show appreciation to your loved ones; cook them a meal, bake them something, spend time with them, etc.

Play with your pets; spend time with them

Get a candle that reminds you of her (no altar needed)

Wear jewelry that reminds you of her

Keep a picture of her in your wallet

Stand up for yourself

Assert your boundaries; learn what your boundaries are; not all boundaries need to be spoken

Have a stuffed animal snake or sheep

Have imagery of dragons, snakes, the golden fleece, magic, or the sun around

Think of outside the box solutions to problems

Try to plan ahead; plan important things out; be prepared for mishaps; have a solid exit strategy

Take a walk/hike on a sunny day; bask in the sunlight

Ground yourself regularly; do so in nature in the sunlight if able

Prioritize your well-being; do not sacrifice yourself for others; take care of yourself first

Practice self-forgiveness; don't hold your past mistakes against yourself

Read the Greek Magical Papyri; research the history of witchcraft, especially in ancient Greece

Practice discreet witchcraft; maybe focus more on kitchen witchcraft to be subtle

Grow your own herbs; start a garden

Make a list of your personal strengths and points of pride; celebrate these things about yourself

Practice having a more nuanced view of both yourself and others; the world is morally grey; this is not a suggestion to keep or forgive shitty people for shitty things

Dance to music that makes you feel empowered, badass, or magical

If you have a partner, do something nice for them; take them on a date, spend time with them, engage with their interests, etc.

Drink herbal tea; engage with something relaxing as you do so

Keep a charm on your person; good luck, protection, positive attraction, etc.

Keep an evil eye charm for protection; place it in your space, wear a bracelet, hang one in your car, etc.

Support organizations that help single mothers, children, or domestic abuse survivors

Help out any new mothers in your life if you can

Donate children and baby supplies to homeless shelters; donate kids' toys and clothes

Feed neighborhood birds (with seed only please)

Do something you're passionate about

Engage in relaxing activities, especially after a long day

Take a warm bath or shower, especially with herbs; doing this as a cleansing activity after a long/bad day is also great

Keep your space clean; take care of your immediate environment

Make your space your own; maybe decorate with sun-shaped fairy lights or fake vines

Take care of yourself physically and emotionally

Lave a glass of water mixed with some sugar and honey on your windowsill during the day; you can also leave a water mixed with salt/ocean water instead

Try to practice meditation if you can; practice mindfulness

Practice non-obvious divination methods; cartomancy, bibliomancy, shufflomancy, carromancy, aeromancy, etc.

Go cloud-watching or star-gazing

Learn what your limits are; remind yourself that rest is productive

Say no to helping someone if you're not feeling well enough to do so; you're not a bad person for looking out for yourself

Wear clothes that make you feel confident; try giving yourself compliments

-

This is my list of discreet ways to worship Medea! I'll likely add more later. For now, I hope you find what I have helpful. Take care, y'all! 🧡

Link to Subtle Worship Master list

[secretagentdragon]

Revisited my old Liaramancer, Andy (also the only character I've played through the entire trilogy) after like 2/3 years! Probably the biggest ref I've done for a character haha

More character info +ID under the cut:

Andromache "Andy" Jia Shepard Age: 29/31/32 (ME1/ME2/ME3) Morality/leaning: Paragade Sexuality: Bi + demi Romance: Liara Weapon(s) of choice: Sniper rifle, tech

Born in Thessaloniki, Greece, as the middle child of five children, Andy moved to the off world colony Mindoir with her family at the age of 10. They lived a peaceful life there for six years before the colony was attacked by batarian slavers, leaving her the only survivor of her parents and siblings. She was taken in by her aunt and uncle, and moved to Vancouver, Canada, to live with them. She studied computer engineering at a military school in the city, eventually transferring into the Alliance military after graduating.

Most of Andy's military fame prior to serving on the Normandy is attributed to her experience on Akuze, where she was the sole survivor of fifty-one marines after a thresher maw attack, managing to get back to the extraction point thanks to her perseverance, quick thinking, and sheer luck. After this incident she was admitted into the N7 operative program, eventually graduating and earning the rank of Commander.

When on the job, Andy is clipped and professional, always trying to act reserved, though at times her emotions get the better of her. Outside of work, she struggles to connect with people and has difficulty turning her "professionalism" switch off, though she tries her hardest to be approachable. After her "death" and subsequent reconstruction (in ME2) she is much more brutal and upfront. Feeling like her life and all control of it was yanked away from her, she cut her hair and got new tattoos as a way of leveraging some control of herself. Although she ultimately wants to help others, she feels bitter and angry at the fallout of her death and the organization that resurrected her for their own means, Cerberus.

By the time of the Reaper war (ME3), she has mellowed out considerably on a personal front, having found more stability in her personal life after reconciling with her old connections and breaking away from Cerberus. However, the stress of the war and the decisions accompanying it weigh on her every day, and she tries her best to present a calm and collected front to keep up crew morale.

In her spare time, Andy enjoys programming equipment and putting things together, along with working out. She is also a massive fan of romantic dramas and tries to keep up with them regularly.

[ID: Reference sheet for Andromache Jia Shepard/Andy Shepard, a masculine 5'0" Chinese-Greek woman, across all three mass effect games. The first image shows her changes in scars + tattoos across the games. In ME1, Andy has a thresher maw tattoo on her L thigh along with six stars on her R inner forearm and long dark brown hair tied back in a bun (or worn down for casual wear). In ME2, she gains red scarring from reconstruction (ME renegade scars) on her face and various parts of her body, along with a L sleeve tattoo consisting of a night sky on the upper arm and a forest on the lower arm, along with a L collarbone tattoo reading "SR1". Her hair is cut in a short and choppy haircut. In ME3, Andy's hair has grown out to her shoulders and she wears it pushed back. Her red scars have faded somewhat but are still present. The points on the first image read "Cis Female, She/Her, Chinese-Greek, Colonist, Sole Survivor, Engineer - The second image shows her outfits across the games- In ME1 she wears the standard Alliance military outfit, in ME2 she wears military cargo pants with a grey muscle t-shirt, and in ME3 she wears Alliance military cargo pants with a grey muscle t-shirt and the red and black N7 hoodie. Andy also wears an iron ring on her R pinky at all times. End ID.]

[psychologeek]

Holocaust (and culture appropriation)

(TW: holocaust, death camps, sexual assaults, rape, industrial murder. I will put the graphic shit undercut. Include children death and human experiments).

Sometimes I think about how fucked up it is that for most non-jews (and some jews) "The Holocaust" is Anne Frank and Auschwitz "where they killed people".

I think about the fucking, the goddamn AUDACITY some people have to take our trauma and use it as a tool. As a lesson.

People that for them the holocaust is nothing but a story, a bunch of facts, probably as aware of it as they're aware of the crusaders.

(Once upon a time, in a far away land, there were Troubles)

People who didn't hear about it as children, who didn't grew up with six million and one-and-a-half million and yellow stars and quiet ceremony and Yizkor (remember).

That.

Would look at a pile of hats and bones and wigs and hair and make it about them.

But also

Sometimes I think about how wild it is, that this looks so horrific to them.

(And they never heard about half of it.)

Like.

Dear.

Deary.

We are used to death. We are so used to being murdered, and loosing loved ones by hate, that half of our culture is basically based on it.

I think about how non-jews keep talking about the holocaust, like it's a clean cut, like it's a thing that was, like it's that's all that was - there were people hiding, and there were gas chambers, and that's it.

And I remember being a kid (maybe 10 yo?) reading a kid/ya book that was an autobiography, and I remember the writer (who was a young teen at the time, and pretended to be a Christian German) wrote about someone came into the shower and touched him. (Writer) Panicked, and turned around - and then the other man asked him "wait- are you jewish?"

As a kid, I remember that this is all that was in it.

As an adult, I remember that scene, sometimes. And I can have a pretty clear idea on why the older man didn't tell about the kid.

I remember, several years ago, reading about a therapy group for holocaust survivors that were sexually assaulted.

I remember reading about an old lady, that (70 years later) told about what happened to her when she hide away with her sister, (I think they were two, or three girls?) she was sixteen, or maybe fourteen. I remember

"I did it so they'll share their food with us".

~

I think about people talking about the "death camp" Auschwitz, and how someone said (those who went there, were the lucky ones. When the newbies asked what happened, where are their families? We just pointed at the burning chimneys of Birkenau ,and the smoke.)

~

I remember the HUNDREDS who died once the camps were "freed", because they didn't know the dangers of eating two pieces of bread after a long period of starving.

I remember the massive Jewish community of Poland that was just. Erased. 99% of 3 million population pre-war. Whole communities we only remember and mention as the community's name (and even that is a very long list.)

I remember how people remember it as "German jews" (and some Poland) - but it's not. My grandma had cousins in Debretsen, Hungary. And it's Ukraine and France and Morocco and Greece and Lybia and Lithuania and Latvia and almost everywhere in Europe and North Africa

(except for Denmark. we love Denmark. My grandad's step-grandma survived there. She immigrated to her family in Israel after that.)

~

Idk if Goyim ever heard about Mangele. I wonder, how many of them heard during their childhood about:

The eye experiments, where he injected serums in people's (living) eyes, to see what would happen?

His obsession about twins. The toddlers that got their back skinned, then stitched together in "to see what will happen".

(They died after four days of misery.)

[doctornolonger]

Unpacking references to “Arcadians”

Referring to themselves as “guardians”, [Arcadians] were often composed of societies which had the greatest bio-socio-psycho-emotional link to the lost Earth, and indeed a leading element of the guardian faction was made up of the final generations of survivors from the home planet. This set was determined to re-establish a new Earth on the nearest available Earth-like world, and might be seen as a ludicrous colonial throwback.

— “Posthumanity”, The Book of the War (2002), ed. Lawrence Miles

‘Where are you going?’ Steven asked.

‘The planet Refusis,’ replied the Commander. ‘The Earth is also dying and now we have left it for the last time. […] Only Refusis has the same conditions that we had on Earth. Atmosphere, water, the right temperate zones. […] We are the Guardians!’

— The Ark (1987), by Paul Erickson

Other groups were content to remake or even build worlds to be their new homes. Threatened by the rest of the [posthuman] hegemony, many of the Arcadian worlds eventually united to form a “benign union” (modelled on older world-systems which had displaced classical Greece and Rome as the acme of polite civilisation in the popular imagination). Faced with planetary atmospheres which bred goodwill and quiet contemplation by their very natures, the Arcadians’ enemies simply gave up. The Arcadian Union was isolationist and eventually the majority of its people simply vanished, either sublimating to a higher state of existence or dying of boredom.

— “Posthumanity” (continued), The Book of the War

Finally, on Traken, Nyssa’s home planet, the Master had captured the Source, the font of power for an entire galactic Union encompassing a million star systems. […] Chris recounted the sketchy details that he could remember: Serenity was the only surviving colony of the Union of Traken, a verdant garden world with advanced biotechnology, whose people lived in peace and relative isolation. They believed that at the time of the cosmic disaster that obliterated the entire rest of their galaxy, something called the Source had protected them, at the cost of its own existence. […] ‘We Adjudicators learn about Serenity as an example of a peaceful and just society.’

— Cold Fusion (1996), Lance Parkin

“Waiter! There’s even more Parkin lore in my book!” Or is there? (Emphasis all mine, of course.) From Big Finish’s Lost Stories adaptation of Johnny Byrne’s 1983 television pitch, which he’d shared with Sarah Groenewegen, a close friend of Kate Orman:

Sixth Doctor: Ahh, the planet Serenity of the Benign Union! […] This part of the galaxy, well, holds bad memories for me.

Peri: Do you want to talk about it?

Doctor: Well, you see that patch of darkness there at the edge of the screen? Now that used to be Mettula Orionsis, home of the Traken Union, one of the most harmonious places in the cosmos. […] That was centuries ago. At this point in history, a new union has risen in its place with, at its heart, the world of Serenity. The only planet of the Traken Union to survive.

— The Guardians of Prophecy (2012), Jonathan Morris

[funeralrep]

Introduction

Greetings. I hope I find you all well.

I am the representative of the Funeral People, a group of individuals with wide imaginations.

We have created a wonderful land, thriving with life, empires, gods, and lore. After all the effort we put into our empires, we deemed it unfit for it to only stay between ourselves and our close friends, so we have decided to share it with all of you.

Here, I'll be including the character profiles of the main characters of our story: the gods of our individual empires. It will help you follow along with our lore and it may also help you learn to appreciate the unique characteristics — and lore — of our characters.

character and drawing of @tanchyjuj

name: Acarden

Alias: Man of the Moonlit Stars

empire: Empire Acardia

age: Centuries upon Centuries years old, older than most planets (But if we’re talking about mortal years, other gods described him as 26)

power: As the last survivor of the designers of the world, Acarden has the ability to terraform the natural ground around him, he is able to summon any plant, anything nature. Though, terraforming bigger things (like let’s say he wanted to make a big mountain right now) he’d have to have a lot of concentration, since his powers now aren’t as strong as before

Physical Appearance

Height: 5’6

unique physical features: The most noticeable thing about Acarden is his hair. The hair that is said to reflect the universe, stars shined, the same shades of color as the sky beyond them. On his face, he has gold cracks that go along through out his chest and his right arm, which are covered by bandages

kind of clothes they wear: Since this was legit for a damn history project, his clothing was based inspired by ancient Rome clothing, the cloak part. I needed some influence of Ancient Rome and Ancient Greece culture for the project LMAO

Personality

personality: A quiet spirited person, very soft spoken. Bro is legit one with nature, literally, he’s always in the damn trees and sleeps on grass. He speaks with wisdom, and sometimes speaks in a very poetic way, but when he’s not in the mood he’s very straight forward. He tends to be very gullible with a lot but small things. Loves his people very much.

fav things: His people <3 he enjoys spicey food, he liked trying spices from around the world. Fruits and vegetables, yet again he likes tasting and exploring fruits and vegetables from around the world, though most was slightly modified, he still knew that a god he knew designed his food he is holding in his hands and made the taste of it. He really loves all forms of art, even when there are some that he doesn’t really understand, he still enjoys them.

least fav things: Astran, Acarden tries his best to avoid him as much as possible. He doesn’t really enjoy sweet food (bro can’t handle chocolate milk). People destroying big chunks of land and not making any good use out of it, like damn what’s the point bro. People who don’t appreciate nature.

pet peeve: Being called short (as if he didn’t know). People who don’t close ink bottles or don’t cover their paint bottles, IT’S GOING TO DRY. Wasting food (like bro, if it’s not dirty or anything or your saliva isn’t everywhere, let someone have it, throwing out perfectly good food is so sad)

habit of theirs (body movement, etc): He’s a heavy sleeper, he can sleep through a concert and not be bothered. He liked to hide in bushes, sit in tree’s branches, lie down under its shade. Whenever he’s at a social event, he’d stay there for exactly 30 minutes, then look for an exit and just walk out quietly

Lore

The stardust form and create another item for the millions of galaxies in their canvas, but, it is rare for the stardust to form and create life, a being that was sentient.

And so, Acarden was formed, born with pure stardust in his blood and skin, eyes made of the remnants of the billions of dead stars before him. Acarden had a duty to complete.

For the first few years of his life, Acarden explored the millions of planets of all types, and observed how life thrived in those planets. Some filled with water, some made out of diamonds and gold, some were on fire, and only a few with a very rare material called wood.

When he was ready, he was called to design a planet, along with other gods, about 20 or so. Some were as old as him, some were far more older. Then, they all started designing.

Acarden had met a god, though this god’s task was to help form civilization on this planet, the two became friends. His name was Jocular. Jocular was a god, a few years younger than him, that was called by the universe to help a handful of living beings to form their own empire. Acarden also had his own people that called him their Lord.

When Jocular asked Acarden if he wanted their empires to join, Acarden asked how, then the other god explained. After rambling and rambling, Acarden realized what the other god wanted.

He wanted his people to be in full control under Jocular, Acarden wouldn’t allow that. So Acarden stormed off, and the two didn’t speak to each other after that.

When the world was finished in design, all of the gods in it started a war for power. Acarden and Jocular fought with each other.

Days turn into months, and into years. Until the battle between Acarden and Jocular was stopped with a blade upon Jocular’s throat. Jocular was saved by grace of the other god, for he let him go with mercy. Then after that, Acarden fought with the other gods for his empire.

But he never spoke to Jocular again, even when the war was finished.

Centuries later, he had learnt that he was the only god that’s alive who had the powers to redesign the earth if he wanted to. All of the other creators were gone, he was the last god standing.

character of @fantom-writer and drawing of @tanchyjuj

name: Astran

empire: Lumen Empire

alias: the god of light, patron god of Lumen Empire

age: three thousand years old (at the least)

power: Astran has the power to emit and manipulate light, along with the power to use light energy to regenerate both himself and others. However, the regenerative ability is only safe to use on other gods, since humans may not be able to handle the true power of Astran.

Physical Appearance

height: 6'10

unique physical features: has two scars on his chin, golden eyes that glow fully white when he's at his full power, a small scar on his abdomen.

kind of clothes they wear: old english style clothing (mostly dark blue and black combinations), but he wears a lot of different styles of clothing depending on the occasion.

Personality

personality: stoic, short attention span, and creative, especially when it comes to clothing. He tends to be blunt accidentally, not meaning to hurt anyone's feelings but just wanting to say what's on his mind.

fav things: fashion, good dreams, dressing people up (especially acarden), flowers, anything that catches his attention

least fav things: nightmares, not being able to help, people taller than him (it hurts his pride), people with bad fashion sense

pet peeve: being interrupted, people taking away his flowers (he likes his flowers, don't blame him - fantom-writer)

habit of theirs (body movement, etc): he tends to get easily distracted, especially when it comes to flowers. He likes picking flowers and making a whole bouquet just for the one he loved.

Lore

The whole planet Terra was at war. All the empires fought against each other, hungry for power. This long period of violence is now known to the present people of Lumen as the Great War.

Although Astran was in charge of the safety of Lumen, being its patron saint and all, he was confident that his empire would last on its own.

He was more busy helping his lover Orion, the god of flowers, and his empire survive, but they were losing.

Even after all they sacrificed, Orion's empire wasn't known to have a strong military. And so, it fell, along with Orion himself, whose body disappeared into golden dust and scattered on the ground, flowers growing where the dust landed.

Astran, heartbroken over the loss of his lover, never forgave himself for losing Orion to the hands of death.

Soon after, the darkness that once loomed over Terra like a terrifying shadow passed, giving the people time to recover and enter the Great Sorrow, a long period where the people of Terra struggled to recover from their losses and buried the millions of lives lost due to the greed of their emperors.

Lumen was in need of their god to guide them out of their suffering, but Astran disappeared off the face of the world. Ever since then, no one has caught sight of the god of light.

However, rumor has it that there is a man who visits a simple bed of flowers in the area where the empire of flowers once resided, laying down bouquets of flowers on the ground and talking merrily to plants about things in a language present people no longer understood.

character of @teyvatussy and drawing of @tanchyjuj

name: Elysia

alias: Harbinger of Serenitas, The Blooming Light, Ellie (This is the human name they use when they change their form to their kid body. This was actually the nickname Zephyr gave them)

empire: Elysium Empire

age: Elysia doesn't really like talking their age. However Elysia was born in the earlier stages of the world, when everything was dark and miserable.

power: They can control the earth itself but that takes a lot of energy. So for now, Elysia practices on flowers, vines and plants.

Elysia's main power is changing objects or even their own form. They can do things like camoflauge, make things grow, and change objects and humans forms. Hence how they are able to have a kid form

They also have the power of Bilocation or the power of being in many places at once. I mean how'd you think they attended all their meetings?

Physical Appearance

height: In their adult form, they are about 5'10. In their kid form however, they are around 4'11.

unique Physical Features: Elysia is just cotton candy man. Pink hair and pink skin. Both the bottom part of their hands are covered in tatoos? Or like symbols of vines. The left hand is a bit more green. The right hand is completely black cause Miss gurl tried testinh out Zephyr's dark magic once but it backfired.

kind of clothes they wear: As the Elysium's ruler, Elysia has to wear outfits meant for a monarch. Usually they have to wear items consisting of long dresses, robes, sheer capes and veils. (Think Princess Allura from Voltron like the one with Klance)

For their kid form, this mf is a little crusty German boy JK. But seriously they usually like wearin vests, bowties and baggy pants. (Think Varian from Tangled: the series)

Personality

In Adult Form, Elysia puts on a front of being refined, gentle and sweet. Really calm when handling situations. However a bit slow and gullible due to her being trapped or barricaded in Castle Rieka for years

As Ellie or their kid form, THIS CHEEKY MF. Naturally since they're adjusting to the new world, they're a bit naive but they're getting there. With this newfound freedom, Elysia or Ellie finally gets to let out their emotions

This mf has a newfound sass and tends to be impulsive a lot. Ellie gets frustraded easily, especially when they don't get what they need

Both forms have one thing in common

Trust Issues against anyone who helps them because of Zephyr and his gaslighting

favorite things: alchemy and making shit blow up, d e s s e r t s, reading and listening to stories (by Junjit Ito), braiding flowers they grew themselves into the other gods' hair, playing the xylophone, reminding Raia and Kleio about Fathers Day, being taken care of (but Zephyr kinda fucked that experience up), Astran.

least fav things: being gaslighted, use of black magic, the dark, whistling (Zephyr used to whistle to make them sleep, the thought of whistling makes them think that someone will manipulate them all over again), being forced to go back into their adult form

pet peeves: when no one comes to their tea parties, someone suddenly touching their right hand (the corrupted hand), interrupted nap time, someone trampling on their flowers or desecrating the Royal Gardens

habit of theirs (body movement, etc.): rocking back and fourth when they're nervous, flapping their arms when they're happy, biting their nails when they're in a bad space, stomping their feet when they're frustrated, letting out random noises randomly within a conversation

Lore

To see a world of colors, a kaleidascope of feelings and emotions, that was Elysia's dream.

When one was birthed out of the Eternal Root that now protected their home.

They opened their eyes to a white void of emptiness.

The blank canvas of nothingness must have been terrifying for a newly born god, but Mother Earth was kind and took the poor child in. Ever so curious, the small child observed and followed the example of the one who nurtured them. Slowly learning and surrounding themselves in flowing verdure.

One spent their early years in the evergreen springs of Gaea.

After a couple more years, the young sprout has now grown. The little sapling was now ready to experience the new world. And with a heavy heart , Elysia bid goodbye to the forests and set out for the human world.

For the first time, Elysia fully saw the world in all its glory. Oh how wonderful the world was! Full of vibrant hues of brilliant blues, pinks and yellows. Those were the good old days, when everything was harmonious and peaceful. For once, Elysia truly felt like they belonged.

But one should have known, that there is always a chance that the balance of peace should be disturbed.

The war is someting Elysia doesn't like talking about. It was a horrible period of chaos. Deities and gods that were once good friends now quarelled and waged war against each other. The rifts between humans and the supernatural got worse. Blood was shed on both sides and no one was spared. Thankfully, Elysia had made a friend in a strange man named Zephyr. The two of them worked together to try and subdue the destruction.

However slashes of red and fury had now overtaken the once colorful home that Elysia loved.

With all the responsibilities and duties to fulfill, the young god constantly felt like the world was on their shoulders. Sometimes the little one needed to get away from the big bad world and just be themselves.

So one would take solace in being a child again and having Zephyr take care of them.

And for a moment, Elysia would feel like the colors were coming back again.

Betrayal had never hurt more. When Elysia had learned that Zephyr took advantage of their trust and used it to harm others. To learn that when they were in their most vulnerable, the person they trusted the most had taken advantage of them. Something broke within the young god. Full of rage and sorrow, Elysia had used all their powers to seal Zephyr and save their empire. But as the coronation happened, and Elysia was crowned...

They couldn't help but feel the world's sorrowful strokes of blue.

Decades and centuries had passed and Elysia had just stayed. Stayed in their cold and boring castle while Humanity had evolved. The guard had insisted it was for their safety but Elysia was tired and reckless. Tired of always being used and having their fate decided. So they made a decision, a decision that they knew would surely get them in trouble.

But as they neared the gates and feasted their eyes on new world...

Elysia felt that their kaleidascope dream had finally come true.

character of @zacheristtt and drawing of @tanchyjuj

name: Raia

empire: Hydranovan Empire

alias: Twin of the Seas, Acting King of Hydranova, Capitaine des Hydras

age: 900

power: control the seas, manipulate any type of water form, turn into a hydra

Physical Appearance

Height: 6'3

unique physical features: his arms have translucent scales that are only seen when he enters the water

kind of clothes they wear: to represent the connection between him and water, raia wears a robe that covers half of his upper body, a shell necklace overlapping his chest, knee high boots covered by his chiton-like dress

Personality

personality: cocky, stupid, very loud. He can be a jerk but he knows his values. When it comes to serious situations, he shows another side of him that is the complete opposite of the rowdy him

fav things: the ocean, his trident, pissing off kleio, playing instruments, sleeping under the sea, styling his long ass hair

least fav things: waking up early, having to read thick books about the laws in Hydranova, he's also scared of losing kleio

pet peeve: being interrupted, quiet dinner time, losing to someone obviously weaker than him

habit of theirs (body movement, etc): sleeping under the ocean, collecting pretty seashells

Lore

With Lord Polaris and Lady Astra's love for each other flourishing, their love bore fruit.

The Twins of the Seas and Stars were born.

Raia, the inheritor of the Great Hydras, grew up to learn of the way of the water.

He saw how land meets the sea, the wonders of the underworld. His father had guided him through the depths and taught him that you are the greatest power you can obtain.

By the time King Polaris submitted his humanity to the demonic hydras corrupting his mind, Raia was already qualified to take over.

Soon, Raia became the Acting King.

He did whatever was within his reach to protect this land.

Even if it meant that he'd go against himself.

character of @zacheristtt and drawing of @tanchyjuj

name: Kleio

empire: Hydranovan Empire

alias: Twin of the Stars, Commander of the Hydranovan Military Forces

age: 900

power: manipulate the stars, create new constellations, use spells which involve the galaxy

Physical Appearance

height: 6'0

unique physical features: Kleio has a crescent moon tattoo with rays on his chest. This is in born to those who inherit the power of the stars

kind of clothes they wear: just think of kenshin uesugi from ikemen sengoku but the color palette is purple, dark blue and white - zacherist

Personality

personality: smartass, the mature one, pretty quiet. The literal opposite of Raia. He's serious most of the time but he knows how happiness works.

fav things: the dagger Astra gave, stargazing, cooking, witnessing Raia getting an earful

least fav things: raia shouting, raia being a jerk, raia being embarrassing, being reminded of his mom's death

pet peeve: raia

habit of theirs (body movement, etc): he has a diary where he writes about his everyday life

Lore

Just where the horizons meet the stars, a new light has risen.

The chosen one to continue the Scintillan bloodline, arrives.

Kleio, the inheritor of the Cosmic Stars, made his way into life by living the way of the sky.

Everything he knows of came from his mother, who then introduced him to the powers he has yet to discover. How the stars illuminate, the spells to control them...

Astra's explosion then came. The day of his worst nightmares. His mother, his northern star, has vanished.

Kleio takes on the mission to fulfill his mother's dreams, and follow the path she took.

Kleio now became the Commander, specializing in spells and being the head of the whole military.

He wanted to make sure his name will be written down in history.

Not only for his great works..

But also his betrayal.

drawing of @tanchyjuj and character of the Funeral People

name: Tempest

empire: none

alias: Shards of Trepidation, The Automaton of God

age: Unknown

power: In a world filled with magic that can be seen by mortals, Tempest is seen using advanced technology using metal scraps from all parts of the world. Robots, bombs, robots with gods magic, all piercing into one’s skin. No wonder they’re called the Automaton of God, the Shards of Trepidation.

Physical Appearance

Height: 5’11, with all of the robotic parts on their legs and hills, 6’1

unique physical features: They have a crows mask, covering the half of their face. Despite all these types of clothing, they still choose to wear a nice, fancy purple hat on their head. A poor quality cape that they willingly wear, a glove that has all these mechanical features on it. No one knows what it does except for them. Under their clothes, metal digs under their skin, wires tend to poke out, a heart that runs on oil, they are hidden under the cape they wear and the corset, perhaps they tell a story.

kind of clothes they wear: As one of the designers, it’s all steampunk LMAO - tanchyjuj

Personality

personality: They have no chill, literally. Born with a made heart, a copy of gods eyes, Tempest was basically coded as a war machine. Destined to destroy, destined to take over the whole world and destroy it. They speak in a very fancy yet terrifying way, they aren’t that straight forward. They speak in riddles and rhymes, just imagine the Joker, Harley Quinn, and Jinx combined. Though they are insane, they are fair, and if you’d make a deal with them (a miracle), they’d genuinely promise and be honest.

fav things: Other than committing every crime in humanity that has arson under its label, Tempest like knitting. They need a break from working with solid and hard things like the metal, they need to touch something soft from time to time.

least fav things: People breaking off deals and they’re already in the middle of doing it, or just not promising and being honest in a deal.

pet peeve: Boring people, like, BRING in a fight, give them a challenge like damn.

“Oh, now you’re just going to run off with your little legs and hide behind the tree? There is a building right there with weapons to fight me, how boring of you! I expect more from you, you know?”

habit of theirs (body movement, etc): Adjusting their glove after every little thing they do. Sneaking up on people (They somehow walk very quietly, even with their heels).

Lore

Born with the unkind hands of man, a robotic man that is yet filled with the human blood of mankind awoke, with the help of man and the power of the gods.

A half robot, half man, yet a god, their existence of the world was seen as inconceivable, yet they had a purpose. To destroy, to test the world and its gods if they are capable of war. It was time to put them all to a test.

It was unfortunate for the creators themselves to die by their very own creation.

The Shards of Trepidation, the Automaton of God, a design of the end to the world of creators.

Because why not?

Other Things

Most robotic scraps and the magic behind them come from other gods Tempest has defeated. In the upcoming lore, they capture these gods and place their magic in these gems that symbolizes them, upon activating their magic, they release some sort of version where their minds are stuck and are under the command of Tempest.

[mask131]

Cold winter: Thorgal

THORGAL

Category: French BD

Thirty years before the year 1000, a group of Vikings lost at sea during a nasty thunderstorm found a baby in a strange little boat, and deciding he was a gift of the gods present at the time they named him “Thorgal Aegirsson”.

As an adult, Thorgal is a powerful warrior and a gifted bowman, but is deeply ostracized among his own community: not only does he not share the love of fight and violence of his fellow Vikings, but he also was forced to live alone, away from the others as a skald by the community’s chief, Gandalf-the-Mad, who dislikes him for being the adoptive son of the previous chief, Leif Haraldson. Thorgal’s only friend in the community is also his lover, Aaricia, Gandalf’s own daughter. Unable to live freely their love among their peers, the duo decides to leave their village and build their own life on their own.

Which… actually won’t be easy, since not only does humanity’s cruelty and vice keeps catching up with them, but the world they live is one not exactly like our own, much more dangerous and much more fantastical than it seems… And to gain their peaceful life they will need to go through many perils, natural and unnatural.

This is the plot of “Thorgal”, one of the most famous Franco-Belgian bande-dessinée (comic book). Starting out as a serialized publication in the magazine “Le Journal de Tintin” in 1977, it quickly became its own series, and it still published to this day, with a total of 40 issues and fourteen “chapters” (either independent adventures told in one issue, or a “cycle”, an arc-story spread over several issues). It received numerous prices, spin-off series, and is one of the best-selling Franco-Belgian BDs ever alongside other classics such as “XIII”, “Lucky Luke” or “Largo Winch”.

For you see, Thorgal isn’t just a historical adventure set in the 10th-11th centuries. In fact it doesn’t even takes place in our world, though it looks strongly like it – either the civilizations we see are real-world ones but renamed and slightly changed to fit the world (the Vikings living in Northland ; the Eastern Roman Empire), either they were made-up by inspired by real-world ones (the land of Qâ in Central America which takes from both Aztec and Maya ; the island-realm of “Our-Land” which is inspired by Ancient Greece despite being located between the Portuguese and North-African coasts). And let’s not talk about the chronology, as things are quite weird historically – despite being at the turn of the first millennium, some civilizations seem taken out of the 5th century while others have the technology or fashion of 15th century countries, resulting in a very strange mix…

But the actual reason why Thorgal isn’t just some “historical piece” is because it delves into both science-fiction and fantasy. Science-fiction because we quickly learn that the “ship” Thorgal was found in as a baby was a space capsule: he is actually the last descendant of a group of humans known as “The People of the Stars”. They once were the fabled Atlanteans, but decided to leave Earth and used their hyper-advanced technology to colonize another planet. However, having consumed all the resources of their new planet, they tried to return to Earth – but crashed in the North Pole, where most of them died, except for a few including Thorgal’s family. In fact, we do meet several other survivors of the People of the Stars throughout the series, who are often mistaken for sorcerers or gods by the inhabitants of Earth thanks to both their wonderful technology and their psychic abilities. However despite this very “scientific” start that leads to an “historical science-fiction” piece and does feed into the idea of “ancient civilizations built or helped by aliens”… the supernatural does actually exist in Thorgal’s world. As he, his lover and his children will learn (because after Thorgal’s numerous adventures, we follow his children’s adventures), the gods and monsters of Norse mythology are very real: Frigg, Fenrir, Loki, the giants are all there. And not only the gods their mythology, but also of others! Magic exists, and so does actual sorcerers and wizards, and Thorgal’s travels do not just take him around the world, but also in OTHER worlds, where spirits and deities dwell… He even gets to meet the guardian of all those dimensions, that prove to be a true multiverse.

The result is a very unique mix of historical fiction, science-fiction and fantasy, where poor Thorgal only wants one thing – to settle peacefully with his family and be left alone – only for his native space civilization, his Viking civilization of adoption, the various political plots and religious wars of his era, or the gods and sorcerers of the world to constantly endanger him or throw him into perilous adventures.

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 7.4 (after 1940)

1941 – Nazi crimes against the Polish nation: Nazi troops massacre Polish scientists and writers in the captured Ukrainian city of Lviv. 1941 – World War II: The Burning of the Riga synagogues: The Great Choral Synagogue in German-occupied Riga is burnt with 300 Jews locked in the basement. 1942 – World War II: The 250-day Siege of Sevastopol in the Crimea ends when the city falls to Axis forces. 1943 – World War II: The Battle of Kursk, the largest full-scale battle in history and the world's largest tank battle, begins in the village of Prokhorovka. 1943 – World War II: In Gibraltar, a Royal Air Force B-24 Liberator bomber crashes into the sea in an apparent accident moments after takeoff, killing sixteen passengers on board, including general Władysław Sikorski, the commander-in-chief of the Polish Army and the Prime Minister of the Polish government-in-exile; only the pilot survives. 1946 – The Kielce pogrom against Jewish Holocaust survivors in Poland. 1946 – After 381 years of near-continuous colonial rule by various powers, the Philippines attains full independence from the United States. 1947 – The "Indian Independence Bill" is presented before the British House of Commons, proposing the independence of the Provinces of British India into two sovereign countries: India and Pakistan. 1950 – Cold War: Radio Free Europe first broadcasts. 1951 – Cold War: A court in Czechoslovakia sentences American journalist William N. Oatis to ten years in prison on charges of espionage. 1951 – William Shockley announces the invention of the junction transistor. 1954 – Food rationing in Great Britain ends, with the lifting of restrictions on sale and purchase of meat, 14 years after it began early in World War II, and nearly a decade after the war's end. 1960 – Due to the post-Independence Day admission of Hawaii as the 50th U.S. state on August 21, 1959, the 50-star flag of the United States debuts in Philadelphia, almost ten and a half months later (see Flag Acts (United States)). 1961 – On its maiden voyage, the Soviet nuclear-powered submarine K-19 suffers a complete loss of coolant to its reactor. The crew are able to effect repairs, but 22 of them die of radiation poisoning over the following two years. 1966 – U.S. President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Freedom of Information Act into United States law. The act went into effect the next year. 1976 – Israeli commandos raid Entebbe airport in Uganda, rescuing all but four of the passengers and crew of an Air France jetliner seized by Palestinian terrorists. 1982 – Space Shuttle program: Columbia lands at Edwards Air Force Base at the end of the program's final test flight, STS-4. President Ronald Reagan declares the Space Shuttle to be operational. 1994 – Rwandan genocide: Kigali, the Rwandan capital, is captured by the Rwandan Patriotic Front, ending the genocide in the city. 1997 – NASA's Pathfinder space probe lands on the surface of Mars. 1998 – Japan launches the Nozomi probe to Mars, joining the United States and Russia as a space exploring nation. 2001 – Vladivostok Air Flight 352 crashes on approach to Irkutsk Airport killing all 145 people on board. 2002 – A Boeing 707 crashes near Bangui M'Poko International Airport in Bangui, Central African Republic, killing 28. 2004 – The cornerstone of the Freedom Tower is laid on the World Trade Center site in New York City. 2004 – Greece beats Portugal in the UEFA Euro 2004 Final and becomes European Champion for first time in its history. 2005 – The Deep Impact collider hits the comet Tempel 1. 2006 – Space Shuttle program: Discovery launches STS-121 to the International Space Station. The event gained wide media attention as it was the only shuttle launch in the program's history to occur on the United States' Independence Day. 2009 – The first of four days of bombings begins on the southern Philippine island group of Mindanao. 2012 – The discovery of particles consistent with the Higgs boson at the Large Hadron Collider is announced at CERN.

[atlantishistory]

The Dawn of Hope:

At the dawn of the first homo sapiens, there is a simple small people of fishermen. They were the first men to travel on the waterway, to explore the world and resell their hard-earned winnings. The first of them are from what will become Greece. Atlas, led them.

A good, innovative and dreamy man. He dreams of the birth of a better world, to get rid of the madness of men. He suffered too much from them.

He keeps his thoughts secret from his companions, but transmits his ideologies to his orphaned children whom he collects along the way.

This people do not have a nearby village or city. It’s the sea their domain and it’s enough for them, according to Atlas. Their ships form like a giant sea turtle. The first fleet of humanity. A fleet that is not for war but for fishing, travel and beyond.

And then one night... that night... the night when an azure star fell from the sky. From his ocean inlaid with his fellow men, he detached himself. Crushing relentlessly in the ocean. The fleet was broken, cries of terror silenced the peaceful silence of the sea. Ships were shipwrecked, others dirty damaged. Atlas’ ship is the only one that was able to escape unscathed, hardly at least.

Tremors are felt. It was there that one of Atlas’s men saw with horror that a whirlwind was formed, where the star fell. The ship is taken from a torrent impossible to escape. The boat is dragged to the bottom of the water. The ship and the crew crash on the ground of an abyssal plain.

There were few survivors. Atlas and his last daughter Faya are narrowly doing with it. And they all saw him. Levitant in the center of the whirlpool. The blue star that blazes ardently. All remained motionless, paralyzed by a fascination mixed with fear. But not Faya. She hears a voice from the little azure sun. He was weak, tired and was not far from dying out. He needed a dwarf, a new breath. By compassion or innocence, no one knows, she accepted.

And this is where Atlas’ wishes were granted. Faya absorbs part of the star’s energy and vice versa. A crystal was growing on the girl’s torso. Without pain or pain. Atlas remains speechless of the scene. Stupor and anguish crosses it but only pride remains.

The blue sun, Faya, Atlas and the other survivors, emerge from the unnatural whirlwind that is already beginning to disappear. They were on a circular stone plateau, floating in the sky. The crews considered this event as an act of divine miracles and before they rejoice more than that, a disembodied voice ricochets in their heads to each of them. It was that of Crystal and Faya, both speaking in symbiosis, as one and the same entity.

- Listen and listen to me well. I am neither god, nor miracle, nor fantasy and certainly not a messiah. I am only the reason to listen. Innovation has surpassed. The truth has accepted. The balance to be respected. Your pain is mine. Your dreams are mine. Your thoughts are mine. And your silence is mine. I am the recipient of your past actions and you are the masters of tomorrow. Follow and be free. Now shine.

And the light was... thus was born the first founding pillar of the Atlantis empire.

TF/FF

[rastgeleticaret]

Survivor Yarışmacı Sema Aydemir Depreme Yakalanma Anını Paylaştı Sanki Kıyamet koptu

#semaaydemir ##survivortürkiye #survivalseries #acunmedya #haberaktüel Merhaba,’Haberin Sosyal Medyası’ Haber Aktüel’e hoş geldin! Türkiye’de dijital haberciliğin benzersiz örneği olan Haber Aktüel’in Youtube kanalındasın. Bu kanalda gündem ile ilgili özel içerikler ve röportajlar bulabilirsin. Tarihten siyasete, bilimden sanata her alanda içerik bulabileceğiniz kanalımıza abone olmayı ve bizi…

[cathygeha]

REVIEW

Hard Contact by Cameron Curtis

A Breed Thriller #8

I missed book seven in the series but felt right at home following Breed on  his next  thrilling adventure.

What I liked:

* The gritty compelling introduction to the story and how Breed took care of business

* Breed: intriguing, strong, lethal, intelligent, ex-military, sniper, excellent and varied skills,  independent contractor, battle-scarred, survivor, attractive to women, someone I would like to have as a friend and definitely would want in my corner if in trouble

* Anya Stein: CIA Director of Special Situations, intelligent, strategic thinker, capable, hard worker, dedicated, intriguing, not infallible, and seeing a different side of her in this story

* Hecate Kyrios: Greek, daughter of wealthy businessman, strong, resilient, will probably take over her father’s business, might have been a ship passing in the night or could show up again in a future book in the series * The plot, pacing, setting, and writing * That I felt I was there with Breed and a part of the story – and yet was really glad that I was NOT there – can’t imagine the training that he must have gone through to do all that he can in these books * The twists, turns, and surprises that kept occurring * Following the story and finding out who the bad guys were and what they were up to * Wondering what Breed does when he is NOT working for the Stein and the CIA * Thinking about what type of situation Breed will find himself in next * All of it really, except… What I didn’t like: * Who and what I was meant not to like * Having to wait for the next book in the series Did I enjoy this book? Yes Would I read more in this series? Definitely Thank you to NetGalley, Inkubator Books, and the author for the ARC – This is my honest review. 5 Stars

BLURB

When two billion dollars of gold are stolen, you don’t call the cops. You call Breed.

The Medusa, a freighter carrying gold bullion worth two billion dollars, is hijacked off the coast of Greece. Using sophisticated technology, the hijackers make the vessel disappear. The CIA’s deputy director, Anya Stein, recruits Breed to locate the vessel and recover the gold.

Breed and Stein trace the missing vessel to the mouth of the Aegean Sea, between the islands of Rhodes and Crete. Realising Breed is on their trail, the hijackers do everything they can to stop him – permanently.

Breed and Stein enlist the aid of a Greek shipping magnate, his fiery daughter, and the USS Pressley Bannon, currently based out of Crete. With their help, Breed uses all his Special Forces training to find the Medusa, break into the hijackers’ base, and serve the killers his own lethal brand of justice.

This time, it’s hard contact all the way.

Hard Contact —Book Eight in the stunning Breed action thriller series. Perfect for fans of Jason Kasper, Jack Carr, and Lee Child.

[therandomartmaker]

Danny hadn’t actually, you know, planned on the whole ‘Ghost King Offerings’ thing just becoming his groceries list. It did stop the large amount of virgins on their dying breath being offered (a lot of them now ghosts, because they died in the infinite realms. They own a pub in the zone together. He visits) before he learnt how to change the circle specifications from Pariah’s, but was it… worth it?

It did slow down a lot of summonings out of the cultists’ sheer, reeling, confusion. He once asked for acid for a ghost-chem thing (about digesting he thinks? probably recording how acidic your stomach acid had to be to digest ectoplasm safely for curiosity’s sake) and got it in litres (he still has some in dark corner somewhere) and Danny was never doing that again because his summoners kept trying to give him varying degrees of lethal acid or literal bat shit after that.

He did figure out ways to obscure his wants in such a way that the summoning would fail but the offerings would be taken (Learning astrology does have it’s uses! Take that, Tucker!) Every so often, an accurate summoning happens, one where the whole grocery list is given.

But, really. Was the Justice League, no, Batman knowing his groceries list really worth it?

…maybe it wouldn’t have been that different, Danny admits quietly in his own head, as he (human) stands in a carbon-iron dust circle of runes and lines and astrology symbols in the middle of the Watchtower, Batman knows everything, after all.

“Alright, what does Earth’s mightiest protectors want with lil’ ol’ me?” Was that the right one? Marvel and DC got way too similar for his tastes.

Oh well, nothing to it know. At least he got his groceries. It’s not like his secret identity mattered in this dimension anyway.

(B)OoOoOoOoOo

The Ghost King is a revered being. He is known throughout time, across the world, Stark White hair described like the hottest flames and eyes ‘greener than even uranium glass’ (from one of the more recent recordings of him, even though it was literally in the 1800s)

John Constantine has learnt far more about Stars than Ghosts researching this illusive timeless being.

He’s shown up in Ancient Egypt, a man beside Anubis and Osiris, standing taller than both Gods. (Bats told him that meant the egyptians saw the Ghost King as more powerful than either god of death)

He’d shown up in Greece and did what 40 people on the Ides of March didn’t.

He’s shown up in World War II, the few survivors of camps describing him as he sang a siren song. (Reportedly, those who had heard him were healthier than those who hadn’t, even if they were in the same camps)

He’s shown up in Kryptonian legend, and no, Constantine did not want to deal with that.

Why on earth are the required offerings for his Summoning a fuckin’ groceries list??

So many months of work deciphering barely linked runes and astrology symbols and random smatterings of Esperanto (not Latin for some cursed reason??) just to learn the Ghost King wanted Milk, Eggs, Flour, Sugar and Yeast. And it changed? Often?? He was almost fluent in Esperanto and it was a true tragedy.

So much wasted work.

So so much wasted work, just to summon this twink-looking college student with eyebags to rival a true workaholic’s, who didn’t look strong enough to stop meteors and catch comets (Supergirl had spent far too long waxing poetic about Dan-el, the god of the Kryptonian Moons) who didn’t even match the recorded sightings about the Ghost King!

(If Constantine had stopped tuning out Kara, he’d have learnt that ‘Dan-el’ was two beings under one name, but he didn’t because at that point he just really wanted to get the summoning done)

John Constantine wanted to fucking retire.

DP x DC prompt #33

Through research, Constantine has learned that the ghost king's summoning circle requires something different every week and the only way to realise what is through astrological signs.

After moving out, Danny changes his summoning sign to whatever groceries he needs that week, he never really expected someone to fill it out.

[therubyjailcell]

some school stuffs today!

Nelio is a catperson who travels across different worlds and universes, looking for more knowledge and stories to share. He stumbles onto Eran, a half snake half humanoid gigantic creature, whose world once had been invaded by humans who used him and his people as a source of strength for heavy work. Eran is the last survivor, as far as he knows, and he broke free some time ago, but time on your own gets lonely with time.

This assignment was “Big/Small”, and the idea I had was to have one inspired by older things, such as older legends (Lamia & Nāga), and the other by a much more recent idea (catgirls/catboys), more present in the current society. Also an inversion of roles, bc the cat is usually the bigger one, but ends up all small next to the snake in this case.

The outfit for Nelio is heavily inspired by Star Wars, so as to remind people of the traveling and fantasy aspect of things, while sticking to an explorer of the universe. The outfit for Eran is more based on Ancient Greece and Egypt, with jewels and ample clothings, in a way to call back onto the older beliefs aspect.

The characters themselves were inspired by ones from TSS, and the original characters (Virgil & Remus) belong to Thomas Sanders & his team. I do want to give credits, although the story and the actual designs themselves are by me, it wouldn't be fair not to state that. This will be tagged as AU, because of this :)

[460spring2022]

Meet Selfie Austin

Hey there, my name is Austin Ashburn, and this is my drawn selfie. I tried to fit a lot of my personality traits and interests into this one drawing. The top half is more abstract and represents some symbols that I resonate with. I love stars, hearts, and when it rains. “Yay!” and “HI BESTIES!” are two things I am known for saying a lot. I have a concert ticket on the left side because I am obsessed with going to concerts and have several already lined up for this semester, including tickets to Dua Lipa, TWICE, and Lorde. I also have the Twitter icon because I am a social media coordinator for my internship, and 95% of my job is creating tweets related to the entertainment industry. I have ‘Survivor’ playing on the television because I love reality TV, specifically competition shows. ‘Melodrama’ by Lorde is my favorite album of all time, and I am an avid lover of both iced coffee and Taco Bell. I aspire to be a plant dad but have had zero luck with that, and I have found a new love for movies that has led me to minoring in film and media studies at ASU. Finally, I have a passport represented to show my love for travel. My actual passport is expired, but I am hoping to get a new one soon! I would love to go to Thailand, Greece, or Canada in the near future.

[glarnboudin]

Tiratola, the Long-Tailed Terror!

Aliases: the Dragon of Etna, the Serpentine Savior, Our Lady of Flame

Date Discovered: May 20th, 1954

Place of Origin: Mt. Etna

Notable Stomping Grounds: Mt. Etna, Messina, Pisa, Stromboli Kaiju Reserve

Height: Generally holds head around 15 meters above the ground, but can rear up to tower at around 34 meters at her tallest.

Length: 115 meters

Biology:

A prehistoric varanid of enormous size from the same lineage that produced Kraydi, Tiratola brings to mind the dragons of yore, slinking and serpentine and adorned with a crown of fearsome crests and horns. Indeed, her Mediterranean location closely matches with depictions of dragons from the ancient Greeks and Romans, although her demeanor is hardly that of a rapacious devourer of maidens and hoarder of gold.

Rather than her jaws, Tiratola’s primary weapon of choice is her tail - even for a reptile, hers is incredibly long and dexterous, making up more than half of her total body length and as flexible and powerful as the body of any snake. With it, she can lash at targets several hundred feet away, coil and constrict her opponents, and even pick up and hurl objects as big as buildings or handle very small objects with the very tip of the tail like an elephant’s trunk. Indeed, her style of combat is very similar to that of the American kaiju Gorgolisk, preferring to coil and constrict her opponents with her powerful body.

As a kaiju, Tiratola also sports a fairly standard powerset:

Super strength

An enhanced healing factor

Immunity to radiation

She also has one more trick up her sleeve - like many other prehistoric varanids as well as Tyrantis himself, the Terror of Italia sports venom glands within her jaws that she can either ‘chew’ into her opponents or spray like a spitting cobra, and like Tyrantis, this venom has further honed into a flammable compound like something out of the pages of myth and legend.

Of course, comparing Tiratola’s fire spitting with Tyrantis’ flaming breath would be akin to comparing a firecracker with a flamethrower - rather than napalm-like torrents of ignited venom, the enormous reptile’s sprayed venom ignites into a cloud of scalding sparks and embers that explodes outwards in a shotgun-like blast with a loud crack and a blinding flash. While it’s not the best at actually damaging opponents, it still stings and burns quite painfully for targets, especially if hit in the eyes and other sensitive areas, and the sharp rapport of the venom combusting can cause a few seconds of disorientation. Injecting the stuff into the bodies of opponents, however, produces rather more grisly results as it reacts with oxygen in the bloodstream, causing the wounds inflicted by her teeth to burst open a few seconds after she lets go. To a kaiju’s durability and regeneration, it’s not nearly as harmful as it looks unless Tiratola injects a truly immense amount of venom or her opponent is considerably smaller than herself, but it’s still quite painful to experience.

History & Personality:

When the Superquake of ‘54 rocked the world, the actual tremors weren’t the only force behind the resulting destruction - tidal waves lashed the coasts, avalanches and rockslides buried towns, and a number of already-rumbling volcanoes were roused to erupt once more, pushing up not only molten material but all manner of strange new landforms forged from the Yamaneon tunnels beneath the earth. Home to several volcanoes as they are, Greece and Italy were particularly subject to this, disgorging an assortment of subterranean environments alongside quite a number of kaiju. Among them was the great reptile Tiratola - emerging from the volcanic aftermath of Mt. Etna, the serpentine saurian made herself known to the public at large when she swept through the outskirts of Messina and smothered a major fire when she settled herself on top of it for warmth, inadvertently saving much of the city from burning to the ground. In the aftermath of the fire, she would go on to save even more lives as she nosed around the rubble, unearthing nearly two dozen people that had been trapped beneath fallen debris.

Since her awakening, Tiratola has come to roam across Italy and Greece, frequently digging people out of rubble wherever she went and frequently engaging smaller mutants emerging from local Yamaneon tunnels as well as the occasional full-on kaiju - her most famous scuffles include preying upon a hoard of Paleozoic invertebrates that emerged from a Carboniferous swamp in the Greek Kassandra Peninsula and engaging a hulking one-eyed hominid kaiju that had been menacing the city of Taranto, dragging it down to its doom beneath the waves before it could do anything worse than superficial damage to buildings. Aside from an incident involving the Leaning Tower of Pisa, she’s been responsible for relatively little destruction, and has become somewhat of a local hero to the populace of the regions, something that Tiratola has come to notice.

Low to the ground as she is, the Whip-Tailed Terror is by her nature literally closer to human beings than many other kaiju, and is more aware of their activities as a result. She’s come to recognize how people react to her presence and realizes how easily she can reshape the tiny world that she now finds herself in. Were she a more malevolent sort, this awareness and her ability to easily wind through city streets could potentially make her an incredibly dangerous thrat to human beings, but the ultimate result of this is that Tiratola has come to realize that she quite enjoys the attention and praise she gets from acts of heroism. Being a reptile, she is by nature a very energy-efficient creature, conserving her strength when she does need to exert herself… but being a kaiju, acts of aid towards humans are trivially easy for her. A couple sweeps of her tail can smother a major fire beneath dirt and water and pulling people from danger can be easily accomplished by simply pushing her head into, say, a burning building and using her keen senses to locate survivors in the same way that modern varanids break into termite mounds and locate warm chambers to lay their eggs in or mother crocodiles dig out their young from nests. It costs little to the great reptile to lend her aid to others, and the reward for doing so is more than worth it - adoration and cheers whenever she enters a populated area, occasional offerings of fish and other treats, even occasional cleanings by teams of volunteers that scrub her down and aid in peeling off any lingering bits of unshed skin. The latter task has also provided another boon to the people of Greece and Italy - analysis of Tiratola’s shed skin has shed a lot of light on kaiju cellular biology, and the scales themselves are durable enough to be shaped and worked like metal or glass, fostering a small but lucrative industry of decorative items made from the kaiju’s scales.

However, there may also be another reason for her gentleness towards humans - while unearthing survivors from rubble, Tiratola frequently makes vocalizations not unlike those of crocodilian and alligator parents when unearthing their buried young, even scooping them up in her jaws in a similar fashion to carry them to safety. It may be that trapped survivors reminds the the whip-tailed dragon of her own offspring, buried in sand and soil - joint Reptodite-human expeditions into the collapsed tunnels where the kaiju emerged have even found the crystallized remains of ruined nests and cracked eggs, suggesting that she may have produced several clutches of offspring before via parthenogenesis in the same manner as some species of monitor lizard, although none seem to have survived. 

Behind the Scenes:

Behold, my entry to @tyrantisterror ’s ATOM Create a Kaiju Contest 3D, Tiratola! I’ve entered both of his previous contests, and I didn’t want to miss out here, although this is admittedly my first time posting one here to Tumblr; there’s a bunch of really creative kaiju already entered into the competition, and I highly recommend checking them out. My entry really isn’t the best by far (I wanted to make Tiratola a lot lengthier and more serpentine, but I didn’t have the space to do it, and I can’t really do detail work for shit), but I’m still reasonably happy with how my girl Tiratola came out!

Tiratola is meant to be an homage to that tried-and-true staple of the monster movie genre - movie companies from other countries trying to cash in on a trend! It’s how the world got creatures like Gorgo, Paleosaurus, and Reptilicus - creatures whose movies were far from the source material, but were packaged as being the same thing in their posters and translated titles overseas, leading to weirdness like Godzilla vs Mothra becoming ‘Watang and the Fabulous Kingdom of Monsters’ in its Italian release, the infamous cut of ‘The Volcano Monsters,’ and so on. As such, she takes the basic concept of Tyrantis - ‘giant green prehistoric reptilian monster with a long tail and horns that breathes fire’, and reconstructs it through that lens. To that end, she’s also somewhat based on slurpasaurs and on cheap rubber props, staples of Italian monster cinema.

Designwise, I based her quite heavily on, well, monitor lizards as well as the classic LEGO dragon model plus the movie poster design for Reptilicus - both are a nice combination of reptilian features that doesn’t really lend itself to any particular order, with Kraydi factoring in as another reference. Indeed, Tiratola’s meant to be a cousin to that kaiju, another of the varanid lizard lineage that would have lead to dragons and their kin in the Lost Epoch - she’s meant to be a bit farther down that evolutionary line than Kraydi is, but still not exactly a direct ancestor.

I was struggling to get a feel for Tiratola’s personality at first, but I managed to get something when I reread ATOM and the way that its reptilian stars think, plus some takes on protective dragons and why they defend humans so much smaller and weaker than they. A big part of this series is about how the kaiju are far more intelligent and empathetic than they let on - I thought it’d be neat to play off of that. While her motivations come from a very different place than they would in a human being or a similar creature, the end result is still the same: if it feels good to help others, and doing so is relatively easy, why not do so? I also added a good deal of Ogra and Reptisaurus as well - I figured it would be only fitting.

The thing about her visiting Pisa is a nod to Dinosaurs Attack, the card where the Rhedosaurus and Giant Behemoth teamed up to destroy the Leaning Tower, while her battle with the giant is taken from the battle between the dragon Taro and the Cyclops in The Seventh Voyage of Sinbad. The date of her discovery is also the date that Reptilicus was released in theaters, albeit moved back a few years.

[sweetkale]

all evidence that points towards Magneto being Jewish before it was first explicitly established in 1991

!!None of this is my writing!! It’s a useful but outdated source that I merely revised to replace the G slur. It was written by Rivka Jacobs and the original can be found at http://www.alara.net/opeople/xbooks/magjew.html

The Magneto Is Jewish FAQ (revised 11/9/98)

Rivka Jacobs

(1) In Uncanny #113 (Classic X-Men #19), the added material has Magneto on Asteroid M, talking about the deaths of Magda, Anya, and he mentions Auschwitz for the first time. "I endured one death camp ... in Auschwitz ... I will not see another people fear what they do not understand and destroy what they fear." Uncanny #113 is from 1978. The additional scenes were included in 1988's Classic X-Men #19. So, we know Magnus was at Auschwitz, a death camp, not just a concentration camp. (Many fans [and writers] seem to get the two types of camps confused). There could have been a number of reasons he was at Auschwitz: he was a Polish political prisoner, a Russian prisoner of war, a member of the French underground, a homosexual from Germany, Roma, or, with a high probability, a Jew. (Out of 1.5 million victims of Auschwitz, between 1.1 and 1.2 million were Jews).

(2) In Uncanny #150 (one of my favorites) Magneto mentions, in a fight with Cyclops, "I know something of grief. Search throughout my homeland, you will find NONE who bear my name. Mine was a large family, and it was slaughtered ... without mercy, without remorse." So that eliminates German homosexual and French partisan, because the entire familes of such prisoners were not slaughtered throughout an entire "homeland." After Magneto thinks he has killed Kitty, he says: "I remember my own childhood ... the gas chambers at Auschwitz, the guards joking as they herded my family to their death. As our lives were nothing to them, so human lives became nothing to me." Storm is about to blast him for "killing" Kitty, and she says, "If you have a diety, butcher, pray to it!" Magneto answers, "As a boy, I believed. As a boy, I turned my back on god forever." So now we know that Magnus is not a political prisoner (German political prisoners were sent to camps on German soil, like Dachau, or Bergen-Belsen), he is not Polish, since whole Polish families were not herded to the gas chambers. The Poles were not the target of pre-meditated Nazi genocide. While the Russian people were the target of genocide, only Russian POWs were in Auschwitz, not whole families. So, we are now left with only two groups of people that Magnus could be from, the Roma and the Jews. Uncanny #150 is from Oct. 1981; already Magnus says something very interesting here. He says he "remembers" the gas chambers of Auschwitz, "remembers" his family being herded, he "remembers" the guards joking. Fact: no one remembers the gas chambers of Auschwitz except in two ways (or three if you believe the dead can speak to the living), either you were a Nazi SS guard or doctor or official, or you were a member of the Sonderkommando. The Sonderkommando, Jewish prisoners who were forced by the Nazis -- in all the death camps -- to do the dirty work of killing. It was Nazi official policy. The Jews, the lowest of the low to the Nazis, in Auschwitz hierarchy, followed by the Russians, and then the Roma, the Jews would be the ones to lead the victims to the gas chamber, to haul the bodies from the gas chambers to the ovens, to burn and bury the dead. The Jews would pull the teeth of the corpses, cut the hair, pile the bodies three at a time on the retorts of the ovens in just the right way. The Sonderkommando had a few kapos (overseers) who were German and Polish prisoners, criminals from civil prisons in Germany and Poland. During the summer of 1944, 19 Russian POWs from Mauthausen were sent to augment the Auschwitz Sonderkommando. Totally documented, on paper and by eye witness accounts. All other members of the Auschwitz Sonderkommando were Jews.

(3) In Uncanny #161, Sept. 1982, we have the story of Xavier's trip to Israel. There he meets Magnus for the first time. However, it should be noted that the entire story is a Charlie-dream, while he is with Lilandra. In Uncanny #161 we see for the first and last time Magnus' tattoo from Auschwitz. His number is #214782. Xavier says, "That tattoo, Magnus, were you ...?" Magnus answers, "Auschwitz. I grew up there." So now we know that Magneto was first in Auschwitz as a very young person, but we can't pinpoint the age yet. Also, his number is high for someone who was there from the beginning of the camp. The first Polish prisoners, like author Wieslaw Kielar, had very low numbers, like in the 200s. Sonderkommando survivor Filip Muller's number was in the 20,000s. He arrived in early 1942. Magnus' number is a standard number, however, without the A of the 1944 arrivals, or the Z of the Roma, or the other special classification symbols. Of course the penciller didn't know these details. So a standard Auschwitz number, which is too big, but it doesn't tell us anything.

4) Vision and the Scarlet Witch, Vol. 1, #4. Magneto has just found out Wanda and Pietro are his children. (This is from Feb. 1983). He is on the moon, in the Inhuman city of Attilan, telling VIsion about his youth. "I was born into a time and place ... Android ... where both man and mutant were persecuted for being ... different." Picture of the Auschwitz camp, guards tormenting emaciated prisoners, one of whom displays a very prominent and exaggerated Star of David on his clothing. Remember Jews and Roma were kept apart in the camp. In the next panel, however, Magneto sort-of goes into a fantasy. He says, "But unlike the other victims, I possessed the power to fight back." He imagines he's hurling Nazi tanks away with magnetic energy. What's this? In 1983, the reader doesn't know what to make of this. Keep in mind, he's meeting with Wanda, Pietro, Vision, and Crystal, and has held Luna for the first time. Is he exaggerating? Showing off for them?

(5) Now for the second most important comic proving Magneto is Jewish, Uncanny #199, Nov. 1985. Magneto with Lee Forrester and Kitty Pryde arrive at the National Holocaust Memorial in Washington, DC. (It's not really Lee, but Mystique, trying to capture Magneto). Magneto has been having an affair with Lee, he loves her. He brings her to the Holocaust Memorial? Why? Fun date, huh? Why, because he has no other family. These people are his family. Jewish survivors of the Holocaust. (The Roma have their own name for the genocide, and their own gatherings, with their own rituals and customs. Magneto has no reason to go to a Jewish gathering if he isn't Jewish). Lee/Mystique says: "Man's inhumanity to man ... how easily the race kills." Magneto answers: "Then, Lee, it was the Jews. My nightmare has ever been that tomorrow it will be Mutants." Why would he say that, why wouldn't he mention another ethnic group, if he weren't Jewish? Next, Magneto tells Kitty EXACTLY how to address the gathering in order to get information about dead or missing family members. How does Magneto know how to do this? Isn't it obvious that he's done this before? Why would he address a Jewish Holocaust gathering looking for information about his family if his family weren't Jewish? (And it is a Jewish gathering, besides the use of the word Holocaust, a speaker says in the background: "... the systematic institutionalized extermination of one people by another."). Kitty asks about her great-aunt Chava, who died at Auschwitz, and Magneto is recognized by two survivors, Ruth and David Shulman, two Jewish survivors. (Shul is another name for synagogue -- Shulman means man of the temple, or man of the synagogue). They remember Magneto as a youth in Auschwitz, and say he helped them survive. And witness him as having been there. (No implanted memories, please). They testify that he " ... Had been at that accursed place from the very start..."

Later, Mystique reveals herself, and arrests Magneto in front of all these people. Magneto says that he recognizes no authority. "My land ...all the countries of the world ... turned their back on me and mine when we were condemned to Hitler's death camps. Therefore, in return, I have sworn to deny them." So let's clear this up ... the Roma were not persecuted in Greece, the Greek Jewish community was decimated. A small number of Roma and Jews in Rumania were exiled to a new border country called "Transnistria" but the remainder of the Roma were left alone. Several hundred thousand of them. 350,000 Rumanian Jews were savagely murdered throughout the country. In Slovakia, the Roma were left alone, the Slovakian Jews were among the first sent to Auschwitz. After the Slovakian uprising was crushed in 1944, several hundred Roma who had courageously helped in the rebellion were murdered, along with the remainder of the Jews of Slovakia. Bulgaria did not persecute its Romani people. Bulgaria, although resisting deportations of its Jews, persecuted them locally. In the Netherlands, only the "wandering" Roma who were captured in camps and wagons were deported, about 500. The remaining who had bought homes or found shelter with neighbors, were left alone. The Netherlands is where Gabrielle Haller comes from -- in under two years 100,000 Dutch Jews were deported, most were killed. I could go on. There is no other people who were hunted everywhere the Nazis went or had influence but the Jews. There is no other people who had the gates of escape cut off after the war started, but the European Jews. Magneto's reasoning is based on this most extreme situation.

(6) Uncanny #211, Nov. 1986. The Mutant Massacre. Page 9 -- Betsy Braddock has just come in from discovering what happened to a wounded Morlock, who has just died. Magneto, Storm, and Wolverine are standing there in Xavier's infirmary. Betsy says, "... I saw a cadre of super-beings ... massacring every living thing in the Morlock tunnels." Magneto reacts immediately, out of pure emotion. "NO! The horrors of my childhood, born again...only this time, Mutants are the victims, instead of Jews." What else does this mean? He's talking about HIS childhood, he's making a parallel. If he weren't Jewish, he wouldn't have said Jews, he would have said Roma. The two groups of people are not interchangeable.

(7) New Mutants #49, March 1987. Magneto is dreaming. It is an entire page representation of the massacre of his family. Here we see for the first time, his family -- father, mother, sister -- as they were gunned down in front of open graves. The family members are dressed in middle class urban clothes. No peasant dress, no Roma clothing. (And it is not a cliche. Roma women always wore, at this time, their flowing skirts and distinctive scarves and clothing, similar to the Bosnian women of today). Being massacred with Magnus' family is a mixed group of people. Men in bowler hats and suits, one old woman in a long skirt. One man in a bowler hat has the side-locks of the devout Jew, but the other people could be anyone. Poles or Jews or Roma. It's Magnus and his family who are out of place. They are well-dressed, Magnus's sister in a proper school uniform with the prim collar. Every picture I've seen of the German Rom show: a people of color, having left India and Armenia five- to six-hundred years ago, the men wearing Fedoras (favorite style of hat) and normal suits and ties, and the women and girls always dressed in the long skirts and distinctive flowered scarves. The boys wear a mixture of urban short pants but scarf belts, some have socks, some don't. New Mutants #49, page 17, could show some Roma in the crowd, but Magnus' family members are definitely not Romani in this picture.

(8) X-Men Classics #12, back-up story, Aug. 1987. The actual scenes of Magneto's escape from Auschwitz. "And with World War II ending... the Third Reich defeated...it's guards wanted no witnesses left...to tell the tale of this horror..." Picture of an SS soldier about to shoot a fallen and stricken Madga. "He had been there from the start ..." Magnus has just slammed a wooden beam into the head of the SS soldier. "Grown to manhood within its electrified barbed wire fence. If he was to die, it would not be in this abattoir ... and not without a fight!" Magnus grabs a terrified Magda by the hand and drags her with him in his escape. (a) The war is almost over, it is winter, it is the winter of 1944-1945. The Roma were gone by 1945. All the Roma women were gone. Only 4 clerks, high-status friends of Nazi officials in Camp I, were left. The Romani camp was murdered in the gas chambers in August 1944. (b) This scene, by Claremont and Bolton, is completely accurate. It takes place on Jan. 20, 1945, two days after thecamp was evacuated and the Death marches began. Some 70 of the Sonderkommando were kept to help destroy the evidence of the death factory, before they were to be killed. Some 200 women from the woman's camp, Jews, were chosen to fill in the huge pits where bodies were burned. They had to haul ashes, break up human bones, all in the coldest part of winter. The SS soldiers sent back on Jan. 20th were sent to kill the women. That is exactly what you see in this comic book, because Claremont and Bolton took the time and cared enough, to do their research. Magneto was saving Magda becasue at that point, he wasn't the target, yet. If they were out by the burial pits to the northwest of the camp, that is a point close to the forest. It just makes sense.

(9) New Mutants #61, March 1988. On page 22, Magneto is alone, kneeling over the dead body of Doug Ramsey, thinking thoughts only the reader can see. This is one moment he would not misrepresent anything, to himself especially. He says, "An ill wind is coming ... they are registering mutants ... like they once registered my people in Poland ...! Who knows what horrors await us." Only the Jews were registered, and forced to wear armbands with the Star of David on them, in Poland (at the end of 1939). Efforts to murder the Polska Roma (the Polish Roma) began in 1942, but they weren't registered first. Young Magnus wouldn't have known about any of that in any case-- he was already at Auschwitz by 1942. He would only have known that "my people" the Jewish people in Poland, including the German Jews who had already been deported there in the first months of the War, were registered.

(10) Classic X-Men #19, March 1988, back-up story. Magneto is apparently working for the CIA hunting Nazis. He is about to be betrayed by them, and his lady love of that time, Isabelle, is about to be murdered. But as he is apprehending a Nazi war criminal he gets one of his massive headaches. "Pain," he thinks, "again indescribable." "Worse than the bite of the kapo's whip. The murder of parents and family, the death of a child ... the loss of a beloved wife!" So here we see that Magneto was the victim of kapos. He could not have been a kapo. He was too young anyway, as we've seen. He grew up in Auschwitz. Here he says the murder of parents, and family. The parents separate, gunned down. The remainder of his family, no doubt sent to the gas chambers later, while he was in the Sonderkommando. Remember what he said in UX #150, his entire family wiped out. So as a Jew in the Sonderkommando he not only watched his family die, he helped kill them. How can any other comic book character ever come close to Magneto for dramatic intensity, but only if he is a Jew.

(11) X-Factor Annual #4, 1989. Doom challenges Magneto to a duel of wills, with a helmet that pulls out unpleasant memories and torments the wearer. Who will crack first? Magneto takes his turn -- Doom describes what he sees, "...after the ignoble defeat of the Nazis in Germany, you and the woman Magda you rescued, fled the prison camp Auschwitz, in Poland."

"Auschwitz, where your family had perished --living skeletons -- and you had grown to manhood amid horrors most men could not conceive." First, Doom confirms that Magnus and Magda "fled" or escaped Auschwitz before liberation and after the Roma camp was murdered. Then he describes some of Magneto's family perishing, as living skeletons, at Auschwitz. They could either have been kept as prisoners, or brought in, starving, from ghettoes in Poland and gassed. They could have been either Roma or Jews. But then it's Doom's turn to wear the helmet. Doom's Romani heritage is discussed at great length. Doom is proud to be a Rom, he knows he is a Rom. Why would he not acknowledge that Magneto is also a Rom? Why did he say your family, implying your people, to Magneto? Not "our" people?

(12) And now the most important evidence, and just about my favorite X-Men comic, Uncanny #274, from March 1991. In the Savage Land, the entire comic is told from the point of view of Magneto. It is a first person narrative, he is talking directly to us, the readers. He is not exaggerating, he is not showing off. The writing is elegant and wonderful ... "My life's ambition has been to safeguard my fellow mutants," Magneto says. "Zaladane has no such compunction. And I hear the echo of Der Fuhrer's voice in the radio of memory, smell the awful stench of the sick and dying as the cattle cars brought the comdemned to Auschwitz. I wear red, the color of blood, in tribute to their lost lives. And the harder I try to cast it aside, to find a gentler path ... the more irresistibly I'm drawn back. I should have died myself with those I loved. Instead, I carted the bodies by the hundreds, by the thousands ... from the death house to the crematorium ... and the ashes to the burial ground. Asking now what I could not then ... why was I spared?!" So there it is. He describes his job at Auschwitz. That is it. This is no vague job description, this is what the Sonderkommando did. This is fundamental to the history of the Holocaust, to the history of Nazi Germany. Making the Jews the ones who had to do all the dirty work in the death camps.

Marvel cannot say they have their own version of Holocaust history. What kind of reasoning is that? Where do the editors and writers of Marvel get off making up their own history of the Holocaust? Where do they draw the line? Has any reader out there ever seen any major publisher or entertainment outfit, outside Neo-Nazi groups and the Militias or Far Right Splinter groups, who just took it upon themselves to change a Jew into a Romany and change Holocaust and Auschwitz history to make it fit? Magneto says it here, he was a member of the Sonderkommando. He was not a kapo. He was not a Russian POW. He was a Jew! On page 14 of UXM #274, Magneto is dreaming again. He again sees his family being gunned down. He again feels what it was like to be buried alive. Rogue wakes him up.

(13) Uncanny X-Men #275, April 1991, which concludes the Savage Land story from UXM #274, referred to above, also contains confirmation as to what happened to young Magnus. Magneto says, directly to the reader, in diary-like narration, as he uses the last strength of his emaciated body to push away his captors, "They think me beaten, finished. A mistake many have made in the past. As I found the strength, as a boy, to survive being machine-gunned and buried alive, and later the unimaginable horror of Auschwitz ... so do I find it in me, here and now, to break free."

(14) X-Men Vol. 2, No. 2, Nov. 1991. The beginning of the end for Magneto. But on page 24 he says to Moira MacTaggart, who has seemingly betrayed him, and enraged him, "Of course not. You worked for the betterment of the world and the race. I heard those same rationales as a boy, in the Auschwitz Death Camp. From Dr. Joseph Mengele himself!" Mengele's first victims were the Roma, he liked the Roma. He brought the children candy and extra food. And in August of 1944, after trying unsuccessfully to save the Romani Family Camp (also for his own experimental purposes) Mengele obeyed his orders and vigorously hunted down and helped exterminate all remaining Roma. He then dissected those of most interest to him, and sent body parts to Berlin. Then he turned his attention to the Jews of Auschwitz. Only his Jewish victims have survived. His Romani victims, those transfered out of the camp in the spring and summer of 1944, have rarely come forward. If Magneto is alive in Auschwitz after the start of 1945, and he personally heard Dr. Mengele, he is a Jew.

Magneto is a Jew especially since Mengele would have been one of his supervisors in the Sonderkommando.

(15) X-Men, Vol. 2, No. 3, Dec. 1991 -- Magneto to Xavier, "You speak to the best in humanity. I have endured the worst. You imagine the reality of the Holocaust, of the Nazi Death Camps. I grew up in one." Magneto says The Holocaust. This is the translation of SHOAH, and was first used after the war, and popularized by Eli Wiesel. It means the Jewish Holocaust. One can say the Romani genocide, and today sometimes you'll hear the Romani holocaust, or the Russian holocaust, or the holocaust perpetrated against the mentally ill and the handicapped. (Nazi pre-meditated genocide was really only carried to the fullest extreme against three groups, the first were the mentally ill and the handicapped, who were the first victims of genocide. The second and third groups were the Jews and the Roma). But the Holocaust is what Jewish people say when they refer to the calculated campaign of Nazi Germany to kill every Jew in the world. (They actually made lists of every country in the Western world, and all the Jewish populations. They made no such list for any other people). Nazi Germany succeeded in killing almost 6 million of their foremost victims, until the Third Reich was defeated.

(16) X-Factor #92, July, 1993. Havok and X-Factor are battling Cortez and the Acolytes, in this opening chapter of Fatal Attractions. Cortez is ranting about the "flatscans" and how mutants have to subjugate them. Havok says, "Out to destroy the "inferior" race ... in Magneto's name? Don't you know what an insult that is to the memory of the very man you claim to worship? Fifty years ago, Magnus barely survived a Holocaust that destroyed almost all of his people: all because some lunatic took it upon himself to decide who deserved to live ... and who didn't. Where's the sense in resurrecting that kind of evil ... in the name of one of its victims?!" Cortez answers, "You've seen this place Havok! You've seen the sentinels! You tell me ... where's the sense in letting the flatscans do to the mutants what Hitler did to the Jews? ..." Cortez has done research on Magneto, he says the Jews, as a parallel metaphor. Why say that, if Magneto isn't Jewish?

(17) Then comes the infamous Unlimited #2. This is a long and involved FAQ I've got going here, so I won't go into detail at the moment. But the bottom line is, everything that Gabrielle Haller says about Magneto's history is false. I don't want to go line by line over it now. Everything! Danzig was not annexed. It was a Free City, under League of Nations protection, that voted itself a Nazi government and welcomed the Nazi troops in like liberators. Gauleiter Forster, the extremely anti-Semitic Nazi leader of Danzig ordered all 10,000 Jews of Danzig to be kicked out of the city in 1939, not the Roma. The Jews. Auschwitz wasn't opened as a Polish political prisoner camp until the summer of 1940, not 1939. The Roma were sent to German municipal camps, in Germany and the Greater Reich, as early as 1933. But they were not sent to Auschwitz from Germany until 1943. The only people who were in a work camp in Auschwitz before it opened were 300 Jews from the town of Auschwitz who were forced to transform a collection of horse stables and army barracks into the Polish prisoner camp. "Genocide, extermination ..." of Poles? No. The Polish people suffered terribly, and were considered "sub-human" by the Nazis. Millions of Polish citizens were killed throughout the course of the war, as soldiers, as slave laborers, as underground fighters, as members of the intelligentsia. But this was Nazi suppression of a conquered country, not planned genocide. Roma, Yes. The homosexuals, no. Not genocide. Persecution and imprisonment. Treated terribly. But people weren't sent to the gas chambers just because they were homosexuals. And "intellectuals" ? (How could Nicieza have written this?) Intellectuals were targets of genocide? Well, I hardly think so, since Goebbels, and Albert Speer, and even Mengele were considered intellectuals.

No one was sent to the gas chambers, or was shot in an open grave, or was tortured and murdered JUST because they happened to be an intellectual. Thousands of Polish citizens who were members of the intelligentsia (the educated class, the vanguard or elite of the educated class), were murdered in the first months of the war. But there was no planned campaign to hunt down every intellectual in Europe and exterminate them. The mentally ill and handicapped, the Jews, and the Roma were the primary targets of Nazi genocide. The Russians came next. Everything Haller says about Magneto in Unlimited #2 contradicts most of Magneto's history as presented in 15 years worth of comics.

(18) Until recently, when, in Road to Onslaught, Marvel once again published that outrageous Gabrielle Haller speech about Magneto like they were proud of it (??) the next references in the Age of Apocalypse comics portrayed Magneto once again as Jewish. In X-Men Vol. 2, No. 40, where David Haller, Legion, pulls Magneto's memories out, you see young Magnus with the men, standing behind and below a high, barred window. This is an accurate portrayal of the quarters of the Sonderkommando at Auschwitz I. At Auschwitz I, only the Sonderkommando (other than prisoners awaiting execution) were kept in isolated basement cells, the windows of which were high, barred, and as seen from the outside, half-below ground level.

And why is Magneto in Israel anyway? How could he have come there? Well, why would a Romany go to Israel when at least 30,000 Roma lived in Germany in the late 1960s and early 1970s? And many more Rom formed a thriving community in Paris. Why not just go home to his own clan and tribe? Roma have a complex system of extended familes, clans, and tribes. Why go to Israel to "find himself" or find his "soul"? A German Jew had no place to go but somewhere else. A Polish Jew definitely had no place to go back to, since some Polish fanatics continued to murder returning Holocaust survivors well into the late 1940s. Any Jew can emigrate to Israel, under the Law of Return. All Magneto had to do was show them the tattoo on his arm. And he was home. (And in case some of you were wondering, as some of us have discussed, with the exception of the Muslim Bosnians, only the Jews of Europe practiced circumcision. It was a religious rite, not a medical procedure. Only Jewish men and boys were circumcised among the prisoners at Auschwitz. The Nazis already knew what Magneto was. He was chosen for the Sonderkommando, he was Jewish. He was not pretending to be a Jew. He wasn't misidentified as a Jew. He was a circumcised, young Jewish man). Furthermore, Magnus at this time had forged papers, that identified him as "Erik Magnus Lehnsherr." He could have immigrated to any country in the world, including the United States! If he were Roma, and didn't want to self-identify as such, why not go to America? Why go to the one country that represents enormous pain for modern Roma -- i.e., the Rom today deeply resent the focus on Israel, and the support Israel enjoys among nations of the Western world, while the Roma continue to be persecuted and ignored.

(19) In Astonishing X-Men #3, formerly Uncanny, from May 1995, we have the most clear reference to Magneto's being Jewish, written by Scott Lobdell. Magneto has just hit Bishop, and is helping him to his feet. He says, "Long before Xavier died ... before this point of divergence ... I stood by helplessly as millions of my people were led to slaughter in the name of 'genetic purity." Now the AOA is not a what-if story. It is a divergent timeline. Magneto says, before the timeline diverged. What other people were lead by the millions, led to the slaughter, in the name of genetic purity? Many people suffered and died in World War II. 250,000 to 500,000 Roma were murdered. Millions of Russians and Poles during the course of the invasions, and in political violence, and in acts of pure murder, were exterminated. But only the European Jews were "led to the slaughter" in the millions because of one man's racial beliefs. Only the Jews of Europe Persecutionand incarceration are not the same as genocide and extermination.

20) X-Men #72, cover date February 1998, published in mid-December 1997. This comic book makes a significant contribution to Magneto's history. Basically, the book reveals that the name *Erik Lehnsherr* which was revealed by Gabrielle Haller in Unlimited #2 to be Magneto's real name, is fake, and so Haller's assertion that Magneto is a *Sinte* Rom was based on false and forged identity papers.

The scenario begins with Gabrielle Haller, lying on her bed, working on a lap- top computer, writing the American Sen. Kelly, begging him to help find and secure the release of Charles Xavier. Sabra, the Israeli super-hero, a mutant and Mossad agent, suddenly appears floating in the air outside Haller's balcony doors. Haller has just pushed open the doors, saying, "You're too important to lose, Charles. I will see you ... FREE?" And Sabra says, "Sometimes, Ambassador Haller ... freedom, like the truth, is little more than an illusion. Don't you think?"

Sabra has come to Haller with information. She says to Gabrielle Haller: "I"m sure you recall shocking the world when you announced that you had UNDENIABLE proof ofMagneto's identity as Erik Lehnsherr. The undeniable has just been DENIED." Sabra then goes on to show Haller, and the readers, the file on a master forger named George Odekirk. In this file, apparently, is a computer analysis of the identity papers of Erik Lehnsherr, which shows that Odekirk forged those documents. Haller says, "He created Erik Lehnsherr? If this is true ... you must take me to him! He could be our only link to Magneto's true identity ... our last chance to stop him once and for all!"

But just as Sabra is flying Haller to the Transylvanian Alps, to meet with Odekirk, the scene switches to Odekirk, who is working on another forged passport, sitting in bed while his wife sleeps beside him. Suddenly, Odekirk looks up -- he has a visitor. It's Magneto, in full costume.

Magneto is floating in the air. He surrounds Odekirk's bed with his magnetic energy, and uses his power to keep Odekirk's wife unconscious. He says, "You failed me." Odekirk responds, "Please ... please, my wife ..." Magneto answers, "She will sleep the sleep of the innocent. She has done nothing ... but you ... YOU, my friend, have BETRAYED me." Odekirk protests his innocence, and then Magneto makes this remarkable speech: "Do you remember what you promised me the night I came to you, torn and filthy, nearly a quarter century ago? I was searching for my beloved MAGDA, determined not to lose her as I had lost so many others in the fire that engulfed all of Europe during my childhood. The authorities were in pursuit of me for the "crime" of avenging my daughter's murder. I was willing to deny who I was ... everything that my family died for ... so that I could find one woman ... so that I would not be caged AGAIN. The Erik Lehnsherr fabrication was a convenient means of ensuring that. You swore that the forged papers were FLAWLESS, that your skills were unsurpassed... but now, you have proven to be a liability. Your work has been called into queston by my enemies, and they will trace Erik Lehnsherr the Sinte BACK to you." Odekirk protests, "That is impossible! That forgery was impeccable! My work is ... " Magneto answers: "It was not ENOUGH! You gave birth to Erik Lehnsherr, Odekirk. And tonight, you have killed him. My secrets shall die with him. All that remains now ... is MAGNUS."

This scene says, subtly but clearly, that Magnus denied who he was, gave up everything his famly died for, to take the false identity of a Sinte Rom named Erik Lehnsherr. Since this entire FAQ has gone into great detail showing exactly how and why Magnus was born Jewish, it seems there is no doubt now, that Magneto's family and he himself, were Jews. Magnus would not say he denied *everything* his family died for, by taking a Romani identity, if his family were indeed Roma. As I pointed out above, only the Jews and Roms were targeted as entire peoples, and killed for no reason other than they were Jews and Roms. Magnus was either one, or the other. Since in XM #72, it is revealed that he is NOT a Rom, we must conclude he was born a Jew.

There are several continuity problems that arise from the revelations of XM #72. Several unanswered questions:

1) How much of Haller's speech (Unlimited #2) was based information contained in Odekirk's forgery, how much was based on what she personally knew, and how much did she "fabricate" herself? She makes a large number of mistakes, about nearly every aspect of Magneto's history and life. She also gets her Holocaust history and dates wrong. Did she perhaps add her own *facts* to what she found in those old identity papers? Was she perhaps trying to make the story coherent? As in, trying to make what she knew about Magnus and his history fit what she learned about *Erik Lehnsherr*? For example, where she says, on page 19 of Unlimited #2, "...Lehnsherr had taken to calling himself MAGNUS ... as if by choosing his MIDDLE name, he could bring some semblance of BALANCE and SIMPLICITY to his haunted life." This is Haller's supposition -- the reason he was calling himself MAGNUS in Israel. She knew him as Magnus back then, she had just found out, his full name was supposedly *Erik Lehnsherr.* Did she try to splice together the information?

2) While XM #72 makes it clear why Magnus cloaked himself in this false identity and ethnic background initially, what is not so understandable is why he continued to maintain that false identity after his search for Magda was over, and he immigrated to Israel. Did he use the forged *Erik Lehnsherr* passport to enter Israel? Why would he use a false identity and ethnic background to enter Israel, when he was a Jew?

3) Why would Magnus continue to use the Erik Lehnsherr identity during the Age of Apocalypse, especially since he publicly identified with being a Jew? (Astonishing X-Men #3, quoted above.)

4) Magnus worked for at least one intelligence agency, most likely the CIA (Classic X-Men #19). He then hunted dangerous mutants, for his own mysterious purposes, as shown in a brief cameo in Generation X #10 -- which was a memory belonging to Sean Cassidy, telepathically accessed by Emma Frost. During the time he was working for the CIA, his code-name was Magneto. In Classic X-Men #19, he is called only Magneto. In Generaton X #10, Interpol agent Sean Cassidy doesn't know who the man is who is helping him track down Arcady (the future Omega Red). Emma Frost, commenting from the present as a psionic guide to Cassidy's memories, calls the man *Erik Lehnsherr.* But the question is, after he left Israel, did Magnus use the false identity Erik Lehnsherr?

5) During the time that Magneto tried to follow Xavier's path, roughly from UXM #196 through UXM #253, and New Mutants issues #35 through #75, including UXM #188, NM #21, #23, #24, #26, #28, and #29, he referred to himself as Magnus, and others like Storm and Kitty Pryde called him Magnus. Even though he was disguised as Michael Xavier for the outside world, the X-Men and their associates all knew Magneto as Magnus. During this time, Magnus also identified strongly with his Jewish and Jewish Holocaust history. The question now is, what happened to the *Erik Lehnsherr the SInte* identity during this time?

6) Why, now, after so many years, did Magneto find it necessary to kill George Odekirk in order to protect his identity? We know why he took the false name and ethnic background to begin with. But we have no evidence that he continued to use *Erik Lehnhserr*, during each stage of his pre-Magneto career. After he became Magneto, after all the battles with the X-Men, after the events of Fatal Attractions, after the mind-wipe and the appearance of Joseph, after Onslaught, why would Magnus be so concerned with protecting his true identity? Was he trying to protect the memory of his family? Has he maintained contact with pre-Holocaust family grave sites, or places where he once lived? Is he worried that the very bones of his ancestors might be violated by those looking for his genetic material? Then there's Anya, his beloved daughter -- she was never Anya *Lehnsherr*. Her last name is now unknown -- is Magneto trying to protect something concerning her? George Odekirk wouldn't be the only witness to Magneto's true identity, either. What about those Carpathian villagers, who accepted Auschwitz escapees Magnus and Magda in 1945? Did anyone in Vinnitsa who knew Magnus' true last name survive his burst of electromagnetic radiation? What about Ruth and David Shulman, who knew him at Auschwitz, and recognized him, in UXM #199?

These, and other unanswered questions, remain.

By removing the *Erik Lehnsherr the Sinte* identity, fixing that particular retcon from Unlimited #2, and leaving the rest of Magneto's history intact, writer Joe Kelly and editor Bob Harras have not officially stated that Magneto was born Jewish, and was a Jewish survivor of Auschwitz. But, as was the case during the years Chris Claremont wrote the character, the references to Magneto's Jewish identity are there, subtle and at the same time, obvious.