#whats the point in creating a diverse world if people are punished for their diversities?

[butchniqabi]

In islam are all nonbelievers going to hell permanently? If god is truly merciful wouldn't most good peple get into heven eventually, once theyve ben proportionately punished and repented?

theres an old joke my catholic grandmother told me once where a man dies and goes to heaven and is greeted at the gates by saint peter. he gets shown around and sees wonders beyond his imagination, people existing in harmony, and all the glories of god. soon they come upon a tall wall stretching out for miles and miles and the man, shocked, asks "why is there a wall in heaven?" saint peter quickly says "shh! thats for the catholics they think theyre the only ones here!"

[femboypussy420]

not only is it a waste of time to try and create a hierarchy of who faces more oppression or has more privilege than someone else, but trying to do it with entire groups is just straight up stupid. saying trans women face more oppression than trans men or vice versa, or lesbians vs bi women, or aromantic vs asexual, etc, in any concrete way that equally affects every member of that group, is just so divorced from the reality of people's lives and how oppression even works.

experiences of discrimination and oppression are very dependent on how the person in question is perceived. just as an example, there are completely binary trans men who are perceived 100% of the time as women, and there are nonbinary transmasculine people who are perceived 100% of the time as men. trying to make any concrete statements about the oppression faced by individual transmasculine people, including the concept that trans men unequivocally experience "male privilege", do not and cannot take into account the diversity of experiences of people who fall under the umbrella of transmasculine.

but on top of that, I think it's wrong and genuinely dangerous to try and categorize oppression faced by different people under the queer umbrella as separate, unrelated phenomenons. transmisogyny, transadrophobia, lesbophobia, homophobia, biphobia, aphobia, are all words that can help us describe how things affect different groups of people, but they are not separate and distinct. if a bigot sees a person doing gender Wrong they do not give a shit if that person is transmasc or transfem or a cis gnc woman or a cis gnc man. they are not thinking "oh, well i'm fine being transmisogynistic, but i don't want to be transandrophobic, so i'd better check that i'm committing the right sort of hate crime". people are punished for doing gender and sexuality in the "wrong" way regardless of how they personally identify, because the conservative goal is conformity with very little variation allowed, and we all fall outside of that, and they really do not give a shit about the specifics of which type of "wrong" you are. even cishet people who do not identify as queer in any way are punished for being outside what western society considers an appropriate expression of gender.

oppression is not a pyramid, no one identity puts you "above" or "below" people on a hierarchy of who is more discriminated against. people can identify as the exact same thing and be treated very differently, as well as identify completely differently and be treated the same. the oppression that we as queers face in the real world, outside of online arguments, does not care what specific variety of LGBTQIA+ you are. this doesn't even take into account how intersecting axes of oppression such as race and disability interact with queerness, and trying to lump people into a category based on one identity they hold and making these categories seem distinctly different with no overlap and no shared experiences does us all a disservice.

every aspect of a person's specific identity affects how they make their way through the world, and trying to turn it into a "well i have two more Oppression Points than you, so if I'm transphobic to you it's fine because it's punching down" is just doing their work for them. oppression is based in the institutions and not the individuals, and making it a discussion of individual privilege over each other, especially in a way that encourages infighting and puts people down, distracts us from working against those institutions holding us down.

[sburbian-sage]

Seeing the recent post about other species playing Sburb, you ponder for a moment if you should toss your own out there. It certainly isn't believable, but the Arbiter, despite their titular skepticism, doesn't seem to particularly mind their blog being in part a collection of curiosities. So you figure, "Eh, what the hell?"

You proceed to write a post informing them of the bizarre fact that carapacians are quite capable of being players of the game, and that you yourself are one.

The product of a successful Sburb session with a working door (perhaps the least believable piece of your story, but you see no way to write around it), your versions of Prospit and Derse were shrunk by the Witch of Space, and brought into the universe they created.

There your kind lived alongside consorts and humans, Prospit and Derse and orbiting the new Earth. And so it was for thousands of years, until at last the final god perished heroically, and tales of the game and the original purpose of your kind and the consorts began to fade into legend.

Until one day, a frog temple was discovered, and it all began again. Your human friends roped you into joining as a player, in an attempt to save you from the meteors, once it became clear that too many sessions were happening for your worlds to survive.

It of course made for an exceptionally strange session. Plagued with glitches of every sort, as the game tried to make allowances for it's own construct. Your people's culture was strange to you, with different prototypings than your own had been shaped by, and their reverence for you, as though you were just as important as the humans... And yet, you didn't need a Heart player to tell that they were a creepily simple people, lesser for never having lived outside the game's direct influence. You made so many promises to them, about how things could be better, how they could come to the universe you would make...

You had thought the broken door was your fault. That you were never meant to play, and the game was punishing you for your hubris. It was a bit of a relief to find this was not the case, though you wonder what was different about the session your own gods came from, that let them escape?

You can't help but resent it now, this game that created your kind. Though your carapace is white, you see nothing of late but flaws and horrors.

You dream in purple. And you're thankful for it, you don't want to spend time on Prospit now. You can't handle your kind's insistence on the nobility of their cause. You relate now, to the sick feeling the black carapacians get when looking at a frog.

Wait, are we writing fanfiction now? Me noting the phenomenon of "sometimes people who are not humans or trolls play SBURB" is an observation of reality, not making up stuff for giggles. It's entirely possible that person didn't actually meet a Plant Person and is just making stuff up, but it's also plausible enough that we can establish a protocol for verification and documentation. But you seem to be implying that you're speaking reality into being by suggesting that I make things true by acknowledging them? Very weird.

In any case, this second-person prose does have a point in that it would be entirely possible for a Carapacian to be a SBURB player. They're bipedal, communicative, form societies, and have access to (and an ability to use) technology, making them fit the "playeroid" template. The issue of course being that Carapacians are native to SBURB sessions, and once a SBURB session ends, everything from that session ceases, with nothing but memories carrying over. If the doors did work (BIG "if"), then I don't see why Carapacians wouldn't be a valid pick for playerdom. So even if this is fanfiction, it's very plausible and well thought-out fanfiction. Especially the bits on how Carapacian culture is so mutable and influenced by prototypings. That might actually result in Carapacians having the most diverse-by-default player species in all of Paradox Space.

While we're on this topic, Consorts could also never be players because they're SBURB natives, but I also don't know if they meet the cognitive "must be this tall enough to ride" line.

[aevellewritessometimes]

I am hoping to be an author someday, but due to current events here in the US, I have a feeling that this dream may go unfulfilled. However, I want to share some of my writing anyway, because why not? Fair warning: this project is my newest project, so many details are still being worked on, and sorry if the way I have this formatted is confusing

(Brief?) Summary of my current project, Tales from Agnendo Academy

Context of my story:

A magical world is attached to the normal/real world*. In this magic realm - The Mage Isles - some of the more powerful mages, especially those from the Mage Council*, have been able to create spells which could be passed down through their bloodline. These spells could be anything from something unique to them or a special/amplified version of a more common spell*. These spells are referred to as Legacy Spells, and those with the ability to wield them are called Legacy Mages, and the bloodline they come from are called Legacy Houses.

[Footnote 1: attached in a way similar to how the fae realm is attached to the human world in the Cruel Prince trilogy. Footnote 2: "Mage Council" is a placeholder term. Footnote 3: magic system is also a work in progress and so are the Legacy Spells.]

However, there was an event that occurred several centuries* before the current story takes place; an attempted rebellion*, led by members of the Mage Council. This rebellion failed, and as a punishment, all who participated in this rebellion were cursed; both they and several future generations would be cut off from their magic. The worst offenders had also been banished from the Mage Isles altogether.

[Footnote 1: exact amount of time is currently undecided. Footnote 2: reason for said rebellion is still being worked on]

Afterwards, most of the banished Houses had died out. But a few ended up having so many offspring that their bloodlines managed to outlive the curse. And now, there's just a bunch of Legacy Mages running around with no idea what to do with their magic.

The sudden loss of so many powerful mages took a toll on the Mage Isles. The royals and remaining members of the Council acknowledged this. So. they came up with a solution; a way to track down those who had regained their magic. Once these Legacy Mages had been tracked down, they would be offered a spot in a state of the art magic academy which was specifically built to hone the skills of any and all Legacy Mages, regardless of if their house had been cursed after the war or if they were aware of their family's history.

And this leads us to the main setting of the story: Agnendo Academy; Royal Institute For Legacy Mages*. Although most people simply refer to it as Agnendo Academy or the Legacy College.

[Footnote: full name is not canon]

And now for the plot:

....it will entirety depend on which book you're reading.

It might be a bad idea, but I'm doing this DSMP style: everyone is the main character of their own story.

What I plan on doing is telling the specific stories from the perspectives of each character. I am currently undecided on if I'm going to make one book for each character or if I'm going to group a few of them together. Since I have 40 different main characters right now (and I have no plans on adding or removing any), I will most likely end up doing the latter option.

What is the point of this?:

This is the part where I took inspiration from Twisted Wonderland. An amalgamation of stories from people with various backgrounds, whether it be growing up in poverty, your family making you aware of the fact that you're not the favorite child, or being bullied when you were younger.

I know many people have been able to relate to at least one of the characters' backstories - shit I'm one of them.

And I want my story (/stories) to be similar to that. Except with more diversity, fewer limits, and (hopefully) fewer plot holes.

Quick Notes:

Will there be romance? Currently undecided, but I'm leaning towards "probably."

Will there be smut? Hard no.

Will these books end up on the banned book list for a red state? If they don't I'm doing something wrong.

Will there be queer characters? Yes. As a matter of fact I think I have more queer characters than non-queer characters.

Will there be POC characters? Yes. I may be white but that doesn't prevent me from doing research. Assuming these books actually get published someday, I will also be hiring sensitivity readers.

Will there be non-human characters? Yes, but given the setting, humans will be the majority.

Will there be hard/triggering topics (abuse, addiction, death, SA, etc.)? Yes, but most topics (SA namely) will simply be stated or implied to have happened before the story takes place and will not be depicted in detail. I'm going for fantasy, not splatterpunk (nothing against splatterpunk though). Again, assuming these books get published someday, I will add trigger warnings for each topic regardless of how explicitly depicted they are.

Will these books be inspired by other pieces of media? As already stated, yes. Although those already mentioned are (probably) not going to be the only ones.

Any other questions? My askbox is open and so are the comments! Thoughts and feedback are always appreciated!

I do eventually plan on releasing a few more details about my characters and the worldbuilding, however I do not know exactly when this will happen.

[fromthemouthofkings]

The thing is, regardless of your desire to enact punishment for shitty behavior, your feelings about what's just, your wanting not to have to "coddle" people, of your deep-rooted wish (and mine) that people would just see what's wrong with the world and just do the right thing because it's right without having to be told to do it, the fact remains that calling people out over social issues with guilt-tripping and social shame doesn't fucking work. That is, it does work—but the work it does is not the work that it's advertised to do. The callout is a magnificent tool for scapegoating, for enforcing in-group compliance, for creating mass harassment campaigns of the most marginal members of a group, and enflaming ingroup-outgroup us-vs-them thinking, but it is a fucking terrible tool for inspiring people to genuinely change their own behavior.

At its most efficient, the callout allows you to make a well-meaning member of your own in-group grovel while you dogpile them, and puts every one of your allies around you on edge, afraid of stepping over the line and getting dogpiled themselves. When it's actually pointed at someone who is not in your in-group, someone who has decent boundaries and a sense of self-respect, and/or someone who intends to be causing harm or who believes they're in the right, the callout is at best going to be brushed off as inconsequential and ignored, and at worst be seen as an attack—which it is—and is going to encourage people to get defensive and either withdraw or else try and hit back.

Unfortunately, you won't carry your cause forward on the force of your belief in it alone. You have to be strategic. It may or may not be "fair", but the fact remains that calling people in by inviting them into the conversation, listening to their thoughts, connecting our struggles to their experiences, giving them work to do, affirming them, and rewarding incremental change is not only a kinder strategy, it's also more effective. And it's more work. It doesn't give you that rush of power that comes from hitting back against someone you perceive as the enemy—or just someone who isn't being an ally in quite the right way. It involves compromise, learning to meet others where they are at. It's slow. It's often tedious. But it leads to coalition-building, it makes way for genuine changes in thinking and behavior, it makes room for more diversity in our movements, and it unites us and makes us stronger.

At the end of the day, you can't control what other people do, but you can control your own actions. What strategies do you want to use?

[loominggaia]

ARJUKAM, FAITH IN HARMONY

OVERVIEW

Arjukam is an ancient religion that originated somewhere in the Midlands, likely in the First Age. It spread quickly, and today it is a popular religion throughout the entire continent of Serkel. It is not favored by any particular species, and is practiced by a diverse range of peoples. It is the most common religion among Matuzans.

Because it is so ancient, there are many different interpretations of this faith, and two different Arjukists may have slightly different beliefs and traditions from each other.

The Arjukam symbol represents the prophet Arjuk’s hands holding a divided world together.

CREATION THEORY

Mother Gaia created all peoples, then blessed a person named Arjuk as Her chosen one. Arjuk became the world’s first divine, an immortal being who could communicate directly with Gaia and the sacred celestials. He was tasked with bringing all the world’s peoples together and teaching them how to live in harmony; not only with each other, but with Gaia as well.

Arjuk prophesied that if Gaia’s peoples did not achieve harmony, there would one day be a great World War that would kill Gaia and all life upon Her. He traveled all over the world, preaching his prophesy to everyone he met. He was said to be a kind and helpful individual, using his divine powers to help the less fortunate and bring peace to every region he visited.

However, as time went on and civilizations began to advance, peoples became more resistant to Arjuk’s messages of harmony. The King of the Midlands saw Arjuk as a threat to his campaign to take over Serkel, so he made a deal with an evil sorcerer to assassinate him. The sorcerer used an enchanted weapon, the Divine Executioner, to destroy Arjuk and steal his divine powers for himself. This sorcerer later became known as the Divine of Hate.

Though Arjuk was gone, his message prevailed through all the peoples he had influenced. Arjukists practice their religion in his honor, and make it a point to never forget Gaia’s wish for peace.

HISTORY AND CULTURE

The details of Arjukam’s creation theory differ slightly by region and culture, and so do the interpretations of his teachings. What species Arjuk was, for example, is not agreed upon by all Arjukists. His age and exact place of origin are also debated.

Arjuk’s message was said to be recorded in a holy book called the “Marandu”. The Marandu has been copied, translated, and re-interpreted countless times since the original was written, and many different versions exist today. Though the details may differ, the core aspects of this faith have remained the same since its ancient beginnings.

CORE ARJUKIST BELIEFS

These beliefs are consistent among all Arjukists.

Mother Gaia is an intelligent, living being that created all peoples. She cares for each person individually and is a benevolent entity.

Arjuk was the world’s first divine and originated somewhere in Serkel.

All peoples should strive to live in harmony with each other and the environment.

Celestials are cosmic spirits that aid Gaia. They reward righteous people with a good afterlife and punish wicked people with a bad afterlife.

Divines are prophets chosen by Gaia to carry on Arjuk’s message of harmony. Some divines, however, rejected this responsibility to pursue selfish goals. They are considered heretics and should not be glorified for disrespecting Gaia.

The Divine of Hate gained his divine powers by stealing them from Arjuk, and is considered to be a “false divine”, as his divinity was not granted by Gaia.

SUBJECTIVE ARJUKIST BELIEFS

Most Arjukists share these beliefs, but how strictly they adhere to them varies drastically between individuals.

Allkind should obey the advice of nymphs.

It is the duty of men to protect and destroy, and the duty of women to create and nurture. Men and women are equal in the eyes of Gaia, but are best suited to different roles to promote a thriving society. Women should not engage in combat, and men should not rear children.

Divines who reject Arjuk’s message of harmony are heretics and should be rejected. Divines who preach Arjuk’s message should be glorified.

Elements of nature, including beasts, are pieces of Gaia’s body and should be respected as such. She offers them as gifts to Allkind as an act of love. Prayers of gratitude should be offered before reaping nature’s bounty, and large operations should be overseen by nymphs. Peoples should not take more from Gaia than they need.

Love and creativity are sacred gifts bestowed upon Allkind by Gaia. Romance, affection, art, and music are integral to a thriving society.

Monsters are abominations that have no place on Gaia, as they were created by heretical divines for greedy purposes. Divines who forge monsters are disrespecting Gaia and should be reviled.

ARJUKIST HOLIDAYS AND TRADITIONS

PROPHET’S DAY: Takes place in winter. This is believed to be the day Arjuk was granted divinity by Gaia. Arjukists celebrate by displaying effigies of Arjuk and making sure his message is not forgotten. This is usually done by performing public readings of the Marandu, holding parades, singing hymns, and creating art that symbolizes harmony. On this day, the goal is to make his message impossible for anyone to ignore. Cities with large Arjukist populations are often forced to shut down on this date due to the mass celebrations.

REVERENCE OF BLESSINGS: The Reverence of Blessings is a 3-day holy event that ends on the last day of spring. Its purpose is to remind Arjukists of the special gifts Gaia gave them.

On the first day, they celebrate the gift of creativity by going to an Arjukist House of Worship, where they enjoy a feast, a concert, and an art show. Non-Arjukists are encouraged to attend as well, and often do. This day represents birth and creation.

On the second day, they celebrate the gift of love by showing affection to their loved ones. Traditionally, this involves exchanging flowers between friends, family, and lovers. This is a popular day for Arjukists to propose marriage, conceive children, or ask their crush on a date. This day represents living and loving.

On the third day, Arjukists celebrate the gift of afterlife by gaining the favor of benevolent celestials. This is done by performing acts of goodwill, volunteering, donating to charity, and making amends with their enemies. It’s common for Arjukists to team up with the Order of Love and Light on this day to accomplish elaborate humanitarian goals. This day represents death and afterlife.

CONTROVERSY

Like most religions, Arjukam has been corrupted and used as a tool of oppression by powerful entities. Some followers tend to cherry-pick or misinterpret scriptures from the Marandu to justify their immoral behavior.

Some sects of Arjukam have a bad reputation for grifting, misogyny, and bigotry, among other things. Some Arjukists believe that women should not be permitted to work, and that men cannot be blamed for violence because they are destructive by nature. They may also believe that foreigners are rejecting harmony by not practicing the same customs they do, and therefore must be destroyed to bring peace to Gaia. Powerful leaders often use this interpretation as an excuse to wage war on others.

Such extremist beliefs are not common, however, and the majority of Arjukists today consider themselves casual followers of the faith.

SEE ALSO

Ask - Religion

Ask - Arjukam

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[maaaahri]

I think if someone tried to tell me that BG3 is better-written than, say, NWN2:MotB or KotOR II or Planescape: Torment I'd go feral. Like I'm willing to give BG3 some props as game but the primary story is uh. Actually not very good imo, it's kind of propped up by its companion interactions and the sheer amount of "What-ifs" the game has properly scaffolded into its gameplay and narrative. Even then, its narrative reactivity pales in comparison to Disco Elysium in a lot of ways. The thing is, games do not have to have incredibly intricate, well-thought out narratives. BG3 has decent prose and pretty incredible voice acting serving a basic narrative that, at times, would probably benefit from being more simplistic than it is. Character companion stories explore more complex themes than the primary narrative and some do it better than others. All of this is fair and creates a pleasant narrative experience. BG3 would honestly probably be a worse product if it tried to tackle some of the themes NWN2:MotB does. I use that one here because it's the other example set primarily in the Forgotten Realms setting and thus has themes that are more theoretically easily accessible by BG3's narrative. MotB actually deals, hilariously and fun enough, with some of the same principle characters of BG3, but it's uh. It's a high-level adventure that ruminations on the nature of birth, death, and punishment. On divinity's responsibility in a world where the divine is far from abstract to its subjects, yet very few truly see the fruits of prayer in their lifetime. NWN2 does, however, play like garbage. It's based on 3.5 which was MY first DnD experience, but it's also far less accessible to newcomers in 2023. BG3 controls miles better (it's a more recent game that had far more time in the oven, of course it does and it should but it bears saying) and I feel like talking about graphics is actually a moot point in cRPGs. Yes, BG3 is very pretty. I, however, regularly go back and play through cRPGs that came out two decades ago and look like paper dolls on pixely matte paintings. You cannot entice me with graphics in a way that matters. As many individuals have also pointed out, in game so centered on graphics and diversity in 2023, there is no excuse for not providing a fat body type option and putting in the extra effort to be more inclusive instead of pretending fat people don't exist. TL;DR - if you like BG3 play other cRPGs, if you don't want to literally fight tooth-and-nail to just play a video game, Owlcat makes some great ones and I've heard good things about Pillars of Eternity, but I haven't gotten around to playing those. If you're a Star Wars fan you are literally doing yourself most bastardly if you've never played KotOR II, restored content patch or no (the restored planet is not actually very good I would recommend the patch for everything but that)

[cosmichighpriestess]

Why bad things happen to good People

My dear friends, we love you so very much, One of the questions we hear most often in heaven is, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” “Why do God and the angels not intervene and save people from the cruelty of others?” “Why does God not destroy those who wish to destroy others?”

These are questions worth asking because the answer will carry you beyond the world of your conditioning and into the energetic reality that governs how your universe operates.

You projected yourselves into your 3D reality because you wanted the adventure of creation. You were eager to immerse yourself in the vast diversity of life on earth. You knew that as you witnessed different things, behaviors, people, and situations, you would be inspired to create—through your focus and tuning—as never before. You knew you would call love from the intangible realms into this reality and, therefore, be part of the continuing creation of this reality. You were eager. You knew you’d have free will. Even if you chose parents who would catalyze great growth, you knew you had the free will to think what you wanted to think, focus on what you wanted to focus on, and, therefore, empower different realities.

In your 3D world, babies appear helpless. They are not yet mobile, verbal, or able to care for themselves. However, in the energetic reality, these brilliant souls are already emitting vibration, engendering reactions from life around them, and pointing their powerful love at what they wish to experience.

This begs the question, “Why are some babies born sick?” “Why are some born into unthinkable wars?” From the 3D perspective, this seems unjust, but the universe operates in a vibrational dance. Vibration does not punish and reward as you do in your human reality—vibration matches or not. A radio tuned to FM does not punish the AM signals by ignoring them. It simply cannot receive the differing signal due to its very nature. It can focus only on FM wavelengths.

So, too, there is a focus of energy in these souls coming to earth that will influence their family of origin, their circumstances, and, therefore, the experiences that transpire. The minute a soul incarnates in a physical body, they begin to emit vibration and attract what is a match. If they are born into a fearful family, it will take a great deal of focus from their soul not to fall into fear and experience fearful circumstances. They know this before they are born.

There are those among you who go to the gym to lift heavy weights. This is neither easy nor pleasant at times. However, these souls have a strong desire to become very, very strong, so the temporary pain is worth the gain to them. One could lift very gradually over a long period of time and become strong. One could visualize lifting in great detail and become strong. One could become a mother and become strong carrying their child! One could live their entire comfortably and never care about being physically strong. Each one of you would choose a different path—neither right nor wrong, simply different.

This analogy applies to souls coming to earth. Suppose you wish to create an unshakable focus on the security of God. In that case, you might choose a faithful family who acts as a role model. If you tend to worry and fret no matter what, you might face that tendency head-on by choosing a fearful family that would mirror that back and present a strong incentive for you to be different. If you wish to create more self-love, you might choose a family in which you see others love and care for themselves and follow those role models, or if you have a tendency to be hard on yourself, you might incarnate into a family that mirrors that until you, yourself, choose to remove your attention from the unloving and love yourself.

Sometimes, these souls are little angels who incarnate into families, knowing they will die with them, just to help guide the loved ones into the light. Sometimes, they go through the unthinkable to inspire compassion in the millions who will see their story on the news. Sometimes children come in with an illness as teachers weathering their challenges with amazing grace and inspiring all around them.

While immersed in 3D reality, it is difficult to understand that the eternal dance is more important to the soul than a possible, temporary experience of pain or challenge. Nonetheless, you are eternal souls. Some of you embraced challenges willingly as part of your pre-birth plans, and some of you embrace challenges that result from simply focusing too often on vibrations less than loving, that don’t feel good, to begin with.

This is why we teach, preach, and enjoin you to care about your feelings and choose thoughts that feel good. You experience more love, grace, and ease as you reach for the loving vibrations. Even if you came in determined to put yourself through challenges to incentivize the reach for love, you don’t have to continue on that path. You can reach for love now and shift out of those challenges.

The Divine gave you free will. Your angels must honor that. A parent could lock their child up in paradise to ensure a smooth and easy journey on earth, but the child would rebel. The child wants to experience life, make decisions, and expand. Likewise, the Divine could plant you in paradise, and for a while, you’d love it, but then you’d become bored. You’d want new experiences. You’d want choices and challenges. Would a child want a parent who gives them only a limited range of “safe choices?” Many of your parents tried. Did you appreciate it or seek your freedom to experience all of life?

Dear ones, life, within you and all beings and even universes, seeks expansion and growth. The Divine, your angels and soul who can truly love on earth, allows you the free will to make your own choices and experience your own outcomes. If you reach for help, we, your angels, can respond to all the loving vibrations in that request. To the degree you fear, you cannot hear. To the degree you hate, you make yourself wait for that love. To the degree you choose to look away from the pain and find the beauty in each moment, you open like a flower to eternal sunshine, love, assistance, and grace. It is always there.

So, “Why do bad things happen to good people?” You would have to examine each case individually for a specific answer, but the general answer is simple in all cases. Either they are open to the love flowing in each moment that can help them through even their chosen challenges, or they are not. Perfectly good people are hard on themselves and pinch off the flow of love, creating illness. Amazing earth angels feel they must martyr themselves instead of caring for themselves and often become silently bitter about it, thus pinching off love. Amazingly generous souls often ignore their warning signs and forge ahead with their giving even when it ceases to feel good.

We are not encouraging you to leave behind the love and goodness in your heart but rather to pay attention. When things feel good, in that moment, they are good. When they start to feel differently, make different choices. Good things happen to match good vibrations. Bad things happen when good vibrations have been sufficiently pinched off.

What you experience has nothing to do with your value or worth because you are already precious, already worthy, already encouraged by the Divine and your angels to choose a path that gives you joy.

God Bless You! We love you so very much.

— The Angels

[publicdeathadvocate]

Manifesto

My beliefs are reasonably simple, namely that organ donation should be mandatory (not opt out, mandatory) and the subsequent surplus of meat should be sold comercially.

Aditionally, murder should be legal, however have an extensive licensing process.

in this manifesto, I will explain and justify my views in more depth, and also explain the process by which the ideal world I describe could come to be.

Firstly, it must be addressed the current justice system does not work. I argue that it does not work for one very specific reason: law and morality are equated. Simply put, law and morality are two different tools for two different purposes. Morality serves as an enforcer and lubricant of social cohesion, a method by which members of an ingroup can relate to one another. If two members of an ingroup agree to something being moral or immoral, the outgroup that disagrees is immoral, which makes the ingroup just and therefore ingroup members safe to be around.

Law however, is a tool used to create an ideal society based on what the lawmakers consider is an ideal society. Which, in undemocratic countries or countries without diversity of ideas in politics, is inevitably based on the lawmaker's system of morality. In democratic countries with diversity of opinion, law tends to be based on common denominations between the moral systems of the ingroups in charge, and thus can be equated to the search of univeral laws of morality. Universal moral laws do not exist, and that is a good thing, because if morality wasn't subjective it would defeat the point of it existing as a concept in the first place.

Lets look at some examples. Prohibition and the war on drugs: the moral systems that led to both the prohibition AND the war on drugs are almost identical, namely that the lawmakers identified substance abuse as a threat to public health, and thus concluded that all substance use is immoral, and thus addicts are immoral. There were of course different factors at play such as racism, classism and political maneuvering in both of these, but that was the moral logic that the populace accepted so that is what I will use for my point. the reason that both of these movements failed is they both failed to account for one very simple fact: people seek what they want and need. If they cannot find it within the law, they will find it outside it.

The Bloody Code: The Bloody Code was a system of law and punishment in 18th and early 19th century Britian where even minor crimes such as petty theft would result in the death penalty. The reasoning that justified this practice was quite simple: if simple crimes had a risk of death attached, there would be a high deterrant. Some pocket change is not worth your life. And if people steal and die anyway, oh well. Their eternal soul will pass on to the afterlife. However, this reasoning failed to account for human desperation. If you cannot afford to eat, a chance of death for stealing is better than certain death by starvation. If you are caught, oh well, hanging is faster and less painful than starvation.

My point is, for an ideal world for as many as possible regardless of moral system to exist, LAW MUST BE AMORAL.

Instead of considering what is "right", law must consider how rules will effect the population as a whole, all groups, and all individuals. If it has a net positive effect on health, lifespan and happiness, it should be applied. if it has a net negative, it should be discarded.

But anyway, on to the actual subject of this manifesto.

Why organ donation should be mandatory: Simply put, any human life is worth more than any human value. People die, and thus lives, livelihoods, genetic diversity and economic circulation are lost because individuals would rather have their lifesaving organs be discarded rather than used after a point where bodily autonomy has no sway.

I personally am pro-choice in terms of abortion rights, however after death, recievers of organs gain everything, and the dead have nothing to lose or gain.

while there might be a short term public outcry, in the long term this would save and extend countless lives and greatly increase public hapiness as a result.

Why human meat should be sold comercially: two reasons: one, there is a market for it, the only reason it is not being already sold is the stigma and pointless moral panic around it. The risks of prion diseases are far smaller than people would have you believe, and even then are only really a risk if you're consuming the nervous tissue of someone who died of a prion disease. In a world where everyone gets regular health checkups, and all corpses are autopsied before they are butchered, the chances of getting sick with a spontaneous human prion disease are lower than getting an existing animal prion disease such as mad cow.

Secondly, it it is the most efficient and eco friendly method of recycling human protiens and calories. Cremation wastes fuel, and produces excesses of carbon monoxide and dioxide. Burial wastes land, resources and labour (seriously, modern coffins are stupidly ostentatious for no reason) and embalming fluid leaches toxins into the soil. Not to mention that most modern burials are so deep that the nitrogen, phosphorous and potassium that was in the body are out of circulation fo hundreds of years. Direct consumption of human flesh beats out even human composting by a mile, given that even taking into account pure trophic level, human ==> human is exponentially more efficient than human ==> bacteria ==> plants ==> human. not to mention that those nutrients will be re-entering the ecosystem anyway, since human waste is already used to make compost.

Why murder should be legal: The fact of the matter is, murder happens, and retributive justice is not only innefective, it is damaging to society as a whole. Murder happens, and is going to keep happening because we are human, and humans kill each other. However, there are different reasons humans kill. I will explore how I believe different types of murder should be dealt with.

Murder of passion: The most common form of murder, and the most wasteful. the only real way to prevent this as much as possible is widespread implimentation of conflict resolution and de-escalation experts throughout society.

Murder of desperation: should not be illegal, full stop. A deep investigation into the issues that led to the act of desperation should be conducted, and how similar issues throught society can be addressed and avoided.

Murder for personal gain: the only way to really avoid this kind of murder would be to make the risks not worth the reward. I.e, an investigation into suspicious deaths where individuals able and willing to have done it would have something to gain, and all rewards they would have gained be conviscated and professional reprimands issued (lawyers disbarred, doctors have their medical liscence revoked, etc) if they are found to be responsible.

consensual murder: murder where both parties agree to it should be fully legal, however there should be a (at least) two month waiting list after both agree, that either of them can pull out at any time. Any murders that are seemingly consensual but do not go through the waiting list should be treated as extremely suspicious.

Murder to satisfy a deep seated need: should be allowed, with an extensive licensing process, and an exaustive evaluation to determine whether a murder license is the only way to satisfy this need.

As previously mentioned, people will seek what they want and need, and if they cannot find it legally they will find it illegally. People who want and need to kill not only exist but will always exist. Only through legalisation and licensing can you control how many they kill in a year, and not muddy the waters in terms of the other kinds of murder.

Through extensive and mandatory documentation of their kills, a review board can also ensure that the people killed are not anyone the killer knows, so it is not another type of murder disguised, and that no demographics are overrepresented in their killings.

Getting these things enshrined in law will be difficult. But the first step in getting your voice heard is ensuring that you have a voice TO be heard. Share this manifesto, even if ironically. Make your own blogs with your own ideas relating to this topic, with details of how this ideal world could work and become a reality. Make this vision a recognised worldview, even if it takes years.

Then, when we have a voice, we can demand change.

[fluffypotatey]

Silly/Dumb Things that Make Me Irrationally Angry

disclaimer: the key words here are “silly” & “dumb”

The “Narnia Kids are the Founders of Hogwarts” theory

The “it was all a dream” theory

Thinking protagonist = hero

When fandom villainizes a character simply because they’re “in the way of a ship”

Character in relationship starts pursuing a different character (typically the MC) but doesn’t break up with the character they’re currently dating?????

Speed running enemies to lovers trope (that’s a trope for slow burns wtf are you doing put it down!)

Calling Disney’s Beauty & The Beast a story about Stockholm Syndrome 

Calling any diverse media “woke” to undermine it

Misunderstanding how tags work on ao3 (particularly the / and & for pairings)

Misunderstanding the purpose of tags on ao3

Calling Lucy Heartfilia weak 

Forgetting that Dick Grayson was a mathlete

Basing all of Jason Todd’s personality on his anger and ruthlessness 

Misunderstanding Jason Todd’s anger

The DCEU butchering my boy Batsy

The “I was accidentally eavesdropping and left believing they were talking shit about me but turns out I missed the most important bits” trope

Being a military historian who loves the Civil War (I don’t trust you)

Using the word “females” to sound smarter (you just sound dumb also “women” is right there)

Spring Break being colder than usual (IT WAS THE MIDDLE OF MARCH IN TEXAS WHY WAS I SHIVERING)

Calling me by a nickname that I already refused to (you gotta earn that shit)

Ep 2.08 is never really touched on again after it’s “resolved”

vld’s lost potential (while i have made my peace, i will still bare my scars)

text blocks in fics

dialogue with no quotation marks 

“Oh lookie, we got this wonderful fantastical world (that takes some inspiration from history) with it’s own politics and world building BUT we keep the sexism and racial prejudice bc the inspiration we pulled was medieval times :)” <- i will fight you for sport

mistaking rivals to lovers for enemies to lovers (similar flavor just R to L is slightly tamer. can they blend? yes, but they are not the same thing)

the blatant disregard for internet safety on tiktok (why tf would you announce your age, show your face, and air out your dirty laundry to everyone??? where is your caution? this is not vine, lil beans, y’all are stressing me out. did you miss the pbs episode about the dino agents and stranger danger??? or the fever dream computer game our 1st grade class had to play at school???)

if you have the sniffles, for the love of all things holy, please stand up and get a tissue. no one cares if you get up. i honestly prefer hearing you blow out your nose than hearing you suck up snot every 5 minutes.

taking the backstories told by Macaque and Azure about the Monkey King in lmk at face value (biased narratives are a thing! unreliable narrators are a thing! i will give the biggest sigh if Sun Wukong is placed as the sole character at fault in another fic i read with this)

“redemption” arcs

“sympathetic” villains

missing the fucking point about why Batman chooses mercy and rehabilitation over baseless violence (this also coincides with my issue with how some people view Jason as the Punisher 2.0 bc it suffers through the same fucking glorification of justifying apathy of human life and rejection of 2nd chances)

missing the fucking point about what makes Superman super (here’s a hint: it’s not his fucking power)

the fact that i missed most of Vine’s peak bc i wasn’t allowed a phone until middle school

i lost my post canon script of Cinderella in the prince’s POV that i wrote in 6th grade (rip, i should have created a personal gmail so much sooner, i could have saved you T^T)

understanding a motive does not equal justifying or excusing said motive. you just now understand why a person did what they did. maybe you find justification in it, maybe not, but it’s not absolute!

[kennislearningroutes]

Inclusive Online Education: Supporting Diverse Learning Needs

“In the world of education, diversity is not a challenge to be overcome but a strength to be celebrated"—by"Loris Malaguzzi

Remember Ishan Awasthi? He was a little eight-year-old boy from Tare Zameen Par who loved painting and drawing. He had a neurological condition called dyslexia, which caused him trouble recognising letters, unable to follow multiple instructions, and having poor motor skills. People, including his parents and teachers, considered him lazy and ignorant. 

Ishan’s life took a turn when a substitute art teacher, Ram Shankar Nikumbh, joined his boarding school and recognised his special needs. Ram helped Ishan by inculcating inclusive learning methods, like constant practice and drills. This was followed by a rewards and punishment system for his actions. Ram accepted his differences and tried new techniques. After some time Ishan regained his confidence and motivation.

We cannot generalise the learning style by fitting each child in the same box. Each learner has their own learning style, strengths, and weaknesses. Educators must recognise these needs and apply diverse and inclusive learning techniques. It is crucial to accommodate the needs of each child rather than following a common approach. 

Online Education and Special Needs Students

Since the beginning, online education has been crucial in spreading education. Students get the opportunity to access education according to their interests and comfort. This alternative education has become essential in the lives of students with needs. Online learning has opened before closed doors for special needs students. The inflexible traditional classroom setup no longer limits them.

Also read: Building Positive and Inclusive Classrooms: A Guide to Success

What are Diverse Learning Needs?

The term ‘diverse learning needs’ is used when it becomes harder for children to learn. Underlying learning problems or disabilities cause this. It is pertinent to understand that each child has his capabilities and capacities.  Learning must happen according to the special needs. Teachers must be sensitive, and responsive when dealing with students with special needs. 

What are some of the challenges students might face?

Cognitive

Physical Disabilities

Sensory disabilities 

The above are some types of disabilities students might face. Courses must be designed to be accessible for special needs students.

Also read: 5 Strategies for Fostering Diversity, Equity and Belonging in Classrooms

What Can We Do? One Step at a Time

Structured Flexibility: Ed-tech platforms should follow a consistent structure. Incorporating a flexible approach to accommodate diverse learners.

Bite-Sized Content: Content must be delivered in small, digestible formats. This shall enhance learning and retention.

Interactive Elements: Interactive features should be integrated into the platform. This would engage learners and improve their understanding.

Accessibility Options:

Provide audio content or screen reader options for easier access.

Ensure the platform is accessible to all, including students with special needs.

Inclusivity in Online Education: Online education has created new opportunities for students. Embracing diverse learning needs has changed the education industry. 

A Work in Progress: Improvements are ongoing, and the world is gradually changing.  As it is opening up to accepting and accommodating differences in learning.

Challenges in Online Education for Special Needs Students

Although online education has helped students with special needs, several challenges remain. Addressing these issues is crucial to ensuring equal opportunities for all learners. Some key challenges include:

Limited Teacher Training:

Teachers are often the first point of contact for students.

With limited knowledge of special needs, educators need assistance to create inclusive environments.

Teachers need specialised training and resources. It can help them better understand and support students with special needs.

This training is vital for the holistic development of these students.

Lack of Technical Support:

Online education can be a valuable tool, but technical issues may arise.

Students with special needs must have access to 24/7 technical support. This is to avoid barriers to learning materials and content.

Accessibility Issues:

Online platforms are not always designed with accessibility in mind.

To make education inclusive, materials should be offered in multiple formats.

The solution can include: 

Text alternatives for images

Speech alternatives for text

Closed captions for videos

Such steps ensure that all students can access the learning materials they need.

Also read: The Role of Online Education in Lifelong Learning and Professional Development

Embracing Diversity in Online Learning

For quite some time, online education has explored creative pedagogical styles. This is to make space for diverse learning needs. By embracing the differences, ed-tech platforms have fostered a sense of acceptance among students. This has improved their learning needs and keeps them engaged in learning daily. Flexibility, accessibility, technical help, and support are some ways to accommodate their needs. 

Flexible Learning Options

Flexibility is the biggest benefit, especially for students with special needs. Flexibility has allowed them to learn in a safe space. Educators have become more accommodating. This allows students to take their time while completing assignments. By reducing workload and alternative assignments, ed-tech platforms and educators are celebrating differences.

Also read: Why Online Education is Here to Stay: A Look at Its Growth  

Improved Accessibility

Accessing education has been a challenge for students with disabilities. Online education, now available with a few clicks, has changed the scenario. The technology used in online platforms creates an inclusive and accessible learning environment. Educators encourage students to use various forms of expression and engagement. Study material is available in alternative formats such as audio, digital, and more. This allows students with special needs to learn comfortably. 

One-on-One Support

Students with special needs require personalised support and tutoring. That is why providing one-on-one support can benefit them. Sometimes, pairing peers with one another can offer the required assistance and support. It helps them overcome isolation, which can sometimes be a by-product of online education. This can create a supportive environment amongst the students. It shall also ensure that they have equal opportunity to achieve their goals. 

Open Feedback and Communication Channel

Consistent feedback can be constructive when checking the progress of students. But, as important as feedback is, we must remember an open communication channel. This has to be open from both sides: educators and students. An open channel brings out the scope for improvement and improved understanding. Regular feedback sessions and one-on-one sessions must be held. This may create a safe and familiar space for students with special needs.

Also read: Why is Mental Health Important and How to Improve it?

Initiatives Government for Children with Special Needs

The government has taken a few initiatives to cater to the needs of students with disabilities. 

Visually Impaired Learners

The National Institute of Open Schooling has implemented different features. This would make the website user-friendly. To improve accessibility, they have incorporated alternate descriptions for images and audio/video. They have also provided keyboard support and improved the content readability. There is a Digitally Accessible Information System (DAISY) where all the study material is available for the students.  

Hearing Impaired Learners

NIOS has also initiated 270 videos in sign language for seven subjects. This improves accessibility for hearing-impaired learners. These videos are available on the NIOS website, YouTube, and DVD format. 

Usage of Innovative Material 

Training (NCERT) has made study material for the students. All the textbooks are available as digital books, which can be downloaded for free. Most books have text-to-speech features. The students can also easily access them through the e-Pathshaala mobile application. 

These are some ways the government promotes inclusive learning for all. While these steps may not be enough, they are in the right direction. There is always scope for improvement. 

Takeaway

Inclusive education is the only way forward, be it online or traditional. By fostering diverse learning needs we can promote education for all. It would help students achieve their dreams. Online education has become a beacon of hope for students with special needs. They can take courses and programmes that align with their desired career goals. 

This journey may not be easy, but it will be worth it. As it is said, “Education is the most powerful weapon that can be used to change the world." Why not? We aim to make the world a place that nurtures and helps students grow in their best selves and on their terms. 

[athena5898]

So let's talk about Fascism

If you want an even older version of this see: https://theanarchistlibrary.org/library/umberto-eco-ur-fascism The book I have basically uses these points but points to modern examples and what have you. So the basic tenets of Fascism is about othering and fear and appealing to control. Also the need of a Outgroup (aka Bigotry/etc) 1. The Mythic Past. This is seen as a foundation for most fascism because it gives people a reason to do horrible things. This is what Hitler did with the Arian shit. 2. Propaganda. The system needs a way to spread the mythic past and to get people to believe that the out-group is the one causing all the problems in society. So it creates Propaganda for these purposes. 3. Anti-intellectual. This is what we have seen with Republicans in America. It's a war on thinking and critical thought. The more you think the more you are capable of thinking. (seriously there have been studies on this). The more you can think critically the harder it will be for a fascist regime to work. 4. Unreality. Or forcing everyone to live in cognitive dissonance. Normally you need 3 for this point. This is also just what American Politics is from blue to red. Unreality is insidious cause it can be aggressive but it can also be subtle. Think average German in Nazi Germany. A lot of them just let themselves believe that nothing bad was happening to the Jews. 5. Hierarchy. This is pretty much a given. To remain in control you need to have systems of power in place. It also works with the illusion of control. 6. Victimhood. We've all seen the white nazi fucks crying about how bad they have it. Just right now you have Israelis crying about getting attacked after *they* showed up and started mocking dead children and starting the riots. If the out-group fights back, they just fuel into the feelings of victimhood. It really helps with the sense of self-righteousness 7. Law and Order. If you are going to uphold unjust systems, and hierarchy and keep the out-group out, you need law and then if you disrupt it you can say you are just upholding order. It's why any call to increase military presence or cops is always a dog whistle. 8. Sexual Anxiety- this takes the form of a lot of things. Anti-queerness, anti-womanhood, anti-sex, etc. There is always a "correct" way and anything that falls outside of that must be abolished to maintain the "purity". This fits in with hierarchies most of the time. 9. Sodom and Gomorrah (AKA fear of cities/large groups of diverse people) - You'll notice that a lot of fascist areas glorify rural while demonizing the cities. This speaks to the inherent illogicalness of fascism it will attack whatever it needs to create and demonize out groups even if it needs them at the same time. Rural is gods honest work, the city is for pampered sex deviants who don't even know what gender they are! (sound familiar?) this point exists because of several of the points above since they all work and build off each other if they are present. It should be noted that some of the best ways to combat bigotry is through exposure, so of course, fascism naturally wants to target where such a thing can occur. 10. Arbeit Macht Frei (work will set you free) - This isn't the idea that work is inherently fascist. But the idea that if we force the out-group to do "good honest god manual labor" it will "cleanse them". If they die in the process it just was meant to be or doubly purivies! Fascism doesn't have to worry about manual labor and safety practices if it's being used to punish and restore the out-group. People who study fascism will tell you that not all of these points need to exist at once for an entity to be fascist.

We must keep alert, so that the sense of these words will not be forgotten again. Ur-Fascism is still around us, sometimes in plainclothes. It would be so much easier, for us, if there appeared on the world scene somebody saying, “I want to reopen Auschwitz, I want the Black Shirts to parade again in the Italian squares.” Life is not that simple. Ur-Fascism can come back under the most innocent of disguises. Our duty is to uncover it and to point our finger at any of its new instances - Ur- Fascism

Fascism existed before the word did. Just like anything we have put a name to. Just cause we are just now putting a label doesn't mean it suddenly sprung into existence. You can apply any of these points to various empires and governments throughout the history of humanity. If you want to be Anti-Fascist then you have to be willing to understand the broad spectrum to it. Anyway, not saying all this to defend who OP is responding to per se, but just idk "learn theory" and "Fascism does refer to a specific organization of capitalism" bothered me if I'm understanding what OP is saying here. Fascism can exist without capitalism and has and will do so again probably.

are you people just addicted to not learning theory?

What's with the obsession of using whatever political terms you can, regardless of meaning, as rhetorical ways of just emphasising how Bad something is? Fascism does refer to a specific organisation of capitalism in specific conditions with specific characteristics, not just 'when something is bad and oppressive' - something liberalism is very capable of! - and using the terms this way absolutely annihilates the actually useful analytical and theoretical value of the term, in favour of a view of politics as entirely rhetoric (which is clear from the emphasis on whether the term existed at the time or not, rather than the actual material structure being critiqued, as if the term is just an especially effective rhetorical weapon)

[loominggaia]

Question: Is it possible for Gaia to be killed or rendered unable to just destroy the people she’ll punish for making them the way they are? ‘Cus what I’m getting is that Gaia is an uncaring (Or caring in that abusive, “mother knows best!” way.) ass who lets the Celestials do whatever they want with the peoples souls, and who also has her Nymph’s kill people for not doing exactly what is told of them. If not is there a way to commit suicide that completely destroys your soul?

That's a very good question! Truthfully, no one really knows Gaia's true motives. The nymphs know more than anyone, but no single nymph knows the full scope of what's happening on a cosmic level. They each kind of get a little snippet of the story.

World Athenaeum researchers theorize that the universe is so big, that Gaia is the size of a bacterium by comparison. They believe there are creatures much larger than Her out in the cosmos, and she is far from the most powerful thing out there.

The point is, everything Gaia does could simply be for survival reasons. She seems to behave as if She can die. Some of Her actions may seem unfair from the perspective of peoples, but nature has no concept of right and wrong, or of justice.

It is known that long, long ago, Gaia was colonized by a sapient species that goes by many names. They were humanoid in shape, quite short and frail-bodied with large, bald heads and grey skin. What they called themselves is unknown, but today they are called "Ancient Dworfs", "Ancient Ones", "The Before People", or "The Greys".

Did Gaia create these people? Did they evolve from Her native beasts? Or did they colonize Her from somewhere beyond the stars? No one knows, but their civilizations grew to be technologically advanced. Eventually they developed weapons of mass destruction and waged war on eachother. The destruction caused immense damage to Gaia, and she was forced to destroy them in order to save Her own life. She ripped the great continent into pieces, killing all Greys and burying their civilizations deep in the ocean.

After this, Gaia created the peoples we know and love, and she created the nymphs to keep them in line, so that they would not repeat the Greys' mistakes. She blessed every person with a soul so that they may have an afterlife in the cosmos when their body dies. She also made a diverse variety of peoples rather than just one species, hoping that they would compete and keep eachother in line as well. She wanted to ensure that none of them became too powerful and dominated the others, so she gave them all their own strengths and weaknesses.

But why did Gaia create these peoples? Why try to replace the Greys at all? The exact reason isn't known, but some theorize that peoples may one day play a role in defending Gaia from other beings in the cosmos. Perhaps that situation hasn't come to pass yet, but Damijana is currently working on a space program, so that time could be sooner than we think!

As far as it's known, there are only two things which can destroy a soul: Gaia herself, and the Divine Executioner. Some think the Divine Executioner is an artifact invented by the Greys, while others think it was created by beings from the cosmos. This is just another piece of the puzzle which is shrouded in mystery.

We don't know if Gaia loves peoples, or if She is just using them to one day defend Her from something they can't yet comprehend. It's very possible that both things are true. Love isn't sunshine and rainbows all the time. Sometimes love means using a heavy hand for one's own good...

The celestials seem to play some role in all this. Some researchers think celestial realms are acting as "reserves" for Gaia's souls, others think this is a means of reproduction between Gaia and the celestials, and some think the celestials are just predatory cosmic creatures who feed on Gaia's souls.

There are so many mysteries to be uncovered!

*

Questions/Comments?

Lore Masterpost

Read the Series

[star-anise]

Ok, I'll bite. What *is* the difference between Bridgerton and Jane Austen in relationship to their skirts?

Oh! Not in their costuming, just in their general *waves hands* everything. It's a comment I see a lot about Bridgerton: "Well, it's not much like Austen, is it?"

That's because there are 200 years of literary history between the two, and they have not been empty!

This ended up being 1.5k words, but when I put stuff under a readmore, people don't actually read it and then just yell at me because of a misread of the 1/10th of the post they did read. Press j to skip or get ready to do a lot of scrolling (It takes four generous flicks to get past on my iPhone).

First I'll say my perspective on this is hugely shaped by Sherwood Smith, who has done a lot of research on silver fork novels and the way the Regency has been remembered in the romance genre.

The Regency and Napoleonic eras stretch from basically the 1790s to 1820, and after that, it was hard to ignore the amount of social change happening in Britain and Europe. The real watershed moment is the 1819 Peterloo Massacre, where 60,000 working-class people protesting for political change were attacked by a militia. The issues of poverty, class, industrialization, and social change are inescapable, and we end up with things like the 1832 Reform Act and 1834 Poor Law.

This is why later novelists, like Charles Dickens and Elizabeth Gaskell, are so concerned with the experiences of the urban poor. Gaskell's North and South has been accurately described as "Pride and Prejudice for socialists."

So almost as soon as it ended, people started to look back and mythologize the Regency as a halcyon era, back when rich people could just live their rich lives and fret about "only" having three hundred pounds a year to live on. Back when London society was the domain of hereditary landowners, when you weren't constantly meeting with jumped-up industrialists and colonials.

Jane Austen is kind of perfect for this because she comes at the very end of the long eighteenth century, and her novels show hints of the tremors that are about to completely reshape England, but still comfortably sit in the old world. ("The Musgroves, like their houses, were in a state of alteration, perhaps of improvement. The father and mother were in the old English style, and the young people in the new. Mr and Mrs Musgrove were a very good sort of people; friendly and hospitable, not much educated, and not at all elegant. Their children had more modern minds and manners.")

Sherwood Smith covers the writers who birthed the Silver Fork genre in detail, but there's one name that stands out in its history more than any other: Georgette Heyer.

Georgette Heyer basically single-handedly established the Regency Romance as we know it today. Between 1935 and 1972, she published 26 novels set in a meticulously researched version of London of the late 18th and early 19th century. She took Silver Fork settings and characters and turned them into a highly recognizable set of tropes, conventions, and types. (As Sherwood points out, her fictional Regency England isn't actually very similar to the period as it really happened; it's like Arthurian Camelot, a mythical confection with a dash of truth for zest.)

Regency Romance is an escapist genre in which a happy, prosperous married life is an attainable prize that will solve everything for you. Georgette Heyer's novels are bright, sparkling, delightful romps through a beautiful and exotic world. Her female characters have spirit and vivacity, and are allowed to have flaws and make mistakes without being puritanically punished for them. Her romances have real unique sparks to them. She's able to write a formula over and over without it becoming dull.

And.... well. The essay that introduced me to Heyer still, in my opinion, says it best:

Here's the thing about Georgette Heyer: she hates you. Or, okay, she doesn't hate you, exactly. It's just that unless you are white, English, and upper class (and hale, and hearty, and straight, and and and), she thinks you are a lesser being. [...W]ith Heyer, I knew where I stood: somewhere way below the bottom rung of humanity. Along with everyone else in the world except Prince William and four of his friends from Eton, which really took away the sting. But my point is: if you are not that white British upper-class person of good stock and hearty bluffness and a large country estate, the only question for you is which book will contain a grimly bigoted caricature of you featuring every single stereotyped trait ever associated with your particular group. (You have to decide for yourself if really wonderful female characters and great writing are worth the rest of it.)

So Heyer created the genre, but she exacerbated the flaw that was always at the heart of fiction about the Regency, was that its appeal was not having to deal with the inherent rot of the British aristocracy. I think part of why it's such a popular genre in North America specifically is that we often don't know much British history, so we can focus more on the perfume and less on the dank odor it's hiding.

And like, escapism is not a bad thing. Romance writers as a community have sat down and said: We are an escapist genre. The Romance Writers of America, one of the biggest author associations out there, back when they were good, have foundationally said: "Two basic elements comprise every romance novel: a central love story and an emotionally satisfying and optimistic ending." A strong part of the community argue that publishing in the genre is a "contract" between author and reader: If it's marketed as a romance book, there's a Happily Ever After. If there's no Happily Ever After, it's not romance.

It's important for people to be able to take a break from the stresses of their lives and do things that are enjoyable. But the big question the romance genre in particular has to deal with is, who should be allowed to escape? Is it really "escapist" if only white, straight, upper class, able-bodied thin cis people get to escape into it? In historical romance, this is especially an issue for POC and LGBTQ+ people. It's taken a lot of work, in a genre dominated by the Georgette Heyers of the world, to try to hew out the space for optimistic romances for people of colour or LGBTQ+ people. These are minority groups that deal with a literally damaging amount of stress in real lives; they are in especial need of sources of comfort, refuge, community, and encouragement. For brief introductions to the issue, I can give you Talia Hibbert on race, and KJ Charles on LGBTQ+ issues.

Up until the 1990s, the romance genre evolved slowly. It did evolve; Sarah Wendell and Candy Tan's Beyond Heaving Bosoms charts the demise of the "bodice-ripper" genre as it became more acceptable for women to have and enjoy sex. The historical romance genre became more accommodating to non-aristocratic heroines, or ones that weren't thin or conventionally pretty. The first Bridgerton book, The Duke and I, was published in 2000, and has that kind of vibe: Its characters are all white but not all of them are aristocrats, its heroines are frequently not conventionally beautiful and occasionally plump, and its cultivation to modern sensibility is reflected in its titles, which reference popular media of today.

This is just my impression, but I think that while traditional mainstream publishing was beginning to diversify in the 1990s, the Internet was what really made diverse romance take off. Readers, reviewers, and authors could talk more freely on the internet, which allowed books to become unlikely successes even if their publishers didn't promote them very much. Then e-publishing meant that authors could market directly to their readers without the filter of a publishing house, and things exploded. Indie ebooks proved that there was a huge untapped market.

One of my favourite books, Zen Cho's Sorcerer to the Crown, is an example of what historical romance is like today; it's a direct callback and reclamation of Georgette Heyer, with a dash of "Fuck you and all your prejudices" on top of it. It fearlessly weaves magic into a classic Heyer plot, maintaining the essential structure while putting power into the hands of people of colour and non-Western cultures, enjoying the delights of London society while pointing out and dodging around the rot. It doesn't erase the ugliness, but imagines a Britain that is made better because its poor, its immigrants, its people of colour, and the foreign countries it interacts with have more power to make their voices heard and to enforce their wills. Another book I've loved that does the same thing is Courtney Milan's The Duke Who Didn't.

So then... Bridgerton the TV show is trying to take a book series with a very middle-of-the-road approach to diversity, differing from Heyer but not really critiquing her, and giving it a facelift to bring it up to date.

So to be honest, although it's set in the same time period as Austen, it's not in the least her literary successor. It's infinitely more "about" the past 30 years of conversation and art in the romance genre than it is about books written 200 years ago.

[qqueenofhades]

Do you really hate this county? Or were you just ranting?

Sigh. I debated whether or not to answer this, since I usually keep the real-life/politics/depressing current events to a relative minimum on this blog, except when I really can't avoid ranting about it. But I have some things to get off my chest, it seems, and you did ask. So.

The thing is, any American with a single modicum of genuine historical consciousness knows that despite all the triumphalist mythology about Pulling Up By Our Bootstraps and the American Dream and etc, this country was founded and built on the massive and systematic exploitation and extermination of Black and Indigenous people. And now, when we are barely (400 years later!!!) getting to a point of acknowledging that in a widespread way, oh my god the screaming. I'm so sick of the American right wing I could spit for so many reasons, not least of which is the increasingly reductive and reactive attempts to put the genie back in the bottle and set up hysterical boogeymen about how Teaching Your Children Critical Race Theory is the end of all things. They have forfeited all pretense of being a real governing party; remember how their only platform at the 2020 RNC was "support whatever Trump says?" They have devolved to the point where the cruelty IS the point, to everyone who doesn't fit the nakedly white supremacist mold. They don't have anything to do aside from attempt to usher in actual, literal, dictionary-definition-of-fascism and sponsor armed revolts against the peaceful transfer of power.

That is fucking exhausting to be aware of all the time, especially with the knowledge that if we miss a single election cycle -- which is exceptionally easy to do with the way the Democratic electorate needs to be wooed and courted and herded like cats every single time, rather than just getting their asses to the polls and voting to keep Nazis out of office -- they will be right back in power again. If Manchin and Sinema don't get over their poseur pearl-clutching and either nuke the filibuster or carve out an exception for voting rights, the John Lewis Voting Rights Act is never going to get passed, no matter how many boilerplate appeals the Democratic leadership makes on Twitter. In which case, the 2022 midterms are going to give us Kevin McCarthy, Speaker of the House (I threw up in my mouth a little typing that) and right back to the Mitch McConnell Obstruction Power Hour in the Senate. The Online Left (TM) will then blame the Democrats for not doing more to stop them. These are, of course, the same people who refused to vote for Hillary Clinton out of precious moral purity reasons in 2016, handed the election to Trump, and now like to complain when the Trump-stacked Supreme Court reliably churns out terrible decisions. Gee, it's almost like elections have consequences!!

Aside from my exasperation with the death-cult right-wing fascists and the Online Left (TM), I am sick and tired of how forty years of "trickle-down" Reaganomics has created a world where billionaires can just fly to space for the fun of it, while the rest of America (and the world) is even more sick, poor, overheated, economically deprived, and unable to survive the biggest public health crisis in a century, even if half the elected leadership wasn't actively trying to sabotage it. Did you know that half of American workers can't even afford a one-bedroom apartment? Plus the obvious scandal that is race relations, health care, paid leave, the education system (or lack thereof), etc etc. I'm so tired of this America Is The Greatest Country in the World mindless jingoistic catchphrasing. We are an empire in the late stages of collapse and it's not going to be pretty for anyone. We have been poisoned on sociopathic-libertarian-selfishness-disguised-as-Freedom ideology for so long that that's all there is left. We have become a country of idiots who believe everything their idiot friends post on social media, but in a very real sense, it's not directly those individuals' fault. How could they, when they have been very deliberately cultivated into that mindset and stripped of critical thinking skills, to serve a noxious combination of money, power, and ideology?

I am tired of the fact that I have become so drained of empathy that when I see news about more people who refused to get the vaccine predictably dying of COVID, my reaction is "eh, whatever, they kind of deserved it." I KNOW that is not a good mindset to have, and I am doing my best to maintain my personal attempts to be kind to those I meet and to do my small part to make the world better. I know these are human beings who believed what they were told by people that they (for whatever reason) thought knew better than them, and that they are part of someone's family, they had loved ones, etc. But I just can't summon up the will to give a single damn about them (I'm keeping a bingo card of right-wing anti-vax radio hosts who die of COVID and every time it's like, "Alexa, play Another One Bites The Dust.") The course that the pandemic took in 21st-century America was not preordained or inevitable. It was (and continues to be) drastically mismanaged for cynical political reasons, and the legacy of the Former Guy continues to poison any attempts to bring it under control or convince people to get a goddamn vaccine. We now have over 100,000 patients hospitalized with COVID across the country -- more than last summer, when the vaccines weren't available.

I have been open about my fury about the devaluation of the humanities and other critical thinking skills, about the fact that as an academic in this field, my chances of getting a full-time job for which I have trained extensively and acquired a specialist PhD are... very low. I am tired of the fact that Americans have been encouraged to believe whatever bullshit they fucking please, regardless of whether it is remotely true, and told that any attempt to correct them is "anti-freedom." I am tired of how little the education system functions in a useful way at all -- not necessarily due to the fault of teachers, who have to work with what they're given, and who are basically heroes struggling stubbornly along in a profession that actively hates them, but because of relentless under-funding, political interference, and furious attempts, as discussed above, to keep white America safely in the dark about its actual history. I am tired of the fact that grade school education basically relies on passing the right standardized tests, the end. I am tired of the implication that the truth is too scary or "un-American" to handle. I am tired. Tired.

I know as well that "America" is not synonymous in all cases with "capitalist imperialist white-supremacist corporate death cult." This is still the most diverse country in the world. "America" is not just rich white middle-aged Republicans. "America" involves a ton of people of color, women, LGBTQ people, Muslims, Jews, Christians of good will (I have a whole other rant on how American Christianity as a whole has yielded all pretense of being any sort of a principled moral opposition), white allies, etc etc. all trying to make a better world. The blue, highly vaccinated, Biden-winning states and counties are leading the economic recovery and enacting all kinds of progressive-wishlist dream policies. We DID get rid of the Orange One via the electoral process and avert fascism at the ballot box, which is almost unheard-of, historically speaking. But because, as also discussed above, certain elements of the Democratic electorate need to fall in love with a candidate every single time or threaten to withhold their vote to punish the rest of the country for not being Progressive Enough, these gains are constantly fragile and at risk of being undone in the next electoral cycle. Yes, the existing system is a crock of shit. But it's what we've got right now, and the other alternative is open fascism, which we all got a terrifying taste of over the last four years. I don't know about you, but I really don't want to go back.

So... I don't know. I don't know if that stacks up to hate. I do hate almost everything about what this country currently is, structurally speaking, but I recognize that is not identical with the many people who still live here and are trying to do their best, including my friends, family, and myself. I am exhausted by the fact that as an older millennial, I am expected to survive multiple cataclysmic economic crashes, a planet that is literally boiling alive, a barely functional political system run on black cash, lies, and xenophobia, a total lack of critical thinking skills, renewed assaults on women/queer people/POC/etc, and somehow feel like I'm confident or prepared for the future. Not all these problems are only America's fault alone. The West as a whole bears huge responsibility for the current clusterfuck that the world is in, for many reasons, and so do some non-Western countries. But there is no denying that many of these problems have ultimate American roots. See how the ongoing fad for right-wing authoritarian strongmen around the world has them modeling themselves openly on Trump (like Brazil's lunatic president, Jair Bolsonaro, who talks all the time about how Trump is his political role model). See what's going on in Afghanistan right now. Etc. etc.

Anyway. I am very, very tired. There you have it.

[writingwithcolor]

“Fantasy Names” for Non-English Languages; One Language Per Continent?

@corrupted---minds​ submitted:

In my story there are different continents inspired by sections of our world; fantasy Europe, fantasy East Asia, fantasy Middle East, ect. And each continent, for convenience, speaks one language. Cantonese is fantasy East Asias language, for example.

Now on to naming conventions. While in fantasy Europe people have average european names, about 30% have fantasy names like Illumina or Crystal or Raten Firewalker. I want to try to keep the same naming ratio for the other continents, but I’m not sure if it would be offensive for me, as a white woman, to cut apart a language to make a cool sounding name for my characters that are POC.

If you have any insight, suggestions, or just flat out think it’s a bad idea, please let me know. I dont want to unintentionally offend anyone.

On the Issue of Worldbuilding

The salient point is to avoid using languages from real life outright. Already, I sense that your language and coding categories are too broad. It’s never a good idea to reduce such large regions containing so many ethnicities to a single language group/ setting. Think more granular and use single ethnicities instead. Rina has already written on naming conlangs, including pertinent resource links, that I think would be very helpful information for you. Please read her comments here. 

Furthermore, as a reader, I think it is more realistic and dynamic when the characters have names that mean something in their own languages. Most people already have such names IRL. I think in many Western cultures, some are simply too removed from the original root languages to know the word origins of their names. My pen-name here on WWC happens to mean “Jasmine” both in Sanskrit and Japanese, but Marika is a lot more culturally relevant than “Jasmine” as it expresses my bicultural identity much more effectively. Thus, I am curious as to why you wish to stick to this arbitrary 30% rule. Not only does it strike me as rather boring, but it also generates a lot of dissonance for me as a reader in conventional fantasy when a person “randomly” has a conventional fantasy name with no context given. 

If people are given atypical naming schemes, I’d much rather there be a sensible reason for this choice. It both provides context and lays the groundwork for world-building information that the reader can draw on unconsciously at a later time. For example, as I continue my role as this blog’s Tamora Pierce evangelist, the author has two such examples of atypical naming in her universes. In the Tortall series, the Shang warriors are given titles that reflect their prowess, with more legendary animals indicating higher levels of mastery. Thus, the reader automatically knows that Liam Ironarm, the Dragon, and Kylaia al Jmaa, the Unicorn, supersede Ida Bell, the Wildcat, and Hakuin Seastone, the Horse, in terms of skill. In the Emelan Universe, dedicates of the Living Earth religion choose names associated with plants, animals and natural phenomena ( e.g. Rosethorn, Frostpine, Moonstream) and lack last names. Academic mages, on the other hand, have last names that demonstrate what kind of magic they are proficient in (Goldeye, Ladyhammer, Glassfire), allowing us to immediately discern who is a dedicate in the Living Earth faith, who is an academic mage, and who is neither (whether they be from a different background or are still in training).  

Lastly, as a caution, we would like to warn many of our readers that words commonly associated with imagery used in Norse mythology are now often dog-whistles or outright references to white supremacy groups/ movements (Thanks Neo-Nazis!). Thus, particularly for white/ Western-coded characters, please check any name meanings against the following databases created by Southern Poverty Law Center and the Anti-Defamation League (viewable here and here).

- Marika.

On Colonial Implications

I would like to emphasize how flattening it is to summarize any large region down to a single language: British Columbia and some of Washington State have 7 mutually unintelligible language families within a few hundred square miles. That’s an incredibly saturated amount of linguistic diversity in a very, very small region. And it’s not the only linguistic hotspot in the world.

Europeans often have an artificial sense of how many languages are natural in a region, because Europe is one of the least linguistically diverse regions in the world at about nine language families, with 94% belonging to a single language family. Meanwhile, China alone has at least nine families, and India has at least six. In North America, you have dozens if not hundreds of language families across the continent.

Note that these are language families, not languages. Each language family can have anywhere from 2 to 50+ languages within it. The aforementioned language family with 94% of Europe is Indo-European, which covers everything from French (the Romance branch) to Punjabi (the Indo-Iranian branch) to Russian (the Balto-Slavic branch).

Convenience should not come at the expense of linguistic diversity. Language destruction is one of the targets of colonialism, and doing such a flattening would leave an extremely sour taste in my mouth at the implied history of this world. Many, many Indigenous languages are extinct because colonial languages were forced upon the populations of the Americas (English, Spanish, Portugese, French), and this isn’t counting non-European colonialism. 

Widespread single languages across huge landmasses often come with an extremely bloody history (unless it was purposely crafted for ease of communication among groups, such as Plains Sign Language), and for your marginalized readers it will be unignorable. You don’t have to create a continent’s worth of languages, but you do have to acknowledge the diversity is there.

As Marika said, focus on individual ethnicities instead of such broad land masses. Doing your current track would pull anyone with even an ounce of linguistics education, or anyone who has had their access to language suffer because of colonialism, right out of the story.

~ Mod Lesya

I agree with Mod Lesya, especially when it comes to their point of language destruction being one of the targets of colonialism. East Asia already has a history of this, with languages being banned and punishments for speaking them, and even now in mainland China Mandarin is being pushed as the only dialect to speak vs. Cantonese, Hokkien, Sichuanese, etc. A suggestion I have is to perhaps have one common language for diplomacy/trade purposes that is used alongside other languages and dialects in certain regions. 

--mod Jess