#this is also focused more on traditional names. in the modern day the rules are a lot more lax

[tiktaaliker]

one thing i need to think about more for mortally coiled is last names. A lot of characters do not have and do not really need a last name but i kiiinda implied the existance of at MINIMUM some mortals having last names w/ Gar since he DOES have a last name.

I kinda want it to be that different iid cultures have different naming conventions. i think i might actually want mamids to have a "surname givenname" structure, but otherwise is a pretty standard inheritance rule of couples taking one of the surnames and then passing on said surname to all children. So either Gar's full name is Parlix Gar or Gar is technically the surname? Havent decided on which one yet. Also yes i think im changing it from parlic to parlix now. what about it

stemming from that, i thiiink maybe i want both aquiids and insectiids to have givenname surname structures, but each has a different twist.

insectiids have a very complex family system, and their naming convention reflects this. They technically have three names, with the middle and last both acting as different kinds of surnames. The last name is pretty straightforwardly a surname passed on by the parents, but the middle name is shared by the overarching group, often consisting of several otherwise unrelated family units. These groups are sometimes smaller with only a few family units, or can be an entire settlement (in that case, the group name would be the same or similar to the settlement name). An insectiid's last name typically stays the same throughout their life- children have options of choosing which parent's last name they take, with very young children using a hyphenated last name. When an insectiid splits off from their group, they will drop the middle name entirely, and either join a new group and take on the new group name, or start their own new group. In this case, traditionally, the founder continues to not have a middle name, and the group name is made from the founder's first name. A lot of older insectiid settlements are named after group founders.

aquiids typically do not have middle names, but instead have a multi-part surname. A child is given one surname per parent, which is made by mashing together all of said parent's surnames. This is either done via portmanteau or acrynym depending on parental surname lengths and numbers.

reptids, meanwhile, do not have surnames at all. They typically go by a name they choose for themselves in adulthood. There typically are no patterns/traditions for adult names. Because of this, a lot of adult reptid names are titles, descriptors, related to their career, taken from other cultutes, or occasionally just made up nonsense, so a lot of the stranger names in Mortally Coiled are from mortals who are culturally reptid. Childhood names, however, are almost always one syllable. In situations where a last name is expected for records, an adult reptid will use their childhood name in lieu of a surname.

[warden-melli]

I find your headcannons really interesting and wanted to know if you had any other headcannons you haven't shared before

Thank you ᵔ ᵕ ᵔ Honestly I have more headcanons that I haven’t shared than ones that I have lol (I assume you mean pokemon/pla/Melli hcs)

I’d be happy to share some right now, but let me know if there’s any particular character/topic that you’d be interested in hearing about? Sorry if I’ve shared some of these before, but I can’t remember 100% what I have/haven’t shared before lol

PLA HEADCANONS

• While Adaman is several years older than Irida, their birthdays fall on the same day of the month, exactly 6 moths apart

• If Irida hadn’t become leader of her clan she would have pursued a career as a healer, specifically focused on traditional Hisuian herbal medicine

• Melli spends a lot of time on Mt Coronet practicing his singing. As all of his pokemon are nocturnal he often heads up there at night where he can sing undisturbed. Sometimes he sings songs with words, but often he’ll just vocalise, practicing his highs notes to no one in particular. His voice is beautiful, but can be quite eerie without context, especially to frightened travellers trying to cross the mountain range at night. He is unknowingly (yet directly) responsible for many a ghost story told across the Hisui region. Melli rejects these tales of so called spirits and disembodied voices that echo across the highlands, insisting that he’s up there all the time and has never seen or heard a thing!

• In addition to his role as Warden Iscan is also the Diamond clans head fisherman and is essential to keeping his clan fed, especially over the harsh winters. He writes journals full of poetry and stories while out on the shoreline, often inspired by traditional tales, as well as his observations of the land and the adventures he witnesses across it. Many of his works will one day end up on display in the Canalave library in modern Sinnoh

• Gaeric is actually quite a bit older than he looks. In addition to his position as warden he is also in charge of gathering wood and timber for the Pearl clan, and has an eye for finding the most high quality trees. He was taught all he knows by his mother, who previously held the position before retiring from logging. She is now in charge of replanting the trees that are cut down so that the balance of nature in Hisui is preserved

• While Irida had Palina as a rival when they were both competing for the title of leader, Adaman’s bid for the position went completely unchallenged, with no one else from his clan putting their name up for consideration. He took over the title directly from his grandfather, who was the previous leader of the Diamond Clan

• Sabi is a orphan, and her pokemon partners were directly inherited from her parents. Instead of having a sibling relationship with her pokemon (which is typical for people of the Hisuian clans) they watch over her in more of a parental way, protecting her fiercely as if she were their own

• Ingo refuses to part with his hat and coat, no matter how damaged and tattered they become after enduring years of sneasel claws. While he can’t remember his past at all, bits and pieces subconsciously come through. It’s these subconscious memories of the battling rules and formats from his previous life which leads to Ingo accidentally “inventing” the modern battling systems/rules that would later become adopted across most regions in the future. Classic bootstrap paradox. Ingo learned to battle in the future > falls to the past and “invents” the modern battle system using memories from the present > then one day many years in the future Ingo learns the modern battle system > falls to the past and…. You get the idea lol

I have a ton more to share, so let me know if you’d like to hear more ˙ᵕ˙

[elendsessor]

lad infinite wealth and hawaiian culture

when i first saw mentions of religion (and the name nele sounding awfully similar), i wanted to do a bit of a delve into parallels to actual real world beliefs. yes ryu ga gotoku is fictional, it’s stories are fictional, etc., fiction more often than not is influenced by the real world or other works, and the development staff seems to have done some homework regarding hawaii, as shown by elements in and outside the main story heavily referencing the history and culture. thought it would be fun to look into regardless.

i would like to preface this by saying i have not finished infinite wealth as of the time i’m writing this—i’m only at the beginning of chapter 5 so i had to dodge a lot of spoilers. this may contain inaccurate info when it comes to palekana as a (fictional) religion. this is also just based on the research i did. if anyone reading this is hawaiian and/or has a lot of knowledge about hawaiian beliefs and customs, feel free to add onto this or correct me! :)

the goddess nele—or rather, pele. similar to how kamurocho is heavily based on kabukicho in both setting design and name, nele is what pele is referred to. the actual information the game gives about nele also reflects the mythology surrounding pele.

pele is the goddess of fire and volcanoes, sometimes being referenced or referred to as pelehonuamea or peleʻaihonua, which according to the nps are based on accounts of her movement. similar to a few fire deities in various mythologies, she represents the destruction and rejuvenation of the land.

dana mentions how palekana is focused on giving back to/caring for the land and its people and as such are very environmentally friendly, do charity work, etc. but have a strict rule, particularly when it comes to maintaining food banks, about the food being native to hawaii. some of this is definitely based in the group’s own interpretations, but some of it could also parallel traditions.

according to this hawaii-focused site, removing lava rocks off the islands or eating ‘ohelo berries along the halema‘uma‘u caldera without offering them to her/asking permission brings about bad luck due to them being sacred. as the food often sold at the markets throughout what’s explorable in infinite wealth come from different countries or have been given some american flare, eating anything non-native could be seen as disrespectful to the land it comes from, in a way rejecting the gifts that land has given its natives.

the word palekana

this further ties to the reasoning behind the native-only diet. palekana means safety, protection, and used to ward off danger.

i think this goes without saying but hawaii itself has been heavily westernized. american settlers did colonize the islands, did turn them into a collective state, did try to turn natives “american,” and did (inevitably) make it into some exotic tourist attraction. most of the hawaii known in modern day is definitely not the real hawaii. rather, most of the culture has been erased or exploited.

infinite wealth doesn’t try to hide that fact and openly mentions it, particularly with dwight, which also seems to reflect the themes presented in the series (and particularly 7 and 8) involving the oppression and erasure of those in certain positions by those in power.

save for the group’s goal to help the land, palekana’s strict rules seem to be as a way to preserve the original culture of hawaii including the land, hence the protection part of it. there seems to be no strictness when it comes to race likely due to most people living in hawaii not being native so it isn’t exactly that conservative. it’s just nature-based.

the warding off danger/safety could also be what influences palekana’s charitable work and perhaps its refusal to preach/directly influence those in their care, rather having their actions speak for themselves.

[imperial-topaz2003]

World Building Wednesday: Artek Sefyr

B A S I C S

• Full name: Artek Orrin Sefyr

• Gender: Male

• Sexuality: Demisexual Panromantic

• Pronouns: He / Him

O T H E R S 

• Family: 

- Father - Orrin Sefyr, ex-Chandrila Defense Force officer, former Senator of Chandrila, currently living in retirement

- Mother - Darya Kadir, Renegade Zakuulan Knight, 'Foreign Merchant', currently MIA

- Husband - Theron Shan, former SIS Operative, Eternal Alliance Spymaster

• Birthplace: Chandrila, Hanna City

• Job: Jedi Master, Hero of Tython, Battlemaster of the Jedi Order (former), Commander of the Eternal Alliance (current)

• Phobias: None (unless there’s one for the Emperor. Valkorphobia?)

• Guilty pleasures: 

M O R A L S 

• Morality alignment?: Neutral Good

• Sins: lust/greed/gluttony/sloth/pride/envy/wrath

• Virtues: chastity/charity/diligence/humility/kindness/patience/justice

T H I S - O R - T H A T 

• Introverted/extrovert. Artek is not exactly a social butterfly, but generally keeps a casual, friendly, and affable exterior. He likes chatting up and getting to know people, maybe kick back a few drinks with them.

• Organized/disorganized. He's not a complete mess, but his organization skills are pretty lackluster. He definitely relied on T7 to help keep him organized, and later Lana when it came to the Eternal Alliance.

• Close-minded/open-minded. There is a few things he's not gonna change his mind about, but generally, he'll maintain a tolerant and accepting stance.

• Calm/anxious. Depends on his mood and/or the scenario he's facing. Sometimes he's collected and focused, other times, he's quick to anger or paranoia.

• Disagreeable/agreeable. Again, a few strong opinions he's stubborn about, but generally, he's gonna remain open-minded and affable.

• Cautious/reckless. Yeah, he's not as much of a short fuse as he used to be during his padawan days, but even as a Jedi Master, he can be fairly bull-headed or shortsighted.

• Patient/impatient. Again, not as bad, but still noticeably can't keep still for more than five seconds

• Outspoken/reserved. If he has a strong opinion about something, you can bet your ass he's gonna make sure the whole room knows.

• Leader/follower. Once again, scenario dependent, but generally, he does tend to be at the front, leading the charge. However, if the situation needs for him to follow, he's more than willing to buckle down and do so.

• Empathetic/unempathetic. He definitely cares for other people and tries his absolute best to comfort them in times of distress. He's a good person to vent to and a shoulder to cry on, should you need either.

• Optimistic/pessimistic. Sure, he's willing to admit shit sucks at times, but he'd rather do something about it than sit around moping.

• Traditional/modern. Yeah, he respects traditions (namely that of the Jedi or Zakuul), but he is not going to let him impede progress.

• Hard-working/lazy. Generally tries to balance himself in this regard. Artek works hard enough to not be lazy, but he knows when he needs to take some time off for himself. He also has to pull Theron away from his work at times.

R E L A T I O N S H I P S 

• otp: Artek/Theron. Yeah, these two dorks are absolutely in love with eachother. Both of them are dedicated and loyal to their causes, yet they're willing to bend the rules every now and then. It's why they got married.

• ot3: Artek/Theron/Kira. No, it's not official, but Artek did briefly romance Kira in the past, who did joke about all three of them getting together. While he did kinda consider the prospect, he decided to leave the three of them being friends.

• brotp: Artek, Kira, Scourge, and T7. Out of all his friends, Artek has the strongest platonic bond with those three, and would trust them with his life.

• notp: Artek/Valkorion and Artek/Doc. Those were the worse ones I could think up. Might indulge in them in a joking way, but otherwise, I don't wanna think about either

Thought this would be a good way to introduce my newly reconstructed legacy. I'll get working on the other characters soon enough.

No pressure tags - @jbnonsensework @swtorpadawan @dream-of-tanalorr (davidoodles), @magicallulu7

[linkspooky]

Yo.

I was wondering how do you think Nanako’s and Mimiko’s curse techniques works?

Like I remember reading their abilities in actions in your fic, and I was wondering if they will learn more ways to use their technique since you did mentioned how they will appear again in your future fics.

I am always too afraid to use author notes (because I'm shy), but at some point in the future I really should add in author notes as a source of extra information because I do actually have the rules of their cursed techniques written down.

But here is my personal headcanons / rules I use when writing them.

Number one, I think Mimiko and Nanako are supposed to represent the divide between traditional, and technological Jujutsu. Mimiko uses a cursed doll to inflict damage on her target which is obviously comparable to Nobara's straw doll, and Nanako uses a smart phone which is technology based like how Hakari's is pachinko based.

Mimiko Hasaba

Anabelle her innate echnique her technique requires using a cursed object, like a doll as a proxy, based off of legends of children's spirits possesing haunted dolls like the famous anabelle. Nobara uses her cursed energy to establish a link between the effigy and the target and inflict damage that way through sheer blunt force of her cursed energy. However, Mimiko's cursed doll when she acquires hair or even blood from their target can inflict something far more sinister which is possession on the target which induces them to commit suicide. Essentially she makes a rope made from cursed energy appear around their neck, and they walk themselves to the nearest place to tie themselves up and jump off. Or she makes a rope appear and it calls to them. If you get hit by her technique the only way to break it is outside interference, or stronger cursed energy.

That is her strongest single move though and it takes all her cursed energy to attempt, at lower levels she can just induce them to self harm, she can induce the feeling that you are choking by pulling on the rope around the dolls neck, and she can also make a rope appear from behind them to grab them from the neck phantom of the opera style and lift you up but that's if she gets you from behind. I tihnk in general stabbing the doll with needles would work the same way Nobara hammering her nails into hers works too. Mimiko could probably do more with the possessed / cursed doll aspect of her cursed technique, but she is more focused on killing her enemies.

She's also capable of using reversed curse technique, this is based off a theory I have that Nobara's abiity to make effigies of a person on a doll and directly interact with their soul is a prelude to reverse cursed energy. If you are connected to her doll she can heal you by sewing up tears and damaged areas that appear on the doll.

The cursed tool she uses is the doll made and given to her by Michi, it is possessed by the energy of a jujutsu sorcerer that died eleven years ago and left a curse on that object.

Nanako Hasaba

Nanako's innate technique Fatal Frame is based off of the trend for photoshopped pictures to be posted online and spread around as a sort of modern day spirit photography. It's named off of the video game series, where young japanese schoolgirls go to research places that are incredibly haunted.

 Their only source of defense against the copious amounts of spirits haunting the mountains and abandoned homes being explored is the Camera Obscura, an occult item created in the 1800s that uses special film that grants it the ability to exorcise and pacify violent spirits. 

Nanako's innate technique is the ability to travel inside and outside photos. She can quite literally step into one, and like exist in the moment the photograph created and if it's a person she could talk to that person though it would probably be a very limited conversation b/c it's like a fragment of a person, a representation of them. She is essentially the ghost that is entering and exiting the photograph but the photograph is destroyed after she leaves.

Her cursed tool is her phone's camera. This is where the modern aspect of it comes in, she can essentially teleport herself and others by taking a picture of herself, sending that picture to another phone and then stepping out of the picture saved on their phone once they download it. This is a little broken so maybe it has to be a certain kind of cursed object phone, like Nanako and Mimiko really only have one or two in their possession. So you can teleport between phones by sending the image. She can also just go inside her phone for a while and like if you need her, just go to the photo gallery and select her. If the phone were to get destroyed memory card and all though she would remain trapped inside the digital memory of the photo forever and essentially die.

I think there's also an offensive aspect to this. Like, you know "If you take a picture with this camera it will steal your soul" so when she takes pictures of people, it drains their cursed energies which would also make them more vulnerable to Mimiko's technique. And logically she can capture cursed spirits who are all cursed energy in her phone too. She doesn't control them like Geto does, she just captures them and they appear in the photograph they were taken in. She can also let them out and throw them out like pokemon but she doesn't control them they just rampage and target whatever is nearby. The limit on this ability is that it has to be a cursed spirit she is stronger than cursed energy wise. If she were to try it on say Jogo who is special grade it wouldn't work.

So yeah, that's Mimiko and Nanako their abilities are pure chaos. I think they are in general people who rely on surprise and stealth rather than upfront physical power b/c Nanako's power allows for a lot of versatility. You know how Todo's ability to switch the location of two people at once, adds a lot of team cooperation to the fight? Nanako teleports in and out and debuffs them and Mimiko hits them hard.

[eafolktraditions]

Korean Folk Music

By Bonnie Kennedy

While modern-day Korean pop music has such an international cultural hold, I thought it would be interesting to study traditional Korean music. I wondered how similar Korean folk music is to American folk music. When I think of folk music, I have a very American view. To me, folk music is a person with a guitar singing slow songs about heartbreak or a whole band playing a fast beat with a banjo. My knowledge of folk music is very limited to the US. Through this blog, I want to expand my knowledge about traditional Korean music to better understand both international folk songs and Korea as a country. 

Similar to American folk music, the Korean genre is also used to showcase complex emotions. However, the traditional music of Korea is divided into two different styles based on their intended audience. Traditional music for the elite uses a different sized gayageum than the songs played for the working class. An example of music for the ruling class is Jongmyo Jeryeak, the traditional music played during the ancestral rites of the Joseon kings. The songs historically played for the majority of the population are called pansori. This music usually contains a narrative story in its lyrics. Korean folk music is also characterized by its energetic rhythms and melodies. The United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) recently awarded pansori the title of a masterpiece of the Oral and Intangible Heritage of Humanity. The title pansori encompasses many different musical styles that also have historical roots in Korean village life. There is the sanjo style of pansori which means ‘scattered melodies’; it uses an hourglass-shaped drum. Additionally, the Sinawi musical style is based on rites performed by a female shaman. Pungmullori music involves both percussion and taepyeongso instruments. It focuses on tales of farming.

Here is a part of one of the most popular pansori songs called "Song of Chunhyang". The song yells the story about a girl named Chunhyang. The other people in her village were mean to her because she was not pretty. They executed her. After she dies, chaos takes over the village. One village magistrate thinks Chunhyang cursed the town. He writes about how great she is. He seems to have successfully appeased her and the curse is over. The lyrics of this song are what the magistrate wrote about Chunhyang.

Another aspect of traditional Korean music is its reliance on improvisation while using known melodies and themes. The first Korean musical score was written down by Hwang Byungki in 1962. He started recording music that had historically been passed down through oral tradition. Byungki is known to many as “the father of modern Korean music”. He studied both court music for the elite and folk music. Hwang really liked Sanjo music. He even started his own music school focusing on the style of sanjo. He led the path for Korean musicians to create a fusion of traditional Korean music and Western style of music composition. This movement of combining the ideas of traditional music in new formats is called Changjak-Gugak. Byungki revolutionized the way that Koreans thought about music and reintroduced the almost extinct gayageum to the public. Byungki‘s career highlights the strong connection between the traditional Korean music that he drew inspiration from and the modern Korean music movement that he is credited with starting. 

As more mainstream American artists have embraced folk music aesthetics, so have some Korean pop stars. The group Topp Dogg, now called Xeno-T, incorporated many aspects of traditional Korea into their song “Arario” and its music video. The music video has women playing the gayageum. One of the most famous K-pop groups, BTS also highlighted folk elements in one of their songs. The song “Idol” contains a pansori rhythm with many folk instruments, including a brass gong called kkwaenggwari, a horn called gakgung, and a drum called janggu. Their choreography, specifically their jumping in the music video for the song, pulls inspiration from a folk dance called pungmul. 

While American and Korean traditional music are very different, as they both use different types of instruments, both musical genres have certain characteristics in common. They are both known for being spontaneous. Folk musicians of both cultures historically do not play precomposed music. Furthermore, working class people play a big part in the folk genres of both countries. Their songs often touch on a traditional way of living, whether that be Korean village life or American rural life. Furthermore, many pop musicians today are influenced by this type of music. As a fan of American folk music, it was very exciting for me to learn and listen to Korean traditional music and how it is related to modern-day Korean music.

Citations

https://www.angelfire.com/alt/koreanmusic/folk.html https://asiatimes.com/2018/02/master-musician-father-modern-korean-music/

https://asiatimes.com/2018/02/master-musician-father-modern-korean-music/

[richs-japan-tabi]

May 22 - Kyoto Imperial Palace

I woke up late today, so I didn't have time for breakfast. We began today's scheduled excursion by going to the Kyoto Imperial Palace. I was a little tired and hungry since I missed breakfast, so I wasn't in the best mood. I thought the palace was interesting, but unfortunately, I couldn't hear the guide's explanations well. Between the poor-quality microphone and the sound of people treading on gravel, I couldn't understand him. Luckily, the reading's primary focus was architecture and city planning of this period, so I could still appreciate most of it. However, I enjoyed the garden more than any of the architecture. I thought that the garden was beautiful, and I was able to take some nice pictures in front of it.

Afterward, we voted to determine if we would take a lunch break after the palace. Unfortunately, most people wanted to continue. Thus, the following site we visited was the Kyoto National Museum. Kyoto National Museum is an art museum with artworks and copies of artworks hundreds of years old. For this reason, they do not allow pictures in any of the exhibits. In addition, backpacks were to be held in front of your person, and pens were not allowed. I thought the pen rule was excessive, given that all the artworks were protected in glass, but I did not mind. As for the artworks themselves, they came in many different shapes and forms. Some popular forms included panels and scrolls. I'll elaborate more on an artwork that stood out in the academic reflection.

After about an hour at the museum, it was time for lunch. We didn't know what was in the area, so we looked around and stumbled across Ito-chan, a restaurant specializing in udon, soba, and donburi. I got the nabeyaki udon special for 1,100 yen. While not the best thing I have had in Japan, it was a good meal. Additionally, being a small restaurant, it had an authentic feel that chains cannot replicate.

When I finished lunch, I started preparing for my Tokyo trip! My girlfriend landed here a few days ago, and I am excited to see her. I am currently writing this blog post on the Shinkansen to Tokyo. I still find it incredible that such a fast train is equipped with WIFI good enough to write a blog post.

Academic Reflection

The assigned reading for today primarily focused on the development of Kyoto. The reading explains how the previous capital, Nara, was perceived by many as being old and out of style. Kyoto was the modern replacement of Nara, the former capital of Japan. I found this point especially interesting, considering that Kyoto is now considered by many to be old and traditional. The grid of roads reflects the city's modernity. The naming convention of avenues was a number succeeded by Jo. Confusingly, the areas in between these jo are also called jo. Even today, this system remains and gives anyone traveling in Kyoto a better understanding of the city.

The reading also talks about the Imperial Palace. Notably, I could see some of the gardens, meeting areas, and the famous two trees described in the reading. Of course, since the original has burnt down multiple times, the one I saw today is not the same as the original construction.

Finally, my final point of discussion centers around the artwork I saw at the museum. The Landscape of the Four Seasons, illustrated by Sesshu, is a brilliant art work. It was painted with ink and light color on silk in the 15th century when Sesshu was in China. Sesshu was an incredibly famous artist of his time. I was thoroughly impressed with how many of the museum's artworks were illustrated by him.

[asfeatured]

What Cultural Traditions Does Mexico Have?

Mexican cultural traditions are one of the most famous cultures in North America. Mexican culture is known for its vibrant colors, rich traditions, and cultural diversity. Mexican traditions are celebrated worldwide for their cultural diversity. Spain ruled for more than 300 years thus Spanish Cultural influence is more on Mexico and has been shaped by indigenous traditions. Western and Native American civilizations also influenced the Mexican cultures. This blog post will take you through some of the most captivating cultural traditions that define Mexico's identity.

Architecture of Mexican cultural traditions

UNESCO added 34 sites to the list of world heritage of Mexico, which shows the rich heritage of Mexico from ancient to modern Mexico. Most of the sites pertain to Mexico's history. For Example, Mesoamerican architecture is best known for its public, ceremonial, and urban monumental buildings.

Mesoamerican architecture Another popular architecture of Mexico is New Spanish Baroque, during the 17th century one of Mexico's most popular architectural styles was Mexican Churrigueresque. The Academy of San Carlos, which was founded in 1788 is the finest art of architecture. The academy promoted Neoclassicism, focusing on Greek and Roman art.

Day of the Dead: A Time of Remembrance and Celebration

Day of the Dead or Día de los Muertos is the tradition of the Mexican culture. In these traditions, Mexican people give honor and remember to loved ones who are not alive. They celebrate the souls of the deceased relatives who return to visit their living families for a brief reunion. Traditional Altars It is known as the heart of the Mexican Day of the Dead culture. It fills the gap between the living and the deceased and helps to guide the spirits back to our world. The holiday is a blend of Mesoamerican ritual, European religion, and Spanish culture, and it is celebrated from October 31 to November 2 every year. The holiday has its roots in the ancient Aztec belief that death is a part of life and that the souls of the dead travel to the Land of the Dead after a long and challenging journey. Sugar skulls

It is made with the names of departed family members and friends. It symbolizes the sweetness of life and joy for those who have passed. The holiday involves various traditions and symbols, such as building ofrendas (altars) with food, flowers, candles, and other offerings for the dead, wearing skull masks and eating sugar skulls, and displaying calacas (skeletons) and Calaveras (skulls) in art and costumes. Marigolds It also known as cempasúchil, is a vibrant orange flower. It is believed that marigolds attract the spirits with their color and fragrance. These flowers are used to decorate altars and cemeteries during the celebration. The holiday has evolved and has become more popular and recognized in other countries, especially in the United States, where many people of Mexican heritage live. It has also been influenced by pop culture, such as movies, parades, and music.

Mariachi Music: The Beauty of Mexican Culture

It is the internal part of the Mexican communities and is celebrated at Mexican festivals. Origins and History of Mariachi Music It is originated from the Western countries state of Jalisco and influenced by the Soanic traditions. Spain ruled for over 300 years in Mexico so most of the cultural traditions are influenced by the Spanish people. And, some part of this art form is influenced by African musical traditions. Traditional Instruments It is a traditional Mariachi band that uses instruments such as guitarrón, vihuela, and trumpet. Every instrument has its role. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jlXJ5jsjHWU

Mexican Cuisine

Every Culture has its own foods and cuisine culture. Mexican Foods is one of the most popular in the World, and available around the world. Mexico's cuisine boasts a variety of famous dishes, each with regional variations that showcase diverse flavors and ingredients. 1. Tacos It is a popular Mexican dish, available in numerous variations across the country. In Mexico City, al pastor tacos are popular, made with marinated pork cooked on a vertical spit

Mexican food 2. Enchiladas It is rolled and filled with various ingredients. It is known for spicy and uses the spicy red chili sauce. The cheese and chicken are used for their fillings. 3. Ceviche Ceviche is a yummy seafood dish that uses local ingredients found along Mexico's coasts. In Baja California, they make it with fish, and in Veracruz, they use shrimp and tomato sauce. Lime or bitter orange juice is used to "cook" the seafood, making it a delicious appetizer.

Literature

Juana Inés de la Cruz was a great and colonial Mexican writer, philosopher, and poet. She was amongst the main American-born contributors to the Spanish Golden Age.

Juana Inés de la Cruz Mexican literature started with the writing of the indigenous people in Mesoamerica and the Europeans who came later. Modern Literature was influenced by the Spanish culture. The most famous colonial writers and poets were Juan Ruiz de Alarcón and Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz.

Mexican Music and dance

Mexican music has its roots in the indigenous sounds and heritage of the country. The original inhabitants of Mexico used drums, flutes, rattles, conches, and their voices to create music and dances. These were often performed during celebrations like Netotiliztli. Some parts of Mexico still play this ancient music, but a lot of the traditional contemporary music was written during and after the Spanish colonial period. These songs incorporated instruments influenced by the old world. Many traditional instruments, like the Mexican vihuela used in Mariachi music, were adapted from their old-world counterparts and are now considered distinctly Mexican. Read the full article

[shadowsong26fic]

Coming Attractions!

First Monday of the month, so here we go!

As per usual, this is also an Open Question Night--anything I've posted about here or on AO3 is fair game; my askbox is always open but tonight I'll be keeping an eye on it and responding. I do take prompts, but no guarantees on how quickly I fill them.

Not a whole lot to report this month--mostly because moving took up A Lot of time/energy/etc., so I didn't get as much writing done as I would have hoped, so just a quick blitz through:

OTP Meme fills-- I'm still super behind, haha. I caught up on June, but I need to do July, August, and September for all five ships this month, so that'll be fun.

PodTogether-- It got posted! It ended up being not quite all I'd hoped it would be (our plans were a lot more ambitious than our execution, haha), but the three bits that did get finished/posted I think turned out pretty well. I do enjoy doing this event a lot; next summer should be less busy for me, too, so hopefully it'll go a little smoother/I'll get a little closer to whatever my partner(s) and I end up planning (although I think I might take Leverage off my fandoms list next time; we'll see.)

Other SW-- No real updates here, other than we at SWBB got an ask about next year's event already (signups don't open til like December!!!), so I'm going to dig up what I started last year and hopefully actually finish it so I can participate. I've been involved with that event for so long that it felt weird to only do modding/betaing/podfic and not Write for it this time. (Precipice!verse has the same update it has for the past several months. It will not die until I leave this fandom, but it hasn't been getting much/any active focus lately.)

BSG-- Signups are still open for GBB! We could use a few more artists and betas. Story detail submissions are coming in, and I'm excited for what I'm seeing. I also want to get a little more into actively working on TOB over the next few weeks/by the end of the year. It's been floating around in the back of my head for so long and I thiiiiiink I've named all of the people and patched enough of the plotholes to get started...of course, now I need to figure out exactly when/where I need to start (especially since...you know, need to introduce a bunch of OCs plus explain why Baltar ends up in a different position...so yeah XD) I do still have various crossover snippets that might get worked on (like the one I reblogged the other day; there's also the Zeb and Helo one that I thought turned out pretty well); plus The Blood of Angry Men which I do genuinely plan to write at some point, but structuring it is a complicated question XD (Zarek character study/backstory piece; mostly focused on everything that initially sent him to prison, told through the lens of him looking back on it as he faces down his execution in S4; some stuff about charisma and followers he's lost/led to their deaths; the balance between him believing in his rhetoric and wanting power/using that rhetoric to gain it...a lot of really interesting things to think about here, lol)

Les Mis-- P&J will update soon; I'm also working on Acheron which I'm super excited for. I've written snippets of dialogue for Provenance (companion to P&J) but that won't get posted until the main fic is complete (because it's probably more fun to watch Ari solve as much of the puzzle as is possible given modern-day available records/evidence before filling in some of the gaps with a somewhat more traditional-style fic, lol)

Castlevania-- Not really much to say here other than at some point I will pick up Incinctus; also when Nocturne starts airing I will probably be Very Tempted to do a more active/actual crossover with Vampire Chronicles (bookverse) because. Like. The Theatre is right there lol (I know the vampire rules are very different in the two canons; which is part of why Marius existing in Incinctus is only a quick Easter Egg cameo; also Alucard and Armand would hate each other so much lol and I love them both so I'm not...suuuuuper interested in writing about that XD) Anyway, we'll see how much Nocturne actually draws me in, but at the moment I'm looking forward to it.

...I think that about covers it! Moving is exhausting and expensive but while unpacking/setup is still going on we are Fully Moved at this point, so...yay! Hopefully next month will pick up some.

[gwenmyoty]

Sanguine & Sorrow

So, the first big obstacle in talking about this fantasy setting is, well, it doesn't have a name. Somehow in all the writing that'd been done on it and in the setting, no one has once ever referred to either the continent they're on or the world they're in by anything other than 'the world' or 'this land'. I've honestly not been happy with anything I've come up with, but maybe one day. For now, I'll refer to it as Sanguine. (Sanguine & Sorrow was the original name of the tactics game this setting was written for)

Overall, Sanguine is an anachronistic mid-fantasy setting. The setting parallels medieval era culture, but there are analogues to more modern technologies like trains, handheld computers, and sanitation powered by magic. Sociological conditions are also *incredibly* different, with some cultures having beliefs entirely alien to us in their progressiveness even today. More on that later.

The setting largely centers on one particular continent, though other continents have been alluded to. This continent is primarily governed by the Four Great Nations. There are smaller countries in between these four nations, but their influence is much weaker and they often cowtow to the demands of the Great Nation nearest to them. These four Great Nations currently are Andán, Stucc, The Pelagon, and Daiya. Though, Daiya only just recently became a Great Nation following their victory in a war against the Ulfanz Collective who had previously been the fourth Great Nation.

Andán is the closest to a more traditional low fantasy culture and closely resemble a gothic European setting with Slavic influences. It's people are cut-throat, racist, xenophobic, homophobic, starving, and beset with a near perpetual winter, struggling just to live to see tomorrow. It is governed by a Monarchy, who, predictably, are deaf to the concerns of their people. Instead, they are much more focused on the threat of dragons. Hundreds of years ago, close to when Andán was originally founded, they were besieged by dragons without warning. Given no one had ever seen dragons before, this was rather terrifying. Andán successfully defended itself, prompting the dragons to retreat to parts unknown, but even now, they remain ready to face them again if they should return.

Stucc meanwhile is a much more private nation that borders Andán. It is ruled over by an elected council who's identities are kept anonymous. They are only referred to as 'The Stucc Lodge'. These individuals have their own private process for electing new members and enacting legislature. Geographically, Stucc is a mountainous region, whose culture is influenced peculiarly by both Scandinavian folklore as well as Japanese. This may seem like an odd combo, but there is a very good reason for it if you dig into the origins of the country.

Stucc was formed by foreigners from another land who had survived a great cataclysm that claimed the lives of their fellows. These foreigners hailed from two distinct tribes, known as The Eastern Circle and The Northern Circle. As they settled together, their cultures blended over time as Stucc became their home. Despite being shrouded in secrecy, Stucc's government is more lenient than Andán's. There is however a very tense relationship with the original dwellers of Stucc, a species known as the Kela. Kela were once allies to the founders of Stucc, and even revered as sacred, but an unknown event shifted relations between the two, and Kela became regarded as second class citizens and some are even enslaved by members of Stucc's working class.

On the other side of the country is The Pelagon Woods, home to The Pelagon Tribes. The Pelagon vary deeply in terms of their culture, as each tribe has different standards and expectations. Some tribes are radically different than our own culture, such as Bilanco whom are all taught shapeshifting magic and are encouraged to embrace new identities anytime they feel like it. Influences for the region are a mix between Gaelic folklore and Native American concepts, featuring a mysterious dense forest full of capricious beings that range from mischievous, albeit harmless pixies to terrifying monsters that feed off of suffering and souls. Not that the other nations don't have awful monsters, Stucc is known for ghost elk and giant spiders, but the monsters of the Pelagon have a particular penchant for causing psychological damage as much as physical.

Daiya, located to the far west meanwhile is a desert nation that pulls from Mediterranean and Arabic influences, though with a very strange twist. Daiya is a theocratic nation that is matriarchal by nature. They worship a Goddess said to govern over time, and only women are allowed in positions of power within Daiya. It's ruler, the Sultana is selected by the Goddess by divine providence. Men are allowed to work hard labor and servitude positions and this is all within the upper society. These rules and limitations become more lax as you go down Daiya's complex caste system, but as a male, there is very little hope to amounting to anything within Daiyan culture.

Women do not even take male partners in Daiya, they merely select a preferred male amongst their servants to sire children while usually keeping a female companion as a nurturing partner. (Sons of course join the ranks of their servants while daughters are raised as proper offspring) Outside of it's culture, Daiya is a more sparse nation full of open desert around it. People frequently travel by sand seal, adorable pinneped mammals that can breath under the sands of the desert and have formed a symbiotic relationship with humanity and thus been bred as pack animals and transport. Daiyans are fond of both gladiatorial displays and sandball, a recreational sport akin to Aussie Rules Football mixed with Rugby and Soccer.

At the center of the continent is Aonach Academy. Formed by the brother of the founder of Andán, Aonach is a prestigious academy intended as a way to help maintain peace between the four nations. In exchange for each nation sending it's brightest and most promising citizens to learn there, the Academy provides schooling by some of the most talented academic minds on the continent. It is believed that students who are educated in an environment that leaves them exposed to the ideas of other nations will be more likely to promote a future where the nations remain in harmony with one another.

However, early on in the Academy's history, it was insisted that each of the Great Nations should receive the right to have a National House at the Academy so that they can exert their influence and potentially claim promising individuals for positions of power as they grow older. The houses have shaped a particular culture at Aonach, with many focused on receiving an invitation to one before their tenure there is done. The staff of Aonach meanwhile tolerates the houses existence and influence as a necessary evil to achieve the cooperation of The Four Great Nations, especially as important individuals are often placed by the nations as the leaders of these houses.

[iamitchauhan]

What is Growth Marketing and What Does it Actually Mean?

Over 500,000 new businesses are formed in the United States each year, and over $200 billion is spent on marketing each year.

In such a crowded environment, it can be difficult for your company to stand out from the crowd.

To stand out from the crowd, it is becoming more and more important to have a creative, iterative and compelling marketing strategy. A strategy that not only enables customer acquisition but also provides fertile soil for virality, word of mouth and organic growth.

This powerful new way to build a loyal user base has a name: growth marketing.

Let’s take a look at what growth marketing is and what it takes to become a growth marketer.

What is growth marketing?

Growth marketing is marketing 2.0. It takes the traditional marketing model and adds layers to it like A/B testing, value-added blog posts, data-driven email marketing campaigns, SEO optimization, copy creation, and more. advertising stars and technical analysis of all aspects of the user experience. Lessons learned from these strategies were quickly deployed towards the goal of solid and sustainable growth.

A growth marketer is often a T-shaped marketer — with solid core knowledge, foundations, and depth.

How is growth marketing different?

Traditional marketing involves “set it and forget it” type strategies that consume a fixed budget and hope for the best. Think Google Adwords and display campaigns with basic text advertising. These strategies can be a great way to drive traffic to the top of your sales funnel, helping to increase brand awareness and user acquisition, but that’s where the value drops.

Growth marketing goes beyond the top of the funnel.

Done right, it creates value throughout the marketing funnel by attracting, engaging, retaining, and ultimately turning users into brand champions.

Growth focuses on the entire funnel, whereas marketing typically focuses on the top of the funnel.

These data-driven marketers don’t get too involved in formulating strategy, trying new experiments and figuring out what works right away.

But growth marketing, like biological evolution, is also a stochastic process. This means that there is an element of randomness in any strategy that works. The only way to see which method works best is to throw things at the wall and see what works.

Qualities of Successful Growth Marketers

The best growth marketers are known to be:

Data Driven

The days of making decisions based on instinct are over. Ditto for decisions based solely on the HiPPO strategy (opinion of the highest paid person). The modern growth marketer dives into data to determine which strategies work and is comfortable with any tools that enable such analysis.

Creativity

The best growth marketers are ready to get creative. They never say “it’s never been done before, so why try?”.

If that was Airbnb’s attitude when they were trying to grow, they would never have thought of providing free professional photography services to everyone who registered on their site. What some thought was crazy or pointless turned out to be a fantastic engine to spur their growth.

Product focused

An axiom of the sales world is that you can’t sell a product you don’t understand. Since growth marketers are also salespeople and evangelists, the same rule applies. Your goal isn’t to trick people into buying something they don’t want, but rather to explain the many benefits of a valuable product that you think will help people.

Have a hacker mentality

A growth marketer must be a jack-of-all-trades. Every day you can create a video, optimize ad text, implement a new A/B test, or even code. The more and more varied your skills, the more value you can add to an organization (especially at an early stage).

Not afraid of failure

Successful growth marketers think a failed experience isn’t a bad thing. In fact, failure is the fastest way to gain valuable insights.

No growth marketer is clairvoyant. You have to be willing to try anything and everything to see what works. Eventually you will find things that are successful, then you will optimize them and continue the process.

Know how to tell a story

All the data in the world won’t help you figure out how to truly connect with your users. You need to be able to synthesize quantitative and qualitative information into a compelling story that resonates with your potential customers.

Take the case of TOMS. The brand growth team was able to effectively communicate that social good is a key part of their business.

Can juggle multiple responsibilities An effective growth marketer must be something of a contradiction.

He is obsessed with details but does not lose sight of the big picture. Results oriented but comfortable with ambiguity. He measures everything and trusts data, but also appreciates human intuition.

What types of companies hire growth marketers?

Many types of companies are building growth marketing teams, but most opportunities are found at established tech companies or emerging tech start-ups.

By looking at a sample of job postings from each company type, we can see the type of candidate each stage of the company is looking for.

First, let’s take a look at the responsibilities of an audience growth and digital marketing manager position at a large media company, Vice Media:

Now, take a look at the job posting from a much smaller and up-and-coming supplementation startup, Bulletproof 360, for the role of Director of Growth Marketing:

These growth marketing job descriptions have more similarities than differences. Both companies want candidates to have strategic skills and a passion for data analysis.

The main difference seems to be that the small business is looking for someone who can start and scale a project from scratch. The job posting suggests that you will have a little less resources, but probably a little more freedom. This is probably typical of any growth marketing role for a company that has yet to firmly establish itself as an industry leader.

Growth marketing or growth hacking?

Although the terms “Growth Marketing” and “Growth Hacking” are often used interchangeably, there are subtle differences between these roles in many companies.

Growth Hackers are more like expert consultants tasked with solving a specific problem, and solving it quickly. They are tasked, often with a small budget, with finding creative solutions to difficult problems. For a growth hacker, speed is everything and problems need to be solved yesterday.

Growth marketers tend to take a longer term approach. They need to strategize on how to scale many SaaS growth metrics in many different dimensions, and do so in a sustainable way.

Growth hacks can be compared to day-to-day stock trading. Sure, you can make money this way, but it’s not necessarily a stable, long-term source of income.

An effective growth marketing process distils the best attributes of growth hacking (namely, the desire to think outside the box to gain momentum) into a sustainable practice based on sound principles. In this sense, growth marketing is the opposite of day trading — it’s about investing for the long term based on data-driven metrics that are constantly optimized.

Important goals and metrics for a growth marketer

So what are the basic principles of growth marketing?

Goal: Drive traffic to your site

One of the main goals of any growth marketer is to increase the number of visitors. This can be done in different ways.

Organic traffic

These are users who come to your site after searching in a major search engine. In order to optimize organic traffic, you need to do everything that can help you rank high in search results. This includes sharing your quality content with other sites to build inbound links and produce content that has been carefully optimized for search engines.

An example of an organic growth hack is how Nerdwallet used an emotion overspend survey to drive organic traffic to their site and get other sites to include backlinks to the article. They managed to get links from The Simple Dollar, QuickenLoans, Yahoo and Fidelity.

Paid Traffic These are users who come to your site through your advertising channels. You want to control how much you spend, how many impressions your ads get, and CPA (cost per acquisition).

In recent times, more and more companies have experimented with native advertising, which involves placing non-traditional advertisements by giving the impression that they are more content-driven. Dollar Shave Club is the company to emulate when trying experiences in the native space, as it has leveraged this medium with great success.

Referral traffic This is all traffic that does not come from a major search engine. So it’s traffic from social media as well as any other sites that link to your content.

If you do it right, people will start sharing and talking about your content just because they are naturally inclined to do so. This is the definition of viral content. Tracking the volume and source of all referral traffic will help you optimize in this regard.

You can use competitor analysis to gain an edge, such as monitoring your competitors’ social media engagement spikes and trying to reverse their success.

Posting guest blog posts can also be a great way to build referral traffic.

On-Site Metrics Knowing what’s actually happening on your site is always critical. You want to know where your visitors come from, what actions they take, and how long they spend on the site. Another important number to monitor is your bounce rate, as this is a great indicator of how relevant your content or landing page is.

Goal: Get leads and improve conversion rate

All visitors in the world mean nothing if they are not converted into new users. Here are the key areas to optimize.

Conversion rate What is the overall conversion rate of people who come to your site by any means? You should pay special attention to pages that show significant drops compared to other parts of the site.

Hubspot experimented with different website templates and found one that doubled their overall conversion rate.

Landing page conversion rate What is the conversion rate of users who reach your main landing page? There are many ways to optimize this rate, including changing the text, design, and layout.

One area worth experimenting with is the title length of the content you display on a landing page. For example, short, punchy titles have been shown to generally perform better.

See how Doordash effectively entices drivers to sign up with the short, catchy headline “Bring home the bacon”.

Blog/Email Subscribers Are you producing engaging content that people want to read? This should be your first priority. For an example of a business blog that people really love and get a lot of value out of, check out SEO company Moz’s blog. This company builds long-running content that a lot of people would pay for, but Moz makes it available for free.

If you already create great content, then you want to make sure it gets the actions you want? You can tell by analyzing things like click-through rate, follower growth, and shares.

Switch from Free Trials to Paid Plans If you have a freemium product, you ultimately want to convert free trial users into paying customers.

A great example is how growth marketers at DocuSign leveraged tracking technology to expose certain premium features to a unique subset of users. Their testing let them know exactly what features to show off, and their experience resulted in a 5% increase in upgrade conversions.

Goal: build customer loyalty

Reduce Churn Rate Churn rate is the percentage of users who sign up for your service but then stop using it. This is an especially critical metric for SaaS companies in growth mode because churn is the arch-enemy of exponential growth. If you lose a significant portion of your customers, you simply won’t be able to reach the critical mass of users you need to start generating significant revenue.

Analyze every aspect of why users stop using the service and ruthlessly iterate to fill in the gaps. One area that might trip you up? The user interface. Make sure it’s smooth and seamless, otherwise users will walk away.

Increase average order value By tracking and analyzing user behavior, you can start targeting them in ways that will increase average order value. Areas to consider include bundling, targeting customers based on past behavior, and upselling.

Increase Lifetime Value Once you have a customer on board, how do you maximize the value you get from them? Strategies can include conducting user surveys to find new features people want, encouraging customers to switch to an annual billing cycle, or providing focused, quality customer service.

Objective: to create a brand

Once your business is reliable, trustworthy and provides a great user experience, you can leverage it to build a real brand. In other words, your name can become synonymous with quality in this particular sector.

It starts with building a quality corporate culture. Then, the brand-building process can be aided by a smart PR campaign, influencer marketing, positive word-of-mouth, and referral programs.

A toolkit for growth marketers

In order to grow with the best, you’ll want to take advantage of some of these fantastic services.

Leadpages — helps you create personalized landing pages.

Adroll: Track people who visit your site through ads.

Sumo: Build an Outstanding Email List

Ahrefs — the industry leader in building quality keyword lists.

Proof — Increases conversions by letting the customer make the sale.

Po.st — Find out who shares your articles.

Buzzsumo — Analyze in detail the content of any of your URLs.

Voila Norbert: Build relationships with important marketers with this email research tool.

Amplitude — helps you find the most interesting features.

Apptimize: test your mobile application in A/B.

How to get started in growth marketing?

Learn from the best growth marketers.

Here are a few thought leaders in the growth marketing world you should follow closely:

Brian Balfour, former VP of Growth at Hubspot, shares tons of insider information about growth marketing on his blog.

Danielle Morrill, former head of growth at Mattermark, is now a quick-witted venture capitalist blogging and diving into sales and marketing advice.

Neil Patel — His eponymous growth marketing site has millions of followers. He excels in his easy-to-read guides, like this one on writing a case study. Neil is a thought leader in SEO and content marketing, and he produces some of the best work in the industry.

Anum Hussain — Another Hubspot alumna, she’s getting her MBA from MIT and her growth marketing videos have had over a million views.

Companies recognized for the excellence of their growth marketing

Hubspot — This company is practically known in this field, with more than 40,000 satisfied customers. They provide tools for everything from blogging to marketing automation to lead management, and their long-form blog content is second to none.

Intercom — these are the masters of messaging, expertly using bots and live chat to engage users the moment they arrive on site. Like HubSpot, they’re happy to lay out their growth marketing strategies in a series of engaging manuals.

Proof — As industry leaders in using social proof to boost conversions, we’re proud to share our in-depth knowledge of this new space on our blog. Some of our favorite articles discuss the importance of social proof and new ways to maximize conversion rates.

Customer.io creates a blog with engaging content for all email junkies. They have great articles on growth email marketing strategies, including writing upgrade emails that convert.

Forums and communities to consult

GrowthHackers — This site is run by growth marketer du jour, Sean Ellis, and is a place to talk strategy, find new ideas, and look for work.

BAMF — The acronym stands for Bad Ass Marketers and Founders. As the name suggests, this is a place where enthusiastic growth marketers can chat, exchange information and support each other.

As long as you continue to learn, relentlessly test, and focus on telling a compelling story through data, you will succeed in growth marketing. Good luck ! .......... Originally published at https://medium.com/@amit-chauhan-ceo/what-is-growth-marketing-why-do-you-need-it-a-complete-guide-900d1871263d on November 26, 2022.

[notesaboutafarawayland]

Introduction to Iranian/Persian aesthetics part 1

Before we begin (feel free to skip this):

I used the terms Iranian and Persian to refer to the same thing (of greater Iran). Back in the day, the natives referred to the land with various names which later became Iran, while foreigners (mostly greeks) referred to them by the name of the ruling tribe of the achaemenid dynasty (Persian).

Just to clarify, this isn’t political, it’s just about aesthetics. I’m using greater Iran instead of individual countries or ethnicities due to cultural overlap and an abundance of shared culture and heritage. It’s very difficult to separate many of these aesthetics and associate them with only one country or ethnicity (or smaller region) and it would be quite unethical to do so; As such, I’ve put them all together. I also didn’t use the term Iranic because there are other non-Iranic ethnicities in the region who also share much culture and history with us so once again, it would be unethical to exclude them.

I’m not familiar with the modern aesthetics of various other countries though so I won’t include them.

Intro:

some of the aesthetics that are mentioned here will be purely aesthetics, not subcultures while others are more than just aesthetics but I wont be mentioning their other features. Some of these don’t have an official name so I’ll be putting a name to them to make referencing them easier.

This post will only focused on some of our historical aesthetics, modern and other historical ones will be explored in other posts.

Mirror/Pari 

This is purely an aesthetic and nothing else (most often found in films, dance videos, ... but also interior decoration and other forms of art). This aesthetic doesn’t have a name or if it does I’m not aware of it. I called it mirror aesthetic because it is greatly associated with the mirror art in our architecture. It has somewhat of an ethereal feeling to it so that’s why I thought pari also fits well.

Colour pallet: silver, white, shiny/sparkly pastels, turquoise, deep blue, light blue, purple, light pearl tones.

Fabrics and embellishments: light and flowy fabrics, satin, bead work, mirror embroidery, pearls and gems.

Gems: Opal (specifically white and blue), pearls, diamonds, turquoise, moon stone.

Other items and places: mirror halls, next to flowy curtains, white flowers, those old silver oil lamps with turquoise decorations, sometimes persian mina art.

image sources: iranian film- delshodegan, iranian film - hasan kachal, iranian series - sarbedaran, tajik film - roodaki, dance video - persian metaphysical dance, dance video - Iranian Dance Dances of Tribes of Greater Iran, dance video - Santur dance Dr. Lloyd Miller dastgah Segah.

19th Century Noble Lady

The aesthetics of this time period were naturally quite diverse as many different sub-cultures had aesthetics of their own and there were also differences based on occupation, socioeconomic status, ... however there were also some general similarities.

This particular aesthetic is associated with the affluent ladies who lived during the 19th century. This general style came about before the Ghajar dynasty and continued to develop during the Ghajar era but I’ve focused on it’s form during the end of the 19th century. The general style is what most city dwelling women in Iran wore at the time, however, it has some more expensive elements that was linked to the wealthy.

Colour pallet: various colours but usually decorated with a bit of gold and silver.

Fabrics and embellishments: termeh, silk, satin, velvet, sermeh-doozi, bead work, zar-doozi.

Clothing and appearance: square headscarves worn in a specific way, traditional clothing of the time, lots and lots of jewelry, typically unibrow and beauty marks, flowers in scarf.

Other aesthetic features: wooden furniture, stained glasses, carpets, horses and carriages, tea sets, ...

image source: TV series - “lady of the mansion”

Laat/Looti

This style is associated with the laat subculture. These were a gang-like groups that mostly existed in old and crowded neighborhoods in big cities and their purpose was usually to uphold traditional ethics, keep local cultures alive and stop chivalry and the likes from dying. They apparently go back to the 10th century and naturally their style and aesthetics (as well as their name, mannerisms, what they stood for, ... ) changed as time went on but this particular style is from their last days during the late Ghajar to Pahlavi eras (these aren’t the original Pahlavis who were Parthian warriors and who we get the name pahlavan (heroic warrior) from, the guy who established this dynasty, which was the last dynasty of Iran, didn’t have a clan or surname so he just copied the name of an ancient prestigious clan). 

When the central government was weak, these groups played a big role in establishing local safety and protecting weaker groups as well as standing up to dictators. They had a very strict code of conduct and principles that they abided by and they were often made up of lower working-class men who trained in ancient warrior methods and ethics (what we call ayin-e-pahlavani). They often had roles in overthrowing local governments, riots and rebellions. They often put a lot of emphasis on protecting the weak or disadvantaged and on friendship and brotherhood. Loyalty was extremely important to them and they treated each-other like family.

During the time that this aesthetic came about they really weren’t what they used to be. These concepts were still ingrained in the subculture but it was a far cry from its origin as they were overwhelmingly responsible for many of the crimes committed by the working-classes (and I’m not talking about crimes for helping people or overthrowing corruption), they were perpetually drunk and they often engaged in gang wars, they were mostly illiterate so they were very behind the times in many ways (remember the ethics they were upholding and see how that illiteracy factors into things) and basically they lost quite a bit of respect and the term came to take on a derogatory connotation.

I won’t get much into their history and nuances. Their style in these eras was influenced by European fashion (influenced may not be the right word here) as well as bazari styles with some garmabeh (traditional persian public baths) elements because during those times, they were one of the main groups of people who used garmabehs. They dressed quite differently before the Pahlavi era, however, many of their embellishments that set them apart have their roots in the late Ghajar era (western clothing was violently enforced and traditional clothing was legally banned in the 30s, the ghajar era ended in 1925). The original baba karam dance/skit that was done in urban weddings was also an expression of laati culture (the one that was done by men).

Element of this aesthetic include:

Stuff: kanjar and ghameh knives, tasbih (rosary), a piece of lowng (fabric used in public baths), sometimes ghelyoon.

Accessories: those big and fancy traditional rings, black hats, giant mustaches.

Clothes: oversized black suit with a white or black shirt or a big, black and rigid robe.

Other: old brick buildings, sometimes old ghahve khoones (traditional coffee houses), baazar corners and sometimes zurkhunes.  

Weaver 

This is an aesthetic that focuses on traditional rural professions that are related to hand-coloured yarn, things like carpet weaving and cloth weaving that are done in small rural villages. This includes:

Places: where yarn/cloth is made and coloured, in a rural cottage, right outside a rural cottage, in a traditional weaving workshop.

Stuff: colourful yarn, various traditional weaving equipment, carpet patterns.

Clothes: normal village women clothes (their work clothes) like the long floral skirts (usually with trousers worn underneath), the floral square headscarves, the long tunics on top of skirts, floral chadors, various forms of traditional embroidery, giveh shoes (the traditional ones not the modernized ones), ...

Astronomy/Astrology

This is the last aesthetic I’ll be mentioning today. This one isn’t only an Iranian aesthetic, it really belongs to the medieval muslim world but greater Iran was also an important part of that and this aesthetic pops up a lot here so I still included it.

Astronomy and astrology were often interlinked and people who practiced one often also practiced the other. This is an aesthetic that is centered around the astronomers of the medieval muslim world. It includes some general things from that time period such as islamic architecture and Moroccan lamps but if we were to get more specific, this aesthetics includes:

Things and places: Astronomical devices, observatories, the night sky, the astrological wheel, some elements of mysticism, geometry, mathematics, ...

The main colour pallet: gold and dark blue

Other related colours: red, orange, green, silver, light blue, purple, yellow

Clothing: turbans and clothing that astronomers (and other people) at that time wore.

link to part two.

[samwisethewitch]

Reconnecting with the Divine Feminine

I don’t think it’s groundbreaking or controversial at this point to say that all three Abrahamic religions are mostly patriarchal. Sure, we can talk about the veneration of the Virgin Mary, or the woman prophets in the Tanakh, or women saints in Islam. At the end of the day, though, we cannot overlook the fact that in Christianity, Judaism, and Islam, God is a man. Since 31% of the world’s population identify as Christian and 23% identify as Muslim, that means over half of the people on Earth are completely disconnected from the feminine side of divinity.

Ironically Judaism, Christianity, and Islam are among very few religions that don’t embrace a feminine aspect of divinity. Patriarchal religion is treated like the norm in most modern cultures (again, largely because of the dominance of Christianity and Islam), but it has definitely not been the norm throughout human history. The Goddess, the Divine Feminine, has been a prominent part of human spirituality since before recorded history.

In ancient Sumer she was Inanna, the Queen of Heaven. In Egypt she was Isis, Lady of the Sky, Great of Magic, and Hathor, Lady of the West, and Sekhmet, Mistress of Fear. In Hinduism she is Shakti, the feminine principle that moves the universe. In Japan she is Amaterasu, the Great Illuminating Deity, and Izanami, the creatrix who rules the underworld. The Divine Feminine has taken all of these forms at different times and places, among many, many others.

Even the Abrahamic religions haven’t always been solely focused on masculine divinity. There is significant evidence that the Abrahamic God was originally part of a larger pantheon before becoming the sole object of worship in Israel and Judah. As part of a polytheist system, he had a consort, a goddess named Asherah. Rabbinic literature refers to the divine presence of the Jewish God as “shekinah” — interestingly, this is a feminine word, implying that this aspect of God is feminine.

The removal of feminine divinity from Christianity largely occurred during the fourth century, when Roman Christianity beat out other traditions as the sole “correct” Church. Before this some Christian groups, notably those in North Africa, had worshiped God as both Father and Mother — a masculine/feminine dyad, rather than the masculine trinity worshiped in Rome. Other groups identified the Holy Spirit as feminine, creating a trinity of Father, Mother, and Son. (Interestingly, these family triads were also common in Egyptian paganism.) When the Nicene Creed was created in 325 to standardize Christian belief and practice, it excluded these interpretations by affirming belief only in “God, the Father Almighty” and “Jesus Christ, the Son of God” and removing all mentions of God the Mother.

All of this does not invalidate the genuine, life-changing spiritual experiences people have had with modern Judaism, Christianity, or Islam. It does, however, prove that patriarchal religion is the exception, not the rule.

Modern paganism’s acceptance and veneration of the Divine Feminine is a large part of its appeal for many converts, especially women, genderfluid, and nonbinary people who do not see themselves represented in the mythology and art of patriarchal religion. The Divine Feminine is present in all pagan religions, though She takes different forms in different faiths.

In monist pagan paths like Wicca, the polarity of Goddess and God is seen as one of the primary ways deity makes itself known to mankind. In the words of Scott Cunningham, one of Wicca’s most influential authors, “The Goddess and God are equal; neither is higher or more deserving of respect… The Goddess is the universal mother. She is the source of fertility, endless wisdom, and loving caresses… She is at once the unploughed field, the full harvest, and the dormant, frost-covered earth.”

The Goddess and the God balance and compliment each other, and this balance is at the core of many neopagan religions. (There are some traditions that exclusively worship the Goddess, but we’ll talk more about that in a future post.)

In polytheist paganism, the Divine Feminine is present in the form of various goddesses who rule over different aspects of life and nature. It is not uncommon for polytheist pagans (or monist pagans, for that matter) to work with multiple goddesses, even goddesses from different historical pantheons. Some goddesses are explicitly associated with certain aspects of womanhood — for example, the Greek goddess Artemis is associated with virgins and young girls, while Demeter is associated with motherhood.

In many (but not all) polytheist systems, there is an emphasis on balance between gods and goddesses. One of my favorite examples of this is the marriage of the Morrigan and the Dagda in Irish mythology. The Morrigan, goddess of war, magic, and death, is married to the “good god” of life, fertility, and knowledge. Their union represents a balance between opposite, complimentary forces.

This brings us to another point I want to make, while we’re on the subject of the Divine Feminine: not all feminine divinities are passive, maternal, fertility goddesses.

In Western culture, women (and, by extension, feminine deities) are seen as the passive or receptive sex. This is largely a product of Victorian England, not an ancient truth.

Without knowledge of sex chromosomes, hormones, or the complexities of gender, Victorian thinkers developed a theory that men had a “katabolic” nature that was constantly releasing energy, while women had an “anabolic” nature that was constantly receiving and storing up energy. This concept of gender greatly influenced Western occultism and can be seen, for example, in Gerald Gardener’s conception of the Goddess as the passive recipient of the God’s energy.

This is a relatively new and very Western idea. In Hinduism, for example, Shakti is both the feminine principle and the energy that moves the cosmos. In the words of author Kavitha Chinnaiyan, “there is nothing in creation that isn’t a manifestation of Shakti.” Shiva, the masculine principle, is unchanging awareness — it is Shakti who possesses the dynamic energy necessary for creation.

I am by no means encouraging pagans to appropriate Hindu concepts. My point here is that no gender is entirely active or entirely passive, which is why so many cultures interpret gender in so many different ways.

Even within systems like traditional Wicca, which operate within a strict gender binary, neither gender can be completely tied down. In their book A Witches’ Bible, traditional Wiccans Janet and Stewart Farrar acknowledge that the “masculine = active, feminine = passive” model is an oversimplification. They use the example of an artist and muse. The (feminine) muse “fertilizes” the (masculine) artist, who “gives birth” to the resulting art.

Personally, I see the masculine/feminine polarity as a constantly shifting dynamic, with both sides giving and receiving energy all the time. Which side of the polarity is more active or passive depends on the situation.

Being pagan does not mean dedicating yourself to the worship of gender binaries, and it does not mean you need to uphold those binaries. God and Goddess are only two of many possible expressions of the Divine, just like man and woman are only two of many possible gender expressions.

Monist pagans see the God and Goddess as two halves of a greater, all-gendered whole. Polytheist pagans may worship gods and goddesses who fall outside of the gender binary such as the Norse Loki or the Egyptian Atum. In either case, divinity is seen as encompassing all possible gender expressions, not just cis man and cis woman.

The erasure of the feminine from Western religion and mythology means that the nonbinary nature of some deities is often downplayed or erased completely. (You’d be hard pressed to find a mythology book that doesn’t use he/him pronouns for both Loki and Atum.) Reconnecting with the Divine Feminine opens the door for other divine expressions of gender.

The end result of this acceptance of feminine and nonbinary divinity is a religious community built on equality between all gender expressions. No one is closer to the gods because of the anatomy they were born with or the gender they present as.

This paves the way for a religion where no one’s worship is restricted because of their gender expression. It allows for priests, priestesses, and priestixes. It allows everyone to fully participate in the rites of their faith, on equal footing regardless of gender or pronouns. It also creates an environment where practitioners feel comfortable exploring issues of gender and sexuality, knowing that they will not lose the support of their community if their identity changes.

Resources:

The Gnostic Gospels by Elaine Pagels

Wicca: A Guide for the Solitary Practitioner by Scott Cunningham

The Morrigan and The Dagda by Morgan Daimler

“Victorian Theories of Sex and Sexuality” by Elizabeth Lee, Brown University

Shakti Rising by Kavitha M. Chinnaiyan, M.D.

A Witches’ Bible by Janet and Stewart Farrar

Casting a Queer Circle: Non-binary Witchcraft by Thista Minai

[bedbellyandbeyond]

Only Vampires

(Story Post)

Nari wasn't sure why he trusted these two vampires, but he wanted to know what they knew and so he followed them to their home. They didn't live more than a block north of where the library stood. They must've lived there a long time to afford such a big house, but then again, he had no idea what the housing market was like here. Either way, any active and diligent vamp over 100 years old could secure themself considerable wealth if they tried. Nari himself hadn't focused on capital during the majority of his life though, but he still did well for himself. The front doors of the house were very big, with stained glass windows, but Wesley and Everett took him around to the back door which was average sized and let no light in. This wasn't an issue right now as it was an hour to midnight, but he guessed that any daytime travel came through here, so they'd grown accustomed to it.

Inside was a small mudroom with another door at the other end. Nari waited for Everett to take off his shoes before he removed his own because wasn't sure what the traditions were in this country, but he was only further confused when Wesley took his shoes off but Everett kept them on. “Um, shoes on or off?” Nari had to ask. Wesley wacked Everett's leg with his loafer. “Shoes off, please.” Nari was relieved and did as told. “Alright.” “I'm not sure why we adopted that,” Everett said, reluctantly removing his footwear and then promptly putting on a pair of slippers. “My family always wore their shoes inside, his family wore shoes inside… Not to mention, it doesn't matter at all what Wesley wears.” “It's for our housemates,” Wesley said. “We have several housemates from across the world, you'll find Nari. The general consensus has been shoes off. We do our best to be accommodating.” He then proceeded to pull out a set of wheel slippers and socks and maneuvered them onto his chair. Nari thought for a second and then raised a hand. “I hope you don't think I need somewhere to stay. I'm well established.” “No, no,” Wesley said. “We just like to help anyone when it comes to library matters. As you may have noticed, it is not very accessible to all vamps of all shapes, abilities, and colours. We like to help anyone find the knowledge they need.” Nari nodded. “I see. So you steal the books for them.” “I told you, we borrow them,” Everett said as he led them through to the main hall. “Evie does think of himself as a modern-day Robin Hood of Knowledge, though,” Wesley said. The main hall was a lot more modern than Nari expected for a house apparently full of vampires. It was open concept with a lovely kitchen with granite counter tops. Further on was the living room and stairs, both up to the next floor and down to the basement. An elevator had also been installed beside the stairs for easier access to all floors. Nari’s hosts took him down to the basement, which was set up as a games room and study. There was pool, and darts, and even a pinball machine on one side. Some lounge chairs, a sofa, and a set of bookshelves on the other. There, they found another pair of vampires, one with her nose in a book, the other passed out on the couch, an open book on his chest. “Ah, glad some of you are here,” Wesley said going over to the reading nook. “Inaya, please meet Nari. We met him at the library.” The conscious vampire got up and smiled. She wore a hijab and had big round eyes framed with detailed eyeliner. She offered a hand to Nari. “Nice to meet you. Are you looking at a room?” “No, no, I’m just getting a little extra help with my research,” Nari said shaking her hand. “It’s nice to meet you. I’ve never met, well, a vampire like you.” “A hijabi vampire?” Inaya chuckled. “Me neither. That’s why I’m here.” “To find more?” Nari asked. “No, to learn about being a vampire,” Inaya said. “I didn’t know anything about them really until I was turned, and I didn’t have any other vampires around to teach me. Figuring out how to be a vampire and muslim at the same time is difficult. Blood is haram, you see.” “Ah.” Nari nodded. “Have the books been helpful?” “Some, yes. Wesley seems to know how to find me good reads,” Inaya said. “I’ve tried entering the library on my own, but it’s always been a hassle. They always find some excuse not to let us in.” “I understand,” Nari said rollimg his eyes. “It's a different excuse each time.” Everett went over and kicked the end of the couch to wake its occupant. “Rise, Jeremiah! Meet our guest!” Wesley frowned. “Evie, let the boy sleep. He's probably been studying tirelessly, the poor kid.” It was too later however and the sleepy vampire stirred and sat up, rubbing his eyes. The book he had been reading fell off his chest and onto the floor. The bang made him curse and scramble to pick it up. “Shit, it better not be busted… These old ass books…” “Language, Jeremiah. You know the rules,” Everett scolded. “Shit, sorry, Ev,” the vampire huffed. “Not my fault you woke me up.” “I have half the mind to discipline you,” Everett said, crossing his arms. “Yeah, that’ll look good, you pasty old Brit beating my black ass…” the young vampire mocked. He noticed Nari. “Who’s this little mosquito?” Wesley put a hand on Nari's shoulder. “This is Nari. We're helping him in his research.” The other got up and offered a hand to the newcomer. “It's Jez, but these old farts insist on calling me by my whole name like they're my damn mother or something.” Everett huffed. “Seriously, if you don't straighten out your language, I'll—” “The entire concept of vulgar language is inherently racist,” Jez interrupted, his entire diction changing just to prove a point to old Everett. “My use of swearing is not abusive, but instead cathartic, emphatic and idiomatic, forms of swearing that are not meant to offend anyone. For you to tell me what words I can and cannot say is a blatant form of oppression and reduces my abilities to cope with pain or misfortune.” Everett frowned, his lips pursed. “Fine. But could you tone it down just a bit?” “No.” Wesley came up behind Everett and patted his back. “Relax. We're all adults. Anyway, where's Paolo?” “He's in his room,” Inaya said. “Probably working.” “Ah, okay. Nari can meet him later,” Wesley said approaching the coffee table. From out of nowhere, he pulled out a book and offered it to Inaya. “I found an Arabic tome with stories from Turkey in it. I’m hoping it might help you.” “Oh! Maybe!” Inaya took the book gratefully. “I appreciate it, Wes!” “Where did you pull that book from?” Nari asked, a bit dumbfounded. “The library?” Wesley said, a little confused by the question. “No, I mean… I didn't notice it on your person before,” Nari said. “Oh! It's pocket magic,” Wesley said. “Easier than carrying them around.” “Pocket magic is some real basic level shit,” Jez said, eyeing Nari. “If you don't know that, what abilities do you have?” Nari shook his head. “…I never learned vampire magic. Well, except a blood purifying spell I found the other day.” Everett placed his hands on Nari's shoulders. “Oh dear, so you've just been going about your life with all the cons and none of the pros to the whole vampire thing? Sounds miserable!” Nari frowned. “I didn't know I could learn any of it…” “You absolutely can!” Everett said. “We will show you the basics.” “Honestly, it's fine…” Nari said. “I don't plan on sticking around long, and my partner has enough magic for the both of us…” “Your partner knows magic but you didn't know you could learn it?” Inaya asked. “They didn't try to teach you?” “He’s not a vampire,” Nari said. “He doesn't know what I'm capable of doing as one.” “What is he, then?” Jez asked. “A dragon?” “No, he's a wizard,” Nari said. “A wizard?” Wesley inquired, his voice a little concerned. “Like, a human wizard?” “Uh, yes,” Nari said. “The magic isn't the same, though he's convinced he can learn vampire stuff…” Everett started shaking his head. “Do you always engage in romantic relationships with humans?” “Yes.” Nari frowned, reading the negative energy coming from his acquaintances. “You say that like it's bad. Are you going to tell me we're not supposed to do that? It's taboo or something?” “No, it's fine! I mean…” Everett put his hands on Wesley's shoulders. “He was unturned when I fell for him…” “But we weren't trying to reproduce, that’s for sure,” Wesley said. He placed a hand on Nari’s arm. “It’s no wonder you’ve been having trouble… You can't have children with humans. It never works.” Nari clenched his jaw. “That's not…My information came to a 1-in-8 chance that a vampire can complete live birth.” “It's more complicated than that,” Everett said, pulling out one of the books be grabbed. “It's likely the one successful time out of eight, their partner was another vampire. The odds are much better with two vampires. Like, 1-in-3.” He opened to a page that displayed a large family tree on it. “Any time in history that a vampire successfully completed a pregnancy, both parents were vampires. Any pairings with children from one unturned and a vampire were from before the vampiric parent had turned. Or, there has also been the occasional time a vampire sired a child with an unturned person, but it is rarer.” Nari frowned and sat down on the couch. “But…I… Isn’t there any magic that can help?” Wesley shook his head. “Not that we've found. Your best bet is to try with a vampire.” “But I don't want a child from someone else…” Nari said. “I want one with Diederich.” “I'm surprised you even date unturned,” Jez commented. “It's sad stuff watching humans grow old and die all the time…” “Diederich isn't just any human, he's immortal too,” Nari said. “He knows really powerful skills and spells.” Jez rolled his eyes. “So, easy fix. Just turn him.” Nari shook his head. “No, I can't do that.” “I could teach you,” Everett said. “Or I could do it.” Nari glared. “No, I don't want to turn him. I wouldn't do that to someone.” Everett sighed. “Nari, I don't know what to tell you. Your goal is to have a baby with your partner. Both of you need to be vampires for that to happen. That's all there is. We don't have any other advice.” Nari looked down at his hands, his eyes brimming with tears. “So, all those times I tried… Complete waste of time...” Wesley rubbed Nari’s shoulder. “You didn't know…” He looked to Everett. “Would you give us a moment? All of you.” “Of course, love,” Everett said, kissing Wesley on the forehead. “Come along now, children.” “We are not your kids,” Jez groaned as he got up reluctantly and followed Inaya and Everett upstairs. Once they were alone, Wesley sighed and rubbed Nari's arm. “Before you turned, did you have any children?” Nari slowly and sniffled. “Yes… My son, Tae-seok. He was just a baby when I turned…” “Is he alive?” Wesley asked. “No… He passed away around the turn of the millennia…” Wesley sighed. “When did you start trying for another baby?” “We tried for several years when Tae-seok was young… But his father, Eun-young, died in a factory accident when Tae-seok was still a child. I didn't try again until well after my son passed away too.” “With your current partner?” Wesley asked. Nari shook his head. “No, my previous relationship. It was an accident… But I wanted it to work out. I had a little hope.” “I'm really sorry, Nari,” Wesley said. “It must be difficult to hear about the circumstances of your pursuit… And I'm sorry about Evie. He thinks turning people will always fix everything. It doesn't.” “But he's right though… If Diederich were a vampire, we'd have a much better chance,” Nari said spreading his hands. “If he were turned, we could try…” Wesley shook his head. “I can tell, you don't want to do that. It sounds like your experience with being a vampire has been more negative than positive and you don't want to subject someone else to that.” “I don't. Diederich is… He’s so lovely, and he's happy…” Nari said. “I don't want to take that from him.” “I understand. It isn’t easy. I don't always love being a vampire either… And I certainly wouldn't make that decision for someone else,” Wesley said. “You do realise that if you did manage to give birth to a baby, you'd be choosing a life as a vampire for them too?” Nari blinked. “Yes, but… I…” He paused. “…With Diederich, since he's unturned, I thought that they might not be…” “Well, even if you could reproduce with a normal human being, you’re a vampire. Your kids would be vampires.” Nari grit his teeth. “…I guess I just…you know, if I could have a baby again, I didn't care what they were… But now just saying it, that’s sounds so incredibly selfish… To subject my own child to the exact same curse I've suffered for their entire life…” Wesley rubbed Nari's knee. “I think you need to think about your situation and talk to your partner. Really work out what path makes the most sense for both of you, and any possible children in the mix. What's best for everyone is what is important.” Nari nodded slowly. “Yes… I just want to be with Diederich… I should go…” Wesley checked his watch. “Where are you staying? Evie can drive you over.” “It's okay, I can walk…” “No way, this time of night, any drunk vampires tumbling out of a bar will want to pick a fight, and while I'm not saying you can't hold your own, you don't know much magic and vampires around the library know their stuff.” Nari sighed and told Wesley his hotel. “I do appreciate you guys trying to help me… You’re honestly the nicest vampires I've ever met.” “Aw, it's nothing,” Wesley said going to the elevator. “Each of us understands the difficulty of being accepted in the vampire world. But we've been very lucky and those who have should give.” “So, is this sort of a boarding house for vampires using the library?” Nari asked. “Sort of… We keep the rent super cheap though because the house was paid off many, many years ago. Our housemates just split utilities. Evie and I cover the taxes and insurance.” Wesley smiled. “If you ever need somewhere to stay, we'll be here. First month is free for long term. Of course, we won't charge you if you just want to come over and visit.” Nari nodded. “That's more than generous, thank you.” They rode the elevator together and met with Everett at the back of the house. “Good talk?” Everett asked, spinning his car keys. “Yes, I think so,” Wesley said. “Inaya and Jeremiah are back in their rooms, then?” “Yeah.” Everett unlocked the door. “Alright, Nari. We won't keep you any longer than you'd like. Wes said you needed a ride, yes? Come along.” Nari blinked. “When did he tell you?” “Come on, now.” Everett placed his hands on his hips. “You really do need a rundown on basic magic. You could teach toddlers mind connection.” “I really don't know anything, then…” Nari frowned following him out. Wesley waved as they left. “Hope to see you soon!” Nari waved again before going to the garage with Everett. “You should consider coming back tomorrow night,” Everett said, unlocking the car. “Jeremiah will teach you everything you need to know.” “I might take him up on that. At least I'll have gotten something out of this trip.” “Well, there you go. Nothing ventured, nothing gained.” “Hm… Yes, I suppose.” “Oh, and you still have to meet Paolo! He’s Asian like you too! Wouldn’t guess from his name though, would you?” “You really don’t think before you speak, do you?” “Hey, respect your elders.” “Sorry, grandpa.”

[petri808]

We’ll Take Back Heaven a Nalu Yakuza Au

1 | 2

—

The moment Lucy left the room, Natsu simply turned and gave a silent look to his lieutenant Gray who nodded back in acknowledgment and left with one of the men. He sat back in his chair, fingers steepled below his chin in thought. Could it really be one of his own men? Some of the lower level guys didn’t always follow the rules, but it was rare for them to utterly disregard them! Oh! That really pissed him off, because they knew better then to test Natsu’s patience. There’s a damn good reason he was able to create such a lucrative gang in the heart of Tokyo when so many others would kill for it. By the age of 21, his father retired and left the position of Oyabun leader to Natsu. But, Natsu wasn’t satisfied with the old way of doing things. This was the 21st century and times must change.

It was well known that the Yakuza traversed a dangerous underworld full of illegalities. Drugs, prostitution, gambling, shake downs and extortion, theft, or in other words the seedier side of society. So that is where Natsu focused his attention. Some of the very first of the changes were to reign in unauthorized violence or any crimes that utilized it. Such a move sent a utter shockwave through the order and those that refused to let go of the old ways were swiftly eliminated to instill an image of power and fear that Natsu Dragneel was not to be messed with. His logic behind the move was simple. Do not do anything that brings attention to the gang and attacking someone on the street for a few yen is a quick way for the authorities to show up. So, in a way, Natsu was lucky it happened to be one of Lucy’s employees and not a random person, because they would have immediately called the police. Though it also brought up another question. Were there other crimes he just hadn’t heard of yet?

“Well, she’s still as feisty as ever, gihi.” Gajeel broke the silence of the room when he returned. “Could’ve cut the sexual tension with a sword.”

Natsu crossed his arms in feigned annoyance. If it were any other underling, they would have received a harsher response, but Gajeel was one of his oldest and trusted friends. “Pfft. I don’t know what you’re talking about. She’s a rival, that’s it. You know that.”

“Mmhmm.” Gajeel snickered. “So, now what?”

“Gray started working on finding who it was. I want you to call your contacts at police and see if they’ve had any reports of recent robberies in the area, and if there were, any details we can use to figure out who it might be.”

“Can do boss. Anything else?”

“You think it could one of our own?”

Gajeel looked up for a couple of minutes as if he were running their personnel through his mind. Finally, he rubbed his chin. “There’s a couple of newbies, a bit young and dumb that might be stupid enough to break the rules. I’ll call my contacts first before helping Gray press the men for info. Someone’s gotta know something.”

“Good. You do that and let me know as soon as you get a lead. I want this dealt with as quickly as possible.”

“Gotcha.”

Between Natsu’s two lieutenants and their best men, they interviewed all of the most likely suspects. Gajeel’s police informant let him know that there were a couple other robberies that sounded similar a few blocks away from where Lucy’s employee and client had been accosted. He also learned those two victims gave a similar description of the robber. With the new information, along with other snitches, they narrowed it down within a few days to a low-level street guy in the organization. But unlike Gajeel’s initial hunch, it wasn’t one of the newbies. Instead, the male had been with them for a couple of years now and never caused any problems. In fact, the guy fashioned himself as a smooth talking ladies’ man who supposedly disliked violence. So, it was a bit surprising it was one of the ones they’d least expected.

Gajeel and his men found the man named Bora Prominence laying low at his girlfriend’s apartment after he’d heard the gang was looking for him. Not the smartest move. The woman gave him up without a fight, fearing the Yakuza more than her boyfriend. So, once she’d let them inside, they quickly found Bora hiding in the bathroom and dragged him out.

“It wasn’t me!” Bora screamed as the men beat him to the floor. “You got no proof I did shit!”

Gajeel planted his foot into the small of the man’s back and held him down. “Two of the witnesses saw the tattoo on your face. That’s enough evidence for us.” He growled. “You knew the code and what would happen if you broke it, so stop being a bitch.”

But Bora continued to resist the four men, pushing off the floor with his arms unsuccessfully against Gajeel’s massive weight or fending off kicks from the others. They pummeled him with fists and kicks over and over until one clear blow finally knocked him unconscious long enough to be tied up. Despite a heavy beating bad enough to leave him bruised and bloodied, he continued to scream about his innocence. Back at headquarters, they dragged him into Natsu’s office with hands bound behind his back and forced him onto his knees.

The room held Natsu sitting at his desk, along with both lieutenants, four of their men keeping Bora restrained, and lastly Lucy with the victim to Natsu’s right side. He had contacted her as soon as he knew the suspect was being brought in. And thought they were pretty certain of guilt, the woman’s immediate reaction when they’d brought Bora in of cringing back and moving closer to her boss spoke volumes.

“Is that him?” Natsu questioned to gain a verbal confirmation.

“Y-Yeah,” the woman squeaked out. “He’s the one who pushed me down and robbed us.”

Natsu’s eyes stayed narrowed and glaring at Bora as he addressed the women. “Thank you, that’ll be all. Heartfilia you both can leave now I’ll handle things from here.”

“You’re a doll,” Lucy giggled and gave Natsu a quick teasing peck on the cheek before ushering her employee away. They’d done what they needed to do, now it was his job to finish it.

“Tch, so that’s what this is all about.” Bora sneered, spitting out a clot of blood. “Cause that bitch got you all worked up over a measly few bucks?”

“Watch it!” Natsu roared. “It ain’t a good idea to piss me off anymore then I already am!” There was a fire burning behind Natsu’s stare because when he looked at this man Bora, he doesn’t see the crimes themselves, but the disobedient threat he posed to their organization. How dare this selfish ignorant punk threaten everything they’ve worked hard to build! And to accuse him of weakness in doing Lucy’s bidding just sealed the man’s fate.

Bora snapped back defiantly, though the crack in his tone gave away the fear brewing beneath. “What does it matter, I know what awaits me.”

“You’re right.” Natsu relaxed back into his chair once he sensed the man’s inevitable compliance. “You knew the consequences for crossing me. What does it matter if my rival is also benefiting in this way? Because I know there are other victims. Dumbass, how do you think we linked you to all this? Those other victims reported it to the police! Which is exactly why I have the rules I have in place! You put all of us in jeopardy by pulling this kind of stupid low level bullshit!”

“Pfft, you act like we’re saints. If the cops really wanted to, they’d look into the other illegal shit we do regardless.”

“No, it’s you who fails to recognize there is a hierarchy to the kinds of crimes that bring heat on us. Drugs? Prostitution? The cops don’t care as much, but assault? Robbing people, murders, now those are things they will pay attention to, and I will not tolerate it!” Natsu sat forward with a malevolent grin. “Welcome to the modern Yakuza.”

Drugs and prostitution were a part of the gangs dealings, but the bigger scheme was in shaking down the local business owners for protection money. Thing is, Natsu’s gang actually did the protection part causing crimes in that area for customers or businesses to drop down to nearly zero. So, while the business owners weren’t thrilled to cut a portion of their profits, they also appreciated not having to worry about security. That and because of the gangs connections, they had pipelines of cheaper priced products which helped to keep their costs down. This more symbiotic relationship is why they didn’t go to the authorities and why the gang could hold such a control over the area. Making sure the areas streets were protected from violent crime is a testament to the gangs power and would insure that these businesses stayed compliant.

“Tch.” Bora retorted. “You’re just young and dumb. Eventually you’ll realize there’s a reason why things were done a certain way in the old days.”

“Maybe, maybe not, but your days of worrying about it are over.” Natsu motioned to Gajeel. “I’m done. Get him out of my face.”

Gajeel then motioned to his men to haul Bora to his feet and drag him away to an unknown destination never to be seen from again. Cliche as it may sound, even in killing off a problem like Bora, Natsu’s gang didn’t follow tradition. Bora would be held as a prisoner until his wounds healed then his death made to look like just another suicide statistic. In the seven years that Natsu has reigned, not one murder had been laid at their doorstep and he intended to keep it that way.

Now that the Bora business was over, Natsu closed his eyes and fully relaxed into his chair with a sigh. He didn’t exactly enjoy playing the tough guy bit and only did it out of necessity. This was a life his father groomed him for since birth, but he’d love nothing more than to just settle down with a wife and start a family of his own. Not that he couldn’t already do so, but that required finding the right woman to settle down with and no one other than his old flame has ever evoked I’m him more than a passing glance.

He didn’t know how long he’d been relaxing when there was a knock on his office door. “Yeah? Come in.”

“Sorry to disturb you,” the man spoke as he quietly entered the room. Invel Yura was Natsu’s Saiko-kamon, the top advisor and managed the administrative side of the organization. “I wanted to go over your schedule for tomorrow in case I need to make any changes.”

“It’s fine.” Natsu gestured to the chair fronting the desk. Invel had been the advisor to his father for the last few years of his tenure and he fully trusted the man’s diligence.

Invel sat down and opened up a calendar. “Tomorrow morning, we have a new shipment of prescription drugs coming in as well as some ecstasy, so you’ll need to appoint someone to oversee inventory processing.”

“Hmm, who should I have work on this?” Natsu asked for Invel’s opinion.

“Might I suggest Rajeel Ramal? He’s gruff but meticulous and has done a good job so far.”

“Is that so? Then that’s fine, let him continue. What’s next?”

“Okay,” Invel scribbled the orders in his book. “Next, the only other thing you have is a party to attend with one of our high end clients.”

“Which one?”

“The son of Yuuji Katsunuma of Katsunuma industries.”

“Ah yes, the one we supply with cocaine. Such a spoiled brat, but he spends a lot with us.”

Invel chuckled. “That’s the one. It starts at 8pm.”

“Okay. Thank you, Invel. Is that all for now?”

“Yes. If anything, else comes up I will let you know.”

“I’m sure you will. Oh. Have an appropriate suit pressed and ready for me for the occasion.”

“Very well, sir. Is there anything else you need from me?”

“No. You may go.”

Invel nodded and returned to his own office. He made a few typical phone calls such as to Natsu’s house staff regarding an evening outfit and the transporters bringing the morning inventory to make sure everything was on schedule. Aside from the Bora issue, the going’s-on of business continued as normal. The final call he placed before he’d leave for lunch was to Rajeel of a simple a five word instruction. Nothing more needed to be said, knowing that his associate would understand. Invel sat back in his chair with a smile. “It’s almost too easy…”

[with-my-murder-flute]

Initial sketch notes of my historical research on Islamic experiences of the Siege of Jerusalem during the First Crusade, posted August 6, 2020.  This is the long version of “Why might Yusuf al-Kaysani, who is from the Maghreb, have been fighting at Jerusalem in 1099?”

Trigger Warning: Graphic violence, slavery, and genocide

Notes taken from reading Paul M. Cobb’s The Race for Paradise: An Isamic History of the Crusades and supplemented by Dr. Google. I’m reading Cobb’s book partly because it’s on audiobook (though it is a fricking Audible Exclusive) and partly because it’s written for Western non-Muslim audiences, which helps get me up to speed.

The Old Guard Through History video says Joe and Nicky met during the Siege of Jerusalem in 1099, so I’ve focused most of my research on that.

Historians generally agree that in the 11th century the Islamic* world did not have a “Muslims vs Christians” worldview like the one Christians were beginning to develop. Their experience led them to expect Christians to be allies as often as enemies. Around the 1060s Christians began a new paradigm of religious war against Muslims, which Muslims didn’t really realize at the time--they responded to times when Christians would choose religious affiliation over clear strategic gain as shocking and bizarre, a departure from the status quo

(*Islamic: Society predominantly defined by Muslim rule and culture, but containing people of many different religions)

The Islamic response to the First Crusade was decentralized and diverse. There were a lot of different groups in the Levant*, many of whom had deep divisions, rivalries, and feuds. They mostly saw the Crusaders as a new factor that might affect their existing rivalries with other Islamic states, and were used to being able to broker deals or treaties with Christian groups to turn local warfare to their advantage.

(*Levant: A term used to describe countries in the Eastern Mediterranean, especially those with traditional religious significance to the Abrahamic religions - modern-day Israel, Palestine, Jordan, Syria, Lebanon, and parts of Egypt and Turkey. Comes from the French word for “rising”, in the sense of “where the sun rises”)

Additional term I’m going to be using a lot: “Frank”. It’s the Islamic term for, basically, “Western European” (of both the pagan and Roman Catholic varieties). It’s easier than saying “the Roman Catholics” or “The Crusaders” (which is putting a later cultural construct on people who didn’t call themselves that)

The biggest division of Islamic society in this area is, roughly, the Seljuq Turks and the Fatimid Caliphate. 

In the year 1000, the Fatimids were riding high: They ruled Egypt and North Africa stretching across to the Atlantic, much of the Levant, the island of Sicily, and bits of the Arabian Peninsula around the Red Sea. 

Then in the mid-11th century the Seljuqs came BLASTING OUTTA NOWHERE like holy shit calm your jets and conquered a lot of Fatimid and Byzantine territory (we’re talking the yellow parts of the map, they’ll destroy the Byzantines entirely later)

In addition to losing land to the Seljuqs, the Fatimids also lost Sicily to the Normans (who don’t even GO THERE but anyway), and North Africa through?? Independence movements?? Sheer carelessness??? I’m not quite certain.

The Seljuqs were Sunni, the Fatimids were Shi’ite, I... am not gonna try to explain that whole thing. Here’s a video.

(Small note for Yusuf character reasons: A big motivation behind the move of Ifriqiya [modern Tunisia and parts of Algieria and Libya] out of Fatimid control was that most of their populations were also Sunni)

So the Franks left Constantinople and travelled through what is now Turkey but was at the time the Byzantine Empire, and then moved into Seljuq lands. Most of the fighting in the First Crusade was against Seljuqs--mostly against tribes who fought for themselves, I think? Although in Damascus (which was a huge city the Franks just breezed by in favour of historically significant ghost towns) there was a general jihad preached like “Hey somebody should do something about all these Europeans”, so some of the people fighting were like... random people from Damascus.

While the Seljuqs were distracted, the Fatimids thought they could win some land back from THOSE UPSTARTS, so they snuck in and grabbed Jerusalem.  As Peter Konieczny reports, there are scholars who think the Fatimids thought, partly because they had a lot of experience ruling Egypt’s Coptic Christian population, that they could reach a mutually satisfactory alliance with the Franks, especially since it seemed like most of the Franks didn’t intend to settle in the area, but return to Europe once they ensured pilgrim access to Jerusalem, which had mostly been hindered by banditry in Seljuq-controlled areas. 

When I read stuff just generally about the Fatimid army, it’s described as being composed of two groups:

Berber tribesmen (Kutama and Sanhaja) (I’m struggling to find more info about them)

Mamluks, who are... a cross between slaves and mercenaries? Basically, they were captives from non-Muslim territory (in the Fatimids’ case, mostly Circassia in central Asia) who were brought to Muslim lands and trained as soldiers, but once active as soldiers, were paid and hired by different groups, able to achieve freedom, often gained important government posts, and occasionally toppled the government they served and ruled the roost.

This next bit is based on fairly standard histories of the Siege of Jerusalem that rely a lot on Western sources, like this article by Michael D. Hull and this article by Michael Cartwright. Which... have to be taken with a grain of salt, because medieval military histories don’t tend to line up super well with archaeology or plain logistics. Generally, it isn’t wise to take medieval European sources at their word when they say “the army had 10,000 people” or “they killed every last person”. They’re often written after the fact and with clear biases, and, when it comes to the Crusades, with an imperfect understanding of the culture they’re describing. I’d like to have better sources, but this is where I’m starting from, especially since I have limited access to academic sources during the summer.

So, the standard history says that Jerusalem was taken in 1098 by  Emir  al-Afdal Shahinshah, but by 1099, governor Iftikhar al-Daula was in command of the defenses. and that he had a “garrison of Arab cavalry and Sudanese archers.” Cartwright reports it as “perhaps several thousand infantry and an elite cavalry corps of 400 Egyptians.” I currently have no way of knowing which of these troops were Mamluks and which weren’t.

According to Hull, when the Fatimids in Jerusalem realized they would have to face a siege, they expelled all Christians of any denomination from the city, as well as all Jews “except for those of a sect for whom it was mandatory to reside in the Holy City”. Cartwright reports it as “...all Christians were kicked out if the city. In contrast, the Jewish population were allowed to stay”. Cartwright reports that Jerusalem’s population, 70,000 at the beginning of the year, was lowered to 30,000 by the expulsions (though some people were also coming into the city to take refuge from the oncoming Frankish army). Additional preparations included poisoning wells outside of Jerusalem to deny the Frankish army water, and emptying the land around the city of livestock and people. 

The Fatimids were also expecting the arrival of an army marching north from Egypt to help them out relatively soon, which explains why their strategy was mostly “hunker down and wait” with very limited attacks outside the city.

The Franks came southward down the coast to Jaffa, where they took the nearest port to Jerusalem, and then approached the city.

June 7, 1099: The Frankish army shows up at Jerusalem with about 15,000 people total and less than 1,500 armed knights. They split into two camps, one attacking from the south, one from the north. They were in rough shape and didn’t have any siege weapons, so the Fatimid defenders were able to sit up on the walls, taunt them, and shoot arrows. They enlivened the tedium by sending cavalry units outside the walls to harass Franks who were scavenging for food and water.

June 13, 1099: Some Franks on the north side of the city managed to scrabble together siege ladders and try to climb up and assault the walls; they were repelled pretty easily by the defenders.

June 17, 1099: English and Genoese ships land at Jaffa, carrying siege equipment and fresh supplies. Hull reports that the Fatimids dispatched troops, 400 Arabs and 200 Turks, to attack the supply chain between Jaffa and Jerusalem; Hull reports that the Franks only lost 5 of the force of maybe 150-200 knights, and “all of the archers” (about 50?)

It takes about three weeks to transport the supplies to Jerusalem and for the siege towers to be built; the Genoese played an especially large role in building the siege equipment, and their chief engineer is named as  William Embriaco.

On July 10 the siege engines were finished and wheeled to the walls. That night everyone inside the city and out sat over campfires, showing each other pictures of their families and trying to humanize themselves for the audience to make their impending deaths more impactful

(I kid)

(mostly)

June 13-15: Almost continuous fighting between the Franks, who are trying to move their siege engines close enough to make it onto the walls of Jerusalem, and the Fatimid defenders, who were trying to fight them off and burn their towers down. 

June 15: The Franks breach the walls and begin pouring inside, killing and looting its inhabitants. There is well-documented destruction of Muslim and Jewish holy places, where Muslims and Jews fled for refuge and were killed. This part is. Sickening. Tens of thousands of people dead; the streets running with blood. 

The Fatimid governor and various others (possibly the remainders of the army? Possibly important citizens? Some Jews appear to be in this group?) took refuge in the Tower of David, and were able to negotiate to leave Jerusalem safely. The Fatimid soldiers who left the city that way joined the advancing Fatimid army at Ascalon, southwest of Jerusalem.

It’s unclear who the survivors were--the sources mention people left aside being made into slaves, being allowed to leave the city, or being ransomed by rich relatives outside the city. The fact that we have Jewish and Muslim accounts of what happened during this time means there were survivors

But let’s face it: The survivors were the minority. The majority of people, thousands of them, were slaughtered by the Franks as they took over the city.

Epilogue: The Fatimids tried to take Jerusalem back a month later, and failed. Jerusalem was in Crusader hands.

It’s taken me three days to write this up and I’m ending it feeling really blah and drained by the enormity of this shit. I... 

The Race for Paradise has this bit that talks about two Western ways of talking about the Crusades: 

The Traditional paradigm, where this was a great moment for Christianity, whew we kicked those guys’ BUTTS!

The Lachrymose (Latin for “full of tears”) paradigm, coming to popularity since the Enlightenment, where this was horrific mass slaughter caused by religious zealotry and it was bad and everything was bad 

But the thing is, we can’t actually stop there. Or, that is: It’s not actually useful for our only narratives about the Crusades to be either “Christians kill everyone and it’s awesome” or “Christians kill everyone and it’s terrible”. It’s not true; it feeds into the overall false narrative of “European Christians only interacted with [Muslims/Middle Easterners/People of Colour] very rarely, and only when there was an atrocity happening.” It means we fail to acknowledge all the cross-cultural contacts that happened without an atrocity, and fail to realize that a lot of these atrocities came out of the context of incredibly warlike countries whose economies depended on warfare and conquest.

Another element is... during the 11th century, when all of this happened, the Normans also invaded England. Their conquest was absolutely brutal. England was ethnically and linguistically divided for centuries between a French-speaking colonial upper class, and the English-speaking peasantry. But over the centuries, these two groups came to live together peacefully and build a distinctly new society. Most peoples’ narratives of medieval England are not “a land of massacre, genocide, and ethnic strife”, even though those things definitely happened. We just have much stronger associations with medieval English art, literature, culture, fashion, and architecture than its slaughters.

So basically: The challenge for us in the 21st century is to develop a richer understanding of the past. We know a hell of a lot about battles and armies; we know way less about merchants and farmers, and about the long decades between battles and armies. Military history tells us about waging war, but if we can look past that, we can find out about waging peace.

Now I’m going to go collapse into my bed, and in a day or five I’ll write up a TL;DR version about what I think the likeliest backstories for Joe are (Briefly: probably a Fatimid cavalry soldier or an ordinary person who thought it was safe to be in Jerusalem at the time, and had to defend himself and his servants etc when the city fell)