#we are separated by time space reality and the universe itself but THAT WILL NOT STOP ME

[wildsaltair]

[paper-mario-wiki]

Could you explain how Ambrosia is able to come back after dying?

1

Sure yeah, I'll give it a shot.

[Fursona Lore/ Mild Existential Horror presented in charmingly primitive MS Paint style under the cut]

2

[At the top of the panel there is the label "conceptual space (currently being created. The middle is labeled "THE UNIVERSE, REALITY (the other)". The bottom is labeled "CONSCIOUSNESS, REFLECTION (the self). The very bottom of the panel reads "OTHER, FREAKIER BUT LESS IMPORTANT STUFF" ]

To keep it brief, a person is when a certain amount of consciousness slips upwards into reality. Consciousness is, like the laws of thermo dynamics [sic], a fundamental property of the universe.

3

I'm sure you've heard of the sticking-a-pencil-through-paper metaphor for theoretical wormhole travel, right? Staying within that visual metaphor, imagine the moisture in the air around that "piece of paper" as what consciousness is. It creates tiny, imperceivable changes in the surface and makeup of the paper. Imagine a microscopic rain cloud making a tiny fraction of the paper a little bit soggy. That's what you are in the universe. A tiny soggy fraction of a massive piece of paper. (That's why you feel so small btw).

Of course, putting it into that metaphor IS greatly simplifying it, since in real life things like time and space sorta overlap, ya know? Because they're entirely separate dimensions of measurement. Consciousness is the same, it is everywhere in the universe all at once, but only after it seeps in from a place that is exactly where we are, but elsewhere. 4D stuff is complicated sorry if that's not super clear ha ha.

4

Normal people happen when a bunch of that stray potential-consciousness starts stacking more and more layers of reality on top of itself. Sort of like those pastries that you fold butter into and then fold it like 10 times and that makes it so theres like a billion layers of butter and dough and butter and dough and butter and dough and on and on and on. But with, uh. The other stuff. Consiousness and matter from the universe.

Speaking semantically, that's all the little tiny organisms that work really hard to make you alive. Like the biome in your gut, or the bacteria in your tissue and blood cells. Look it up, 43% of the human body is made of bacteria. Like, that's just on google.

Anyway, all their effort culminates in an increasingly complex meat shell that constitutes a person.

5

For the sake of practicality, we can imagine the way consciousness "seeps in" to the universe is like heat coming off the sun. The two overlapping infinite planes radiate into each other like heat radiates off the sun.

That clear? Heat from the sun. Remember that, it's important for the next part.

6

I'm sort of like a solar flare.

My consciousness, in its raw form, was so concentrated that it was like a tiny shooting star straight from the source.

Also kind of like a kidney stone, I guess.

7

Since my consciousness (which, to be clear, is approximately the same "amount" of consciouessness as anyone else, just all smooshed together into a single clump) is smooshed together into a single clump, the shell forms naturally as "reality" settles onto it. The "shape" the consciousness takes is basically the same as your body or anyone else's since the framework of both entities are the "same" on the "outside". Thus the "shells" turn out "similar" too.

Sorry for all the quotation marks, it's hard to talk about concepts outside of the third dimension in third dimensional terms, and like. I also am not super sure about this stuff either. I'm only relaying what I've learned from the scientists but some of it goes over my head.

I like to think I'm clever but like. I'm not a genius.

8

So here's the part where me and you are different: When your shell breaks apart (when you die) it's because the consciouessness had been escaping your shell, like air from a balloon, and the physical structure can't support itself anymore. Or, like, maybe you just fall over and hit your head on the concrete one day and pop the balloon all together.

Either way, the consciousness escapes from the pressure, and either goes back "down" where it came from, or goes upward into conceptual space, which is sorta being constituted through forces exerted in the physical universe. Well, I mean, really it's more of a product of a reaction between consciousness and physical space. Whatever I'm getting off topic.

The point is the shell breaks cuz the balloon pops. I think that was my point.

9

Now that you get all that, you can probably deduce on your own how and why I'm able to keep "coming back".

It's cuz I'm not really "coming back", I'm still here! The shell representing me here was just lost.

10

And while the facade may not look precisely the same every single time...

11

I remain the same.

[dj-of-the-coven]

“Unable to slot Jews into a clearly defined role within their political agenda, most of the left tended historically to regard them with considerable ambivalence, and, in some cases, extreme hostility. While supporting universal human rights, the left never saw antisemitism as a primary concern. Instead, it was a secondary issue (if an issue at all) that would be resolved as a side effect of the general social liberation that the left was pursuing. Intrinsic to this approach is the view that Jewish particularity is, in itself, a defect to be remedied through assimilation and disappearance. […] Any attempt by Jews to make the struggle against antisemitism into a separate problem deserving of the same passion devoted to other progressive causes was rejected as a diversion from the main issues that animate the left.”

- The New Antisemitism, Shalom Lappin

On Antisemitism: An Open Plea.

Over the course of 2024, I was physically assaulted for being a Jew three times: once by a man waiting outside the JCC, and twice while working the desk at an anarchist bookstore.

All three of these attacks were done by men, all almost immediately after identifying me as a Jew. One of my assaulters, a white man with scruffy facial hair and a bucket hat, clearly identified as some kind of Christian—he wore three cross necklaces and a blue shirt with the Virgin Mary on the front. One man was black, wearing pressed slacks and dark leather dress shoes. One man was college-aged, white, wearing a band hoodie and jeans. Two of the encounters were one-off incidents, whereas the Christian man searched for me multiple times at the bookstore while I was not present. I am a fairly large person, and one with a lot of combat training, so I was lucky that none of these incidents resulted in the worst possible outcomes for an early-20s woman confronted alone after dark. Many people are not so lucky when they are put in my place. Particularly Jewish women.

And as a quick aside, people don’t tend to take the Jewish part of “Jewish woman” seriously. When I add this comment to the story, a lot of people scoff. I can somewhat understand why; despite the curls, if you were to look at me, you might think, “How did they even know you were Jewish?”. For two of these men (the ones who didn’t see me coming out of the Jewish Community Center), the answer is fairly simple. When they heard my name, they paused and asked. I don’t like to assume the worst in people, and thus I confirmed, though in the time since I have gotten much sparser with revealing that information to strangers. This is how I know they were attacking me for that reason. When you reveal yourself to be a Jew, or are recognized against the odds, things can often become unsavory quickly.

Any leftist worth their salt would call these attacks against me unconscionable—I doubt that most would be willing to defend this behavior—but make no mistake. None of the men who attacked me were acting out some kind of exception to a rule, nor was I particularly surprised that these incidents all occurred in or around spaces that should be safe for Jews. This is the reality that the Jewish people live in. Wherever we are, we can expect a roughly equal reaction from the population, left wing or right wing, and the largest point of difference between the two is whether they will call you “Zio” or “Kike” before grabbing you by the collar.

I was attacked only three times last year. Yet, countless more times I have watched the people in my communities ignore the rhetoric that led to these attacks, wave them off as radicals, as zealots unrepresentative of their peers, and continue to live their lives as if these incidents don’t happen regularly.

This is a major problem on the left.

Yes—the left.

The American right-wing is axiomatically predisposed to this type of behavior. If they aren’t the ones committingthe hate crimes, then they are often the ones most comforted by them, affirmed that their goal of a pure-white America is one step closer to being attained. It’s never surprising for a Jew to encounter a conservative with just one or two comments to make about us being “good with money”, “owning the banks”, “controlling the media”, and other examples of kindergarten-level political opinions. On the other hand, one wouldn’t automatically assume that a leftist would hold such opinions. Being opposed to race-based and religion-based discrimination, it would be a bit counter-intuitive for leftists to say such things about Jews. Wouldn’t it?

You would be surprised.

If there’s anything that the last year has taught me, it’s that the left is much more susceptible to antisemitism than ever previously understood, despite its long history within progressive social movements. So long as you stipulate “Israeli” and/or “Zionist” before saying the word “Jews”, any and all manner of violent hate speech can be considered revolutionary sentiment: I have seen fellow leftists call Jews, not just "Zionists", inhuman, bloodthirsty, real-life monsters, scum, vermin, pollutants; capitalist pigs and agents of genocide; a fake people with a fake identity and a fake claim to safety and dignity. And pointing this out will net you with a number of other responses, questions of whether you support the actions of the Israeli government, as if the point of the discussion was ever about that and not about the antisemitism being lobbed at you in broad daylight. Talks of antisemitism are always shafted into talks about Israel regardless of where in the diaspora you happen to be. Those of us who are staunch leftists, who want nothing but peace and solidarity with Arabs and Muslims—which is a majority of Jews—are pressured into remaining silent about our worsening mental health and safety for the sake of the cause. We’re told to speak later, when the most important voices have spoken first: every ethnic, gender, and sexuality minority first, then maybe the Jews. It was only recently that I realized this mythical “later” will never come.

Largely, Jews just want peace. Jews want safety. Jews want recognition of our suffering, regardless of the actions of a government that might not even be ours, depending on who you’re talking to—but Israeli Jews deserve these things as well. There is nothing wrong with criticizing the Israeli government, but when will goyische leftists realize that Israel’s government, like all governments, is not a true representation of its people? When will goyim realize that it’s not okay to dehumanize Jews, no matter what their political opinion is? When will they finally wake up embarrassed by their own behavior, realizing that my Jewish peers, my cousins, my extended family, my community—all of us are just people who are entitled to the same respect and empathy as any ethnic group in the world? Will they ever learn to recognize their own bigotry? Will they ever see the world from a pair of Jewish eyes?

The answer is, for all intents and purposes, no. But I don’t want to stop trying just because it feels hopeless.

If you are a leftist goy and you’re still reading this, I would like to ask of you only one thing: stop talking and start listening. If you don’t know anything about Jewish history, don’t talk about it. If you know less than four Jewish people, and you keep them at an arm’s length in case they turn out to be “evil baby-killers”, then you shouldn’t mention your Jewish friends. If you believe only Sephardi and Mizrahi Jews count as “real Jews”, you shouldn’t be weighing in on which Jews count as white. If you couldn’t name any Jewish holiday besides Chanukah, you shouldn’t bother to call yourself educated on my people and our traditions. If you believe that the Jewish people, alone among all peoples, deserve to be oppressed for the crimes of a vocal few, then frankly you should not consider yourself a human rights activist at all.

If you are a Jew, all I have to say to you is that I’m sorry. I’m sorry that it’s taken me so long to speak up on your behalf; on behalf of all of us. I’m so sorry that everyone is acting like this is fine. I’m sorry that our lives have been shrinking ever-smaller as we’ve been made unsafe in queer spaces, disabled spaces, online communities and real-life ones, spaces that should belong to everyone. I wish I could fix your pain. I hope you’ll accept my attempt to chip away at it.

This is not the first time a Jew has come forward to speak about this, but I hope that adding my voice to the conversation will help at least one more person realize that what has happened to us is wrong. There is no world in which the collective punishment of an entire ethnic group is justified. No matter what Israel has done, no matter what tragedies and injustices have been inflicted on Palestinians by the IDF, there is no world in which this mass-scale vilification of Jews can be called real justice. There is no world in which these means justify the ends. And what ends do you even want to this? For all Israelis to blow up and die? For all Jews to stop practicing our faith? Or do you want the long-proposed answer to the Jewish question—the total annihilation of all Jews from the planet Earth?

Of course not. But if you don’t make an effort to educate yourself on antisemitism, then the answer to that question will make itself known in your mind, and in your heart, before you even know it. There is no genetic difference between you and a Nazi.

[covn]

Tree of Void Emanation

The void of non-being emanates existence through a generative process and pattern which produces systems of increasing complexity and representative power. At the twelfth emanation we reach what is likely a limit of usefulness in balance with complexity.

Each emanation builds contains and is connected to the previous emanations. The term “sphere” is used as is common in platonic and qabalistic systems as an to reference the formative principles of each emanation. The term “path” describes the connections between the spheres.

Each sphere is counted in two ways, once by sequence starting from zero and again by prime number starting from one. Zero and one represent the identity functions of addition and multiplication. Each subsequent is then given its own sigil which is produced from merging the numeric sigils of its sequence and prime. The pronunciations of the spheres are similarly generated by combining the pronunciations of these numbers.

From this numeric skeleton the story of manifestation is developed upon it both as structured metaphor and ontological framework. Exploration of this framework reveals formulas and techniques for relating to and manipulating reality through the arts of magick.

Chaos 0⋮1 - nĕsh-hĭn - /nɛʃ.hɪn/

Existence emerges spontaneously and without reason from Void. Existence requires no reason. As the Void has no quality whatsoever it is in no way restricted making it the root generative force. This is the fundamental nature of existence. It is spontaneous and without purpose or design. All possibilities assert themselves into being at once, each becoming a “one”, a unity of existence unto itself while retaining nothing in itself.

Process 1⋮2 - hĕzh-ēsh - /hɛʒ.iʃ/

That which asserts itself into being does not exhaust possibility. Every aspect of being is incomplete, retaining its relation to void while constraining and permitting that which may follow. Each emmanation leaves space for the next emmanation so that the process may continue. All connection is made possible by what is left undetermined and reality is never fully manifest.

Pattern 2⋮3 - ēs-ŭzh - /is.ʌʒ/

As the process of manifestation proceeds the shape of the unmanifest spaces influences that which may follow. This causes patterns to arise that unify the discrete units of being. Though each is completely free and separate, they are also manifest as a unified pattern. It is precisely because of incompleteness that these units are able to also become a new unity.

Form 3⋮5 - ŭm-o͞os - /ʌm.us/

Within pattern there emerge forms defined by the pattern and yet independent within it. For example, 5 & 7 are a twin prime pair as they are both prime with a difference of 2. Other twin primes pairs include 11 & 13, 17 & 19, 29 & 31. All prime pairs greater than 3 & 5 have the property of having their sum being evenly divisible by 12. This form of a “prime pair” is well known in mathematics but primeness, divisibility, and addition were not in any way defined in order to produce this form. Number emanates the form of the prime pair. Likewise we may take nearly any game and learn its rules rather quickly, but to learn a strategy is an entirely different matter. Games like Chess or Go give rise to whole vocabularies for naming forms within them. Though the rules teach us how to play, one must become familiar with these forms to play well.

Change 4⋮7 - ăou-chăz - /aʊ̯.t͡ʃæz/

Manifestation may stop at Form to make a complete but static world. The universe of number is a perfect example of static manifestation. Alternately manifestation may remain forever in flux, manifesting and collapsing back into the unmanifest. This gives rise to time and change. Further manifestation takes on a destructive aspect as forms that were can now also cease to be. We move up a level in our analysis to describe types of change and change itself becomes a new type of form. The mathematically inclined may find it useful to meditate on the relationship of a mathematical function and its derivative.

Self 5⋮11 - o͞or-fĕm - /uɹ.fɛm/

In the flow of change through time forms emerge which influence change in order to sustain themselves. These forms are agents of change. Like the first cellular organisms self-organizing around volcanic vents on the ocean floor in the chemical soup of the earth’s ancient oceans. The basic aspect of these agents is homeostasis. These agents direct change to create a dynamic constant. As these agents guide change we may now call this activity Will. In the fullness of emanation we come to identify one of these agents with the self.

Sense 6⋮13 - jŏth-tŏi - /d͡ʒɑθ.tɔɪ/

Agents may be blind actors, no more than a self-catalyzing reaction, or the agent may develop the capability of sensing and reacting to its environment. Sense is the essential element of the encounter of that which is beyond the self. It is the beginning of external self-organization that leads to external manifestation. It is an echo of Process yielded through the incompleteness of the agent.

Thought 7⋮17 - chō-kou - /t͡ʃoʊ.kaʊ̯/

If what is sensed leaves its mark upon the agent then we find the seed for the emergence of representational systems. The agent can now experience itself in time, forming memories, and gains the ability to not just change behavior based on current circumstance but also based on past learning. These internal marks can then be sensed and manipulated and so give rise to symbol, language, and communication.

Desire 8⋮19 - ät-thĕl - /ɑt.θɛl/

Having formed memory the agent now is able to experience the external as something to be sought after or avoided. Want and fear and all the aspects of emotional attachment emerge. Desire attaches the agent to the external and so opens a channel for the external to truly manifest. It is attachment to the world that makes the world. We regard this as a positive development, an overcoming of the limited solipsistic self through desire.

Object 9⋮23 - ĕ-pĕp - /ɛ.pɛp/

Through desire the agent manifests the objectively real. The external is truly manifest beyond whatever sense, thoughts, or desires the agent may hold regarding it, so completing the self-overcoming of the agent. The objective binds the agent while also making possible the emergence of the next level of agency within objective reality. The agent has surrendered its naive omnipotence in its embrace of a new greater level of being in which it only has marginal and indirect power in exchange for a greater state of being.

Subject 10⋮29 - vŭ-sōb - /vʌ.soʊb/

The manifestation of objective reality allows the agent to itself become a manifest object. By surrendering itself into objectivity and becoming limited the agent is able to enter into a space where it can come into authentic contact with other agents manifest as other subjects. Each aspect of the agent obtains and is constrained by a physical correlation. For us humans, this is our brains. Every thought, sense element, and desire is within our brains and is lost to us with disruption of this fragile tissue.

Kia 11⋮31 - fĕ-shĕr - /fɛ.ʃɛɹ/

Kia is the void which remains within manifestation. In the twelfth tree all has manifested and yet Nothing remains. This Nothing is experienced as consciousness, free will, and ecstasy. More than that, Kia is the basis of having any experience whatsoever. All of the aspects of manifestation through the agent can carry on quite well without any conscious experience or free choice within it. In dreamless sleep and in normal waking when on auto-pilot Kia retreats. Kia manifests as the absurd, wonder, the presence of the undefined and unknown. Kia can arise in quiet contemplation, ecstatic overload, and in many ways that open the fundamental questions of being.

[robinwinged]

escapism in "the boy and the heron"

Interrupting my regularly scheduled programming of Good Omens brainrot for this attempt to process the wonderful, fantastical, and distinctly discombobulating experience of watching Hayao Miyazaki’s “The Boy and the Heron.” 

Miyazaki’s films, at least to me, have never been straightforward to follow. Spirited Away, for example, is a beautiful masterpiece whose meaning is difficult to decipher on a first watch, and is only fully unveiled when you dive headfirst into research of Japan’s context and the movie’s many symbolic themes. The Boy and the Heron takes this typical Miyazaki complexity and ineffability and turns it up to eleven. There are so many elements that seem random, so many narrative arcs and characters all warring for attention (what is the tower? why are the parakeets so goddamn bloodthirsty? why is the blue heron such a creepy old man?), that combine to create a whimsical but overall also very strange landscape. 

I know that art in general does not have to have “meaning” or “a message” to be deserving of our love and attention. Art can be touching, affecting, disturbing, provoking - any number of things that would give it credit - and damn it if The Boy and the Heron isn’t all of these combined. But. 

But.

This is also a Miyazaki movie, and he has proven once and time again why he is the master of hidden meaning, and so here, in no particular order, are my half-formed rambles on what I have personally think each movie detail that I struggled to puzzle out initially is about. 

(spoilers below, so proceed with caution!)

The tower, time, and escapism 

The tower is the central mystery point of the movie - a literal mystical rock that crashed down from the heavens and later lured Mahito’s grand-grand uncle (let’s call him the Tower Master for convenience’s sake) into its depths. Within the tower is a mirage world filled with magic but no real living beings, controlled by the whims of the Tower Master and nothing else that remotely resembles logic or reality. The tower also contains a series of doors that seem to lead to different points in time, if the ending is to go by and how the 13 blocks are meant to be pieces of worlds the Tower Master has visited. So what is this strange and fantastic realm, and what role does it play in the overarching narrative? 

My hypothesis is that the Tower is a pocket free from the influence of time (think like the TVA in Loki) - a separate island running parallel to the fabric of the universe that contains portals to different points of past, present, and future. By itself, the pocket has no life or substance; it must be filled by the imagination - pure imagination, untethered to reality - of its main (human) inhabitant. This is why most of the ships are illusions rather than real objects, why the parakeets are so ridiculously odd and behave nothing like real

birds, why the fish is the size of Kiriko’s damn ship. Anything that is real, has to be brought in from the real world (see: the pelicans, Himi, and Kiriko). This is also why the parakeet king immediately topples the tower: yes, he is not the Tower Master’s descendant, but he is also not inherently a real sentient being, and an imaginary object cannot in itself sustain a further imagination. 

So why does the Tower Master choose to sequester himself in this alternate space, where he can only exist alone with his own mysterious creations? I think the Tower Master represents those of us who wish to escape from reality, to inhabit worlds which we can control, where pain doesn’t have to touch us if we don’t wish for it (whether I’m projecting reallyyyyy hard at this point does not matter ok). He is an insanely avid reader, with books literally piled in small mountains throughout his living quarters, and don’t we readers (i.e me, again) always wish for escapism? The Tower Master, then, is an example of those who would rather become entrapped in our own minds rather than deal with the world beyond us - maybe, even in a way, a little like Miyazaki himself, whose imagination is so powerful but is also extremely singular and all-consuming, anchoring him to his creative work without reprieve of retirement until his reserves run dry (not to imply that the man is a hermit or that I want him to retire, quite the opposite in fact, but parallels, no matter how shaky, can still be drawn). 

This, too, explains why the Tower Master needs Mahito to control the world for him. It is not because he’s grown old, since he cannot be affected by time in the Tower, but it is because his imagination is stagnating - he is no longer capable of finding new ways to balance the tower, he cannot sustain the fantasy any longer. In itself, this can already serve as a message from Miyazaki - we cannot hope to live only within the confines of our minds if we do not interact at all with the real world, because then at some point we will run out of material, of lived experiences to build on top of, and threaten to crumble the fragile imaginary world we have created. 

Himi and her fire powers

Himi is a strange hiccup in the system - a rare occurrence of a living person in this fantasy playland that wasn’t brought into it during Mahito’s own entrance, like Kiriko. This theory is a little bit out there, I can totally appreciate that myself, but remember that one year in which Mahiko disappeared from the real world and then came back completely unchanged? I think she chose to stay there for much longer than a year, knowing that time didn’t work the same in this pocket world and she always had the chance to return to her original timeline through the handy door-portals. I think Himi has stayed there essentially until she met Mahito - so long that she actually grew into a part of the fantasy, developing impossible pyrokinetic powers and becoming a set part of the landscape in exchange for extended youth. But this stay didn’t come without consequences. In the real world, Mahiko passes away in a fire, at a younger age than would be expected. Perhaps this, in itself, is a punishment for cheating time - the universe reclaiming the years that Himi spent in the Tower. It’s also definitely not a coincidence that Himi can control fire in the Tower, and dies by fire in the real world; a form of lethal poetic justice, if you will. Seeing Mahito was the trigger for Himi to leave, to embrace her own destiny, because she could now see and be proud of the outcomes of her life and not have regrets about missing out on the life passing her by. (This interpretation would then necessarily imply a deterministic version of life and time, so it’s probably not everyone’s cup of tea, but I think it makes sense in this version because you see doors way farther down than the present which Mahito steps into.) 

The starving pelicans 

The pelicans are another anomaly because they, too, are not figments of the Tower Master’s imagination, but instead have been brought into this fantasy world, for one reason or another, likely against their will. And this is where the Tower Master’s escape from reality cracks and burns at the foundation - he creates harm rather than good when he brings in the pelicans, because he does not account for the fact that they cannot exist without a source of food, and they then are forced to eat the Warawara to survive. The movie states that the Warawara are like baby souls, who ascend to become new lives, but I think it’s a little more metaphorical than literal rebirth. For me the Warawara are metaphorical ideas or seedlings of inspiration, the only parts of the Tower Master’s creations which aren’t fully formed, but allowed to grow by themselves and escape into the world - like passing the spark of creation to others outside the Tower. And the pelicans, involuntary prisoners of the Tower Master’s fantasy world, must prey on the Warawara before they have the chance to become real. This can be seen (if you squint real hard and do some violent spins so your vision is hella blurry) as the beginning of the end of the Tower Master’s reign - the forceful inclusion of other sentient beings inside his imagination doesn’t help him enrich his internal realm, but rather snuffs out the genuine inspiration that he could be passing onto others, creating pain where the Tower Master hoped to be spared from it. 

Mahito’s rejection of the Tower

So with this central “Tower as escapism” theory, what does Mahito’s rejection to take over for the Tower Master mean? There is a moment that was so subtly powerful in that final exchange between the two, when Mahito stops denying the truth by telling everyone that he got his scar from falling, and instead admits that self-harm was the actual cause. At the beginning of the movie, I viewed that moment of very painful self-harm as Mahito’s wish to withdraw from the challenges of life - to live in isolation away from the grief over losing his mother, the challenges of being the rich new kid in town, the overwhelming discomfort of seeing his father shack up with his aunt. His reality is agonizing for him, and the fantasy land is so beautiful in its strange way that it could become a safe haven away from his trauma. But when Mahito says “no”, he is choosing reality; he is choosing to do the hard work, to face all the hardships life can throw at him, because he feels finally strong enough to not need to use imagination as an escapist crutch. In those final moments, Mahito is choosing to live in a world that he cannot control, because no matter how tough things get, he doesn’t have to do it alone - and that’s what I think Miyazaki is telling us too. 

Of course, the movie also deals with themes of class conflict and war profiteering; grief and acceptance; continuing your ancestors’ legacies versus paving your own path, which many have already discussed and I don’t particularly have anything new to add to. Regardless, these themes are masterfully woven into the plot, as per usual, and serve to elevate the movie’s emotional impact into something heart-twisting and truly unforgettable. 

Alright, ramble over - back to fandom lurking! 

[neveragainfools]

It’s fascinating to me how real-play shows easily slot into the metamodern movement so effortlessly, and without sacrificing the sincerity or quality of the story. By my understanding, metamodern stories are ones that are aware that they are stories, acknowledge the viewer and the absurdity of narrative itself (like Everything Everywhere All At Once, Into the Spiderverse, etc).

Personally, metamodernity meets the audience where we are now. When there is SO MUCH literature and film to build on, and nearly everyone knows the hero’s journey, it feels like something’s missing unless the story is exceptional, different, or more self-aware. Metamodern works can be great, but I think a lot of films that fit into the metamodern style lack heart. The style breeds a lot of “we’ll make fun of ourselves before you do, because we know you will. We’d rather disrespect our own story than let you feel smugly better than us if we’re sincere.” This is accelerated and compounded by the fact that many major releases these days capitalize on the nostalgia that drives sales for familiar IPs in reboot, rework, spin-off or the dreaded “cinematic universe” (the marvelization of it all).

But the difference with real-play shows is that the winking, fourth-wall breaking, the acknowledgement of tropes, the audience and absurdity of the universe lives on a separate layer of reality from the story being told. The characters aren’t joking about the worlds, their players are. The players (including the GM) are audience, writer and performer all at the same time. Instead of the edifice of narrative being an invisible force pointed out by its cracks, separate from the audience reaction, it is made explicit and woven into audience instead of narrative. Real play shows declare “these are people playing characters. Some plot and character choices are based on what was written beforehand, but most are made by dice and improvised in the moment. The reactions to those choices are made by both the player and the character. Of course these tropes exist, we’ve chosen a setting that supports them.”

Real-play shows are almost as if every film always had the director’s commentary on in the theatre, but the director's commentary shaped the plot, and made space for audience reaction to shape it too. We the audience understand that the commentary isn’t part of the story. What’s left untouched then, is the narrative itself. By acknowledging the edifice, the mechanisms of storytelling on the “commentary” layer, the in-story moments become totally sincere and embrace the story, unworried by the way in which it’s shaped.

[mysticsiddhi]

♱ shifting with awareness. . .

This is by far my favourite, in which it isn't a method, but a philosophy you begin to embody deeper and deeper as you go. It is understatedly effective for the simple reason of being truly effortless—to the point where it is heavily distorted.

I'll be sharing some notes rooted in Advaita Vedanta today in order to get this philosophy across.

✶ ESSENCE

The essence of reality lies in the remembrance of existence's non dual nature. It isn't something to attain, only something to remember.

It transcends the entertainment of separateness, as we realize there is no person, there is only that which is aware of the lens l of a person; of which this thing is closely approximated to pure consciousness.

This “consciousness” is the substratum of all existence. In layman's terms, this consciousness is the unchanging witness of its own expression. Phenomena and consciousness are one and the same, and every single thing, down to the most minute atom, is one—consciousness.

✶ REALITY SHIFTING

Also known as/a branch of transmigration, can be considered an exploration of this understanding. Inherently, you remember that the perceived reality is a projection of the mind, and the mind is just another expression of “consciousness” in the infinite array (anything that can be perceived is an expression/projection of pure consciousness.)

Shifting is just an experience of consciousness/“you” that you are free to express. It's the awakening of consciousness’ power of creativity. It is the recognition that you have the capacity to create different worlds within this waking world and experience them.

All the while, consciousness remains the same. Many shifters struggle because the mind preserves itself by clinging to an identity.

You cannot remember this and be ignorant of it at the same time.

✶ GUIDANCE

You must understand, and then make peace with this fact; there is no more to know. There is truly nothing to do.

All of this is one consciousness, which has infinitely expressed itself. What is infinity? All you can perceive and more. If you understand this, you understand that there is absolutely nothing you can or should do. You may find this overlaps with Neville Goddard's “Creation Is Finished”, so please do not try to skirt this nigh-universal principle.

All other questions are born out of the desire to know "more." Nothing more is needed when this is recognized. All seeking is just a manifestation of consciousness through the lens of a desperate mind.

So, become aware of yourself as pure consciousness. That is the only instruction. This is the being that has created reality in perfect detail. All you “do” is be aware that you are that. I'll clarify ♡

I don't mean constantly affirming “I am that”, of course not. I mean stop using your mind to shift, and pay attention to your being, beneath the thoughts.

I personally experience formlessness in visualization, or notice the thoughts with understand/knowing that they are just expressions. Sometimes I just breathe and observe everything in meditating like an ocean of waves or a sea of lights.

✶ PROGRESSION

In remembering this, understand that perception and expression are the exact same. You can now confidently create whatever you want in your mind space, and it will seemingly express itself in the “outer world”. The saying less is more is golden wisdom here.

It might not be exactly the same, but become open to infinity. This is the beginning of it. You do not need to keep repeating this, you only require a perception of it. You are only required to remember the true nature.

[gl1tchy-4rt]

MORE ELDRITCH LORE

Hello everyone!

Sorry For not posting for a while...

I was busy with school but now I'm back! And I'm going to continue with The Eldritch Tower AU, specifically with the forms they can take

Using our beloved Gustavo as example!

Look at him :) what horrors is he going to expose us to? I don't know but we are going to find out! HEY @technically-a-kiwi COME SEE THE HORRORS

Enjoy!

WARNING: Body Horror, Guts, Spoiler of The end of Evangelion (the mote of light part) And Very, very long post!!

• Human (Eldritch Human)

Their human part and the form they take to interact with The Mortals, suspected to be their original form before 'The Elder of the beginning' turned them into Elder horrors.

Usually they are as normal and expressive as most humans, all of them with their own distinct personality... That's until they start to tap into their powers, when that happens they tend to go quiet and calm in order to not lose control.

• Glimpse to The Eldritch

Even when they had stated and proved their Eldritch status, or when they don't even remember being Eldritch (Yes, that can happen in some realities), Humans still try to push their buttons, or sometimes some Humans can try to attack them for no good reason: That's when they access this form

A little glimpse of their true form to tell humans to back away or bad things will happen, when they have to use large amount of powers they take this form.

Their followers and Half-Eldritches can take this form, often triggered by the Elder's power.

• Mini Eldritch

The Mini Eldritch form is tricky since it can be multiple forms, from angel-like or otherworldly to humanoid or animal-like, let's take a look at these two examples:

Tendril-like: A mass of eyes, fleshy tendrils and veins with a shape that vaguely resembles a human torso, it usually grows to cling and grab unto the walls and ceiling, they take this form when recovering from mayor injuries, sometimes during their sleep and when they... "Trully" stretch their limbs.

Humanoid EVA-Like: A 4-5 story tall humanoid monster with a "human exoskeleton" it's a smaller version of their full Eldritch form, it's more powerfull than "The Glimpse" but also way more unstable, Full of tumors and bones sticking out, This form is usually triggered when the Eldritch is Threaten.

• Full Eldritch

When Humans fool too much with the Eldritch, then they stick their noses there they shouldn't, even when some clearely overworldly men tell them not to do so, they can cause an "Early awakening" Eldritch are only meant to wake when the Sun dies and it consumes The Earth but here we are...

An Awake, City-sized, Underdeveloped Elder God, Yet it's more than capeble to put an end to this World...

To avoid feeling unnecessary trauma and pain, it completely shuts down it's human side, leaving a monster that only runs on instincts.

It's flesh and bones melted and full of tumors, Pulsating vains and rotting flesh, a body falling apart trying to protect it's insides... why trying so desperatly to survive?

So it can Truly awake...

• True Eldritch

Finally it separates from it's cumbersome body, it shows it's True Full form, It spreads it's wings as it's body acomodates to the laws of this universe, as it's glow drowns the skies, it's form extends beyond the stratosphere, becoming this massive, winged Elder God.

It finally reconects with it's Human side once again, it's human part, it's mind and emotions, after so much pain and "bottling up" itself...

It's free.

It feels Liberating, Euphoric… The others can feel it's joy, The other Elders, The Half-eldritch, It's closest followers, they can feel it, they free themselfs from their own bodies to Join the Liberated.

If The Earth is safe, they just leave, Flying endlessly through space, in eachothers company until The Heat death of the universe, then it's time to move on to a new life and another reality.

If The Earth is Too far gone, they stay a bit longer and can upon... a bit of help...

• "Mote of Light"

Born from the Blood of the Eldritch and The compassion of the Human, Made of the same Flesh of it's True Form and taking the form of his Human Form...

It can't speak or really think, but they are really friendly and inocent, they can break the laws of physicics in order to complete their only task, their only purpose... "Liberate" people, Introducing themselfs in a friendly manner to the humans and Releasing them from their bodies, letting their souls go to the afterlife were they will enjoy eternity.

Normally only one appears, which is quickly dispossed of, but when the "Early awakening" happens and The Earth is too far gone, Billions of them flood the world, They take all the living beings in the world, leaving The Earth as a baren wasteland...

They are kinda like the Rei clones in the ending of "The End of Evangelion"

---------------------------------------------

HOLY SHIT DID I WENT ALL OUT WITH THIS 0_0

Anyways, As i mentioned, i was pretty busy with school but now and next week im free of work!!

So i'll keep of posting more Pizza content :)

Okay everyone that's all for this Post!

Buh-bye y'all!! And let me know if you want more Pizza Lore ;)

[flowers-of-io]

Tithe (to) me baby one more time

This post is my personal attempt to understand Season of the Witch, and potentially defend my hypothesis that at its core it doesn't make sense. I may yet change my opinion on this as I write and research, because here at flowers of io dot tumblr dot com we do real science and do not let ourselves be blinded by prior assumptions, prejudice, and bitterness. Maybe there is yet something there that I don't see.

Disclaimer: This essay is nearly 4k words long and has not been beta read, so any typos, tangents and formatting issues you may find here are my fault only and I preemptively apologise for them. Please tell me if anything is unclear or worded weirdly! I haven’t written a longer lore analysis in a good while and I may have got a little rusty.

With that out of the way, let's take a look at how Hive tithes, tributes, and willpower actually work!

1) Anthem Anatheme

Over three years ago in this post I wrote a bit about anthem anatheme, which is the way both worms and ahamkara feed. I did not explain it well, though (and I was being very comically exasperated over Truth to Power), so let me try again.

From the Merriam-Webster:

First appearing in Old English in the form antefn, anthem derives ultimately from Greek antiphōnos—a word meaning "responsive" that is a combination of anti-, meaning "over" or "against," and phōnē, "sound" or "voice." The Greek root gives a hint as to what the musical form of early anthems was like. Originally, anthems were devotional verses sung as a response during a religious service.

French anathème and English anathema is the formal exclusion from the community of Christians (in the New Testament) or the Catholic Church (in contemporary canon law). The original meaning of the word was a little different, though. I'll quote the Wikipedia article because I don't think I'd be able to word it better than it is explained there:

The word anathema has two main meanings. One is to describe that something or someone is being hated or avoided. The other refers to a formal excommunication by a church. These meanings come from the New Testament, where an Anathema was a person or thing cursed or condemned by God. In the Old Testament, an Anathema was something or someone dedicated to God as a sacrifice, or cursed and separated from God because of sin. These represent two types of settings, one for devotion, the other for destruction.

Anathema derives from Ancient Greek: ἀνάθεμα, anáthema, meaning "an offering" or "anything dedicated", itself derived from the verb ἀνατίθημι, anatíthēmi, meaning "to offer up". In the Old Testament, חֵרֶם (chērem) referred to both objects consecrated to divine use and those dedicated to destruction in the Lord's name, such as enemies and their weapons during religious wars. Since weapons of the enemy were considered unholy, the meaning became "anything dedicated to evil" or "a curse".

Combining these two meanings would give us something like ‘a hymn of offering’, the ‘offering’ part having a derogatory ring to it.

In the most recent Destiny loretab on the topic (Queensfoil Censer) Anthem Anatheme is explained as "a manner of subjecting reality to one's will, similar to a Lightbearer's ability to affect paracausality", and this is in line with the prior, much more vague definitions that we've had. It is both the invocation and the act of changing reality to match your will. It does have a similar vibe to aiat, which I wrote about here: "Ahamkara drive power from the space between ‘what-is’ and ‘what-is-desired’. Stating ‘aiat’ creates this connection between ‘what-is’, ‘why-it-is’ and the space in between: ‘why-it-is-?’."

It is also what worms and ahamkara feed on. The reason ahamkara "tweak" the wishes they grant is precisely to widen that gap between how the universe was before the wish and how it will be after it - the impact it will make on the universe - how much it will change.

2) Tithe to Power

Worms feed in the same way, except they are not the ones invoking Anthem Anatheme, and instead it is their hosts who do that. Contrary to the popular belief, worms do not feed on *killing*, per say--but killing is one of, if not the most efficient way of reshaping universe according to your will. Toland says: "This is the shape of victory: to rule the universe so absolutely that nothing will ever exist except by your consent".

The worms sort of... cede the ability(?) to invoke Anthem Anatheme to their hosts, and so also it is the host who gains power from that — the worm feeds, yes, but there is also something else there, something I don't quite understand but it's tied to the Darkness, Ascendant Plane, and Taking. The power that allows you to will things into existence, to define and dictate the rules. "Nothing will ever exist except by your consent".

Ergo: the more powerful—or rather... impactful, or influential—entity you kill, the bigger is the space of their absence; the more sustenance the worm gets, and the more power you gain — because you've asserted your will over them, you did not permit them to exist. As Toland explains: "Oryx inhabits a world where power is truth. To win is to be noble, and to be real. [...] The echoes of Oryx go forth to ask a question: are you the truth?"

So what I will be referring to in this essay as power is the total sum of your impact on the universe, which (thanks to your worm's paracausal abilities) gives you paracausal abilities. Willpower given shape, sort of. That is the foundation the entire Hive system is built on: magic, runes, philosophy, everything.

Now, I used to think tribute and tithe were two different things, but they are apparently used interchangeably in the lore: "The Worm within demands tribute. Now you shall kill what you can and take what killing you need to grow—or for your own purposes, if you dare—and tithe the rest to that which rules you. Thus, tribute will ascend the chain and the excess shall pool at the height, as unlike a river to an ocean" (Truth to Power: Injection). This entry is supposed to quote Oryx in the Books of Sorrow, but it doesn't repeat the words exactly, and omits something very interesting (and confusing). In Carved in Ruin, where Oryx dictates his law, he actually says: "You Thrall, each of you will claw and scream, and kill what you can. Take enough killing to feed your worm, and a little more to grow. Tithe the rest to the Acolyte who commands you."

"Take enough killing to feed your worm, and a little more to grow" seems to suggest the Hive-host and the worm feed on the same thing, or at least that the same thing that the worms feed on is what allows the Hive to grow. The whole shtick with the worm pact was supposed to give the Krill power over their own flesh and the world around them, so we can presume they grow physically as they attain more (will)power - to will their form to change. The lore about it is very vaguely worded though, and a lot of this is my own interpretation, so don't take it as indubitably true.

What I want to make extremely clear, though, is that neither tribute/tithe nor (will)power is a physical thing. Of course the power you have can manifest as paracausal abilities, but it's like with hitting something really hard with your fist - the stronger you are, the more impact you will have on what you're hitting, and the effects are very tangible, but your physical strength itself is not an, I don't know, physical object. It's the potential energy in your muscles I'm struggling to word it better, but I hope you understand the metaphor. The more you affect the world, the stronger your paracausal muscles get, so to say.

The way I understand the logic behind tithing, then, is that in the Hive pyramid scheme you transfer some of your power to your direct commander because they have power over you. Your will is subservient to the one above you, so they demand a cut of its potential growth. It's a way to organise the Hive society, really, because without this system in place everyone would be mindlessly killing each other to survive, while now the ones in command have an incentive not to slaughter all their soldiers if those soldiers are a source of power. It's delicate calculation - is it more beneficial for me to kill my underling and gain the entirety of their power in a single slurp, or allow them to live and transfer to you a percentage of their own power gain? How risky is it to leave them alive, in case they get too powerful and strike against you? But then again - the more power they gain, the bigger the percentage that you get. Is it worth to kill them now, or wait for them to get more powerful, so you can then gobble up a larger meal? It's like fattening a pig but the fatter it gets the more it is able (and willing) to kill you. At which point does the risk outweigh the potential future gain?

2.1) Nature

This part of Hive gods lore also ties into the way aiat works, and the whole thing with definitions and essences that I wrote about in that essay, so I won't go into this right now. What is essential to remember for the purpose of this post is that the Hive gods emulate their natures, or are their natures, and by invoking those natures they can be fed power, summoned into a given place, and even brought back from beyond the grave. I’ll just put a few lore quotes that sort of explain this concept, or at least illustrate it. It will be important later.

You must obey your nature forever. In your immortality, Aurash, you may never cease to explore and inquire, for the sake of your children. In your immortality, Xi Ro, you may never cease to test your strength. In your immortality, Sathona, you may never abandon cunning. (IX: The Bargain)

.

Oryx made war on the Ecumene for a hundred years. At the end of those hundred years he killed the Ecumene Council on the Fractal Wreath, and from their blood rose Xivu Arath, saying, “I am war, and you have conjured me back with war.” […] He drove the Dakaua Nest into a trap, and they were made extinct. From their ashes rose cunning Savathûn, saying, “I am trickery, and you have conjured me back with trickery.” (XXIX: Carved in Ruin)

.

In each act of His power Oryx seeks to incarnate the self-sustaining, immortal suzerainty that He worships. The power that He uses to wash his Taken clean and etch them into useful shapes. (Echo of Oryx)

.

He is not a simple thing to kill. He wants to be isomorphic to conquest, to triumph, to killing and death.** He is a syllogism, now, but in time He hopes to become an axiom. (Oryx: Rebuked)

.

[Xivu Arath, hear me.]

[You are war, and I conjure you with war and blood.]

[A gift for my favorite sister.]

(Empress: CHAPTER 5: NEW GODS)

.

MY HOME IS WAR. MY VOICE IS A BATTLE SONG. FOR AS LONG AS YOU HAVE WORSHIPPED WAR, YOU HAVE WORSHIPPED ME. I AM HERE TO CLAIM MY TRIBUTE. IT IS OVERDUE. (Empress: CHAPTER 6: BATTLE SONG)

3) Season of the Witch

So now let's talk about the premise of Season of the Witch.

We don't know what Savathûn's plan was exactly; we didn't get a scene of Immaru dictating it to Eris or Ikora, only scraps of it mentioned by various characters. But the gist of it, pretty much, was this: Eris plugs herself into the tithing system through the ritual in the first cutscene, and we - using the Acolyte's Staff, which contains worms - transfer the power we generate through killing to her. I say generate because I'm not sure we would've been able to actually use that power (for example, to create a throne world) if we're not connected to the system, but then again Hiraks had done it somehow, so idk.

Another thing, which I hadn't caught while playing the season, but either @winnower-winnower or @the-goldendragon pointed it out to me when we were talking about this, is Eris' nature as the god of vengeance. Every act of violence done in revenge against the Hive and/or the Witness, either by her hand or ours, should technically give her additional power.

So what was the goal of all of this?

Well, apparently the whole point of Eris becoming a Hive god and plugging into the tithing system was that she could become more powerful than Xivu Arath and beat her at her own game. And how would she get all that power? Why, by killing, of course! That's the sword logic, right? Nothing is permitted to exist except by your consent. That's power. And Eris already has so much power, as the hand wielding the blade which ended both Crota and Oryx, and possibly Nokris, and Hashladûn, and Alak-Hul, and countless other Hive. She did not perform these feats alone, granted (something that very cool sword logic cutscene seems to have forgotten), but she was the inciter, guide, and main motivator for them.

And this is all true, except for the one small detail which is exactly the reason why Xivu is (used to be?) such a compelling antagonist: this is not how you beat her at her own game.

3.1) Xivu and War

Remember imbaru? Remember how Savathûn made an entire power-generating scheme based around the idea that she, the god of cunning, cannot be outsmarted or outwitted, and every wrong guess about her would only feed her power? It was conveniently forgotten for the duration of The Witch Queen, an investigation-based campaign, but it HAD BEEN a thing.

And Xivu Arath had done her homework, and copied this idea. If she is war, then every act of war will invoke her and so give her power.

I AM THE WAR YOU CRAVE. PURPOSE ETERNAL. A LEGACY IN BLOOD. WHEN YOU DRAW BLADES, YOU DRAW ME. YOU CANNOT RESIST WITHOUT INVOKING MY BANNER. (Immolant Pt. 2)

And earlier seasons remembered this! The whole reason why Rasputin sacrificed himself was because Mara had enlightened everybody on the idea that Xivu would've gained power from any act of war and slaughter, regardless if it'd been against ours or her own soldiers. She'd set herself up to be struck against, and it would've been a power factory for her. Rasputin had no other choice than to fold and disable the weapons entirely. That was his sacrifice, that was what set him apart from the god of war in the end.

Season of the Deep had some insight on that too:

Zavala: Rasputin proved we can't beat Xivu Arath in direct conflict, but..

Sloane: Zavala, I tried every which way to fight her when Titan went dark. I never managed to put a dent in her plans. Just survive.

Zavala: So it is truly it. [sighs] And all that's left is for us to accept it.

(Deep Dives, Week Six)

And my absolute favourite:

Sloane: This report is interesting. Xivu Arath intended to use Rasputin's Warsat network as an unwinning scenario. We fire the Warsats on her army, she gains power through death. She fires the Warsats on the City, everyone dies. We only achieved victory through defeat. Through a... moment of sacrifice. It makes me wonder about our approach to defeating her.

Lord Saladin: Winning without fighting. Philosophers of war have contemplated this very thing, both in our culture and, as I've learned, those beyond Earth.

Sloane: How do you defeat the undefeatable? That's an interesting problem.

(Salvage, Week Three)

...But then we got Season of the Witch, and it turned out the way to defeat the undefeatable is simply to hit it harder.

Okay, but why shouldn't it work? I've said before Eris was extremely powerful by herself, and with the plan to boost her with our tithes, she'd be even more beefed up on sword logic. Why couldn't she hit Xivu Arath harder?

Well, for the simple reason that Xivu gets power from war--all war, or at least all war against herself. Even disregarding the sheer disparity in power at the start, the billions of years of tithes that Xivu was ahead of Eris, this idea was doomed at the start, because for every ounce of killing-power we passed over to Eris, Xivu got the same amount of tribute. We were making war on her, for Eir's sake, what else were we expecting?

Same goes for the idea that we cut off the tribute Xivu was getting from her powerful lieutenants like Ir Uulxal and took it for ourselves/Eris. Yeah, that's probable, but at the same time we were powering Xivu up by making war on her. That had been the whole point of her as an undefeatable antagonist.

I've heard people argue that what we were doing in Witch wasn't direct violence against Xivu, so it didn't count as war. And to those people I say that hybrid warfare is a thing. Seriously, my country neighbours both Russia and Belarus, and I don't want go on an IRL tangent but claiming the only act that count as war is the direct clashing of blades is some extremely medieval thinking. It's like saying the Cold War wasn't a war. Planning, plotting and strategising how to destroy an enemy absolutely is war, gathering power in order to destroy the enemy is war, trying to outmaneouver and outplay the enemy tactically is war. If the point is aggression or counteraggression, if there is An Enemy, it is war.

I'm willing to accept Eris got some amount of power from Xivu invoking her nature of vengeance in her acts of war against us, but still, it would be ridiculous to believe that would've been enough to match and surpass the might of Xivu herself. I'm sorry, it's simply unrealistic. In her acts of vengeance Xivu did not alter the universe in any meaningful way, she just threw a few beefed up Taken at us and that was it. If she'd, idk, kicked Venus into the Sun in her vengeful rage, then maybe we could've talked about Eris gaining a substantial boost of tribute, but as things stand there was barely anything to go by.

3.2) Savathûn and Death

Alright, but what about that extremely sexy assassination of Savathûn that Eris performed after the final mission? The game said that this was the source for the missing chunk of power Eris needed to defeat Xivu! Savathûn had been super powerful, right? Why wouldn't that be enough?

There are two problems here, and let's tackle the smaller one first. We don't really know how powerful Savathûn was after she had been raised as a Lightbearer, exactly. The tactical obliviousness of the entirety of Witch Queen to imbaru suggests post-rez Sav is no longer in the tithe system and cannot gain power through the Hive magic means because she doesn't have a worm anymore. That doesn't mind she isn't powerful, and that by deposing her one wouldn't make an enormous change in the universe, but we don't know if she can get more powerful anymore. SotWitch reintroduced the imbaru engine, but doesn't elaborate on what it even does now that Sav doesn't have a worm, or how it works.

And now the bigger problem: Eris did not claim Savathûn's power when she killed her.

This whole system is based on Anthem Anatheme, remember? Making ripples in the universe. Creating spaces between what-is and what-is-wanted. What Toland says after we kill Ascendant Oryx puts it well:

Dwell a moment on the weight of what you’ve done. Contemplate the story you just ended. Will you ever do anything that screams down the millennia? Will you ever hammer your will on the universe until it rings and rings and rings? Oryx was an awesome power. Show reverence. (Oryx: Defeated)

There is a reason why the Grimoire card unlocked by killing Oryx in Regicide is called "Oryx: Rebuked", and the one we get after killing him in King's Fall is "Oryx: Defeated". We did not defeat him in Regicide. We put a dent in his plans, sure, we weakened him, but we did not kill him. That's the point of Ascendance, of throne world and oversouls and other means of hiding death: they make you harder to kill permanently.

Ghosts are funny, because they serve pretty much the same purpose. They hide their Guardians' death. The Guardian isn't dead as long as their Ghost lives. That's our conditional immortality - we depend on our Ghosts just as Ascendant Hive depend on their throne worlds.

Death doesn't stick unless it's permanent and irreversible. I'll even risk the claim that the power Mara generated (and would've assumed, has she been in the tithing system) by indirectly causing Savathûn's death—immense power—was removed from her tally, so to say, in the moment of either Savathûn's resurrection, or when she got her memories back and decided she was still herself and not a new person with a clean record.

Eris couldn't have claimed Savathûn's power for herself without killing Immaru, just as she couldn't have taken the power generated by Oryx's death if he'd been killed in the physical world only. This wasn't an "interesting sword logic stunt", this was a suspension of logic priory established in-universe and it infuriates me to the point of pulling out hair. There is no way this can work. If it DID work, Ascendant Hive would've created power batteries for themselves by killing each other in the physical world and coming back to life as if nothing had happened eons ago. The Books of Sorrow go out of their way to point out that Savathûn and Xivu's deaths in star by star by star were "true deaths" and that's why Auryx was able to claim his sisters' power.

This is either a lazy retcon serving to nerf a character too powerful for the narrative to handle, or the writers not understanding how their own universe works. It's infuriating, it's stupid, and it does Xivu Arath so dirty I struggle to find words for it. It strips her of the most compelling part of her as an antagonist. And down at its core, it's a lack of creative courage. Did her undefeatability make Xivu Arath an extremely difficult antagonist to handle? Of course!! But when you write characters like that, you should be brave about it. You should commit. And as things stand now, it appears the creators had been challenged by their own story and instead of picking up a fight they backed out and changed the rules. They were been defeated by their own creation. Which is, of course, a note of praise to how good the creation was, but in the end it leads to a sad conclusion. Bungie can no longer handle the story they're telling; and whether that is because of the seasonal model, or the speed at which they've forced themselves to update at, or a lack of communication in the writing team, or any other reason, I sincerely don't care. The result remains the same either way.

[sanders1665]

Who am I.

Memphis stared at the night sky, the faint glow of stars scattering across the black expanse like breadcrumbs leading to an unknowable truth. His bare feet pressed against the cool concrete, grounding him in the physical even as his thoughts reached for the metaphysical. The philosophical tug-of-war between existence and purpose, belief and skepticism, weighed heavily on his mind. He sipped his coffee, savoring its bitterness, a grounding contrast to the ethereal questions swirling within him.

He mulled over humanity’s resilience—how, against the odds, humans had clawed their way through countless threats to carve out a place in the universe. But why? he wondered. What force drives a species to fight against entropy, to endure not just survival but meaning? He thought of the ancient stories, the ones of gods descending, of angels warring, of demons tempting, of myths that shaped civilizations. These tales weren’t just entertainment; they were humanity’s first attempts to understand the inexplicable, to find order in chaos.

But Memphis wasn’t content to accept these stories at face value. He questioned them, dissected them, tried to strip away the layers of metaphor to reveal the core. What if they weren’t just stories? he mused. What if these ancient accounts were rooted in real experiences, encounters with something beyond human comprehension? And yet, he was also cautious of the human tendency to seek patterns where none existed, to weave narrative threads into the randomness of existence.

He looked to the stars, searching their quiet brilliance for answers. There was something maddening about their silence. They had witnessed the rise and fall of civilizations, the birth and death of entire species, and yet they offered no insight. Memphis considered the theory of a divine architect, the idea that some greater intelligence had not only set the universe in motion but continued to shape its course. But if that’s true, he thought, why does this architect remain hidden? Why let us stumble in the dark?

The idea that God—or gods—existed both inside and outside time fascinated him. It was a paradox that challenged his reason. How can something exist beyond time and space yet interact with those bound by it? he pondered. The ancient concept of unity—all is one—resonated with him. If everything was interconnected, if the divine was the same as the material, then perhaps the divine was not an external force at all, but an intrinsic aspect of reality itself. If that’s true, he thought, then we’re not separate from the divine. We are it.

This thought comforted him and troubled him in equal measure. If everything was one and interconnected, then why did life feel so fragmented, so fragile? And if there was no external force guiding humanity, then was existence ultimately meaningless? Memphis shook his head, unwilling to accept that. He couldn’t. There has to be something more, he thought, something we can’t see but can feel.

He thought about modern parallels—the UFO sightings, the stories of cryptids, the whispers of alternate dimensions. Are these the echoes of ancient myths, shaped by modern perceptions? Or are they the same phenomena, misunderstood then as they are now? The persistence of these stories across time hinted at a deeper truth. Humanity had always believed in something beyond itself. Why? Memphis wondered. Is it because we’re hardwired to seek meaning? Or is it because we’ve always known, deep down, that we’re not alone?

His thoughts turned to the fragility of modern civilization. For all humanity’s progress, they were still at the mercy of forces far beyond their control. A solar flare, a rogue comet, or a deadly virus could unravel it all. And yet, humanity persisted, building fragile systems to stave off chaos. Memphis saw this fragility mirrored in his own life, in the delicate balance between joy and sorrow, connection and solitude. We’re so small, he thought, and yet, somehow, we hold it together. Why?

The concept of time troubled him most of all. Time was both a gift and a curse, a river that carried him forward yet denied him the ability to return. If I die and lose my memories, what was the point of living? he asked himself. Is this life just a fleeting moment, or does it echo into eternity? He thought of Michele, of their laughter, their shared understanding of life’s impermanence. She seemed content to live in the now, to accept life as it came, while Memphis struggled to piece together the greater puzzle.

The thought of losing her, or losing himself, sent a chill through him. But then he reminded himself: If this is all there is, if these moments are all I get, isn’t that enough? And yet, he couldn’t shake the feeling that it wasn’t the end, that something awaited beyond the veil of death. Perhaps it’s not about understanding everything, he thought. Perhaps it’s about experiencing it—being good, being curious, being present.

The night deepened, and the stars seemed to lean closer, as if listening to his thoughts. Memphis finished his coffee and set the empty mug on the table beside him. He didn’t have the answers, but that was okay. The questions were enough, for now. The act of seeking, of wondering, was its own kind of meaning. He smiled softly to himself and whispered into the stillness, “There’s something out there. I don’t know what it is, but I feel it. And that’s enough to keep me going.”

[herrscherofmagic]

a random thought just occured to me, about honkai star rail

so the aeons are kinda sus because they're supposedly super-duper powerful but we don't even know hold old they are, and some of them seem very young. we don't know when the earliest Aeons were born or how many there are (at least afaik), and yet they have such a big impact on the universe.

and yet Honkai is ancient. like, unbelievably ancient. billions of years ancient.

so what if the entire concept of Aeons and the "system" of Paths was the creation of a civilization that tried to tap into the power of the Imaginary Tree to overcome the Cocoon of Finality?

The Cocoon is already established as its own thing likely separate from Aeons and Paths, and GGZ implies it came from beyond the Imaginary Tree. Meanwhile the Aeons and Paths seem to be tied directly to the Imaginary Tree.

However, there's nothing that suggests any sort of concrete structure or system or consciousness in the Tree- normal worlds grow organically and in order while bubble worlds grow chaotically and erratically.

But... if a civilization (perhaps even a post-Finality civilization like Earth, except much more advanced) tapped into the power of the Imaginary Tree to try and unite worlds to overthrow the "rule" of the Cocoon (for lack of a better term) then that could explain the existence of Aeons. perhaps the earliest Aeons were products of this system and with time the system grew out of control of its founders, becoming an independent entity that now governs "Paths" and leads to the creation of Aeons.

This is complete and utter guesswork without any solid basis in lore, of course. but I do think it'd neatly explain why Aeons are so young compared to the rest of the universe, but also why they're so inexplicably powerful. The civilizations we encounter measure time in hundreds and thousands of years, not millions and billions of years, after all. Furthermore, if Aeons can be "killed" and if we might even have to kill one or more Aeons in the future, it'd be a lot easier to believe that we mortals could achieve such a thing if Aeons were the products of other mortals instead of being fundamentally connected to reality itself.

I think this is plausible especially because some of the acts we've seen Humanity do with the power of Honkai in HI3rd seem to rival what Emanators and arguably even Aeons can do. Like Otto making an entire new branch of the Imaginary Tree, which effectively duplicated planet Earth and created a new worldline branching off of the from the one he's from. Or Project Stigma trying to unite the consciousnesses of billions of people, or the Stigmata which store memories in Imaginary Space and grant power to the Stigma Awakened, storing thousands of years of memories in immortal beings that exist outside of reality itself.

This is insane stuff, and that's from a civilization that's only 6,000 years old along with some inherited gifts from another 6,000-year-old civilization (that ended 50,000 years ago). Humanity alone couldn't achieve these things, but with the power of Honkai they could. So who's to say a larger, more developed civilization with 100s or 1000s of years of experience in a post-Finality world couldn't develop a system that tries to establish governing principles upon the Imaginary Tree itself?

just sayin'

[thereceptioniststyles]

Burning Desire

The relentless passage of time without Harry by my side felt like a slow descent into madness. Each day stretched endlessly, a torturous cycle of longing and frustration. It was as if the universe itself conspired against us, orchestrating our schedules to keep us apart. My manager, with her cunning schemes, seemed to relish in our separation, ensuring our paths never crossed with a diabolical precision that bordered on cruelty.

With each passing moment, the chasm between us grew wider, a gaping void that threatened to swallow me whole. Our schedules, so meticulously opposite, became a cruel twist of fate, denying us even the slightest chance of connection. And yet, I clung to the belief that it didn't matter, that I could resist any trap Harry might set, if indeed there was one at all.

But as the days turned into weeks, the emptiness of his absence became unbearable. It was a constant ache, a gnawing hunger that consumed me from within. My mind replayed our last encounter over and over again, his tousled hair, the warmth of his hand enveloping mine. I tried to bury these memories, to focus on my work, but they lingered like a specter, haunting every corner of my consciousness.

In the midst of this turmoil, Beck remained a steadfast presence in my life. Though not as striking as Harry, he knew me in ways no one else did. Our bond, forged through laughter and shared experiences, should have been enough to sustain me. And yet, there was a darkness within me, a jealousy that festered and grew with each passing day.

I tried to push these feelings aside, to bury them beneath a facade of dedication and loyalty. But deep down, I knew the truth. I was consumed by thoughts of Harry, by the forbidden fantasies that danced tantalizingly at the edges of my mind. I imagined his lips against mine, his arms around me, and I burned with a desire so fierce it threatened to consume me whole.

But still, I resisted. I was determined to remain faithful to Beck, to honor the commitment we had made to each other. And yet, as the days dragged on, I couldn't help but wonder what might have been. What untold possibilities lay beyond the confines of our current reality?

In the depths of my despair, a spark of defiance ignited within me. I refused to let my manager's manipulations dictate my fate. I would fight tooth and nail for the chance to be with Harry if there was even a chance at all. For in his arms, I knew, lay the possibility of a love so powerful it could transcend the boundaries of time and space.

And so, with renewed determination, I set out to defy fate itself, to seize the happiness that had been denied to me for far too long should the opportunity arise. For I knew that true love was worth any sacrifice, any risk.

And then, as if the universe itself conspired to grant me a reprieve from the relentless torment of our separation, fate intervened in the most unexpected way. It was a stroke of mysterious luck, a twist of fortune so improbable it seemed almost too good to be true. The second closer of the night fell victim to the flu, leaving a void that only one person could fill—Harry.

Weeks had passed since I last laid eyes on him, weeks filled with the same agonizing routine, the same replayed scenarios etched into the fabric of my existence. Weeks where I dared to hope for the chance encounter that would shatter the suffocating barrier between us. And now, as I sat on the edge of my seat, my heart pounding with anticipation, it seemed that hope had finally materialized.

The chaos of the office enveloped me, phones ringing, clients bustling in and out, but my attention remained singularly focused on the entrance, waiting for him to appear. And then, almost imperceptibly, he slipped through the door, a sudden presence in the whirlwind of activity.

I felt his presence before I saw him, a familiar warmth tingling at the edges of my senses. And then he was there, beside me, spinning in his chair with a childlike exuberance that belied the gravity of our situation.

"Ayla," his voice cut through the cacophony, drawing my gaze to meet his, "It's been a while, yeah?" His grin was infectious, a fleeting glimpse of the camaraderie we once shared.

I nodded, my throat constricted with emotion. "Yeah, Harry, it's been a minute."

There was a pause, the weight of unspoken words hanging heavy in the air between us. And then, with a casualness that belied the significance of his next words, he spoke.

"Ya know, Callie asked me to come over for drinks at hers."

My heart stuttered, a surge of conflicting emotions coursing through me. "Oh? Yeah? Are you going to go?"

He chuckled, a sound as bittersweet as it was familiar. "No."

The conversation faltered, the silence punctuated only by the rhythmic clacking of keys. And then, in a moment of reckless abandon, I seized upon the opportunity to lay bare my own hidden truths.

"Callie told me I should stay away from you."

His laughter echoed in the stillness, a haunting melody that reverberated through the depths of my soul. And when he turned to meet my gaze, his eyes held a sadness that mirrored my own.

"She's probably right," he murmured, his voice tinged with resignation, "I'm a bad idea."

And in that moment, as the weight of our shared regret hung heavy in the air, I knew that some mysteries were better left unsolved, some desires better left unfulfilled.

As I stepped into the quiet solitude of my apartment, the pieces of Callie's deceit fell into place with a chilling clarity. It wasn't merely a matter of avoiding emotional entanglements; it was a calculated bid to claim Harry for herself. The realization hit me like a tidal wave, crashing over me with the force of a thousand regrets. Callie wasn't afraid of me succumbing to Harry's allure; she was terrified of him choosing me over her. Her elaborate scheme to keep us apart crumbled in the harsh light of truth. She may have been misguided in her actions, but in her twisted logic, she was right. And so was Harry—it was indeed a bad idea.

The air in my apartment felt heavy with the weight of betrayal and disillusionment as I was greeted by Beck, his apron tied loosely around his waist, the aroma of sizzling steak and potatoes wafting from the stove. His tender kiss on my cheek and the gentle brush of his thumb across my lips were a stark contrast to the turmoil raging within me.

"Hi Love," he murmured, his voice a soothing balm to my frazzled nerves, "Dinner is just about ready. I made some steak and potatoes for you."

I managed a small smile in response before shedding my coat and sinking onto the couch. Exhaustion washed over me like a tidal wave, the weight of the day's events bearing down on me with relentless force.

Beck must have sensed the heaviness in my demeanor as I stared off into the distance, lost in my own thoughts.

"You look tired," he observed, concern etched into his features, "Do you just want to go to bed?"

I nodded wearily, the desire for escape overwhelming me.

"Yeah, Beck, I'm sorry. It was a day. A bad day. Thanks for dinner. I'll bring it for lunch tomorrow."

His understanding smile only served to deepen the ache in my chest as he hugged me goodnight.

Alone in our bed, I lay there, the echoes of Harry's words reverberating through the recesses of my mind like a haunting refrain.

"I'm a bad idea."

And yet, despite the warning bells ringing in my head, the allure of Harry only intensified. The forbidden fruit dangling just out of reach, tantalizing me with its dangerous promise. As sleep claimed me, I clung to the hope that perhaps, just perhaps, he could offer the solace I so desperately craved, even if it meant succumbing to the very danger I knew I should avoid.

All Parts

[genloss-confessions]

brecht anon here so german playwright bertolt brecht thought that generally people who watched plays would engage only in the emotional aspect of the play and the characters and not interact with the political or artistic statement s that the writer was actually trying to communicate. he founded the concept of epic theater around using the medium of the play and the theater to estrange audiences from their empathetic reactions to characters and instead make them have an objective reflection on the play's contents and allegories for real world issues. this would appear as deliberately low-budget scenery, printing stage directions on the scenery, having actors speak directly to the audience, perform musical numbers, or play multiple parts in the same show, essentially always reminding the audience that they are watching a play, removing their ability to become immersed in its reality. this estrangement or alienation effect is what the word Verfremdunseffekt refers to. (real brecht-heads, feel free to yell at me for being reductive)

for episodes one and two, tse uses these same ideas to create a barrier between the audience and its characters: the linear cabin set that doesn't resemble a house, the fight scenes, the moment where you can see the aluminum baking dish the patient's slime-guts are being kept in. in the very creation of these scenes, we as an audience are primed to not care about anyone in them, since we are reminded all times of the falsity of the reality we are being presented. we are separated from the characters (especially the carousel actors!) as whole empathetic beings by the fact that we are not shown the characters as whole three-dimensional beings, but as tools to serve an allegorical frame work.

arguably this also appears in episode three, in the scenes where we are shown the camera operators, and especially in the founders cut with its use of adr for hetch and the interstitial cuts to the in universe slmccl stream. even in these moments of purported reality, the bones of the show itself estrange us from the characters.

until the final scene, where we see the truth for the only time.

of course, tse is definitiely not intentionally brechtian, since the finale centers around our empathy for the blight of the main character. additionally, brecht's theories were often not successful in their execution, as playwatchers still found the plights of the characters emotionally moving despite this efforts to distance them from the audience. still, tse's focus on the space between the audience and the characters, use of "flat" characters in service of its larger allegorical message and deliberately low-quality set design in service of alienation mean that i can say with confidence it's at least a bit brechtian. now if you'll excuse me the pretentious police are putting out extradition orders.

.

[fiercestpurpose]

Friends at the Table season breakdown

Friends at the Table is an actual-play podcast focused on critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between friends.

But this post is for anyone who's ever thought, "What is Friends at the Table actually about?" Well, it's about a lot of different things, depending on the season.

Seasons of Hieron -- Autumn in Hieron (S1), Winter in Hieron (S3), Spring in Hieron (S5)

Using DungeonWorld as its main system, this is closest to DND style high fantasy with adventurers of different races who come together to go on quests

What starts as a series of fetch quests escalates until the dead don’t stay dead, the nature of existence is brought into question, and the world itself is in danger of dying.

Follow a team of morally ambiguous adventurers as they fuck around only to find out!

Starring: an evil woman with an eviler sword, an orc who shows us why true neutral is in fact the evilest possible alignment, a snake oil salesman, a paladin who accidentally serves three different gods, and more!

Counter/Weight (S2)

Giant robot season #1

Cyberpunk/space opera/mecha anime

It’s the Cold War in space. Two long time enemies, Liberal Democracy Land and Corporation Land, recently banded together to stop the Empire of Fish Aliens.

Now, our story is set in space Berlin, on a planet divided between the two reluctant allies

Follow a parking robot, an exiled fish alien, a hacker, and a former pop idol as they try to survive as mercenaries and fight off giant robots with their own giant robots.

Marielda (S2.5?)

Steampunk heist season

A mini-season, set in the ancient past of Hieron, but it works as a standalone.

A group of criminals rob God. This sets them off on a dangerous path that will determine the fate of all of Hieron.

A story about the power of information and the power of access to information. Featuring trains, azaleas, ghosts, divorce, and clarinets.

Twilight Mirage (S4)

Giant robot season #2!

(The giant robot seasons are set in the same universe but several thousand years apart. They're loosely connected but can be enjoyed separately.)

The contemplative, wondering nature of Studio Ghibli films meets the teeming space opera of Star Wars

The Divine Fleet is a great utopia that has lasted thousands of years, powered by their machine gods. But one-by-one, these machines are dying off. Can two teams of specialized government agents save their gods and their way of life? And if they can't, how will all the people of the Divine Fleet find a new way forward?

Featuring the greatest Friends at the Table character of all time: fat, purple-furred, bisexual catgirl in sexy lingerie who rides a motorbike, runs a speakeasy, and can alter reality with her mind

Partizan (S6) (And Palisade, its sequel, is S8)

Giant robot season #3

Twilight Mirage is set explicitly in a utopia. Partizan is set explicitly in the middle of an exploitative empire. The guiding question here is: How do you even begin to imagine the possibility that such an empire could fall?

At the center of a galactic empire made up of rival states, we follow two groups: a mercenary squad that specializes in theft and sabotage, and a group of criminals under the control of a young and spoilt noble. But everyone has their own agenda, and as the empire hurtles towards civil war, who will get what they so desperately want? And who will lose it all?

Also, of course, they are in giant robots

Sangfielle (S7)

Horror fantasy

Sangfielle is a land of sprawling plains crisscrossed by semi-sentient malevolent trains. Strange things from the past or future come out of the mines, old and new gods alike appear in unexpected places, and you are always at risk of losing your life, your freedom, or simply your self

Nature vs. technology horror where both nature and technology can be equally horrifying!!

Characters include: a grotesque eyeball that possesses people but only consensually, a giant goat person whose life's purpose is to kill trains, and a junk mage who keeps taking things he shouldn't

Bluff City (Bonus season)

What if Atlantic City was Even Weirder

A series of one or two shots that are loosely linked by their location and come together to tell the story of the city. Each story uses a different system and so each one has a slightly different feel.

The paranormal, the surreal, the gritty, the desperate, and the outrageous rub shoulders in Bluff City, in stories featuring superheroes, ghost hunters, murder mysteries, and a priceless one-of-a-kind bird.

Things that the show is always about, no matter the season:

Religion — Always. From DND-style gods to robot gods to Catholic God to weird old gods you dig up from the mines, there are lots of gods and lots of people worshipping gods in different ways.

Labor issues and political issues surrounding control, propaganda, surveillance.

Weird body stuff/weird identity stuff — clones, consciousness transferred into different bodies, robots that influence your thoughts, robots that bond to your body, being seven thousand bees in a trench coat, etc

Having fun with different ttrpg systems! They use a lot of different systems on the podcast

Aesthetics, just like generally, and especially fashion. Action stops for twenty minutes while everyone goes around and describes what their character is wearing in exact detail. It’s fantastic.

Fun, silly, or unique names, ranging from "Lazer Ted" to "they marked scars of light in pitch; born in fiercest purpose, and beheld as the signet sealed upon our pact"

Critical worldbuilding, smart characterization, and fun interaction between friends!

[the-literary-rodent]

Chapter 1: Origins.

    “So you've come for that story I promised?” 

     “I have! Tell me about your world!”

    “I shall, I shall. Patience my child. However you must be given a warning… These stories won't have a happy ending.”

     The beginning was not too dissimilar to where we find ourselves now. It was nothing, but at the same time the concept of nothing hadn't existed, and it wouldn't have existed, till there was something. The first something, was my mother and father.

    Their origin is clouded in mystery. The two of them simply began to exist in a moment. And in that moment of being something, they discovered what nothing was, and wanted to be rid of it. So these two entities began to create. The first reality was what they believed to be the idea of beauty, tranquility, and safety. We call this the garden. Mother Life used the garden to grow the first people, and Father Spirit used these people to grow the first souls.

    Four beings were made at first. Mother and Father wanted these four to observe the rest of the world as it was made. And they went about this by creating a bookshelf. Every volume that would manifest on this shelf contained a story of my parents' creations. Sadly this story is not about those “librarians”, but I recommend you keep them in mind, should you wish to hear their story after my own. 

    From the garden, Mother and Father wished to make a new world. Separate From the garden. The expanse you call the universe, although not the same one you call home. The first universe, was mine. Mother and Father gave it form, and the capacity for life, but chose to put other entities in charge, in order to see what would happen if others had their power. 

    I believe your people gave us the term God's. There were seventeen of us total. Each god of this universe had dominion over one core element, those elements were also our names. Although mortals tended to give us different names based on their cultures. 

    My element was Darkness. The others were fire, water, ice, air, tera, nature, light, electricity, toxins, Good, evil, time, space, plasma, weather, and law. 

Most of us had been given a roughly humanoid appearance as that's what Mother and Father possessed. I say mostly as none of us could be given the description of human and be accurate. 

    In fact Light, Electricity, Weather, and I were shapeless. We were simply living embodiments of our elements. Other gods like Fire, could be most accurately described by how your Egyptians depicted gods. A human body with an animal head, in this case a bird like Horus. Evil on the other hand was the reverse of this, as he had a bird-like body with a human head. Gods like Ice were nearly all human, aside from his flesh of snow, and wings of frost. The Air goddess appeared to be all human, minus gilded horns adoring her skull, the same could be said about Good, but his inhumane trait was as simple as blue skin. Plasma appeared like a normal person if they were trapped in a gelatin suit. Nature had a body made of wood, with her large hair being leaves. Toxin could easily be mistaken for a person with sunburn, till you glimpsed his face and saw pure red sclera, and a maw with teeth that could be mistaken for knife blades.

Time had a rather strange appearance. Very animalistic, he had the face of a rabbit, ears too, but two large red horns on his forehead, which contrasted his purple skin and black hair, as well as green human crafted armor he pulled from the future. Law had a majestic figure, nearly human body except for her torso, which gave you a glimpse into the universe itself. You would describe it like a “galaxy tattoo”. She also depicts the visage of what you call “The lady of justice” but instead of her blindfolded face, Law instead has a face covered with multiple eyes. 

    Sadly, these god's were not wholly kind as many would depict someone of our status. These god's often did not get along, getting into minor brawls at the drop of a pin. Arguing over every detail. However, we were still tasked with forming the universe into something hospitable. Most of them decided to mold a species similar to you humans in our own images. Each member of the gods species were given what were called “gifts”. These gifts allowed the mortals to utilize very small parts of the gods' creation powers. But as time went on, new species were born from natural evolution, these new species gained gifts as well. These gifts are what most species used to discern mortal from animal as only those with proper developed sentience would develop a gift.

    I was the only god to not create a species. In fact I specifically chose to seal away my gifts so no mortal could utilize them. My sealed powers took the form of a blade. I found a non habitable planet and plunged the sword into a stone so that a mortal couldn't take a gift of my element. 

    From there the gods grew more aggressive towards each other. Each one believed their species to be better than the others and had utter faith in their elements. This started a battle between them all, and revealed to us that we weren't as immortal as we believed. Weather and Plasma were killed in that battle, both at the hands of Air. The gods closest to their elements somehow gained the powers of those dead gods, which gave some of the greediest the idea to absorb the powers of all the others. 

    The war between the gods continued on indefinitely, and in the midst of the fighting I was able to make friends with three of the gods, those three being Nature, Good, and toxin. We kept each other alive during our war, but refused to kill any of the other gods. 

    Sadly for you, I don't have a real number to explain how long the gods fought for. When you're immortal, infinity could be an afternoon and you'd feel no difference, but that comparison should give you a rough idea. 

    I'm not sure when the idea was brought up, but at some point during our fighting Toxin had given the idea to stop fighting each other by reminding the gods what the battle started as. He reminded us that the argument began because each god believed their mortals were better. So he encouraged us to travel our worlds and find a mortal of our elements to fight on our behalf. The gods actually agreed and momentarily halted their brawl. 

    Good, Toxin, and I chose to instead of pitting a mortal against the other gods' champions, we would simply leave and find mortals to live amongst. We had tried convincing nature to join us, but she chose instead that she would stay with the gods. Her reasoning was to prevent them from looking for us. She would convince them that we had tried to backstab each other and got ourselves killed.

    She did, however, come with us to find her champion. 

[knowlimitations]

Transcending Dimensions: Exploring Potentiality in the Quantum Realm

The endless abyss of potentiality is the womb of all existence, encompassing both the tangible and the potential. Just as a flickering candle disperses darkness, consciousness sheds light upon the uncharted depths of the subconscious.  It is unfortunate that our innate inclination is to seek solace within the confines of familiarity. Letting go of the known threatens to unravel our perception of reality, compelling us to desperately cling to our established beliefs.  We cannot let go of what we know as it would disrupt our perception of what we know as reality, so we desperately cling to our belief systems, it is all we know.  We are deeply unsettled and disturbed by the idea of the unknown… death is a classic example of this. Are these tendencies our greatest hindrance?

The double-slit experiment, a cornerstone of quantum mechanics, invites us to question the nature of reality itself. This experiment can be a contentious one, but it truly does disrupt the foundation of what we know about reality. Matter can operate as particles or waves depending on who is watching...  the observer and the observed do not appear to be separate entities but intertwined participants that are the foundation of the reality we perceive. Quantum entanglement, another marvel of the quantum world, transcends the confines of classical logic, it beautifully illustrates the interconnectedness that pervades the universe. It opens our minds to a reality beyond our grasp, where particles communicate instantaneously across vast distances, defying the constraints of space and time.

These are two profound examples of a realm we don’t yet understand. Perhaps we don’t understand the quantum world because we cannot yet perceive why these particles act a certain way in our current paradigm. In a 2D world, a stick person would perceive a three-dimensional object, such as a sphere, as a series of changing 2D shapes, like expanding and shrinking circles, depending on their perspective and position relative to the object. In our current reality, we perceive the world in 3D, but what if we had the cognitive capacity to perceive it in 4D? Perhaps we could understand the mechanics of this "spooky action at a distance” (Einstein), and therefore, ask the questions that are more appropriate to it’s multidimensional nature. This is speculative and hypothetical, but I can’t help but contemplate this idea.

If we aren’t open to new paradigms, the questions we ask will always be limited. What if, by shedding the limitations of certainty and embracing the fluidity of uncertainty, we could break free from the cyclical patterns that have disempowered humanity throughout history? What if, instead of clinging to our egos and rigid belief systems, we allowed ourselves to be swept away by the currents of curiosity and wonder? I do believe it would transform our current scientific model. In this paradigm-shifting thought, scientists become not mere seekers of knowledge, but explorers of consciousness itself. By transcending the limitations of linear thinking and embracing a multidimensional perspective, they may unearth deeper truths about the underlying fabric of reality.

When do we collectively choose to transcend our narrow, self-centered human existence and venture into the vast, abundant, and empowering abyss of infinite potential?

0D = dot (zero dimensions). 1D = The line that was drawn from the dot now has 2 dots (2 zero dimensions). 2D = The square has lines on all of its 4 sides (4 one-dimensions) 3D = The cube that we drew from this square has squares on all of its 6 sides (6 two dimensions) If we follow the same order… then the fourth dimension should have 8 cubes (4D = 8 x 3D) The fourth dimension should have 8 three dimensions. If we draw according to this, this is the shape of the 4th dimension. This shape is known as Tesseract. A Tesseract has 8 cubes in it. In geometry, as we increase the number of dimensions, their shapes will get more and more complicated to understand using our eyes. Illustration and Information from Santhosh Kumar D, Digitash.

The double-slit experiment is a fundamental experiment in quantum mechanics that demonstrates the wave-particle duality of quantum entities, such as electrons or photons. It involves shooting particles one at a time towards a barrier with two slits, which results in an interference pattern on a screen behind the barrier, suggesting that the particles exhibit wave-like behavior. This experiment highlights the bizarre nature of quantum mechanics, where particles can behave as both waves and particles simultaneously.