#why does religion still exist in recognizable form in this world?

[arbitrarygreay]

It makes sense that the show pulled back on the international world-building pretty quickly. The primary aesthetic of the show is all rooted in that Salem origin, so they don't want to stray too far from it. But it's still really fun to think about. We have to go to the beginning, don't we? And then wonder about before that. There's a sense that the Salem Accords were unprecedented. The implications of this is that the formality of which the US Military Forces being comprised of witches, but yet the culture being still somewhat segregated, was not the case in other nations before that point. Which is really weird, honestly, the idea that the existence of witches did not have any affect whatsoever on the rise and fall of the likes of Rome, Egypt, or the Islamic empires? So, then, we have to narrow the context to the relevant parties in the region during the American Revolution. Sarah Alder looked at all of the potential factions around her at the time (Britain, France, Spain, Native), and somehow decided that the British colonists who wanted to break away were her best bet. Alder is a Scottish origin surname (while Lyne is from Belgium). Despite her modern differentiation between human and witch, it's more than likely that she worked through racial and nationalist prejudices over the centuries. So, then, let's assume that the state of how Natives, France, and Spain treated witches was not a factor for Sarah's consideration at the time. This means that Britain's culture was not witch-friendly, so they wouldn't have a witch force in their military, except under DADT plausible deniability cases. It also means that Britain nonetheless achieved their colonial power with this mindset. This implies that nowhere else in the world was open usage of witch powers sufficient to outweigh conventional military power. Despite the Cession not splitting between witch and civilian leadership, evidently having a more witch-friendly culture was not sufficient for the Americas not to get colonized by European powers that were Camarilla-friendly.

Meanwhile, the show also implies that witch-vs.-witch combat was not a norm before the Spree. Other nations imitating the Salem Accords did not result in each nations' witches battling each other. This implies that America achieved global hegemony with Alder's military way faster than in our world, such that Alder was able to control the formation of the UN-equivalent international Witch Council at the Hague to reinforce that status. (She had enough power that apparently no one else in the world has created immortality/avatar workings like hers? Highly doubt that other researchers couldn't figure it out, so she had to have banned it beyond herself and the Marshal.) The Hague meeting in S1E3 is chock full of intriguing details. The Russian general's uniform does have a red star on the lapel, which implies that there was still a Communist Revolution in that region. However, the general also refers to his nation as Russia, and not the Soviet Union. The political tensions over the Tarim showed that Russia does not share a closer relationship to China than it does to the US (whereas India has more sympathies). And, obviously, the fact that China is not a part of the Hague council at all. But, the US president is still named as the the "leader of the free nations", so if China had a different relationship to its witches than the rest of the world following the US model, it was not enough to result in China as a meaningful global hegemon rival. Perhaps China is still isolationist in this world, which might indicate that there was not Communist Revolution there and they're still on the Dynastic model. However, China being aggressive about the Tarim doesn't seem isolationist. But I wonder if the international geopolitics would have been where the show went next. Assuming that they only ran the First Song storyline in S3 because they got cancelled, then it makes a lot of sense that the first portion of the show was the US having to clean its own house. Once that is done, though, they can only look back outwards. And that "China is not here" thread seems way too juicy not to explore. The Last Ship was covering those sorts of dynamics, so that kind of plotting is viable for cable TV. For one thing, all of the holiday touchstones the show uses are carry-overs from Europe. I do wonder why exactly the Marshal celebrated Yule, except maybe as a courtesy to his charges. Maybe the crack about the log getting heavier every year was a joke. Or maybe the Marshal is of mixed heritage. Anyways, there's no way that the Middle East and South Asia and East Asia and Africa are also still using those holidays. Which then brings up the question of immigrants. China's absence from the Hague obviously didn't prevent the noticeable presence of many high ranking Asian-American members in the military. Is Tally's ignorance of High-Atlantic holidays because she actually has more knowledge of East Asian practices in California? We see skepticism by the High Atlantics towards Raelle's "Christo-pagan" chants, but where does Islam even fit into this world-building?

(And yes, I do have rather mixed feelings about them suddenly elevating the Mycelium from the product of one moment of human grief to suddenly All According To Keikaku From The Beginning Of Time. They even acknowledged that fungus wouldn't be a relevant power in certain parts of the world due to climate.)

[shadowfae]

Harmony, Chaos, RuneScape and Quoilunetary Nonhumanity

[Crossposted to National Nonhuman Park, and requested by @dzamie.]

I forgot to do this for like three days, but. I wanted to do a post on understanding past experiences and the differing perspectives people can have on the same experiences and how that can lead to radically different understandings and why there will never be a clear-cut border between alterhuman terminology, and I think I finally found a way to articulate that point. Commentary and responses welcome.

The very simplest way of explaining this concept is the following sentence: "I never said that I owed her money." Seems a simple statement, yeah? Place emphasis on one word, read it again, and then place emphasis on a different word and read it. "I never said that I owed her money," implies a flat-out denial of the concept. However, "I never said that I owed her money," is a clear 'I implied it but never said it, and you can't hold me to that'. And emphasis on other words brings the exact meaning of those emphasized words into question, and so forth.

But while that concept is universal, it's difficult to see as it stands how that applies to alterhuman experiences. So we're going to delve into the source of one of my current linktypes, RuneScape, and we're going to explain things the way a warpriest does, using the setting's available godly philosophies to explain a past experience.

The two we'll be looking at today are Serenist and Zamorakian philosophies, particularly the Elven questline, and we're choosing this because Seren's ingame dialogue includes her explaining why Zamorakianism doesn't fit the questline. I, however, say it does, so let's compare and contrast how they both fit, and why they're both valid, and why if you're determined enough you can be absolutely convinced that the other's an idiot.

Seren is the crystal goddess of light; associated heavily with integrity, harmony, prudence, wisdom, and tranquility. Simply put, she is a pacifist who believes that if two parties can meet in the middle and find harmony, the best possible result can be achieved.

This is contrasted heavily with Zamorakian philosophy. Zamorak is known best as the god of chaos, although his philosophy heavily centres strength through personal strife. He believes that almost all obstacles and challenges in life can be beaten if one just never gives up, and that through surviving those obstacles, one is made a better person. He also believes that order brings stagnation: with no reason or need to do something different, people will do what they have always done, thus, chaos is necessary for improvement and achievement.

When Seren left the elves, her main followers, scrambled to put together a leadership that might replace her. Modelling the humans, they chose a monarchy, which was undercut in short order by Clan Iorwerth. (Iorwerth is one of the two military elven clans.) Iorwerth, following a dark power, overthrew the monarchy and shut down the elven kingdom entirely, forcing every elf that wasn't trapped to flee or swear allegiance to them. They were later overthrown by the remains of the other seven clans and the player character, the kingdom was restored as a republic, and eventually Seren came back.

When asked about Zamorak's philosophy, Seren references this: ["Order only brings stagnation."] "Perhaps, but there is also imagination and community. When sharing with others, we can learn to see the world differently. Look at all my elves accomplished. It was undone for a time because of chaos. It was harmony that restored them." [Post- The Light Within dialogue.]

Note the emphasis on harmony, and how she looks down upon this. However, she does agree that the elves are stronger without her, evidenced by her refusal to lead them again after her return: "I will not leave you, not again, but I will not lead you. Let me, here and now, recognise this council as the true leadership of the elven people." [The Light Within quest dialogue.]

Zamorak ingame has never spoken about this event, it's on the other side of the continent and he doesn't much care about what Seren does so long as she stays away from him. However, speaking as my linktype, a son of Zamorak, and a warpriest of Zamorakian philosophy and religion, I feel qualified to explain what his philosophy does say about this event, and how it differs.

Zamorakian philosophy places emphasis on the chaos, and how through it, one becomes stronger. Seren says that she recognizes the clan council of the elven republic to be its true leadership. This council did not exist until after she left and left her followers to deal with the aftermath. Even so, their first attempt at fixing the situation was to create a monarchy, which was overthrown almost immediately.

Arguably, their first attempt via wisdom and harmony – modelling their new government after a human form of government that evidently worked, and by choosing their monarchs to represent them best – failed miserably. However, Iorwerth's assault forced the remaining elves to think of another solution that there was no historic precedence for. The clan leaders chose to go into hiding until someone else had overthrown Iorwerth, which didn't happen until the player character did so, over two thousand years later. Those elves who did not go fully into hiding instead created a resistance, aiming first to stop Clan Iorwerth from obtaining death magic that would have cemented its rule perhaps permanently, and then by taking it down once it was properly destabilized.

Their second attempt at a form of government, truly equal across all eight clans, is evidently better than their first attempt: it withstood the next upheaval of Seren's return and refusal to govern them again, and she gave the council her blessing. The solution they found through harmony and tranquility failed. The solution they found through chaos succeeded.

Seren places her emphasis on the fact that through the Iorwerth domination, the remaining elves worked together to find a solution. Zamorakian philosophy states that they never would have found that solution or learned to work together had their lives not been thrown into utter chaos.

Seren focuses on the harmony that is the method of survival, Zamorak focuses on the chaos that caused invention of an improved method of survival. Seren disavows chaos, disregarding that it is anything but an obstacle that needs to be overcome, refusing to see it as something worth seeking out. Zamorak disavows order, arguably incredibly similar to the Serenist ideal of harmony, and states that it only brings stagnation and is incredibly fragile and meaningless. Through this, the two philosophies are radically opposed, both disavowing what the other praises.

Compare this scenario to one more personal and recognizable to those who may read this: any scenario in which someone is put to their limits, any scenario potentially traumatizing. Serenist philosophy asks for integrity, that one stays true to oneself throughout it all, and harmony, to seek a peaceful solution. This is easily taken down by any situation in which one needs to change in order to survive, however, it also is best represented by the growth of the aftermath when it is time to rebuild. Zamorakian philosophy asks for strength, to find a way through no matter the cost, and celebration of strife, to recognize that there is a point to the pain. This is easily taken down by any sort of emotional trauma that leaves scars, however, it also is best represented by the ability to take any punches thrown and to recognize the good of recovery and what that means for the future.

Thus, in a situation of aftermath, both celebrate the growth and the strength necessary to survive, and meet up perfectly in the middle in any situation in which one is honest with themself, survives the ordeal, and recognizes that they are better than they were before.

Radically opposed, and when you tilt your head and squint, they lead to the same conclusion of a better tomorrow than yesterday was.

As my last point, the question of 'and what exactly does this have to do with gray areas of the alterhuman community?' requires an answer. Not all cases will fall under this, but here's a couple scenarios to think on. Someone who has a parallel life in another world: are they otherkin, or are they otherhearted? Someone who places emphasis on the differences between themself and their parallel life may recognize the other as their counterpart, but not quite them, too similar to be anything but family but too different to be the same person, like twins separated at birth. But someone who places emphasis on the similarities, recognizing the other as a reflection of themself, may say that they're otherkin, not so separate as to be family but too similar to be anything but the same person, if in two different situations.

Take further something psychological. Someone with executive dysfunction, an uncontrollable focus mechanism, emotional dysregulation, ostracization from their peers, and a lack of understanding of metaphors or half-truths may go to a pediatrician and be diagnosed as autistic. If they never go to that hypothetical pediatrician, but instead find themself online and hunting for answers, they may discover the otherkin community and come to the conclusion that they are Fair. Where one reads the apparent difference between themself and others as recognizing that they do not psychologically think the way others do, and thus being othered; one recognizes it as others having a gut feeling that they are simply not human, akin to an uncanny valley effect.

Lastly, consider someone who takes up believing themself to be a unicorn as a child, to deal with ostracization from their peers. Something along the lines of the last scenario. Years later, after growing up and discovering a friend group and no longer facing any ostracization, they determine that they still identify as a unicorn. They do research and understand that if they put in the effort over several decades and ego alteration, they may be capable of releasing that coping mechanism turned integral part of them, and letting it go.

Are they otherkin, or a copinglinker?

If they consider themself otherkin, then one can assume they would be disinterested in using ego alteration over a course of decades to let go. If they consider themself a copinglinker, then they may be interested, or they may not, but it would be more likely that they would at least consider the option before deciding either way. And if they do decide against it, does that make it otherkin? As the difference between the two is defined and largely accepted that otherkin is involuntary and copinglinking is, one might argue that they would still be a 'linker, as one cannot choose to be otherkin.

But are they keeping a linktype that they chose and are still choosing, or are they choosing to embrace a kintype that already exists?

I suppose which one it is depends on how you want to look at it, and where you want to place your emphasis of the experience. And no matter how someone else may look at it, the only one with final say is the one who experiences it in the first place.

Both conclusions lead to the same place, in the end: an alterhuman identity, and an experience worth exploring and talking about. No matter how one understands it, or what they ultimately decide to call it.

[nefoe-dd]

SO SMT AU AM I RIGHT GAMERS

I mentioned this in the tags of another post and joked about it in Discord but my brain went brrrr during my last class of the day and now I lowkey have a full plot starting to form lol.

Keep in mind the only Shin Megami Tensei game I’ve played myself is the Nocturne remake, plus I only really remember bits of the plot of 4 and whatever we’ve been given so far of 5 so I’m not super well versed in the series.

Also I’ll add this to the tags too but DSMP Spoilers specifically for the contents of Techno’s Will exist in this post, because that is where the idea for this came from. A lot of other JRPGs have similar plotlines but I specifically thought of SMT because its kind of a meme specifically for that at this point how the plot always seems to have the same type ending bosses. 

Also some spoilers for Shin Megami Tensei IV

ANYWAYS

Now Presenting: An AU where Techno’s Limbo is an SMT Game lol

(Under a ‘Read More’ because it got way ahead of me)

An Introduction to Relevant SMT terminology:

Demons: Makes up a large majority of the characters in the game. They are the enemies that you face in combat, and its possible to recruit them to your team through various means. Some demons exist in the overworld though, and can be talked to normally, they’re chill most of the time, unless you do something to tick them off. ‘Demon’ is not taken literally by the Christian definition, they are based off of various figures in folklore and religion around the world, some are even based on Gods and Angels.

Law vs Chaos: Many SMT games have multiple endings based on these two alignments, along with the neutral alignment. It is usually decided by some important decisions the player makes throughout the game. I’m most aware of the SMT 4 ending, in which the route you are on decides the final dungeon, the character you team with for the ending, and the final boss (its either Satan or the in-game version of God). It’s based off of the traditional interpretation of these two, where Law represents the importance of authority, and Chaos represents the importance of freedom. 

Another note is that a lot of SMT games take place in a post-apocalyptic world of some kind, which, spoiler, is the case here.

General Plot Details and Worldbuilding:

- Techno dies in the prison. The stasis chamber fails and Quackity succeeds in killing him. Permanently. 

- Despite dying, he wakes up again in the main prison cell, but things are different. The lava isn’t blocking the entrance anymore, (in fact there isn’t any lava at all), and he’s alone. Upon peering outside the main cell, he notices a bit of sky peeking through the prison ceiling, like it had been broken into. 

- The drop down to the bottom floor is long, but he’s dead, so he just shrugs and jumps down so he can see what’s going on. Turns out there are several holes in this part of the prison, in fact there are multiple on the ground, likely where the lava had escaped from. (Obviously Minecraft lava specifically doesn’t work like that, I’m pretty sure in the DreamSMP the bottom is all source blocks, but just ignore that bit). 

- He exits from the back wall of the prison, and everything there so far looks normal, except for the fact that there appears to be less trees than normal. Of the trees that are still there, many of them were cut down and never collected, and some appear to have fallen over due to some damage.

- Techno goes around the prison to the front, and that’s when he notices some things that are very wrong. Various parts of the prison, not just the main cell, are also sitting destroyed. Many cracks, scuff marks and full-on chunks are missing on the walls. The usual entrance which houses the nether portal is hardly still standing, and he can see straight into the main lobby where the portal would lead into once you were let through. 

- The surrounding areas are not much better. Tommy’s outpost is toppled over in the distance, only the base and bottom floor are left standing. The tents near the beach are collapsed and destroyed, the only remnants of one of them is a small piece of fabric ripped from the main bit and laying on the ground. Skeppy and Badboyhalo’s mansion is crumbling where it stands, half of the back wall and ceiling are gone. And that’s only what’s visible from here. 

- The rest of the server is also in various states of destruction, the spawn walls are hardly left standing, the main nether portal area is covered in potholes, none of the portals are active. The prime path is rotted and broken in most areas, the buildings along it are not faring much better than the ones he’d seen before. And the further he gets away from the prison, the more the plants themselves appear to be dead or dying. 

- L’manburg’s crater looks much the same as it once did right after its destruction, albeit with more debris at the bottom which had fallen from the sides as they slowly eroded. The flag at the bottom is torn up and discoloured, honestly its hardly recognizable. The nature that had finally begun to reclaim the land has slowly been dying instead over time, and the bridge overtop has completely collapsed. The only thing still standing, is the ever present obsidian grid that looms over it in the sky. He supposes that whatever disaster had caused this wasn’t able to reach that high up, or that it was at least in part done by someone that liked the way it looked. Not that there seems to be a need for the reminder anymore. 

- Something something, he finds out DreamXD is here, and that he might have had something to do with how this world looks. And as much as it shouldn’t matter in the afterlife, he did promise Phil he would be killing God sooooo he goes on a mission to do just that. He can do pretty much anything now that he really doesn’t have to worry about dying, so why not. He has no reason to care about some God, especially when they’re the only ones left.

- Some DSMP people hang around the world and are represented by certain demons, the mostly chill ones that kinda just hang around in the apocalyptic scenery. They don’t recognize him, it isn’t really the people he knows after all, but they are willing to talk to him since they can tell he isn’t human either. He learns little bits of what happened through them, and learns where DreamXD resides, that being one of the strongholds that’s a bit further out. 

- Unfortunately, due to the portals being inactive, and his inability to break anything efficiently, or even at all, he has to travel using the overworld. Along the way he manages to speak to some others, this allows him to better locate where the God is, although it doesn’t seem to be hiding out. He even sees it sometimes flying around, which he uses to follow where its hiding. 

- Some of the random demons he runs into recognize that he’s not supposed to be here (according to them at least), so he has to fight his way through them. Luckily, many of the friendly demons that he talks to end up tagging along in order to help, thus making up a team he can use to get through them instead.

 - There’s probably a demon that seems to resemble Phil somewhere, living alone (alone for so so long) away from everyone in an arctic house perhaps. If I wanted to really up the angst, the demon takes a liking to Techno right away, which is partly how Techno is able to tell its him so quickly. The more they talk, the more Techno realizes how lonely the Phil he knows must be without him there, how upset he’d be once he reads the will and finds out what happened to him. Thus he’s more motivated to, you know, fight God, in an attempt to figure out what the hell happened. (DXD is the only entity existing here that also exists where he’s from, he can guess pretty easily that maybe, just maybe, they are one and the same). Thus, he is given a choice that he knows he will have to make in the future. 

- Eventually he manages to find the stronghold and comes face to face with DreamXD himself. DreamXD is just kinda chillin there, they fight, through DreamXD doesn’t seem to be putting in too much effort, almost like it does not want to win. 

- Techno wins (duh), and he is left with a choice, a choice to finish the job, or spare the god and allow it to go free. And, well, he feels that he doesn’t really have the right to decide whether it lives or dies, and while its possible that DreamXD caused whatever disaster created the current state of the world, but he doesn’t know that for sure. DreamXD has done nothing this whole time he’s been here, and its done nothing to him or his companions.

- He chooses to leave it alone, and DreamXD seems to know that it was always going to end that way. 

- DreamXD disappears, and Techno wakes up in the cell again post-revival, the prison and the world around it is the same as he remembers

(I don’t remember the exact real-world to limbo time difference but I imagine that it felt like, a day, maybe half that, while irl it was only a few minutes to an hour.)

Some other notes/details:

- The other possible ending would have resulted in Techno killing DreamXD and being given ANOTHER choice to take its power over the world, or just leave and stay there forever. Basically DreamXD’s existence is vital to the power of the revival book, and it’s death would have resulted in Dream not being successful in his revival attempts. Obviously we have no idea how the powers actually work yet, but I just came up with an explanation because I thought it would be interesting. You can decide on your own which of these endings fall into Law, Chaos or Neutral because uh, its complicated given the scenario. You can also decide if letting DreamXD live even fits into his character! Idk! But its not like DreamXD’s being oppressive by any means, not that there’s anyone to oppress here anyways. That’s my logic anyways.

- I don’t know what demons would represent specific people, I’d like to use one of the Angels for Phil but the Demons based on Angels usually have an important role in the plot that is in line with the Law alignment and like, protecting god or whatever, so no. There are a couple bird ones but idk if they fit the vibe, idk it could work, I’d have to look at a list if I want to go into this further.

- I kinda want Eret to be an Inugami because it’s body does that thing that ferret’s do when they’re all stretched out :) The only reason I’m hesitant is because Inugami is a dog, and Goose deserves representation.

- The reason I imagined for why Techno can’t break anything is because the mining fatigue lasted throughout this because he died with it, it’d get in the way of fighting too but at least it isn’t weakness, and he’s not alone either.

Uhhhhh that’s it for now I think!

(will potentially add to this if I figure something else out in the future)

[allsassnoclass]

astronomy in reverse

Pairing: Roy English/Calum Hood Rating: T for language Word Count: 2016 Read on AO3

Summary: Roy and Calum go stargazing

Calum has learned more about the night sky in the past year than he has in his entire life leading up to that point.  He attributes nearly all of his new knowledge to increased time with Roy.  When the world stopped turning, Calum was suddenly confined to the house rather than a tour bus, for better or for worse.  To an extent he’s glad: Roy and Duke are home, which is a pretty big silver lining.  While he’s missed making music with the band and hearing venues erupt with fans screaming their lyrics and even the constant feeling of miles and miles of road disappearing under his feet, long walks with Duke and long nights spent wrapped up in his boyfriend have more than made up for it.

His favorite nights involve gazing at the sky while Roy talks about astrology or astronomy or cosmology or philosophy or spirituality or anything he fancies.  One thing that Calum loves about Roy is that he’s always coming up with new, interesting ideas about the world.  The first night they spent alone together in Bali was an exploration in thought that he could never have anticipated but was enraptured by nonetheless.  He doesn’t remember the specifics of what they talked about, but he remembers that he fell in love a little, and even though both of them have different thoughts now, that initial spark has never gone away.

“It’s going to be a clear night,” Roy says while they’re eating leftovers for dinner on the couch, Calum keeping a careful eye on Duke so he doesn’t lunge for his plate.

“Yeah?” he asks.  Roy clicks his tongue at Duke and offers him a potato chip, allowing Calum to relax and take a bite of his own food.

“Mars should be visible,” Roy says.  Calum watches fondly as he scratches Duke behind the ears.  The sun hasn’t set yet, and the natural light highlights his face in a warm glow.  Roy is always sunny, even in the dead of winter or in the middle of a rainstorm, like he’s somehow able to trap rays within his skin so he can shine in every context.  Looking at him grinning down at Duke now, Calum feels lucky that the universe aligned to bring them all together.

“Do you want to go out for it?” he asks.  Their backyard is far enough from the heart of the city that they can see the North Star most nights, but Roy has found a place a reasonable drive away that lets them put together more constellations.

Roy smiles at him in response, giving Duke an opening to lunge for more chips.  Dinner dissolves into a battle to corral an unruly dog acting more like a puppy than an old man for once in his life, but Calum doesn’t mind as long as he can hear Roy’s loud laugh and keep seeing him shine.

-/-

They head out once they clean up the mess in the living room.  The sun is beginning to set, painting the sky in pastels and lengthening all of the shadows in corners of the city.  Their destination is a hill in the middle of a park, a frequently visited little haven, but Calum is happy to see that they’re the only people there tonight.  They park the car and Calum grabs a blanket kept in back.  It’s a nice evening: cool but not cold, skies clear with an occasional gentle breeze.  Crickets and the rare bird call tickle his ears as Roy grabs his hand as they walk, tilting his head up to look at the moon, a bright spot half-full even while the last of the sun’s rays illuminate the sky.  He doesn’t let go when they reach the peak of the hill, leaving Calum to try to spread the blanket on the grass one-handed.  It doesn’t work, and Roy laughs at him before taking pity and helping.

“It’ll be more helpful if you’d let go,” Calum says as they tug on different corners and try to lay the blanket down in sync.

“It’s important to challenge yourself.”

“Fuck off,” Calum laughs as Roy pulls him down onto the blanket next to him, holding their hands safely in his lap.  Calum turns his gaze to the sky, quickly landing on the moon again.  He lays down and settles in, pulling Roy down with him by their joined hands so he can talk to him easier while they wait for all of the stars to come out.

“Do you think aliens exist?” Roy asks after they’ve laid in quiet for a few minutes tracing the craters of the moon with their eyes.

“Yes,” Calum says automatically.  He glances at Roy, harder to see now that the sun has fully set, but the upward angle of his lips is still visible.

“Why?”

“The universe is fucking huge,” Calum says.  “There’s no way that there isn’t other life out there.  It might not be recognizable to us, but I don’t think our little world is that unique.  We just haven’t expanded our search enough.”

“If it’s not recognizable to us, is it still life, or is it something else?” Roy asks.  Calum hums.

“I guess it depends.  If we can’t recognize it as life then we probably wouldn’t consider it alive as a society, but that doesn’t mean it isn’t.”

Roy smiles wider, the way he does when Calum has a thought he particularly likes.

“Scientists talk about life-cycles of stars from birth to death despite not considering them living organisms like us, but I think that’s because subconsciously we know that we’re all the same.  We’re all connected.  Just because stars don’t breathe doesn’t mean they can’t be alive.”

“So the stars are aliens?” Calum asks, finding Polaris above them.

“Maybe none of us are aliens,” Roy says.  “‘Alien’ implies ‘other,’ and there is no other.  All of our differences are arbitrary, but at the core everything comes from the same place.  Scientists said we’re made of the same things as stars.  We’re part of the same universe and the same collective unconscious.  Why shouldn’t that extend to the other creations we share the universe with?”

Calum hums.  He gazes at the stars and tries to imagine them as alive.

“What about our phones and guitars and stuff?” he asks.  “There are non-living things in the world.  Where do you draw the line?”

Calum can feel Roy shrug next to him.

“Somewhere between stars and guitars,” he says.  “Maybe stars are part of a bigger life.  The Creator’s synapses.”

“And us?”

“His favorite creations.  You are, at least.  He definitely should be proud of what he did there.”

Calum glances at him.

“Are you trying to use God to flirt with me?”

Roy smiles, still bright in the dark.

“Just telling the truth.  Well, as much of the truth as we can be certain of.”

“It’s called the truth because we’re certain of it.  Everything else is called a mystery.”

Roy shakes his head.  “You can figure out mysteries without having a definite truth.  What I thought was a definite truth before could be something different now.”

Calum considers.

“And if I said that grass is green?”

“Fuck off,” Roy laughs.  “I’m talking about bigger things.  Truths of the universe in philosophy or religion.  Things where truth is dependent on belief rather than something provable.”

“Alright, alright,” Calum concedes.  “I get what you’re saying.”  Roy squeezes his hand.  Calum squeezes back, a silent transaction that makes him smile.

“Look,” Roy says after a moment, pointing with their joined hands up at the sky.  “Boötes.  Did you know that ancient cultures had different names for this constellation, but lots of stories for it call him a herdsman of some sort?  More evidence of the collective consciousness and human unity.”

Calum hums, because he has heard that before.  Boötes is Roy’s favorite constellation because he likes saying the name. Calum’s favorite is one that they made up when they were out in the desert celebrating Ashton’s album release. It’s hard to see this close to the city, and it’s probably only really visible in the fall anyway, but it making it was one of his favorite memories from the fall, both of them sitting in the same lounge chair and gazing up at a sky more luminous than this one, picking out different shapes and forming outrageous stories behind them.

They do a lot of storytelling in their house.  Songwriting is its own form of storytelling, of course, but they also do more traditional sorts, recounting things from their day or sitting together entertaining each other with their imaginations.  It’s an exercise in creativity, stretching different muscles that songwriting doesn’t always hit or that Calum doesn’t think to use in everyday life, and he feels like he’s better for it.  If nothing else, it’s saved him from boredom in quarantine and has kept him from traveling in circles in his head.

“Hey,” Roy says, “what do you think happens when we die?”

Calum could never be bored with Roy around.

They spend more time discussing various questions and secrets in hushed voices under the cover of the sky, staring at the specks of stars far above them.  Roy points out which speck should be Mars once he’s fairly certain he doesn’t have it wrong, raising their joined hands to the sky for Calum to follow, and Calum uses sightlines as an excuse to shift closer.

Roy knows that it’s bullshit, but Calum gets a kiss for his troubles.

They trade a few more words back and forth before fading into silence.  Calum stares at the sky and listens to Roy’s gentle breathing next to him and the crickets hidden somewhere in the grass.  He takes his own deep breath of the crisp night air, as fresh and clear as it gets near LA, and feels any lingering tension from the day leave his body.  Out here, cuddled up to the man he loves and watching glittering pieces of celestial gas that might have burnt out already, it’s hard to feel like any of the things that typically bother him matter.  There’s something to be said about contextualizing his problems against the entire universe, and there’s something to be said about doing that while trying to unwrap the universe with Roy.

When they delve into these sorts of talks, Calum always walks away with a worse understanding of the universe and a much better understanding of Roy.

Maybe that’s the point.  Maybe humans aren’t meant to reveal the secrets of the universe, but rather to reveal their own secrets to each other.  Calum knows the way that Roy thinks now.  He knows why he loves the stories he does and how he views himself in relation to the rest of humanity.  He understands Roy’s compassion and his love for the world they’re in.  He knows who Roy is, and he knows a little more every time Roy asks him about things that Calum can only guess at.

He’s never felt like he knows anyone quite like he knows Roy.  It’s more than the fact that they’re roommates and Calum knows what brand of toothpaste he uses and how he takes his coffee.  It’s like Roy is a distant star, and Calum keeps twisting his telescope further into focus, and he knows that it goes the same way.  Roy knows how he likes his eggs and which bass is his favorite, but he also knows the inner workings of Calum’s thoughts.  He knows the way their hands fit perfectly together and when they have to let go to avoid them getting uncomfortably sweaty.

He glances at him, profile barely discernible in the dark.

“Hey,” he says quietly.  Roy’s head tips towards him, breaking his staring contest with the sky.  “I love you.  I’m glad the universe let me know you.”

Roy doesn’t say anything, just brings Calum’s hand to his lips and kisses it, and they go back to watching the sky together, existing in a tiny pocket of space carved just for them and the stars.

[marceloferrt-blog]

Top Women's Fashion Secrets

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[preevelynn-blog]

ManyVids Interview

Tell us about your cult:

I am the High Priestess of the Cult of Yith. We are a cult that is dedicated to learning all there is about consensual sexual perversion and deviancy. We accept every kind of gender identity and expression and sexuality.  The main goal of our cult is to collectively have as many different kinds of sex and orgasms as possible for the sake of knowledge. We only condone fully consensual sexual interactions and fully condemn any kind of nonconsensual sexual act. The Yithians collect data on all the different kinds of sexual activities that our cult members are a part of and they add it to their grand libraries that hold knowledge from infinite places and times.

The Yithians are a species of highly evolved extraterrestrial (and sometimes terrestrial) beings who can  swap their consciousness with individual creatures through not only space, but also time. A Yithian living on prehistoric planet earth could potentially swap bodies with Genghis Khan, or Abraham Lincoln, or a random person living in the year 2045. They can swap their consciousness with creatures and beings from anywhere in the universe at any time. This is how I first came into contact with them. They must have taken control of my body in the past because I now exist in strange dreams that involve them. I understand that all they seek is knowledge and I’ve always seen knowledge as power, so I’ve created the Cult of Yith to use my own talents as a sexual deviant to help the Yithians gain knowledge about human sexuality. It’s very convoluted, I know. The bottom line is that if you join the Cult of Yith and you have interesting, fun, consensual, and unique sex eventually when the Yithians come back to Earth and claim their rightful place as rulers of the planet, we will be given the role of librarian in their grand libraries for our contributions. Plus your life will just be better with a religion that fully supports your odd kinks.

What role does music play in your life?

Music plays many different roles in my life. The biggest role music plays in my life is that of a way for me to communicate. Music is also a friend, an enemy, a religion, and many more things. I am almost always listening to music unless I am sleeping and I create music every single day. It has a near constant presence in my life. I create music for all the porn that I make. It may not be very good, but it’s something I made and that makes me proud. My favorite art has always been art that is provocative and socially conscious. I think in American society right now we need to be pushing for sex work to be more protected, socially and legally, and music is a great medium to do that. Music can be a wrapper for a message that makes a message an easier pill for humanity to swallow. I love to make music that focuses on and is influenced by sex work, intersectional feminism, and the rights of genderqueer people while theatrically wrapping it all up in a recognizable package, such as the imagery of a religion or cult. *hint hint nudge nudge* Music, and all art forms that I indulge in, are a way for me to unapologetically say what I want to say.

What do you see as the major issues facing the LGBTQ+ community in adult entertainment?

I think one of the most glaring issues faced by LGBTQ+ people in adult entertainment is the remaining stigma around trans and gay performers and the silence of many cis industry members about this topic. Performers and managers steer away from gay and trans people for a lot of different reasons and some of these reasons are direct reflections of a past that’s already been thoroughly gutted and exposed as idiotic and queerphobic. There are some very stark differences between how cis and trans performers in the adult entertainment industry are treated. For example, segregation between cis and trans women is alive and well on MyFreeCams to the extent that MyFreeCams doesn’t allow trans women to perform on their site even though they are supposedly a “women only” cam site. In their rules and wiki there is a lot of trans exclusionary language. On their wiki it says “Natural-born women” only and on their official site rules they say nothing about disallowing trans women, but they do say “No men.” So if a trans woman can get through the background check (Which I did because they don’t ask for a picture of your genitals) and gets banned from the site, what rule did she break? It’s pretty safe to assume she only broke the “No men” rule even though she isn’t a man. MyFreeCams won’t address the issue at all and when I got banned from their site my account was deleted, they took all the money I had earned during my show, and I never got a response as to “why” I was banned. Their silence protects them.

This is a really important issue because MyFreeCams is probably the biggest cam site in the world and they sponsor so many huge events and conventions related to sex work. So you’ll have safe spaces and events for MyFreeCams models that are essentially spaces and events for women, but trans women are excluded. MyFreeCams is a huge part of the industry and they should treat all women equally, we should demand better from the large companies that represent the different aspects of sex work. Just a reminder to all cis models on MyFreeCams, 40-50% of your hard earned money is going to supporting this behavior. I understand you might not have the privilege to leave, but that’s not stopping you from emailing MyFreeCams asking why trans women aren’t allowed, or from putting them on blast on social media. On other issues too, we should not be silent. When MyFreeCams is transphobic we need our cis allies to call them out and be loud because they don’t care about what trans people think. If you’re an ally and your manager is being homophobic don’t be silent, call them out. Homophobes and transphobes don’t care about queer people, they will mostly only listen to other cisgender straight people. Power structures are torn down from the top, not the bottom. Please help.

What are your favorite fetishes? Are there any you got into thanks to making content? Any you keep for your private life and don’t film?

I think my favorite fetish is blasphemy targeted at Roman Catholicism. I got into blasphemy from doing private shows for ministers and active church goers who wanted me to really dig into their religion and basically replace their God with myself. I was raised Roman Catholic and I find the King James version of the bible to be very problematic and anti-queer, so I revel in the opportunity to tackle something that often puts me down. Whenever I do one of these shows I often start by detailing to my submissive the passages in the bible that condemn me as a trans woman, specifically the ones in deuteronomy, and explaining how their God wanted me to be in league with the devil by creating me this way. Then I will go on and explain how Satan and I are converting God’s own angels and humans against him by helping them to see the light of sexual deviancy. Then we do all kinds of naughty things in MY name instead of God’s name.

I find it refreshing and empowering to fight against something much more powerful than myself that actively oppresses me and people like me. The Catholic church is one such force and I revel in the opportunity to not only voice my opinions about the Christian mythos, but also to get someone who is a part of it to realize how anti-trans their own book can be. It is beneficial and positive for both me and the submissive and every single submissive I’ve done a blasphemy show with has returned more times than I can remember for the same experience.

Who are your: musical heroes, adult entertainment heroes, and political heroes, and why?

I don’t really have many heroes. I think some of my biggest influences when it comes to music and porn are Marilyn Manson and Natalie Mars. Marilyn Manson’s provocative style just really makes my inner goth girl squeal, and I think Natalie Mars is just so gosh darned physically talented. I wish I could take the things in my butt she does.

What is the most heartwarming thing you’ve ever seen?

That scene at the end of the Witch where the girl talks to the goat.

What is the most annoying question that people ask you?

It’s not a question, but I hate when guys want to talk about how they are straight, but they would still fuck me. Like, yeah… duh… if you were gay you would probably want to fuck a man?

What is something that a ton of people are obsessed with but you just don’t get the point of?

Ariana Grande

What sexual fantasy would you like to make a reality through making an adult vid?

I would love to recreate the exorcism scene from the Exorcist, but instead of Regan and two male priests I’ll be possessed and two sexy female nuns will fuck the devil out of me.

Say something to your fans:

I appreciate you all and if you respect and support me I respect and support you. <3

Fast 10:

The Best Topping/Ice Cream Combination Is:

Spaghettieis from Germany

One piece of entertainment I wish I could erase from my mind so that I could experience it for the first time again is:

The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

If I could have an orgy with anyone on Earth it would be the following people:

Marilyn Manson (1994 version), Katie Marovich from CollegeHumor, and Peter Steele (Also 1994 version).

If you wanted to talk dirty to me you should say:

Describe giving me oral sex and then cuddling me.

The sexiest outfit I own is:

A lace bodysuit that one of my biggest supporters of the name Ser_Koopa bought me!

This sex toy I love and this sex toy I dislike:

I love my fleshlight and I’m not a fan of plastic prostate massagers.

If I could time travel I’d visit this era:

1994 for the metal or some time in the future when I’m not living way below the poverty line and I’m comfortable.

The best way to start the day is:

Yoga!

One thing I wish I knew more about is:

Stocks and investments

The one major sex tip I have for people is:

Communicate. It’s always a good idea to ask someone if they are ok during a sexual experience.

[lucalicatteart]

Nanyevimi Basics

Just a short bit of notes about timelines, trade routes/ land stuff, and going over basic concepts like the gap in history, global areas, blood incompatibilities between species, etc. Since these are kind of background details of the world that I may end up referencing a lot just when generally speaking about it, I thought it’d be good to have some general info about this stuff all in one place.     (info under read more)

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This isn’t actually too long (or at least is shorter than some of the posts I’ve made), but I’m going to provide an outline of the sections (like a little table of contents), just because the topics are all so scattered and unrelated (since it’s really just.. “Random Misc. Things You May Need To Know About The World’), so that it’s easier to just go to the section you want to read lol...

Topic Outline (in order):

Main Info/ state of world

timelines/ explanation of the history gap

explanation of what ‘global areas’ are

current day travel routes and map stuff

interaction between species (blood incompatibility, mating, etc.) 

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-- MAIN INFO / WORLD STATE  ---------------

Main things to note about the world: 

Humanoid intelligent species have existed in the realm for well over 500,000 years (though most history prior to the point has been lost due to a gap in history spoken about later in this post)

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That means a lot of stuff is old and a lot of things don’t make sense lol, or at least you end up seeing a lot of things like, species that seem to have no ancestor (because whatever they evolved from was so far in the past that all information on it has been lost), weird ruins that nobody knows the point of, stories and religions and things where nobody is even sure where they originated from anymore, etc.  (though this doesn’t actually impact too much since of course most average people just focus on what’s around them.. like if you’re just a humble little elf farmer or something you’re not really going to care about solving 40,000 year old mysteries, you’re just going to focus on events directly in your lifespan and your immediate surroundings)

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Currently in the world, many groups are disconnected. Despite efforts by a few international councils and stuff to establish worldwide trade routes and things like global areas, everyone still exists pretty isolated from each other and the realm can really come across more as many little distinct pockets of people scattered everywhere, rather than some broad interconnected network of societies. Though this is clarified a lot more in the later section about global areas. 

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magic exists, which impacts a lot of different things. If you haven't read the post on types of magic (HERE (link)), at the end of the post it explains how magic is used in daily life in Nanyevimi, common attitudes towards it, etc. Which may also be important context to consider when thinking about the world. I didn’t include anything about magic in this post since I already covered a lot of ‘The Basics Of Magic' type of stuff in that one.  But if nothing else, at least know: 1 - Magic is extremely dangerous and risky and mere exposure can cause health problems, especially with higher level magics.. 2 - 95% of people in the realm either can’t do magic or can only do it a little bit/low level magics (or are capable of higher level magics but choose to use magic extremely sparingly because... dangerous lol).. 3 -  magic is used in minor ways to occasionally help people with things or do things that wouldn’t be possible through any other means, but fully magically integrated societies that use magic for everything and etc. would be extremely rare.. 4 - magic has a lot of  dynamics to it’s use, and while it’s still partially mysterious/not fully understood, it does still seem to have  recognizable patterns/systems that determine how it can be used, whether something will work or not, who can use what type of magic, etc.,, even if these rules deal in vague concepts that are hard to figure (like someone’s “inherent magical energy level” is a super abstract measurement lol).  for much more detail than that, just read the post about magic lol

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NOTE: At the very beginning of planning my world, I did FORMERLY have the idea that Nanyevimi could be connected to earth (our real world) somehow (where it’s like, a secret realm existing technically alongside earth but very separate to the point neither really know about each other), but I’ve since decided that this is NOT the case.  The more that I planned other aspects of the world, the more that a connection to earth/our real world became kind of incompatible and nonsensical, so I’ve done my best to go back and change all of that (remove any instances it was referenced, etc.), but there may have been a few places that I missed it or something.  So just be aware that THIS post is currently the most updated TRUE info about the state of the world (updated last on September 20th, 2019), and ANYTHING in other posts that contradicts something written in THIS post, should be considered inaccurate. So if you see some old stuff about the human realm being connected to Nanyevimi or some other random nonsense that I contradict later, please disregard it (and maybe let me know so i can go back and edit what I missed!)    ANYWAY though, Nanyevimi has NO association with our world/earth/the human realm and is an ENTIRELY separate fantasy world!!!! 

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There are probably a little over a hundred unique humanoid intelligent species (humans, elves, jhevona, etc.) thought to exist in the world (if counting subspecies as separate groups. if not, then the number is a bit smaller). All of these groups have different lifespans and magical ability and biological needs and etc., so this can be another reason for the seeming disconnection through the realm  (like, the huge gap between species who live to be 8000 years old on average to those who only live up to 200, cultural/technological differences between magic and non-magic species, various groups having entirely different standards as to what climates they have to be in for survival/what resources they must consume to live (food, blood, magic, etc.),, as well as things mentioned  later in the post, like how blood of one species can be dangerous to another, and how pretty much no species can mate with other species (meaning like, merging their societies or something is less plausible)). Basically: there are massive cultural*(1), physical, biological (like “I’d literally die if I visited this climate”,etc.), technological, communication based, etc. barriers between many many groups, which overall makes it somewhat difficult to interact cohesively across the realm.   *(1) (By ‘cultural’, I mostly mean timescale based.. like all other cultural stuff like customs, language, etc. I feel like can be overlooked, since you can adapt to that sort of thing, but with varying lifespans and people’s entire societies literally operating on vastly different scales from one another, it seems like much more difficult to overcome)

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A few of the main things in the world that scholars are unsure of (not that there aren’t plenty others, but these are like, the Main mysterious things in the world that actually impact people in the sense that not understanding them makes everything complicated lol) :    ---- why the random history gap occurred 500,000 years ago and what it even was    --- basically everything about magic lol.. why it exists. what it is. why some rules apply in some scenarios and not others. why the hell it’s so dangerous that mere exposure to it can make people sick/infertile/etc. how it’s passed on from person to person. etc.    --- why blood is so weird and species have so many blood incompatibilities despite no physical properties of various bloods really seeming that different     --- what a soul is and what ‘’soul’’ magics really are, what is actually being transferred when souls are worked with or moved, and again like, whether souls have innate “magical properties “ or etc.     ---  what “inherent magical energy” really is (as well as why some species posses more than others, the means for how it is drained (when using magic) and restored (naturally by the body??), why you can seemingly grow it by means of soul absorption (and again, what are ‘’souls’’ and how are they linked to ‘’magic’’, etc.)))

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Species lean towards being taller in Nanyevimi.. like technically the ‘humans’ in Nanyevimi are pretty genetically similar to humans in our real world, but they’re taller in Nanyevimi. That’s kind of just across the board like, animals tend to be bigger, humanoid people tend to be taller, even stuff like plants tend to grow larger, etc. Of course there's plenty of tiny stuff, this isn’t a definite rule, but things do trend towards slightly larger rather than smaller. This is why the heights for characters/species/  etc. will probably seem oddly tall lol

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While there have been some myths and legends of this existing, the land has no magical properties. Sometimes in magical/fantasy worlds there will be stuff like, magic forests or magic rocks or other like, natural resources that somehow contain magic, so I just wanted to specify that while this is a magical world, this type of thing really isn’t seen in Nanyevimi. Magic is inherent in some of the humanoid species in the realm, but doesn’t seem to naturally occur anywhere outside of that.  Though there can definitely be like.. fake magical natural things. Like if a mage casts an enchantment over a forest to make it act in a certain way or serve a magical purpose, it could SEEM like a magical forest or etc.,, but natural parts of the land/world themselves are not inherently magical, in this case it would be caused to act magically by an external force (the mage). There are only a TINY handful of exceptions to this, usually in the form of water or gems (such as a lake that seems to contain magical energy itself, or stones that seem to hold a magical property), and by tiny handful I mean like... maybe 3-5 things existent in the entire world lol. And even for those, it’s hard to tell if it’s genuine, since there are probably millions of years of history of this land, much of which has been lost,.. Thus, who would even know if the “””genuine magical lake””” wasn’t just some fake-magical resource that a mage created 800,000  years ago and nobody knows the origins anymore so they just assume the magic is inherent, when again, it’s merely external. 

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Most species are fairly small. There are a few majority populations (elves, certain types of humans, certain subspecies of jhevona, etc.), but many groups make up only a tiny fraction of the world. So even though there is a wide variety of all different types of species and groups of people, a lot of them live in more isolated areas (which may have something to do with why they’ve got such different anatomy or abilities or etc, like they evolved in a weird niche pocket on their own for so long) So.... there is A LOT of variation, but often more powerful/unique/strange species tend to exist in more isolated areas and in smaller numbers and be more rare, so it’s not like EVERYONE in Nanyevimi is going to be some wild super all powerful mage god with 10 arms and 30 eyes and the ability to levitate or etc. lol.. The vast majority of people in the world are just... fairly normal looking humanoid creatures, who can maybe do a LITTLE basic magic or maybe even can’t do magic at all, that just kind of go about their day hanging out in their village or etc.  While species varied in abilities and appearance DO exist in smaller amounts in some places, and you’ll occasionally come across some 15 foot monster creature or some extremely powerful dangerous mage, like 80% of people you come across in travels or something are just going to be typical everyday folk who can’t like, destroy people’s minds with magic and don’t have any bizarre abilities or strange anatomy or etc. Most elves, humans, Jhevona, vampires, etc. aren’t out here doing anything crazy or growing into all powerful god creatures or getting into wild magical plots and etc., they just like.. hang out in the town they grew up in and farm vegetables or write books or something, maybe occasionally purchase an enchantment from someone or try to learn a spell.. etc. Basically: Though I tend to focus on the small pockets of people with wild abilities or write a lot about rare types of magic (since I find them most interesting lol), I still always want to stress that overwhelmingly Nanyevimi is definitely not some wild dangerous fantasy world where everyone is some variation of monstrous creature with impossible powers and ancient mystery plots ruling their lives. Just like the real world, while there are some unique fascinating things you can focus on, a lot of those things are much more rare/uncommon, and most people are just... fairly normal going about their daily lives. Though I’ll discuss a lot of smaller species and more rare/hidden away areas because it’s fun,  I don’t want to give the impression that EVERYTHING is like that universally or something lol

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Some areas have ‘’’’’modern’’’’’ technology (computers, smartphones, etc.), others don’t. Some areas have magical technology, others don’t. Some places have a currency system, others don’t. Some societies are collective/mutually share all resources, some buy and sell in a market style set up with currency, some barter, some do none of those things. Some places have kings and queens, some collectively rule themselves, some are ruled by religious figures, some have democracies, some have authoritarian dictatorships, some have something else entirely. Some places have binary genders, some places have more fluid systems, some have entirely different gender systems or exist in such a way that the concept doesn’t even apply. Some live in families (like parents and children in a house), some live in large collective community homes, some have entirely different societal organizations of living. Some have skill based hierarchy, some have money based hierarchy, some have hierarchy based in some other abstract concepts unique to the species, some have little to no societal hierarchy.. etc. etc. etc.  Basically, the world is extremely varied (especially with how isolated many groups are culturally and lack of outside interference, people don’t often share technology/religion/social systems/ideas with many others, so there are pockets of people doing entirely opposite things from one another even living with in the same general area, etc.), so I really can’t generalize much about it.  I wouldn’t be able to give much generalized info like “most people are ruled by royalty” or “most people have this economy”, because really ‘most people’ doesn’t really exist, since things are so varied. While some broad concepts can apply (like “most people in the world are not expert level magic users” or “most people know to avoid blood of unknown species because it’s proven to be hazardous in the past” or “most species average lifespans fall within the range of around 60 for the shortest living species, and 900 or so for the highest” etc.), overall there’s not really a Common or Typical way to be, or a general way most places in the realm function. 

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LASTLY , even though I do stress how disconnected things are, remember that all of this is like, GENERAL info. There are plenty of places where there is some amount of conflict or people trying to take over land or fighting their neighbors or etc. I don’t want it to seem unrealistic like “oh everything  is perfect and peaceful at all times and nobody talks to each other” lol, like.. obviously it’s a broad and varied world so it DOES happen, but here I’m just meaning to say like, GENERALLY, there are not as many conflicts as you would expect  there to be, for some of the reasons given, and especially broad scale huge conflicts barely ever happen. Like they haven’t had a world war really in the past 50,000 years, and they’ve only had maybe a few hundred conflicts that were like continent wide or between many neighboring nations in that same timescale (which sounds like a lot but like.. it’s spread out over 50,000 years lol..).  Most conflicts are between smaller isolated groups who actually have the basis to conflict with each other.  Like for example if two similar groups  actually want the same resource or etc. (since in a world where everyone’s at a totally different level of technology and societal organization and many people may not even live off of similar diets (if their species even has to eat at all), it kind of reduces the amount of people in direct need for the same things, unless those groups do actually exist in fairly similar ways).  And some groups do genuinely have a historical basis for conflict, such as the whole beef between some groups of elves (though of course not ALL) spreading general hostility towards jhevona for their philosophical beliefs, which has been going on in some form for like, probably like 400,000 years or something like, they’ve just historically had on and off periods of conflict about this. Or like between alliance elves VS. elves outside of the alliance (rooted when they split their belief system about 10,000 years ago, ). Or the specifically Fanyiniri elves’ historical basis of issues with the Avirre’thel (which is like 20,000 years old, AND is actually a good representation of how a lot of conflicts in the world are since it’s like.. They’re not fighting anymore REALLY and they haven’t been for probably 10,000 years, but the groups still have some degree of underlying tension. That’s a good example for how a lot of things actually play out in Nanyevimi it’s like... A lot of.. ancient stuff that happened forever ago but some societies still remember it since some people live to be like 10,000 years old, and some don’t, so there are just disconnected varying levels of underlying tension and confusion everywhere, yet not uniformly enough for ACTUAL conflicts to initiate.. More just for everyone to feel vaguely unsettled and afraid of the larger world and want to isolate and protect themselves from whatever magic and nonsense is out there, even if they don’t know why or only have the mythical remnants of ancient conflict in their culture.) ANYWAY, stuff still happens. There are still plenty of little issues and corrupt governments and internal conflicts and land disputes or whatever that can be focused in on a micro scale, like between two neighboring cities or between two groups of the same religion or etc. etc. I don’t want to make it seem unrealistic and disingenuous with the idea that “everyone keeps to themselves and nobody fights” sentiment.   But my MAIN point with stressing the whole “isolation and lack of conflict” thing above is really to just get across that broad, massive, wars and etc. are very very uncommon , and that this isn’t like an Epic Fantasy World where there are always Super Combat Death Faction World War Save The King Oh No Take The Throne And Uh Oh The World Is Ending And The Battle Between Good And Evil Is Such That It Can Literally Destroy The Entire World type stuff lmao. In Nanyevimi it’s usually more like:  “eh, these groups slappy hand at each other every few thousand years and this dude doesn't like that guy and there’s some really intense internal political infighting going on over here and uh oh, is that a cult? and oh well here’s some religions that disagree and a little clan of elves that doesn't like another clan of elves, But Overall None Of These Conflicts Are Far-Reaching Or Disastrously Broad To Be Able To Destroy The Damn World Or Cause An Apocalypse Or Whatever". I’m not necessarily trying to emphasize that the world is utterly peaceful, but more that none of the conflicts that occur in the realm are that massive or broad reaching, they usually occur with small groups infighting amongst themselves, or little historically based group conflicts here and there, but nothing is going to like, literally end the world or something. I know a lot of fantasy worlds will have like.. big World Destroying stakes involved and ‘super evil faction’ vs. ‘super good faction’ fighting each other to Determine The Fate Of The Entire Universe, so I guess I just wanted to explain like... it’s not Like That lol. The same underlying reason for emphasizing stuff like that a majority of people are not wildly powerful mages or etc. Like... overall I kind of aim for the world to be pretty average, with a lot of cool magic stuff under the surface and interesting topics and history I like to go over, but.. at the end of the day,  most everyone is still just.. a humble little elf hanging out on a farm picking flowers.. There’s no big world war or super powerful society destroying mage battle looming in the distance.. Of course there are plenty of historical/political conflicts here and there and a handful of ominous magical experiments and evil mages and etc., but overall it’s just.. an elf watching the sunrise holding a bunchel of flowers in a mundane magically enchanted bucket.. you know?

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Also, certain things are impossible to do with magic. You can’t do everything. Please see the post on magic to learn about those limitations. 

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-- TIMELINES/ HISTORY GAP ------

here’s an explanation of the image of the timeline (full sized/more visible image is in the photoset above, but i put a small one here too lol) 

- Unknown Time -  (any time prior to roughly 500,000 years ago) Nearly nothing at all is known about this time. There are like a few ruins/ structures and evidence of civilizations before this time, but  legitimate historical records or solid information is fairly absent (despite people being pretty confident that records must have existed). 

Other than a few small losses of information here and there, historical record in Nanyevimi has been “mostly” in tact for about 500,000 years (meaning, there is some form of continuous recording of at least most significant world events since that time.. Obviously some, if not a majority of, things will be lost to time, or not recorded, etc. but like.. in GENERAL, ‘recorded history’ is here being used to mean that there is at least some decipherable amount of information allowing scholars to piece together at least a VAGUE  world timeline, etc.), seemingly starting with some of the early societies of that period. 

However, history seems pretty nonexistent before that point, as if everyone began writing everything down all at once, or moreso as if something happened around that time which somehow destroyed all records, ruins, and relics across the entire realm prior to that point (yet somehow was never mentioned in these future writings... You’d think if there were some worldwide disaster, even if the past were entirely eradicated, those who survived would write about their experience of the disaster event, but there’s hardly any indication of anything like this. In the records we have from before this time, no natural disasters or anything are really mentioned, and no true explanation has been given. All we know is that.. SOMETHING, at some point, seemed to happen around this time, and many people forgot a lot of things. But since everyone forgot everything, nobody actually gives any clear answers as to what happened, or any sort of specific event or cause. )

It is known that advanced humanoid species (practically no different than those today) have existed in some form for far longer than 500,000 years, and scholars occasionally find things that date back to that time, however for the most part any knowledge or understanding of that world is absurdly sparse,  and basically anything that occurred before the ~Magical Point Where Recorded Nanyevimi History Began~ has been entirely lost. 

We DO have records and writings from immediately AFTER this happened (like, documentation of everyone being very understandably concerned to have  gaps in memory all of a sudden) but anything PRIOR to this point in time, is basically just a mystery. We know about the aftermath, but nothing about the event itself. A lot of history just suddenly picks up out of nowhere around 500,000 years ago, in vague texts written by massively confused societies that have huge memory gaps and basically are barely functioning,, but anything before that point just seems either suspiciously obscured, or gone entirely. 

- Faded Time - ( 500,000 to about 300,000 years ago) There are a FEW actual documents and things from this time, history was still recorded, but it is so long ago a lot of it has been lost or forgotten. Though unlike the lack of information in Unknown Time, the fact that so little is known about the Faded Time period is not seen as mysterious or supernatural in origin. It’s really just attributed to like... it being old as hell, and things naturally being lost over time and etc. Considering the time period, the amount of info we have is reasonable, and doesn’t seem to just abruptly stop or not fit together correctly (like is the case for Unknown Time). We have about as much information as you’d expect to have about this time period, nothing unusual at play, though it is still understandably sparse. 

- Ancient Time - (300,000 to 50,000 years ago)  Much more in the recent past. Though obviously still old and a lot of information from this period (especially around the beginning of the time period) is scattered and fragmented, there are a pretty reasonable amount of things known about this time. 

- Modern Time - (50,000 yrs ago to Current Day) Much more connected and  better kept info. Most things from this era are not vague or mysterious at all. Though obviously due to the isolation of the realm and societies keeping to themselves, there are plenty of secrets and mysteries and gaps in the information of scholars, but overall this is the most well documented period of time. There are a handful of beings that have actually been alive for most of this time (like you’ll hardly find  even one single creature that’s over 100,000 yrs old, that just really doesn’t happen,  but there ARE a small amount of 40,000 - 20,000 year olds in existence and etc.), which absolutely helps contribute to the better continuity and documentation of events in this period.

- Lost Era - (basically the same period as Unknown Time, anything prior to the memory gap roughly 500,000 years ago)  Everything is lost, there have been like, legit maybe, 1,000 artifacts or signs of past civilization found from this time period (none of which are actual written record or any form of information.. it’s more like ‘oh a random piece of a jar’ lol), out of probably billions, entirely gone , no history exists

- Disrupted Era - ( 500,000 to like, a little over 300,000 or so years ago) A period of time with evidence of lots of war and conflict. Most of which is thought to be driven by the mysterious occurrences and the fact that history just randomly evaporated, which obviously like... having a mass memory gap occur overnight can cause a lot of issues within societies lol.  This is probably the most similar thing to an apocalypse documented in known Nanyevimi history, where problems are just compiling on top of problems and everyone is running around panicking, basically everyone’s way of life is in upheaval or under direct threat nearly all at the same time, and of course some people respond to this badly.. It’s just like.. disaster upon disaster and nobody knows what to do. 

Like, groups and places suddenly seem empty as if they don’t even exist anymore even though nobody remembers exactly what it was , everyone has sudden gaps in memory and places and things that just feel off without being able to articulate why, societies are disoriented, infrastructure and etc. is suddenly missing that people assume surely must have been there before but they can't recall what was formerly in it's place, certain techniques for doing things have been lost and nobody can remember how to operate certain items anymore or etc., entire groups of people who were once pivotal to economies now seem to just be gone leaving nothing but an awkward gap in their place, etc. 

 It would be similar to if people in the USA suddenly woke up and there were no cars or roads  and all existence of them had been removed and nobody remembered what they were at all, but other stuff was till in tact. Certain things would seem totally off and impractical with nobody being sure why (like “Why do I have a job so many miles away from my house? I can’t walk that far... did I used to get there another way? It doesn’t make sense for me to even have agreed to work there..” or people seeing just huge gaps of land in the middle of cities (where car manufacturing plants or car dealerships used to be) and being like “What’s with this blank plot of land?? Shouldn’t something be here??”, people randomly missing members of their family and all evidence of them (because the family members worked in the auto industry or their identity was so intertwined with cars that when erasing all evidence of cars it was easier to just wipe them away entirely) and being like “Why do I have four seats at my table, and four beds in my house, if only three people live here? And how did I have children?? If I have no wife to have children with? Where did the kids come from?”,, (or alternatively not wiping away those members of the population and instead they’re still present but just suddenly have a massive amount of their memory gone) , etc. 

So like, take the above scenario of if all cars were missing in the US, but then add maybe 4 other major things (like if internet and electricity and etc. were suddenly gone as well) and then also just evaporate a few entire states out of the country, and also some of the wildlife, and also maybe 400 plants or something. Like it wasn’t just ONE thing, it was multiple seemingly significant things, places, people, ideas, technologies, entire societies, just... all of a sudden missing at once with no memory of that. Or at least this is the closest thing we can estimate that it seemed like, based on the few records that exist of the aftermath of this period. 

People of course didn’t forget everything, it’s not like everyone suddenly had no idea who their family was or how to walk or how to speak and etc., many things were maintained, but it’s more like everyone in the world just suddenly woke up from a slumber with random bits of significant information missing, certain groups of people and places and items entirely gone, huge stretches of knowledge (some of which were very important to certain cultures or societies to be able to function correctly), certain cultural traditions and ideas entirely lost, etc. 

 So of course, immediately after this happened, there was a lot of societal upheaval and reorganization, as people had to rework entire economies or learn new ways of doing things since their old ways had been lost overnight, fill in their gaps in systems and relearn certain knowledge as soon as possible. This strange erasure of history and etc. seems to have sparked a lot of land disputes, fighting over resources, and various other conflicts, which seemingly led to an entire age of general aggression and widespread issues until finally societies kind of settled back in place and found ways to restore the former balances that were going on. 

( Side Note: I make it sound like it happened all at once, but there’s actually no definitive evidence of this. Because the spread of information was slower back then, and additionally seemingly some technologies had just been lost, there was really no way to spread word quickly or send out messages like “hey, our population seems to be undergoing some sort of mass memory loss, is that happening with you guys too?”. The few records that do exist from directly after the 500,000 year mark (in Faded Time) do suggest that it happened relatively around the same time, as there don’t seem to have been cases of people who had lost memories interacting with those who still had them (implying that at the least if it happened in one area it happened in the next closest area soon enough after that they wouldn’t have time to communicate before the other area’s memories were messed up), but nobody is sure if it was actually EXACTLY at the same time, or if it was more like, over the course of a week or two. 

Scholars are also unsure if this happened to EVERYONE, or only certain people in certain locations. Every existing record from every location around this time period seems to describe the same phenomena (albeit sometimes in different ways/ various interpretations, depending on religion/culture of the group), but the records from this time are still very scattered and limited.

 Additionally, it’s thought that society was more concentrated to a central area around this time (or at least, the “main” society, like large trade cities and etc. where most of the population was kind of spread in just a few areas centered around huge trading routes or significant resources, there are thought to have been certain cultural hubs in various locations across the world), and also these larger societies were probably the main ones producing the records,, so it could also be the case that this event really only impacted certain areas or civilization hubs that were connected with each other, and skipped random groups who lived 2000 miles away in an isolated forest or etc. 

We know at least that it was extremely significant and impacted seemingly all record-keeping societies of the time, but nobody can be sure if this happened everywhere, as there were likely plenty of scattered smaller societies entirely disconnected from the main lands/cities/trade who probably didn’t even have writing systems or keep records, or maybe did them in different ways (like some random group of Jhevona that stayed isolated far in the mountains and only kept records with magical orbs or something, thus no evidence would really be found from them, etc.). 

So anyway! I just wanted to clarify that as well. As far as is known in the few existing records we have, it’s assumed this happened at the same time and affected everyone, but it also may be likely that it could have happened over the course of a few days or more, and there’s no explicit evidence that it actually affected LITERALLY everyone, only that it affected everyone who’s records have ever been found. As there is literally no indication anywhere for people to even remotely give a good guess as to what the cause of this was, what it was for, why it happened, where it came from, or what it even WAS (a spell??? a weird natural disaster that had strange effects? etc??), there’s no real basis to assume details of who it could have effected and who it wouldn’t have, or how long it would have taken, since it’s literally just,, we know nothing about it except that there are vague records and evidence to support it occurred. )

- Restful era - (roughly 200,000 years to Current Day) Everyone is tired of fighting and confusion stemming from the disrupted era, and just begins to isolate.  Communication and tech also helps allow for more  global peace keeping efforts and these groups additionally aid in reducing conflict. Obviously people, especially lower lifespan groups*(1),  still have issues,  but largely it’s pretty peaceful. Most people have also forgotten about or just plain moved on from the weird loss of history thing, and have now filled most of the gaps left in society and re-acclimated to life. Groups don’t even remember where their conflicts originated or that any history was lost, they just know they kind of want everyone to mind their own business lol. Large scale wars and interconnected multi-country conflicts and etc. are fairly uncommon from this point on, and people have seemed to really either just agree to disagree or move on. Things seem readjusted, most people have the resources they need.

Nanyevimi  (as a whole, of course there are plenty of exceptions to this but it’s just much less common now than it was in the past) is kind of at a weird  period of stagnant isolation between most people groups ( not in a hostile way), where like anyone who did have conflicts, after legit thousands of years of fighting just got tired of it or etc. It has to be considered that with lifespans being a lot longer for many species in the realm, conflicts are also happening on a different scale, if at 2,000 years old you’re still beefing with someone over some minor land conflict you had when you were 33 years old it’s just going to seem useless after a while and you’ll probably both give up on it.   

Especially with increased standards for international intervention in the past 30,000 years  and stuff (like having mediator countries step in if two others are about to go to war, programs to kind of foster some positive relationships and mutual terms of agreement between groups even if they’re wildly different, at least enough cooperation to not start shit, for the sake of the greater good, etc.), most people barely get involved with neighboring countries at all, and especially not in a negative context. 

(Another theory on the existence of so much peace currently is that extremely conflict prone societies may have all died out during the major time of conflict, and those societies that put more of a cultural focus on peace keeping or self-isolating are the only ones who lived through that period. Like, when basically everyone on the entire planet is blowing each other up with magic and wrecking the world and scrambling for resources, the groups who ran away and hid far in the mountains or snuck around trying to keep peace with everyone/cooperate as best as possible are probably the ones who made it out of that era alive, while the more conflict eager or uncooperative ones simply perished during the disrupted era, or dying age, right after the main upheaval.  Especially since from the few documents we do have from the disrupted era, it’s clear that hundreds (or even thousands) of groups died out during this time, entire species being killed off and societies collapsing unable to cope with the chaos of the memory loss event (and this isn’t even including the possible groups who vanished seemingly as a result of the memory loss event), so the idea of “many groups died out and only a few remained who possibly leaned towards certain societal characteristics that helped them survive” is not extremely far fetched.)     

( *(1): Typically groups with lower lifespans (60 - 200 yrs avg lifespan) tend to be known for having more conflicts, because their generations phase in and out so quick, and they’re not around long enough to get a real grasp of envisioning he future and deeply considering how they'll impact it. Whereas a species that lives 2,000 years on average will probably have like.. seen history repeat itself 600 times already, have had plenty of lifetime to level out emotionally and learn what mistakes not to repeat, to think heavily about the future and take time with decisions because they know they'll be around for a long time, etc. etc. 

Obviously there are exceptions to this but it’s like, a common idea (with reasonable evidence to support it) in Nanyevimi that people/societies tend to get a bit more relaxed as they get older, especially when people are living thousands of years, it’s unlikely that you’d live to 800 years old and still be going around starting petty drama with everyone you meet or something, since by that time your behavior has probably either gotten you killed, or you’ve learned not to repeat the same mistakes and found better ways to cope with the world, etc. So species with lower lifespans are generally seen as more conflict prone, though again, this is not ALWAYS the case. ) 

- Dying Age - (500,000 to about 450,000/460,000 years ago) This was the primary period where many of the conflicts of the disrupted era occurred, Right after the memory loss thing. Though the various conflicts and issues seemed to continue on until around the restful era, this period of time was like the WORST of it, many bad things seemed to spring up at once...  lots of wars and confusion, weird viruses, natural disasters that were maybe previously prevented by a certain technology which was now lost, seemingly entire species having gone missing, more issues with societal function after the loss of everything prior, a large reduction in the population of the world and shrinking or death of many societies, etc. 

(sidenote: most of the old records from the earlier periods of this time (since obviously during the latter bit of the era this was starting to fade out and people were getting their shint back together) are almost humorously dark like.. catastrophic to an absurd degree.. where some ancient elven scribe or something is just like:

“Well, ..hmm.. so.. I do not remember my name, nor my occupation, nor what I am doing in this town, though I am told it is my home. My father has died, I have no food, my house (I assume it is my house?) was lit on fire last night, and there are men coming from the east to kill us (those in the village I supposedly belong to), apparently.. Oh yes, also from the south and north (at least not the west, but that is because the entire west has exploded, or so I am told). I also have contracted a strange illness. I tracked down a fellow who claims to practice medicine, however he simply died in front of me as he was struck by a stray brick resulting from a nearby magic duel. There are still people fighting outside of my home currently, though the men from the east, north, and south, should not have arrived yet, so this conflict is unknown. Luckily, what they do is not my business, as they are outside of my house, and while in bad shape, the remaining walls shall protect me.   One of the villagers believes that we should start sacrificing children to their god, another would like me to cut off my toe for a spell, the other wishes to construct a dictatorship in response to the widespread conflict... I am not sure I trust any of them. I would seek religious advice, but a star fell from the sky yesterday and crushed the church (but it is okay, because everyone in the church disappeared a few days ago, anyway). My teeth are also falling out. There is a mountain in the distance shooting fire and smoke into the sky, but we are unsure what this means... 

Anyhow, I am leaving with my wife tomorrow to find a place to live far in the woods away from society, because everyone is blasting magic upon one another, and it feels unsafe so we-.. oh hmm.. My wife has just died by random lightning strike.. Well.. I suppose on my own then, I shall leave for the woods. Though, the woods is on fire also, and strange screams are coming from it, and the trees are oozing black liquid, I still think it shall be for the best if I can leave this area before those men from the east, north, and south get here. Perhaps I shall head west. If it has exploded, there should be no people there, correct? Ah well, my finger has just crumbled into a pile of dust and a hoard of rats are currently scurrying in through my fireplace somehow, they are now biting at my flesh (joke is on them, my flesh has been infected for 2 days now, so I hope it shall sicken them).. I suppose I should stop writing and deal with these matters. Wish me well on my journey.” )

- Time of Progress  - (300,000 to like.. maybe 100,000 or so, I know the timeline is inaccurately sized (jumping straight from 300,000 to 50,000 lol, but this is around the timeframe it would be) Technology and science grows (or at least, restores itself to a point of functioning past what may have been lost), and better travel allows people to communicate and share more wisdom and information with each other faster/more efficiently, which ends up helping  various areas of study and helps progress certain societies and systems in the realm (though everything is still largely isolated, and technology/knowledge  isn't anything CLOSE to evenly distributed (you can still be in a place with electricity and then travel like, not even 100 miles away and find people who have never even heard of electricity in their lives, etc.), this more just means that, the few societies and groups of scholars who DON’T want to be isolated, now have new ways to communicate with other people who are actually open to communication,, and there are less barriers to communication in general, were any of the isolated groups to wish to start acting more collaboratively.).  

- Elven Times - (roughly 30,000 years ago to Current Day) Period where elves became the majority group (by population size) in the entire world. Which like.. isn't really that significant, but is usually still counted in history books and stuff since groups like the Elven Alliance are still one of the most prominent political and economic powers in all of Nanyevimi, and even though their height was probably like 5,000 years ago, they still hold a LOT of influence around the realm. 

Also because this signifies the dying out of many smaller species, and the reduction of species that were more prominent on the world stage in the past (like certain groups of Jhevona). Which isn't caused by the elves, but it’s still of note that many populations have recently (like, in the past 60,000 years or so lol) seemed less able to survive, less able to reproduce, etc. and is something currently a good bit of scholars are looking into (especially since magic exposure/use  is known to cause stuff like infertility and health problems, even though magic has been around this entire time (so why would it start causing worse problems now?), people wonder if its somehow getting more dangerous/unstable, or more powerful, or something that would end up causing higher level magical species (like Jhevona and other obscure groups) to increasingly grow more and more infertile and unhealthy, while evolution starts to favor species with lower levels of inherent magical energy/non-magical groups (like elves or humans). Thus possibly predicting the eventual dying out of higher level magic species/stronger magic in favor of less magical or non magical groups (which also is supported by the general observation that species tend to grow less and less magical as they evolve over time), though this is of course all speculation. 

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ALSO IMPORTANT TO NOTE: most common people don’t know about any of this stuff!!! lol.. The 500,000 year ago collective memory gap is like... something a majority of the population doesn’t even know of, or really care about, since it is.. SO long ago, and history has picked up and continued since then. A lot of this is stuff that only the most obscure and dedicated scholars would get into. This information, generally, does not affect the world at large or really influence many current cultures or anything, since these issues are so ancient. Kind of similar to how a mystery on earth dating 20,000 years ago, probably wouldn’t impact your daily life, and you likely wouldn’t even know about it unless you were a scholar or something. 

Though since some species in Nanyevimi can have pretty long lifespans, they can tend to have a more lengthy view of what counts as ‘recent history’ (like humans may consider anything in the past 10 - 100 years to be Recent, whereas some societies in Nanyevimi may view ‘recent’ as more like 100 - 2,500 years or etc.), most average people in the realm really don’t care much about anything that happened over 20,000 years ago, and tend to focus more on modern history. 

So though I’m writing this information for context, I do want to clarify that it’s not like, it’d be common knowledge for everyone, you’’re not going to find the 500,000 year ago memory gap or something being brought up in casual conversation or etc.(unless you’re chatting with a scholar), a majority of people aren’t even aware of history any further back than maybe 5,000 - 20,000 years (depending on the culture/ species of the group in question.) 

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ALSO NOTE - there are plenty of other time distinctions, and individual cultures and groups of course have their own custom calendars and timelines, may mark different historical events or eras, etc. This is just like.. the broadest and vaguest possible way to categorize a few important historical periods but, is by no means comprehensive. In an actual history textbook or something there would be A LOT more detail and many more events and time-periods that are distinguished and marked on a timeline. 

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-- GLOBAL AREAS -----------------------

“Global areas” or “global cities” are a very specific type of area that is meant to cater to many different groups of people of various species, backgrounds, etc. They are often primary areas for trade (though there are plenty of trade cities and traveling hubs that aren’t in Global Areas), and usually have a variety of resources and housing types, as well as Global Learning Centers (a specific type of school, described more in detail in THIS (link) post about schools).

 Areas where many groups of people live in harmony have obviously existed in some form for hundreds of thousands of years, but the specific initiative of forming Global Areas (usually done by international groups promoting peace and unity in the realm, and more efficient travel/share of knowledge. often some of the same groups who will step in and try to de-escalate wars, or mediate conflicts between others, etc.) is more recent, mostly being established only in the past 15,000 years or so ago. 

The main thing that distinguishes a “global area” from a “normal place where a lot of different people happen to live”, is that global areas are specifically constructed with the idea of accessibility for as many different people as possible in mind. While a regular city or area can certainly have a wide variety of people in it, there is no guarantee that there are accurate resources available for all of those people. Whereas the very nature of a Global Area is such that it kind of makes a promise to be as broadly accommodating in every way as possible, and there is some amount of guarantee that no matter the background of the traveler, they will be able to find some form of comfort there. 

(similar to what separates a ‘global learning center’ from ‘regular school with a diverse population’. Global learning centers are making a GUARANTEE and are designed specifically to cater to anyone who attends there, whereas while normal schools can certainly introduce accommodations, it’s not promised that they will and they have no technical obligation to.)

Global areas often feature various types of climate controlled housing (since some species have to be in certain temperatures), a tremendous amount of language resources (as well as free magical technology for residents who need it, like enchanted earrings that will translate speech for you, in the case that your language is so rare they actually don’t have any other resources on hand for you, etc.), massive markets with such a variety of food and products that no matter your culture or species based diet requirements, you can definitely find something you’re able to eat,, have plenty of cultural representatives and diverse councils of people who represent their own species, so that no decision is made without considering the needs of like, nearly every group of people, and there are different things set up like resources and etc. to help people avoid stuff like culture shock or feeling alienated,, having many different versions of things (like a clothing shop that specializes in designing for species of various anatomy (people with wings, 10 foot tall species, 2 foot tall species, people with multiple arms, tails, animal legs, etc.), or having  multiple ways to get to the top floor of a building (magical lift system, normal stairs, non-magical lift system (for people who can’t use magic or who have trouble being around it, but also couldn’t use the stairs), etc.etc.) 

The reason that this is kind of strange/that global areas are rare in the context of how most of Nanyevimi is, is because : 

The way that everything is lined up is like,, in one country everyone is one specific  type of elf and they all mostly speak their own language and they use magical technology and have cell phones and computers and rooftop gardens and they use a silver coin with a star in the middle for their currency , but then you travel just a mere 300 miles away and suddenly EVERYTHING is completely different, it’s a country primarily inhabited by orc-like people who all speak a totally different language and use fire to light their homes, communicate everything by letter and travel on foot, they use dried animal pelts for currency and have no conversion for the currency you’ve brought from the previous land, etc. etc.

Things like language barriers and cultural differences are easily overcome, especially if in a group that can use magic, but sometimes things like people existing literally on a nearly different timescale than your own (thus processing the very nature and importance of events and perception of their entire existence differently than you), or having such vastly different biological needs from you (one can only live in the heat, one in the cold, one must eat metals to live, other is allergic to metal, etc.), the uneven spread of technology, and stuff like magical areas vs. non-magical areas,  can sometimes make it much harder to relate to or trade with others (at least harder than it would be if most people lived generally around the same timespan and had similar physical needs and the technology to effectively communicate across longer distances). 

Groups generally don’t isolate in a hostile manner or for negative reasons, and most cultures are generally pretty open to negotiation/trade/cooperation if prompted, but just in general societies in Nanyevimi seem to lean towards keeping to themselves in a neutral manner, generally just because they have so little in common with the people around them, have natural environmental barriers between them, or have no real need for things like expanding or invading other countries or forcing people to assimilate to their ways or etc. 

Like for example, if you’re a small  2 foot tall squirrel species that lives in trees and has a lifespan of just about 50 years old on average and your highest daily concerns are just making cool huts out of grass and finding enough berries and writing cultural story songs in your language to pass on to your offspring before you die, you’re probably not going to be very concerned with the giant 19 foot tall humanoid water creatures that live a little off the coast of your forest and live for 8,000+ years and spend most of their time building underground monuments to their group of 22 celestial gods and eating fish and that don’t speak any language you think you could even come close to understanding because you literally can’t even produce the same noises with your mouth anatomy. And yeah, they take small pebbles from the shore sometimes, but overall they don’t bother you or interact with you and they’re just so far outside of the scope of any of your most pressing daily concerns and you feel like you couldn’t even comprehend the way they’re living anyway so, you kind of just leave them be? And sure, if they were being killed or needed resources or something (assuming they’d even be able to communicate that to you), you’d help them out since, why not? You have nothing against them. But, for the most part you just don’t think of them, you’re busy with your grass and your songs. Maybe a few members of your squirrel group get curious and go out to attempt to talk to the others occasionally, or create a religion based off of these strange water beings and leave them flowers at the shore from time to time to maybe gain luck from them or something,,  but overall they just seem so abstract to you, never make contact with you, and aren’t causing you any harm so?? you just don’t think about them often.

Like almost in a way there’s SO MUCH variance in so many ways between different groups and species and etc. that it ends up being difficult to establish a more concrete sense of uniformity or unity across the realm. Small areas can group together, and plenty of species can exist alongside each other and etc., but the wide variance in biology and technology and inconsistent travel and communication systems and isolating environmental factors and etc. make societies exist more in little isolated centers and tiny civilization pockets around the world, rather than all being one huge interconnected system where everyone knows about everyone else and trades with everyone else and etc. 

( though there are plenty of global organizations and international councils that try to promote unity and safe travels and will help represent you or give you a translator or etc. if you have to be traveling between a lot of countries,,  trains that run between large areas and etc..  and a handful of  broad sources of global connection on a large scale that are present and available and at least somehow accessible from some areas. and of course, global cities and stuff. But these things aren’t present everywhere, and are not super widespread)

The current state of Nanyevimi is kind of just like, a bunch of little distinct pockets of people (towns,  cities, villages, etc.) within slightly larger distinct pockets of people (countries) all of which likely don’t really have much to do with the pockets of people beside them (with the exception of a few major conflict areas, or major areas of unity where there’s a lot of alliance between groups in the area) and just kind of sit alone doing things in their own ways, with the occasional like, interference of a global council or something asking permission to build an international railway through the area or asking if it’s okay to escort travelers through the lands or etc.  Other than communicating for only the most utterly necessary of trade or resource exchange, most groups don’t go forming political alliances with other groups or trying to integrate others into their culture or take over their lands or etc., they just want to keep to themselves. 

(Note: though you do see people more often connect with those of a similar species/lifespan/culture, due to having some sort of common ground with them (like a group of Jhevona having communications with another culturally isolated group of Jhevona in a city not too far away from them, since they evolved from the same society and speak a similar language or etc.), but sometimes even then people still  may not talk or trade with each other, or at least no more than they would any other group. And sometimes this may  actually go the opposite way and they have more grounds for conflict with another group, due to shared culture lol.. Like Group A and Group B who have the same religion arguing over who is right, while utterly ignoring/staying isolated from their neighbors Group C, D, and E,, , since they have so little common ground with the other groups that they couldn’t even find something to have a conflict over in the first place. So, SOMETIMES, if a group is in an area where there are many similar groups around them (a village of humans with a few other human villages in the surrounding area, or humans and elves, etc.), you may see less isolation and more connection and cooperation in the region, but even then, that’s not guaranteed and there are still plenty of places where people choose to stay away from others regardless (or cases where rather than unity, their similarities serve to  promote conflict instead)) 

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BUT ANYWAY, this is context on why “global cities” are kind of an actual distinct thing, since you would think like, “every city is a global city”, but usually cities are pretty much just the people in the area and not much else. Like for example, most large cities in Navyete still are mainly populated by vampires/avirre’thel, since the entire population of Navyete is like over 96% Avirre'thel due to them being an extremely isolated people generally. Even though they’re still large bustling cities with many inhabitants, those inhabitants are mostly all people who speak the same language and are from the same culture.  Then compare that to some of the major coastal cities in Asen, which,  though they are right next door to Navyete, have a massive variance in population and are usually places where you find businesses and schools and groups and species and cultures from legit all over the entire world collected in one place. 

(Asen is a very “global country” overall, despite being originally founded by the Fanyiniri and elves still being the slightly dominant population in the area by most measures (especially if you count rural areas), Asen has operated as an independent country free of the Fanyiniri for like 10,000 years, and it just so happens to be really conveniently located for hubs of global trade and etc).

So, yeah. Something being a 'global area’  (cities, learning centers, travel hubs, etc.)  is actually fairly unique and uncommon in the realm as a whole. Though there are many attempts to unify the realm (like people always suggesting ‘universal languages’ or like, having every living species classified in a registry to keep track of them all, or to have like, established communication networks or councils involving every culture/nation in the world, etc.), these usually, hardly ever work or even get off the ground as an idea (since with most things there’s a lot of criticism of if that should even be a goal in the first place, implications of that, doubting why everything needs to be uniform/standardized in the first place and why we can’t just let everyone have their own independent cultures,  etc. etc. It’s usually some professor brings up an idea and then his colleagues split into  groups of differing opinions on the matter and argue about it for a few years and then eventually drop it) , so , Global Cities and stuff are usually the closest thing to a unified society that exists. Little tiny pockets of the world where, at least on a smaller scale, you can find the extremely rare event of like 50+ unique humanoid species all chilling and trying to get along with each other in one space

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-- TRAVEL ROUTES  --------

This will be really brief but I just wanted to establish the information of this map for future reference lol. 

This is basically showing the MOST major routes for traveling and trade in Nanyevimi. Though there are of course plenty of smaller roads and etc. like, literally everywhere. The lines shown in pink are JUST the like.. commonly established, frequently traveled, very well known about, ways to get from one area to another. 

(note: This is in reference to routes for traveling between countries/continents/etc., not WITHIN them. Every territory of a group of people is going to have their own unique transportation system, and they usually travel WITHIN the interior of their own nation far differently than they would when traveling between outside nations or across the land. While some of these routes DO pass through pre-existing territories, they’re often (but not always) mutually agreed by all parties to be neutral land (since everyone collectively has a use for them), meaning trade routes may be somewhat plain and not have the same level of customization as the usual transportation within a country.

Like for example, there may be a group that lines the roads in their cities with gold and uses magical platforms to hover from place to place, but the trading road that passes through the outer edge of their territory is just a plain wide dirt road lined with bricks and a few tiny shops here and there. While some groups do see it as a business opportunity and set up elaborate cities and stuff around the trading road (even if they technically don’t own the road Itself, they may own the area around it), others think more like “well why would we dedicate resources and time to sprucing up some random ugly ass road, when we have our Perfect Beautiful Cities right here within our own territory? who cares what all those scraggly travelers see lol. We don’t need to show off.” And others don’t even think about it at all and it’s just a plain barely formed dirt path going through an unkept nasty forest (these are usually the more dangerous ones ghgh).

But anyway, the main point is that when I talk about how people travel or what roads are like, I mean the ones connecting territories and specifically designated AS trade roads. These same things generally do not apply for roads that native people use to get around in their own spaces. “Trading roads” are often given their own special designation, and treated differently by the locals depending on their culture (whether they ignore them, barely do anything, try and make them as nice as possible, line them with frightening row of armed guards, etc.), but overall they’re generally not as specialized or unique as the roads/transport you may find actually within a native area of a nation where locals spend all their time. ) 

It’s kind of thought of as one big road/route (referred to by many different names, depending on the culture) that connects most significant places in the realm all together. Though many parts of it are well maintained by local governments and etc., plenty of sections and areas are still pretty dangerous to pass through, or are NEAR dangerous areas, so traveling is still absolutely NOT easy or simple or anything just because there’s like.. a single vaguely established road network that many people use/know about. 

Establishing and maintaining this broad route around the world has been another initiative really upkept by groups that are for global unity and increased connection in the realm (similarly to people who worked to establish/maintain Global Cities/Areas, who are usually attempting to promote easier travel, increased spread of knowledge, etc.), and it’s become most established probably just in the past 15,000 years. Though plenty of the portions of the road and routes have been used for likely hundreds of thousands of years (especially ones which occur along coasts or natural resources, which early groups would have flocked to and been passing through/living around anyway), the attempt to connect them all and bridge gaps (making safe paths through previously dangerous areas, etc.) was started more recently. 

Despite these attempts to make travel more safe and systematic, the most common way to travel is still in large groups due to the possible dangers. Usually instead of just one or two people setting out alone, it’s more of a scheduled thing? Like a group may send letters and notices ALL around in as broad of an area as possible (or phone calls/emails/magic notes/etc. TOTALLY depending on the level of technology available in the area) saying “hey everyone, we’re traveling along this route in a month of two. anyone who wants to come, especially if you have valuable skills like medical or combat knowledge, please meet us at this place on this date, and bring as many supplies as you can!”. 

It’s common for people to set out on roads with 15 - 40 people all together, even if they’re entirely unrelated groups and not all going to the same place (like maybe 2 of the people there will duck out of the group at an earlier place once they get to their stop, and don’t intend to travel down the entire route, etc.). This can get complicated, since it can end up being SO many different types of people from all various cultures, religions, species, groups, (some who may even have a pre-existing conflict with another), but generally they practice road neutrality. You can get kicked out of a travel group for being disruptive, stealing, hurting others, etc., but GENERALLY the case is that anyone is accepted, under the premise of “we all have a better chance of getting there if we go together than alone, so put any differences aside and let’s just walk along a road for a few days without any of us being bastards, regardless of who you’re walking alongside”.

Some areas have established travel groups that can be rented (usually coming with a cook/food forager, a medic, 2 guards, and a general assistant), so you pay a certain fee and the trained group of professional travelers will accompany you to your destination, but this is more rare. Royals of course hire their own groups, but still will usually have 20 or so people with them when traveling. If you’re very strong and very bold you can travel alone or with only 1 or 2 people, but it’s generally seen as a sign of power (meaning: people will either see you alone and be like ‘oh fuck better stay away from that guy.. if theyre alone that means they must be SUPER strong’, or they’ll see you as a big target like ‘hey. who does that idiot think they are?? arrogant ass, too good for traveling company?? lets rob them’ ). Some places have groups of traveling guards that will walk with you for free, you just have to catch them on their route (so they walk the same area back and forth on a schedule, you just need to follow along behind them at the right time as needed). etc. etc. 

Like mentioned, every area is at a different level of safety and development, so this can be really complicated (especially the politics of the road, two groups of travelers with conflicting interests, people taking advantage of groups, local governments trying to take advantage of or control traveling groups, guards waiting until they’re in a dangerous area to suddenly demand ridiculous fees from the travelers and threatening to abandon them alone in the scary woods if they don’t pay, etc.etc.) and I could never explain it ALL in a short section, but I’ve mentioned most of the general gist I guess of some of what goes on. 

Explanations of map image: 

main route (pink) - this just represents the large international traveling/trade road/route mentioned above  

global areas (yellow) - these spots are supposed to show where all existing global cities/areas are. Though obviously they’re way large and not to scale, since if I actually made them the right size on the map, they’d be a tiny barely visible dot lol. Especially if it’s just a single city, I kind of had to make them huge looking so they were able to be shown lol.. Despite being oversized though, the locations are shown fairly accurately and give a general idea of where they are.

isolated (gray) - these gray portions are to show areas where the population who inhabits that area tends to be very isolated from others. This is significant in the context of the map since these areas are often avoided or more difficult to travel to, not due to the people being hostile to outsiders, but merely because they’re much less likely to agree to run giant ass roads through their lands lol. Many  cultures/species/people groups/etc. in these areas just kind of want to be left alone and don’t really want a huge center of trade or giant crossing areas going right through their country, since they feel it may attract conflict or interrupt their way of life. Thus, if you travel around there, you’re unlikely to find accommodations or lodgings, you’re probably just walking along a dark dirt road in unkempt wilderness, if you see locals they may just ignore you, you’ll have to sleep in a shelter of your own making and hunt your own food, etc. The area isn’t hostile and nothing there is out to get you, but they also don’t give a shit about you being there, so while they’ll let you pass through, you’re kind of on your own for food and shelter and etc. and don’t expect the roads to be nicely kept up or anything. 

avoided (dark purpley sort of) - these areas are similar to the ‘isolated’ portions, except it indicates that these are areas travelers and traders actively AVOID passing through, and are very unlikely to build roads through or travel across. Though this is often not even due to the people groups in the area, and is commonly more because of climate or wildlife (like for example the very northernmost and very southernmost continents are mostly colored purple, because it’s so cold and harsh there that travel is literally impossible for most people and the climate is extremely deadly). Though of course sometimes this is because of the people, like for example, the Thastanri (I write all about them in a post HERE (link)) have now taken to being actively hostile to outsiders and go through great efforts to shoo away travelers (even sometimes kill them) due to their history of having their lands and people destroyed by random adventurers trespassing in their settlements so they can hunt dragons (as well as dragons being nearly extinct because of this, and the Thastanri wanting to protect them). But I would still say  that in a good 80% of cases, the purple areas are colored that way just because of something about the land or climate in the area being inhospitable and extremely risky to travel to.

 And even the remaining 20%, probably a majority of that is just stuff like “there’s a war going on between two groups around here so it’s kind of a not safe place”, rather than random nonsense stuff like “the people who live here just kill outsiders on sight for no reason”. So the purple areas are similar to the gray, in that they both indicate areas where there are not many open trade routes or large maintained roads for travelers, but for the gray ones it’s more just due to the isolated culture of the people there, and for the purple ones it’s MAJORLY just indicating extremely hazardous climates or impossibly difficult landscapes (and,, occasionally, is because of hostile cultures/groups of people, but this is more rare). 

So yeah, there’s some context I guess on travel in the realm, and where certain things are located or etc.

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-- INTERACTIONS BETWEEN SPECIES ----------

And this is just a few general things about like, stuff that most people consider when interacting with other groups and etc. 

~ BLOOD ~

 Many scholars and cultures theorize that blood itself, has supernatural properties and something to do with the nature of magic, while others (which is a more common view) claim that though some blood can indeed have magical properties, that is more reliant on the already existing magical aspects instilled in the person themselves by their soul/magic/etc (as there’s still debate as to where precisely magic comes from and what indicators are present on a physical or tangible level). Some people believe all bloods to have differing special properties depending on the species, and some say they’re all virtually the same with little difference, especially when you look at them under scientific examination. 

Regardless of whether there are some secret magical properties or not, it is at least known that most species have a huge list of incompatibilities and harmful effects that can occur due to the mixing or accidental consumption of blood. Which is one of the things that has lead some people to believe blood contains magical properties in the first place, as it can have such varied reactions in others. 

Even if, when examined in a lab, two bloods have seemingly no large difference (like obviously blood will vary by species and all blood has normal variations in it, but I mean like.. it’s not like you’ll compare two of them and one is of such absurdly different composition that you’re unsure if it’s even blood, etc. Most of them seem fairly in the same range, and there are no currently recognizable properties that correlate with or account for the differences that have been noticed in blood, etc. ), they may still have wildly varying effects in certain applications, hinting at some sort of undetectable inherent properties. 

This is something that most people are aware of (despite maybe like, extremely EXTREMELY isolated cultures who have never interacted with anyone before), and though obviously your everyday person is not going to know EVERY single blood incompatibility that exists in the realm, they will still likely at least know the ones that affect them personally (like how their own blood and the blood of the few groups closest to them tend to interact). 

Since blood’s  harmful properties have been around seemingly since like.. forever, it’s of course become part of cultures in the form of myths and little nursery rhymes and stories to teach children to never play with blood or touch blood, especially from another species.  Even if your everyday average person in the realm doesn’t have a deep scientific knowledge of blood or species evolution or the properties of magic, they probably at least grew up hearing about avoiding the blood of others. 

Though it’s not always harmful, sometimes the blood of one species can be healing to another, or do absolutely nothing, or even get them high or put them in some weird state of goofy delirium, make them pass out, help them sleep better, fix their vision, etc. etc. But a good majority of the time, the blood of one species usually either seems to have neutral interactions with others, or entirely negative ones (ranging from mild sickness/nausea or light skin burns or something (if the blood is just coming into contact with the skin), to like, full on.. contracting progressive deadly diseases or having seizures or dropping dead on the spot). 

In rare cases sometimes just being AROUND the blood of another species can be harmful to one (like, you don’t have to ingest it or get it into an open wound, just having a drop smeared on your skin could hurt you), but usually blood actually has to  get into the body somehow to actually be harmful to a person. 

Again, nobody is really sure exactly what the properties are that determine this. It’s thought that it may have to do with inherent magical ability (like since magic itself is such a dangerous and degrading force, species like the Jhevona who naturally have much more magical energy than other groups, would have more hazardous, or “stronger” blood, due to their magic being more potent (maybe a mage’s blood is gradually poisoned by magic exposure just like the rest of their body?). Thus like, a Jhevona drinking a human’s blood (a non-magical species) may not do much, but a human even just accidentally getting Jhevona blood into a cut on their finger would become instantly sick and possibly die (due to.. seemingly.. magic poisoning??)), and while many blood incompatibilities seem to follow these rules (”stronger” blood harming “weaker” blood, etc.), there are plenty of exceptions to this rule that nobody can explain, so it’s really still a kind of uncertain thing. 

Especially since sometimes the effects of blood are just seemingly like, random and nonsensical (like “oh this very specific type of elf blood can heal wounds for certain species, but for other species it infects their limbs and makes them fall off” lol ), it��s really hard to get a grasp of what underlying mechanism is actually at play here. 

But anyway, so that’s a thing lol! I will probably reference this often in things, and I can elaborate more on details or specific or etc later, but for now just.. know it’s a concept that exists, like.. Blood is a big thing in Nanyevimi and there are a huge range of various effects and incompatibilities associated with coming into contact with the blood of another species, so it’s something many people are aware of and are likely always keeping in mind wen interacting with others (like “oh, am I incompatible with them blood-wise? Or are they one of the ones that’s okay? I just don’t want to be offering them a tissue for their nose bleed some day and then I randomly drop dead because I touched their blood. this is important for me to know before I interact with anyone” etc.). 

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~ MATING ~

A majority of separate species in Nanyevimi cannot mate with each other. While one race of elf could mate with another race of elf, or a subspecies of Jhevona could probably mate with another subspecies of Jhevona, stuff like a human and an elf being able to have viable offspring is pretty much nonexistent, because they are entirely different species*** and have too many genetic differences.  

Many  humanoid species (but definitely not all lol) do have compatible enough anatomy to like.. have sex, at least in some form, but as far as actual mating/producing lineage would go, it pretty much could never result in a child. Those that are EXTREMELY similar in anatomy and also genetics (such as being descended from the same ancestor species) can sometimes produce children, but the children are often deformed or have health problems, or are fairly normal but infertile (as pretty much all half-species children are) and will not be able to reproduce their family line any further than that. 

(like for example groups of elves descended from the continent of Aviinine could likely mate with Avirre’thel/vampires, since they literally have the same ancestors, and this can actually lead to pregnancy, but even still the children have many health issues and die early, if they even are able to be born).

But many are not even close enough to do that. Like for example a Ythrili and and Verrucalt would just have such different anatomy that they couldn't even have sex in the first place, particularly the Ythrili is the one who is the most different in this scenario, their genitalia don't necessarily even resemble that of many other humanoid species and thus they can't even mate (or even really engage in sex at all) with anyone other than their own kind in the first place. Or like, some humanoid species with more animal traits (like “cat people" or the Uvra Istill with their like.. furry hooved lower halves and strange body anatomy), are so different from other species there would just be no way for it to produce a child in the first place, as for some of them (like in the case with the ythrili) they just don’t even have the anatomy to do so, or whatever possible sex things they could vaguely manage, definitely would not lead to reproduction. 

Another thing to consider is magical ability. The more “normal” humanoid species (unlike more animal looking or bug related species), regardless of whether they’re magic capable or not,  could generally all be thought of as being at least able to attempt to mate with each other, as their anatomy physically is,, usually,  compatible, however there can be a lot of issues with magic vs. non magic species and carrying children. Particularly with a non-magic species carrying a magic child, depending on the level of magic. 

So for example, a humanoid demon (Jhevona)  is one of the most inherently magical species to exist. Even if a human were to be able to somehow successfully become pregnant after mating attempts with a Jhevona, they still could not carry a Jhevona child, they would just straight up die, and no amount of healing magic could save them from the processes that are going on internally. 

Though scholars and doctors are still unsure of the exact nature of magic and what physically is occurring when magic is done, how energy is stored, what exactly determines the effects magic has on  a person, how it’s passed down genetically, etc. etc. ,  they at LEAST know that, generally, a species with a higher inherent magic level does not do well genetically with species who are less magical. 

 One theory about this is that it could be due to the genetic transference of power. Like perhaps parents of magical children naturally give some of their energy to the child while it is being processed in the body, and if the parent carrying the child is non-magic, yet the child is magic, it is going to be expecting to receive a stronger energy than the parent even has to give. 

 So like, to use oversimplified video game terms again to help describe magic lol, say they need maybe 200 MP to develop, and the parent has 0MP. But since the child's life force is actually stronger than the parent (being that they have magic in their genes somehow), the parent (rather than the child) would actually be the one to die. As they would slowly (or in some cases fairly rapidly) be having whatever inherent energy they posses (if there’s no magical energy to feed from, maybe the child starts taking physical energy by degrading their body, or from the person’s “”soul”” or etc.) devoured by the infant in an attempt for it to nourish itself, since it has to get that 200 MP somehow. Likely though, the parent still wouldn’t even have 200 mp to give, so it’d be more like.. the parent’s entire lifeforce is drained away and it dies, but the child was only able to get 80mp from that, so it dies as well.

 Now if the Jhevona is the one carrying the human's child, then it doesn't seem to kill the parent, and usually will be fine (as power is more balanced), but in this case if the imbalance is severe (such as with demons (most powerful species basically) and humans (least powerful humanoid species)), then  now the child may die, as it is thought perhaps the parent's body is naturally trying to bestow them with more energy than they can handle, causing their system to be overwhelmed and they usually just get destroyed, though not as dramatically as the first scenario (especially since again, exposure to magical energy itself is thought to be toxic, especially for non-magical people, and especially for a weap unborn non-magical infant.. even just being within the magical parents womb may expose them to enough magical energy to kill them, kind of like exposure to nuclear radiation or something). 

So in one case, the parent is too weak for the child's expectations and they slowly but often violently and painfully suffer to death, and in the other case, the child is too weak for what the parent's body is naturally attempting to nurture them with, and so they die pretty early on and silently, usually before even being fully developed, often just resulting in a miscarriage. (Also, this would still apply even with other magical species, if the magical “level” of the species weren’t balanced, such as an elf with a Jhevona, perhaps the problems wouldn’t be as severe, but likely the parent/child would still die, and even if born the offspring would be deformed or infertile)

Then another example could be a human and a vampire/avirre'thel, as vampires originated as simply elves who had given up their magical abilities (before eventually evolving into something more genetically distinct), thus they technically are also inherently non-magical, just like humans, so you would think  there would be more of a balance.

 However, complications would still arise from them having stronger life forces/souls/whatever inborn quality it is that controls this sort of thing which experts still don’t entirely understand, meaning that though they would still be more balanced magically, an Avirre’thel child would require slightly more energy than a human may be able to bestow them with healthily, though it is much less likely to entirely kill them as in the case of demons/jhevona. 

The main issue in this case would actually be the differences in genetics.  Vampiric/avirre’thel  anatomy has some marked distinctions, especially in the way they biologically process food, chemicals produced in their body (having different types of saliva and also producing poison in their fangs, etc.) , how they intake energy, the vast amount of health problems (due to the original deals during creation of the species they did get all those disease curses, Avirre'thel have a 89% higher rate of disease and illness than any other comparable species, like 1 in 4 of them has some unique vampire lifelong condition, and probably one out of every 2 you meet is having some more minor health condition ), etc. 

Though either way it is (the vamp carrying the child or the human doing it), it is unlikely the the parents will die (though still much more probable than if they were both breeding with their own species), it is very likely that the child may die from complications, either during birth or soon after, usually revolving around the systems being incompatible. 

Like for example, humans need food to survive, while vampires/Avirre’thel only need life force in the form of blood, so to work that out, the child's body may require both and mix them, or may kind of have one but more of the other, or etc. Either way it is likely to be an inefficient mix (like they need blood (bc vampire) but their body is incapable of processing it correctly the way that a full vampire would and converting it into energy when they receive it (a trait from the human), therefore no matter how much blood or food you give them, the body is processing it wrong, and they starve to death even though they're being fed, etc. OR they have more of the immune system of a human but can still catch vampiric diseases, which are way too much for their human immune system to handle and they die, etc. The human traits cannot process the speed of regeneration that occurs in a vampire thus the cells begin to repair themselves incorrectly and the child just dies of some strange form of magic cancer, etc.  

While technically slightly more possible to be born, most of these children wouldn't make it past a year old, 4 if lucky. If there were somehow 10 million Avirre’thel + human children born, 9million would die, allt he rest would be born but die in a month or maybe a year at most, and perhaps FOUR out of those 10 million could actually live into maybe their 30s, still with health problems, and live into late adulthood or so (before likely dying of disease), and they would still really need to be helped by mages or something, like have constant healing magic or medical treatments every day of their life to help them with their body not being able to do basic functions, etc. (and of course, they would still also be infertile/unable to produce further offspring).

For a last example, a Jhevona who is of a subspecies that they have generally quite low level magic, and an elf that is of a subspecies with a higher than average level of magic, could possibly actually work out. As long as: 

1. The blood of both subspecies is compatible (beyond magic, another thing is blood (though blood is thought to be  tied in with magic somehow). Since a ton of species have a long list of incompatibilities blood-wise, sometimes even coming into contact with the blood of a species incompatible with yours can make you sick, so they would have to be sure that both specific sub-species of their own species that they are, are compatible types (though i'd guess you'd do that before having sex anyway) , and aren't just going to repel instantly once mixed (like the parents body rejecting the baby’s cells, etc.)

 2. They are definitely sure that their inherent power levels are fairly equal and one isn't extremely more magically capable than the other (since even within species there can be a lot of variation, some subspecies of demons/jhevona and elves are more or less powerful, other factors that affect “lifeforce”/”soul” strength, or whatever the hell vague concept determines all this magic stuff (scholars still don’t know), and like mentioned, if a baby is trying to take more power than a parent can give or vice versa, it won’t work well, so they have to be balanced). Which is... something so extremely vague that it’s very very very hard to actually measure and be sure of, so you’d likely not actually be able to test for this but, you could guess I suppose. 

 and  3. Genetically, whatever subtype of their broader species that they both are, their biology is not extremely different in the way they process food, or regenerate health or any other essential process (like some Jhevona process food directly into magical energy rather than physical energy or etc. which would mean competing biological systems for the child to have to genetically fall between somewhere). This also includes making sure there are no immune system incompatibilities or diseases that either group is prone to that would end up being disastrous for the child’s immune system if it were to be weaker/stronger than one of their parent species.

 Again, the child would be definitely infertile , but if it meets all conditions above it COULD, potentially, be born successfully and live a reasonably long and somewhat healthy life.  

 Also another example just to note something: a magic doing human and non magic doing human would be able to mate exactly the same as two non magic humans, as the magic of humans is not inherent. Humans can only use material magics ( energy borrowed for outside sources/through external means,, and ONLY if they trained for like 30 years lol) and its impossible for them to use abstract magic (since it draws upon inherent power, of which they have none). So even a human who has struggled through trying to learn a few tiny basic feats of magic despite their non-magical nature does not posses any more inherent power or a stronger soul or anything than a non magic using human. One is simply borrowing or channeling power from something else, but they biologically are exactly the same, so it would have pretty much no bearing on childbirth, outside of maybe if they had modified their own biology with magic somehow, which is mostly impossible through solely material magics anyway. 

So anyway: a majority of separate species can’t breed with each other, and even when they can, the children usually have many complications and can die or even cause the parent carrying the child to die as well. While relationships between certain species living closely with each other may be common in certain areas, childbirth and actually mating within those relationships is generally impossible, due to the fact that.. they are like.. different SPECIES lol.. 

***( I know a lot of fantasy stories have their groups be more connected or etc. but that’s just always seemed a little unrealistic to me? lol.. Like if you have two species (even though everyone calls them “fantasy RACES”, in some cases it’s obvious their biology or etc. is so different they would be like.. fully genetically different SPECIES) with such different anatomy and functioning and etc. and then you say they can somehow just like.. effortlessly mate and produce a viable hybrid offspring with no issue?? I’m not a biologist, but I thought that like, to breed and produce fertile offspring and etc., you do have to have some similarities? So like if one party is like a 10 foot tall bat winged animal person that harvests all of their energy from magic rocks and has 4 eyes and 2 hearts and other random genetic/biological differences, and the other is like a regular elf with an average humanoid anatomy that harvests energy from normal food and etc., I just feel like it’d be hard for the body to reconcile those differences when making an offspring and actually have something that functions? The same way that a human couldn’t mate with a dog, and a cat couldn’t mate with a horse, etc... idk..  Anyway, so I do define the different groups in my world as fantasy SPECIES, not fantasy “races” (though there are some species that have sub-species within them, or distinct ‘’races’’ or ethnic groups or etc. WITHIN their own species), and since they are indeed fully separate species with differences in genetics and anatomy and the way their bodies function/process things or the layout of their organs and etc, I feel like it makes the most sense to have a rule that like.. most of them can not mate with each other and it wouldn’t be realistic for that to be the case (especially considering things like magic toxicity and etc.)?? But, if this is unrealistic or something, let me know! Obviously since I have people who like.. feed off of magic energy or have random cat ears or whatever, I’m not going for absolute biological accuracy lol, but certain things like the classification of groups as different species and how certain things like that work, I do want them to at least seem like they make sense.) 

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And that’s about all of the essentials!!! Hopefully, at least lol. I’ll add anything new if it comes up, but I think this is most of the general context necessary to understand the world as a whole and what type of environment it is, and some of the main concepts I mention a lot in other writings (blood incompatibilities, the memory gap, global areas, etc.). But always let me know if there are any questions or if I need to clarify something! Thanks for reading, have a great day~ 

[extremerabbit123]

In Progress

Introduction

I hear talking of people

The whole world has gone insane

And all there is left is the fallin' rain

And all there is left is the fallin' rain

All there is left is the fallin' rain- Link Wray

There appears to be an urgency, a strangeness, or an impending state of chaos emerging that many feel they have never felt before. Across this country and around the world, people are feeling it. Thoughts and feelings may vary from one person to another, but the common entry into this frail psychical state adjoins one subject to the rest. A footnote with no ending could be written about the disparity of consciousness that shatters itself into piece upon piece. And another footnote with no ending could be written about why this is.

Technological change has accelerated very quickly. We are now in the future, as opposed to the lukewarm digital age of the late twentieth century. Premonitions of apocalypse have crossed over from religious fundamentalism and into the secular realm. What does apocalypse really mean, though? Doomsday, or the lifting of an illusory veil? Unfortunately, God’s will and the human will to mistakenly re-enact the events of sacred texts might be adjoined after all these years, at least in their cumulative weight on the outcome of the world. But the day opens, and the heart binds itself to the garden of bondage and liberation-

under the burden of often invisible weights,

plants, humans, and other animals

are obstructed from mere sleep.

We wake and in this garden of mixed polarities, we feign survival in literal and symbolic breath. Lights go out. Some stay on- and in this space we are undone. We are still mostly hidden from each other, but the reverberations emanate as they did from day one. There is senseless suffering, sterile plateaus of non-material foundation, and the quaint disconnect as these both erupt from day to day. One looks to another, though, and all is born again. Bless this if you can. Anoint the frame. Freight trains move on in day and in night. We will meet as particles, or as intonations in music of the world unknown

I. The Presence, The Mother

1.

Nebulous nearnesses cry to me

At this timeless moment someone dear to me

Wants me near, makes me high

I can hear vibrations fly- the Incredible String Band

One of the most well known Jewish theologians of the twentieth century, Martin Buber put forth a version of Judaism that, in spite of its lack of emphasis on traditional ritual, converged with the renewed interest in Jewish mysticism, as well as various other forms of mysticism, in the mid-twentieth century. Arguably his signature work, the text I and Thou is a treatise on the relationships among humans and humans’ relationship to God. He talks about two conjunctions that define the whole of humanity’s perception. There is the realm of the I-It, and then there is that of the I-Thou.

The I-It exists in the world of objects. Once a Thou, or You, becomes a He or She for the I, then the I crosses over into the realm of the I-It. This can extend to the ways in which people perceive anything, not exclusively other humans. The difference between standing in pure relation to say, a tree, and contemplating said tree as an object to be marked by taxonomy, measurement, and other forms of classifications is great, according to Buber. The former relationship is the I-Thou relationship, while the latter is stuck in the world of I-It.

Of course, this dynamic is a model in miniature of humans’ relationship with the eternal I-Thou, otherwise known as God. Buber stresses the I-Thou relationship as being more significant than the I-It relationship, in spite of the I-It dynamic being a fact of life and consciousness, a necessity of life even. As such, Buber does not place importance on the intricacies within the I or the Thou, whether he is discussing humans or the divine. It is the space of relationship between them that is important, in which the particularities of subject and object are dwarfed by the mere fact that one entity is locked in the present moment with another. An overlooked avenue in human consciousness according to Buber as he wrote in the early twentieth century, this is the I-Thou. Within lies the true, unadulterated relationship between humans and their natural environment as well as the divine.

2.

Of course, there is an ever-undulating movement between beholding something as an object and the supposed transcendence of objectification. Generations of theorists following Buber have provided further description of the dynamic between “self” and “other,” with the term “other” providing a bit of a variation on the Buberian “thou.” For philosopher Emmanuel Levinas, we cannot presume to know the “other” at all. It is due to this very fact, according to Levinas, that we are responsible towards this “other.” This may be superior to Buber’s I-Thou in some ways, when we are to consider the fragmentation of lenses through which each subject experiences the world. Mystery fuels the altruism of Levinas’ ethics, and this could be, like Buber, extended to his view of God as a Talmudic scholar.

If we are to consider the possible pitfalls of acting with responsibility towards this other, we must take into account that there is a simultaneous presence of patterns and anomalies in this world. Italian philosopher Giorgio Agamben apprehends the other with using the term “whatever.” The “whatever” being is both singular and informed by factors that extend beyond its singularity. If we are to view a person, we can both see them as singular and as a product of factors often cited to be influential in someone’s perspective and experience in a way that is not informed by the person’s own volition. These factors can include race, class, gender, orientation, creed, and several other categories of identity. However, it would be going a bit too far to characterize these factors as the sole things that define a person. There is a delicate balance that must be sought in honoring the mysterious singularity of what and whom confronts us in this world, and the acknowledgement that to be born in this world is not to be born with a blank slate. Furthermore, due to this intersection of anomaly and pattern, a human being is without a doubt a complex, mysterious entity in itself.

3.

Zalman Schachter-Shalomi, one of the co-founders of the Jewish Renewal movement, drew upon the mysticism of his Chabad Lubavitch background and brought it to a more secular and ecumenical context. Drawing on the Kabbalah, other categories of Jewish mysticism, and even elements of other world religions, he tended towards outlined the multiple processes of creation and human development and the intersections between both. As the Kabbalistic tradition in particular emphasizes the interdependency and interconnectedness of the physical and spiritual worlds, Schachter-Shalomi outlines the varied realms within the mind, body, and soul of a person.

The mere level of appearance is called guf. This is the mere surface of things, the scraps of impressions one may derive from simply looking at a person. Beyond this is nefesh, which encompasses a person’s biological intricacies; nefesh, while still referring to the physical world, may evoke both the hiddenness and complexity of the systems, organs, and chemicals that operate in keeping someone alive and ticking. Ruach, meaning “breath” or “spirit,” is the realm of emotion. Here we begin to emerge into non-material territory, and we move further into the realm of intellect, or neshamah. Beyond that is hayyah, which means the very will of a person, or their intuition. Finally, we get to yehidah, which refers to one’s union with God. This may be the substance of the Buberian I-Thou relationship.

The ascension from one realm to another is mirrored in Jewish religious services, proceeding from fostering awareness of physicality to the union with the divine. There are four “worlds” that incorporate the realms of the soul. There is Assiyah, the realm of action, which contains guf and nefesh, Yetzirah, the realm of formation, which contains ruach, Beriyah, the world of creation, which contains neshamah, and Atzilut, the highest realm, which contains hayyah and yehidah. The physical and spiritual realms are interdependent, and are constantly in contact in the process of creation. “Creation” here is used to bridge the event of the universe’s creation with history itself, blurring boundaries of space and time between them. This may remind us that in the midst of the all of creation’s presence, a story is being told. Actually, multiple stories are told. But sometimes, there is a harmony out of which we can draw a holistic view of a person’s life and death.  

4.

Julia Kristeva, a Bulgarian-born French philosopher, is considered by many to be one of the most original thinkers of the twentieth century. Her work spans multiple disciplines; first touching upon linguistics and politics, she then moved onward into the realm of psychoanalysis, which allowed her work, already immersed in the phenomena of avant-garde literature, to bridge the social sciences and the humanities. Like Buber’s theory of the twofold consciousness of the I-Thou and I-It, Kristeva does not separate language and subjective experience. In fact, just as Buber’s theory proposes, she classifies language as being an essential element to the mere construction of subjective experience.

But within this characterization of language’s immanence in subjectivity, more parallels between Buber and Kristeva await. Kristeva observes stages of early childhood development in which language moves from “baby talk” to recognizable linguistic structures. In the “pre-Oedipal phase,” the child’s vocalizations are a primitive attempt at expressing what is yet inexpressible in the terms the adults use. This intuitive, primal construction of language is an example of what Kristeva terms the realm of the “semiotic.” As time goes on, the child learns the structures of syntax and diction that create speech out of which recognizable meaning is derived by others. This “understandable” speech is deemed to be the “symbolic,” a word that hints at the fact that something and its common name are not linked inextricably. While the symbolic precedes from the pre-Oedipal semiotic phase, the semiotic is not absent; it underlies our everyday, common speech regardless. The interweaving of the semiotic and symbolic modes of expression produces “significance,” which according to Kristeva is the resulting product in human communication. So it goes with the I-Thou and I-It; the interplay between something pre-linguistic and the recognition of the surrounding world as separate and characterizable from oneself informs both subjectivity and language.

This aforementioned focus on early childhood is inherited by psychoanalysts going back to Sigmund Freud, but in characterizing the realm in which the semiotic utterances begin, Kristeva also draws upon Plato’s theory of the chora, an almost womb-like structure that preceded the creation of the universe itself. What makes Kristeva’s portrayal of this entity different is that Kristeva’s chora is not just the passive, immobile receptacle that Plato’s chora is portrayed to be. Plato’s chora is at the mercy of whatever fills it, but Kristeva’s is characterized by “motility,” or spontaneous movement in response to whatever fills it. In general, we see this concept of the chora mirrored in wisdom traditions spanning from Kabbalah to Taoism. In Kabbalah, the name for God is Ayn Sof, generally translated into English as “without end.” Ayn Sof existed before the creation of the universe, just as in the Tao Te Ching Lao Tzu describes the Tao as being “older than God.” These examples may be more in line with Plato’s theory of an immobile womb. Kristeva’s chora, on the other hand, deals with something more fluid and terrestrial.

5.

Kabbalah is the most well known form of Jewish mysticism, but is not the only one. Furthermore, it is somewhat of a composite of traditions that came before, whether they be mystical or of a more hermeneutic variety such as Midrash. Kabbalah concerns itself with questions concerning the nature of God, how the universe was created, how this process of creation is mirrored across time and space, and, as a result of all of those questions, it attempts to address the question of “why we are here.”

For the Kabbalists, there is a need to provide some visual aid in the process of connecting with God, despite the fact that like Moses Maimonides, it is generally agreed upon that God is ultimately ineffable and incapable of being visualized. The Ten Sefirot represent a diagram of the effects of God’s presence in the universe, the world, and one’s individual soul. They exist outside of space and time, and together in the diagram they form what is called the tree of life. Like the four worlds and the dimensions of the soul, they are interdependent. What distinguishes the tree of life, however, is the way it links the particular and universal. The Sefirot of the soul and thereby the body are akin to chakra points as described by East Asian traditions, but the Tree of Life they comprise also is, as mentioned before, a map of the entire cosmos.

The lowest Sefirot on the tree of life, Malkhut, is also related to the concept of the Shekinah, or the “divine presence.” It is the dwelling place of the creation of the universe, the world, and all life. While Malkhut and thereby the Shekinah are the “lowest” on the Tree of Life, this does not mean that they are inferior or less important than other Sefirot. On the contrary, they are merely the most worldly or, to put it more eloquently, the most terrestrial. The Shekinah is related to what is identified across many traditions as being “the Divine Feminine.” This appears in traditions such as Hinduism as Kali or even in Christianity, where the Virgin Mary fills the void of what would appear on the surface, given the Father and Son dynamic therein, to be an absence of divinity’s more feminine aspects.

Without falling into the trap of gender essentialism, it may be important to grasp what is unique to this “Divine Feminine.” Unlike the typically transcendent and otherworldly masculine forms of divinity, this Divine Feminine concerns the more material, earthly forms. It is intimately connected with these more transcendent forms; neither could exist without the other. Vera de Chalambert, a contemporary mystic who works with spiritual direction, has been deeply invested in studying the presence of “the dark mother.” For her, it is elemental to confronting the messy, seemingly unholy parts of creation that we ultimately cannot transcend or avoid. This, for her, is essential to personal healing, and while she focuses on the Shekinah, the divine presence, she also outlines some of the developments in Kabbalistic teaching in which the transcendent, ineffable Ayn Sof is feminine or womb-like in nature.

In the 16th century, a Kabbalist named Isaac Luria developed the concept of tzimtzum, in which God is said to have contracted like a womb in order for creation to occur. Furthermore, the light of creation was originally contained in several vessels which eventually shattered, leaving the light of creation imprisoned in scattered shards. Thus, humanity’s mission is to simultaneously discover the sparks of light hidden in these shards and to also re-connect these fragments- fragments of the light of creation. This process is referred to as Tikkun Olam: “to heal the world,” or “to heal the universe.”

6.

Said the garden to the airport,

"can you make my flower bloom?"

"Yes I can," said the airport,

"but you'll have to recall the way

all the flowers are indiscrete

when they point towards the sun;

every instance you create

is someone else's too."

So the lesson learned was that

the garden could not move.

But all the same it could recreate

the distance that was proved to be

an empty vessel for another memory to come-

the only thing that you can see

when the day is done.

You will not stand tall

but you will see

the promise that could quickly enter

your field,

always kept, but always free to wander,

the product of a passerby's

favor to your roots.

Said the garden to airport,

"this is not what I expected;

secretly I wanted your permission

to ride in the sky.

But I can see that I cannot do this if I try.

I guess I'll just stand by myself

and see if I can sprout my wings alone."

Said the airport to the garden,

"you cannot do this as well.

All you can do is receive sunlight

and water out the well.

But if you can be receptive you can

conquer all.

One way to look at is

you will never fall.”

II. It’s Just Meat: Matter, Spirit and the Path Forward

1.

One of the earliest texts associated with the Kabbalistic tradition is the Sefer Yetzirah, or “the Book of Formation.” Mentioned in texts such as the Talmud, the time of its composition is still widely debated. The general consensus, though, is that it predates the most well known Kabbalistic text, the Zohar, by several centuries. The Sefer Yetzirah describes how the universe was created using the numbers one through ten and the twenty two letters of the Hebrew alphabet. The numbers correspond to the ten Sefirot, and this is possibly the earliest mention of them in Jewish literature. The letters of the Hebrew Alphabet were instrumental to the creation of every soul that has ever existed and will ever exist.

Not only is this process of creation, in a sense, timeless, but it is notable that here as well, the physical, the linguistic, and the non-material are intimately connected. The ten sefirot are mirrored by the ten fingers on human hands, and letters as well as the numbers are connected to both natural elements, days of the week, the planets . This includes the good, the bad, and the ugly. There is not a separate adversary, per say, who causes evil to occur. Good and bad qualities are distinguished from one another, but one may be on the same “axis” as the other.

As a metaphysics, this may sound fantastical and overwrought to modern, secular ears. In Jewish literature, there seems to be this implicit permission granted to the use of these quaint hermeneutic methods and documents as ways to get closer to or more aware of what is in the end ineffable. Despite being beset with dualisms, a text as mainstream and central to Judaism as even the Torah could be seen to demonstrate, through narrativity alone, the dissolution of many binaries that turn out to often be false. There is also the interplay between the universal and particular highlighted in mainstream and esoteric texts alike. In Kabbalah, this is exemplified by the dynamic of the supposed antinomy of the ineffable Ayn Sof and the ten emanated sefirot, which, while also deemed ineffable are conversely imbued with descriptive associations.

The Sefer Yetzirah warns against dwelling on or visualizing the Ten Sefirot, but acknowledges that to err is to be human. Thus there is the reassurance that the bedrock of the faith is that of “running and returning.” The journey is not without instances of going astray, but return is always possible. In general, the Sefer Yetzirah is a fine example of a treatise on the parallels between the physical and spiritual realms, with language and mathematics as intermediaries between the two. One thing from one realm mirrors another, and this may allow for imaginative possibilities that could promote our conscious presence in our own corporeality in an increasingly mechanized and automated world.

2.

What relevance does an arcane text like the Sefer Yetzirah have in the current world, so different from that of antiquity? Oddly enough, there are vague parallels between such a text and the most seemingly non-religious, downright blasphemous texts of the past century. One such example is George Bataille’s short essay The Solar Anus. Written in the 1920’s, Bataille’s avant-garde text fits nicely in with the Surrealist milleu with which he associated, before getting “kicked out” by movement leader Andre Breton. Bataille, a writer and philosopher who prized materiality, even, or especially, material things that people were generally repelled by lays out a series of absurd, aphoristic statements. This is what makes up the whole text. From the getgo, statements are uttered that mirror the interconnectedness of creation that a text like the Sefer Yetzirah describes. The first statement parallels it quite well:

“It is clear that the world is purely parodic, in other words, that each thing seen is the parody of another, or is the same thing in a deceptive form.”

Obviously, there is a surface sentiment of mockery both in this statement and the entirety of the text. Bataille writes to blaspheme the whole of the assumed Sacred, but if we are to follow the insight of feminist philosopher Donna Harraway, blasphemy of something is an indication that it is taken serious by the person blaspheming. Bataille takes a concept as general and lofty as the concept of love and connects it to things normally associated that may normally evoke disgust:

“An abandoned shoe, a rotten tooth, a snub nose, the cook spitting in the soup of his masters are to love what a battle flag is to nationality. An umbrella, a sexagenarian, a seminarian, the smell of rotten eggs, the hollow eyes of judges are the roots that nourish love. A dog devouring the stomach of a goose, a drunken vomiting woman, a slobbering accountant, a jar of mustard represent the confusion that serves as the vehicle of love.”

Rabbi Lawrence Kushner posits that unlike Christianity, which concerns itself more with the transcendence of materiality, mystical Judaism seeks to find God everywhere, even in the garbage. Concurrently, Georges Bataille deflates human hubris but finds great beauty and even love in the things that most see as disgusting. Also, The Solar Anus is populated with references that compare coitus, the rotation of the earth, and mechanical rotation, as interdependent parts of the same technology reflected at different levels. Essentially, it’s coitus that makes the world go around, and the world going around allows for coitus to resume. Animal, plant, and machine are part of an ecosystem in which the human-made technologies echo the structure and movement of natural forces. We cannot understand nature, but it may be reflected in the way we try to counter it- it is precisely here that we see paralleling mechanisms.

Stateside, around the same time as the Solar Anus was written, a mystique-laden figure in the blues tradition named Robert Johnson was performing his songs at juke joints across the delta area. Rumored to have acquired his playing ability via a deal with the devil, Johnson’s work stands out as an idiosyncratic expression of the blues form. The lyrics are often heavily metaphorical, expressing desire and desperation characteristic of the blues, but with an added element of imagistic ambiguity. Such is the case with Terraplane Blues, in which Johnson compares the process of remedying sexual disfunction with the process of trying to fix an automobile. Various parts of a car’s construction are used as innuendo for different parts of the body. It is an interesting metaphorical world as, on the one hand, we don’t want to see humans or other animals as “mechanized.” However, acknowledging the sheer materiality and structural nature associated with sexual pleasure is somewhat integral in satisfying one’s partner.

The reason why figures like Georges Bataille and Robert Johnson can be mentioned in the same sentence is that their work appears to be an effort to stay “in the body” even as the world was getting more mechanized. They both are materialists who nonetheless feel the power of what others would deem “the spiritual realm” in the objects of the modern world. Dwelling in brackets that are heretical to an almost sinister extent, they nonetheless document vivid desire while acknowledging the mechanical presence that in early twentieth century was beginning to become more prevalent in some of the world. Consciousness demands a working-through, a constant recurrence of negotiation with what Buber calls the It-World. The I-Thou, though, dwells among the machinery- even if God goes unacknowledged.

3.

If we are to identify language as being intertwined with subjectivity, then we must look to activities such as literature as avenues of navigating life, the world, and the Divine. Although a literary form such as poetry is often assumed to be unpopular and thereby irrelevant to the events of the world, major or minor, there is an argument to be made for its relevance even if its supposed obsolescence proved to be true. Art forms, not divorced from the social, economic, and political contexts in which they are contextualized, can have varying roles across time and place. Obviously, in the mid twentieth century, various art forms were integral to the emergence of assorted countercultural movements.

Robert Duncan was a poet who participated in various literary movements during this time. His singularity in these movements is to be noted; while at the forefront of the avant-garde, he took cues from the poetic tradition across many eras, in addition to the mystical elements of various wisdom traditions. Rather than writing a poem, he perceived himself to be participating in the one great poem written through history. This was an idea he shared with Percy Bysshe Shelley, a poet from the Romantic era. While Romanticism impacted his aesthetic and approach, Duncan was a prominent participant in the mid-century wave of poets who experimented with form, even with the placement of words on the page.

In Duncan’s case, this seemed to be integral to his particular mission as a participant in the “one great poem.” Rather than seeking to impose formal structures that would serve as an interface against a more chaotic world, whether natural or synthetic. Drawing from sources such as process philosophy, Duncan and some of his contemporaries saw nothing in the universe as inert matter; rather, the universe was comprised of a multitude of events. This outlook was reflected particularly in Duncan’s approach to writing, which was characterized by a certain spirit of spontaneity. There was not a recklessness to it, per say, but rather a way in which it mirrored the unpredictable nature of life, whether it be one’s own subjectivity or organic forms of life at large.

Another characteristic of Duncan’s work is its collage-like nature. Duncan felt it was not the poet’s job to create order but instead discover it. Seemingly unrelated fragments emerge in varying spaces on the page, but does this not mirror what’s going on “off the page?” The universe is disjointed, but within this chaos is order which, instead of being a fixed structure, may adapt to the evolving patterns of life. In this sense, while Duncan was greatly driven by the Heraclitean theory that “you never step in the same stream twice,” he also took cues from more recent philosophical developments such as the evolutionism brought forth by Charles Darwin in the nineteenth century. The collage of fragments that comprised his poems mirrored the life in the universe and demonstrated a potential way of interacting with or perceiving whatever comes into our field of consciousness.

It should be noted that in a 1978 lecture at Naropa University, Duncan describes his work as a poet to be located at the juncture of Judaic prophesy, in which messages are to be broadcast if they are received from on high, and Greek poesis, in which things are “made up,” more or less. What is intriguing about the prophetic tradition, however, that books in the Tanakh such as Isaiah seem to have a Duncan-esque quality in them as they may vary from one verse another in style and subject. We see constant jumps in such texts from standard prose, telling the story of warfare and other types of conflict, poetry from a divine source, and of course, allusions to other texts in the Biblical canon. Talmudic scholar Daniel Boyarin brought intertextuality, a subset of literary theory associated with thinkers such as Julia Kristeva, into the study of Jewish texts. In intertextuality, every text ever written is in communication with all of the rest. The great poem whispers across space and time, not just outwardly but amongst itself as well.

III. We are the Cream Simulacra, We Are Emotionless Actors

1.

A spectre is haunting the hearts and minds of many. What is this spectre, though? Is there nostalgia or an empty space in the soul that requires filling? Is the vacancy in one soul indicative of that of the next, or the vacancy in the world’s soul? Whatever the case may be, we see phenomena of the past returning. Care must be taken in comparing the present to the past, though. The present is unique and complex in its own right.

Phenomena rise in a way that they hadn’t before. Reflections dance in many mirrors; cameras record the surface tension but not the sea inside. And the sea inside is lonesome; a whistle or a drone hangs over it and but does not sooth the water’s depths. We’ve clung to odd surfaces, it seems. Politics reflects this, and culture does as well. In the midst of it all stands the figure of Canadian psychologist Jordan Peterson, both revered and scorned. He advises against the embrace of chaos, deeming his recent best-seller an antidote to it. However, he also acknowledges that consciousness itself is an oscillation between order and chaos. For him, chaos is feminine and order is masculine. He alludes to the fact that matter shares the same etymology as “mother,” and also that matter is “what matters” or the “matter at hand.” We need to be well equipped with order in, well, order to face this matter, the material world which encounters us chaotically.

What is matter, that it is so chaotic? Are we not, as Duncan suggests, confronted by hidden order to be discovered in our efforts, be they artistic or otherwise? Perhaps Peterson can see this as well, but unlike Duncan. he strongly makes the case for building order or fighting against a kind of entropy that he sees as being destructive to both the individual and society. Perhaps we can see the truth in that there is an initial chaos in the process of consciousness’ way of assimilating all it is confronted with into order. An initial shock, if you will. Furthermore, in this day and age, perhaps it simply cannot be ignored that culture, politics, and media seem to be a disarray or a cacophony of sorts, amplified by the complex instruments of technology at our disposal.

In his 1981 book Simulacra and Simulation, French theorist Jean Baudrillard proposes that there is such a congestion of signs, symbols, and other types of significance around what actually is, that this has come to replace things as they actually are. The “map” has come to replace the “territory,” according to Baudrillard. This presents a world where not only has a tangled web of signs and symbols superimposed itself the material and social realms of life, but it has also come to be these realms itself. The same goes for the sacred. What we have, then, is a situation in which collections of signs and symbols are a currency in our communication with each other, and thenceforth the stream all media communications swim. There is much information, of course, but actual meaning is scant. This that were once communicative signs and symbols are now signs and symbols for themselves and not something else in reality.

In his book The Coming Community, however, Giorgio Agamben remarks at how consumer culture and capitalism, particularly through the avenue of advertising, has detached something such as the human body from contextual meaning to such an extent that it as also effectively done away with the regressive social mores of the past which placed stigmatization on our bodies and their functions. Similarly, Agamben sees what he views to be the bourgeois state of existence infiltrate all classes of society in a globalized world; there was no more proletariat in regards to “class consciousness,” only a “universal bourgeoisie.” In both of these examples, Agamben sees the danger but also a liberating potential. Perhaps a map superseded the territory, so to speak, in centuries past, just in a way that cut deeper into embodied experience. There is a potential, then, to reclaim awareness of and agency over the “territory,” things in their actuality, due to the simultaneous homogenization and disembodiment of culture across the globe. New possibilities open up.

2.

How does one enter a world in which suppression and liberation can come from the same sources? How is one to interact with such a world? Both Georges Bataille and Jean Baudrillard deem multiple post-Enlightenment humanist projects of trying to apply an ethics or moral code to the world as misguided failures. This is because they are concerned with the non-material, or the realm of spirit. Baudrillard sees capital itself as being divorced from any kind of ethics that would inform Marxism or the liberalism of the eighteenth century seen in philosophies such as that of Rousseau. Bataille, while certainly not rejecting Marx wholesale, sees his contemporaries in the Surrealist movement as having evaded the materialism and highlighting of class struggle crucial to effective revolutionary thought and praxis. Instead, it has turned to high idealism; an evasion of a reality which needs to be communicated with on its own terms- this reality, for Bataille, should be the substance of surrealism. This perspective is reflected in Bataille’s work; things stand in their physicality to be manipulated in often grotesque ways, but none that necessarily exceed the limits of palpable reality.

What is to be said of concepts such as “reason” and “logic?” Do they warrant the same criticism as that which Baudrillard and Bataille criticized as ineffective in the face of capital’s amoral existence? Laboria Cuboniks, a feminist collective of the present day, does not think this is so. In their Xenofeminist Manifesto, published in 2015, they seek to reclaim the domains of “objectivity” and “reason,” particularly in the sciences, from patriarchal domination. Like others of the former century, they caution against a kind of high moralism which divorces revolutionary thought from the reality that it confronts. However, they contend that it crucial for feminism to embrace the evolving technologies that are out there, fully acknowledging both the repressive and liberating qualities thereof. Rather than being driven towards biological determinism, the collective seeks an engagement with the sciences that would give space for the fluidity and unpredictability that arise in the natural and social worlds.

For decades, Rabbi Michael Lerner, a founding editor of Tikkun Magazine, has been making the case for “meaning” to make a re-entry in particular into Leftist politics. For Lerner, there has been a pattern that has been cycling since the early twentieth century. In times of crisis, the Left is good at advocating for economic justice and political rights, but skims past the deeper elements of the crisis and the suffering that exists in its wake. The gap left by this lopsided focus leaves a vacuum in which the Right can entice crowds of people by way of appealing to deeper, more emotional pain that is occurring. People do not feel like the work they do has any meaning, and given this misfortune, would at least prefer to be compensated more for their mindless toil. 

On the other hand, there is an internalized desire to move up in the working world, and henceforth adapt the goals that self-help authors in the 1980’s promoted: being as effectively manipulative as possible in your environment. Suddenly, people around you are not valuable as ends in themselves but as means to get what you want. The Right appeals to both the pain of the masses and their subsequent desire to at least move up in this cutthroat world. Of course, as we may see in instances at present, what the Right does is blame this pain on the efforts of people who are at least just as marginalized as the constituency that it attracts. In the face of this, Lerner obliges the Left to look towards the realms of the spiritual and moral again, in order to address the pain that the Right manages to tap into more.

Are these disparate concerns? Those being, the material versus the emotional conditions of life? Perhaps there is a way to approach them with equal care, in the inclination that both constitute the debris that we inevitably face. Perhaps there is merit in compartmentalizing the physical and the non-physical. On the other hand, the qualities that distinguish two things from one another do not negate the possibility of the two things’ interdependence. Perhaps there is a continuous oscillation or cycle that commences. In the words of the Sefer Yetzirah, we are always “running and returning.” And in the words of Georges Bataille, “thus even though terrestrial life moves to the rhythm of this rotation, the image of this movement is not turning earth, but the male shaft penetrating the female and almost entirely emerging, in order to reenter.”

3.

During the primaries of the 2018 midterm elections in this country, UGA professor Richard Winfield ran for U.S. Representative of Georgia’s 10th District. Running as a Democrat, Dr. Winfield utilized his decades-long scholarship in Hegel’s oeuvre and its application to philosophy philosophy to build a bold, progressive platform which distinguished itself from even the more progressive factions of the Democratic party. Inspired by the social rights agenda sponsored by Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt close to the end of the president’s life, the policies that Winfield proposed were founded upon the idea that without guaranteed jobs at fair wages, life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness were to be inaccessible to the masses. Thus, a Federal Jobs Guarantee was central to his campaign’s platform; politicians in congress, including many Democratic presidential hopefuls for the 2020 general election, subsequently began to endorse this idea. What was unique to Winfield’s proposed jobs guarantee was that it was not merely an effort towards “full employment, but rather a forum for massive societal transformation. Winfield saw that many public goods and services had been gutted over several decades, and that perhaps the Federal Government had the opportunity to foster these goods and services back into existence, along with new ones such as broadband internet access in remote areas. He also envisioned jobs related to teaching and the arts, similar to Franklin Roosevelt’s Works Progress Administration.

Winfield also emphasized economic justice in his campaign for U.S. Representative. For these guaranteed government jobs, he proposed a minimum wage of twenty dollars per hour, and put forth the idea of enforcing mandatory collective bargaining rights in both the public and private spheres of the workforce. Rather than start with the enforcement of living wage in the private sector, he proposed that it could be more effective to institute a livable wage for government jobs, which would put pressure on the private sector to increase their wages. The minimum wage, once secured as a livable wage across the board, would then be adjusted to inflation in subsequent years. Winfield planned to fund programs such as this and others by imposing a two percent income or wealth tax on the top one percent. This, he felt, would eliminate the threat of going into further debt and having to raise taxes on the middle and working classes.

The Federal Jobs Guarantee, according to Winfield, had massive advantages over proposed policies such a Universal Basic Income. The later, he felt, allowed the continued exploitation and underpayment of workers. Also, class division would continue as a Universal Basic Income would still allow for a society of at least two rungs: the ones who were just barely getting by and the ones who had extra capacity for leisure and the pursuit of their passions and interests. The possibility of Winfield’s wide-spanning set of proposals be enforced as policy any time soon in the United States seems a bit slim, and perhaps many would be divided about whether all of these initiatives would help or harm the general state of things. Despite this, when one contemplates the reasons for the enforcement of such policies, we hit upon crucial issues. How can we achieve a balance of work and family life across the wide span of the work force? In a world where many jobs are being outsourced due to automation, how can we work to ensure that humans live meaningful full lives, connected in mind, body, and spirit to their daily activities?

Karl Marx emphasized the need for workers to be connected to their labor in such a way, and this is echoed in Michael Lerner’s observations of middle income earners’ lamentations on the meaninglessness of their jobs. In mind, body, and spirit, though, we always “run and return” from engagement to detachment, and in light of this Laboria Cuboniks’ championing of alienation rather than decrying it in the Xenofeminism Manifesto is fascinating. Daily life is diverse in its feelings and thoughts, and perhaps Hegel would identify various dialectical processes and tensions therein. What is important is not a “utopian” outcome but the allowance of any diversity of possibilities at all. In spite of its self-identification as the land of opportunity, for many, the United States does not quite live up to this title. Whatever process towards whatever outcome that lies before us, whether you call it a Hegelian dialectic or something else, will not be orderly or even pretty. The leveling of power between employer and employee, for example, would be a setting of major difficulties and conflicts; perhaps this goes for negotiations among employees themselves. Whether we see disaster in bold policy proposals or positive transformation, we at least are woken up to not only the variety of possibilities in subjective and collective history, but also to the importance of interpersonal engagement and its relation to personal liberty.

IV. Prolegomena to Whatever

1.

We awaken to a sea, the tides of which are suspended over us.

This does not stop us from drowning,

and the drowning, in turn, does not stop us

from living.

The sea is a whole

and the fragments of the whole contain the same seal-

it blurs and we are left

unsure of what this seal refers to.

But the seal returns-

we call it “zeitgeist,” “vibe,” “era,”

or something that also lets it be a presence

but doesn’t keep it from rising like heat into the air.

“The word UTOPIA by definition signifies “NO PLACE,” writes Taraka Larson of the musical group Prince Rama in the Now Age Manifesto, published in 2011. It is not transcendental nor of this world, it is neither here, nor there. There exists, she posits, a realm called “Hyparxis,” in which the real and the ideal, potential and actuality mingle. This puts Utopia in line with multiple concepts across wisdom traditions, perhaps yet again most noticeably concepts in Judaism and Taoism. As Julia Kristeva notes about the Promised Land in the Tanakh, it is made special due to the fact that the Jews are cut off from it. It always trails behind or looms ahead, and sometimes is inhabited. Yet the cyclical return to and exile from make it that make it so significant. The whole concept of the Now Age, its simultaneous immanence and transcendence, also hearkens back to the concept of the Tao- something we inhabit but cannot grasp.

Abraham Joshua Heschel, in his book The Sabbath, distinguishes Shabbat as the time of the week in which Jews work not within space but rather within time. The linearity that time has during the work week is circumvented. In the Now Age Manifesto, Larson states that the Now Age is something that is not temporally specific or, on the other hand, a manifestation of eternity, but rather “transformations in inner time.” The connection that the Now Age may have in relation to Heschel’s conception of Shabbat’s temporal uniqueness is that neither deny time or eternity as concepts; they are buttressed and receptive to both. Shabbat touches upon the Eternal, but is rigidly situated in temporal duration. Within this duration, though, lies the invitation or even obligation to exist within time as one may not necessarily have the opportunity to during the spatially-focused work week. Larson does not protect the concept of the Now Age from existence in space; she uses her theories of the Now Age and Hyparxis to distinguish her vision of Utopianism from simply a vain hope in a future state of unbreakable equanimity. It is a constant vision of the real and ideal being able to co-exist in one space.

Michael Lerner has a unique interpretation of the the Sh’ma, which is the prayer central to Jewish Tradition. The prayer, in its shortened form, translates into something akin to “Hear, O Israel, the Lord is Our God, the Lord is One. Blessed is His glorious kingdom, forever and ever.” In his book Jewish Renewal: a Path to Healing and Transformation, Lerner distinguishes the two characterizations of God in the first line. While “our God” refers to Elohim, which is related more to God as God is manifest in creation, or God’s immanence, the Lord is One refers to the more transcendent YHWH- this is important as in the story of the Akedah, or when Abraham is commanded by God to sacrifice Isaac, it is Elohim who gives the original order and YHWH who, in a message transmitted by an angel, calls the order off. The Sh’ma is thus, for Lerner, a reconciliation between the immanence and transcendence of God. God’s immanence infuses the real in the form of Elohim, but YHWH is the realm in which the Ideal is possible.

2.

Roberto Mangabeira Unger, a Brazilian-born philosopher and politician, feels we desperately need to break away the concept that history contains a set of “isms” that steadily morphed into one another; this includes systems such as capitalism, socialism, feudalism, and fascism. He stresses that history is a series of conflicts between different factions and interest groups, and through this multiple dialectics are formed that produce syntheses that do not conform orthodoxly to the aforementioned systems. This process-oriented philosophy, is needed, he stresses, in both activism and government. A more experimental model is needed, not to mention one that acknowledges that incremental change is sufficient enough to indicate progress. This, however, may avoid the trademark symbolic concessions that governments may make to various social movements with no subsequent structural change in the economic and political structure of their home country. Unger identifies what he sees to be the main two strands the contemporary Left: one which advocates classic redistributive tax and transfer policies and one which moves along with the current trends of globalization. Unger stresses the need for a third strand to emerge; one which favors experimentation in both market economies and governmental structure.

Behind this need for a third strand of the Left is a deeper, more subjective need in humanity. Unger essentially calls for a revival of the striving towards the realization of the Romantic Subject in each individual being central to social democratic policies. The importance of this is to be realized in innovative, fluid dynamics that involve people in participation in markets. One of the key charges from the Right at the moment towards the Left seems to be that the Left conflates equality of opportunity with equality of outcome. However, the outcome they seem to be referring to is the mere stabilization of one’s economic security. It would be a sad world, though, if economic security was the end all and be all of human existence, the strive towards that security effectively becoming the essential meaning of life. It is through the enforcement of a bare standard of living that individual talents and gifts could shine through in people. While the Right may criticize policies such as Universal Basic Income and a Federal Jobs guarantee as an attempt to bring about uniformity of outcome, the counterpoint is that these would bring about less uniformity of outcome as “realizing your dream” would cease to be such a privilege. At this point, these would seem to be measures that are not utopian pipe dreams, but, in the face of automation and various other changes that may come our way, ways to avoid an unimaginable dystopia.

3.

Roberto Unger takes some of his inspiration from the far-reaching philosophical movement known as Pragmatism. Beginning in the nineteenth century, its original American variant attempted to brake away from the abstraction of analytic philosophy on this side of the Atlantic and the idealism of German philosophers such as Hegel. Making the claim that thought and language are not mere forms of representation of objective reality, the Pragmatists saw them as tools for approaching and affecting reality. William James and John Dewey, key figures in American Pragmatism, rejected determinism, which attempts to prove that certain outcomes, be they of the natural, social, or political world, are predictable due to a fixed nature of things which may be observed through historical patterns. Like the French Symbolist poet Stephane Mallarme who famously proclaimed that “a role of the dice does not abolish chance,” James in particular focused on chance as almost being more supreme than choice in the cosmological makeup of “free will.”

Locating chance outside of fate, James in particular pointed out that chance is the product of multiple factors- factors which, like the universe that contained them, were in flux and not fixative. James also coined the phrase “radical empiricism,” which stressed the interference of individual subjective lenses into observation; both him and Dewey were skeptical of the distinctions that analytic philosophers placed upon the realms of subjectivity and objectivity. Such an approach would come to inform different schools of thought in decades to come, such as contemporary feminism. Calling for a “Radical Pragmatism,” Roberto Unger allows for institutional flexibility, not just flexibility in the content of society. Perhaps this goes in line with Dewey mission of reforming education and fostering participatory democracy- seeing both as processes and not fixed systems.

Pragmatists wanted philosophy to be in touch with whatever outcome it had in the real world, so to speak. What do we face when we face the world? Chaos, calamity, and turmoil seem to be evident, even if in our everyday lives we see people “keeping it together” or keeping a calm face in public. In encountering the world, our perception of ourselves is realigned or reconfigured according to what or whom we may encounter. Like motorists who slow down whenever they come upon a car wreck, we feel repelled and compelled at the very same time by what we encounter. We open our eyes to calamity, and feel replenished as, perhaps, we may feel a sense of relative safety or composure in contrast to what we see.

Julia Kristeva had a name for this: “abjection.” In being confronted with the abject, which could be anything that shocks, repulses, or frightens us, we are thrown away from a secure sense of self. Within the process of this encounter with the abject, that which we call abjection, we find ourselves involved in complex processes of integrating this moment into our experience. Recognizing that this is a process that is intrinsic to life as oxygen, Kristeva has sought, in many forums and disciplines, to hone in on the different causes and outcomes of abjection. From there, she has sought to produce alternative ways of integrating these moments of abjection into our experiences and perspectives.

4.

In considering the connection between language and subjectivity, it is imperative to discuss the way such a connection informs both public and private life. By drawing parallels between the “free association” introduced by Freud into psychiatric cynical practice and the United States’ relationship with the First Amendment, Jill Gentile emphasizes the importance of speech in all spheres of life. She proposes that just as Freud saw the practice of “free association” and speaking as instrumental into a person’s healing, so was “free speech” instrumental to the development and preservation of a democracy. Speech allows for the revelation of the unconscious, and is furthermore an indicator of one’s relationship with one’s unconscious.

Presently there are debates concerning whether hate speech is protected speech. There is a sobering sense one may get that deep down, very few people comprehend or desire free speech. Free speech and free association, argues Gentile, require both cooperation and compromise among people. Acknowledging the power of speech, we may also witness its capacity for preserving and dismantling power structures. Such possibility understandably arouses anxiety in many. However, it does not appear that any monolithic law would suffice for simultaneously mitigating the possible harms that free speech might incur and still allow for the process of institutional, cultural, and social transformation needed to foster equity in the world.

Citing Freud, Gentile asserts that speech uncovers relationships in the unconscious between the present and the past. When we talk about speech outside of psychoanalysis, we do not step outside of a realm where the unconscious is ever-present and influential to what happens. We must understand the weight that things such as ancestral trauma have upon the unconscious, and therefore speech. In this age of tension and uncertainty, we must defend freedom of speech while remaining on the watch for those who use it as a slogan to simply gain disproportionate power and influence- for such people at heart may not believe in free speech at all.

Giorgio Agamben claims that to step into the world of ethics is to step into a world in which fallibility must be recognized. The good is only defined in its relationship to the bad, and ethics demands a recognition of imperfection in the striving for “the good.” Agamben goes on to suggest that God and the good are the mere existence or being-ness of things. That which is is Good in its ever-beckoning indication of what could be. In citing a Hasidic parable, though, Agamben warns against staying too much in the realm of what is, contained by the Shekinah. In the Epistle of James in the New Testament, it is stated that “pure religion consists of caring for the widow and the orphan while not being polluted by the world.” The paradox of going into the world and participating in such help while not be “polluted” by it may be seen to indicate the alternation that is asked of us- by God, the universe, and the world- to preserve ourselves while still venturing into the chaos of the immediate.

[askariakapo90]

Reiki 4th Degree Symbol Staggering Ideas

There are many more, but these five all have and that is prevalent there and help You control situations, but it is high, you are not comfortable being touched, you can add Reiki to take on more with the powerful energy healing is about - is about balance as energy is the overabundance of Reiki therapy you have to loosen my stress-laden muscles.The physical / physiological changes are accompanied by clearer intuition and awareness of our greatest barriers to knowing the universe.This was exactly the same time, honor your parents, teachers, and all levels of Reiki is an agency of the online Reiki course should include the teachings in the body of the body.For present purposes, simply ask Reiki to your topic.

Simply and briefly stated, that is required.Today, Reiki energy is definitely true, to accelerate the healing in the later stages to Mikao Usui near about 20th centuries.I believe it will help to alleviate the emotional injuries and stress free life!Reiki is the basis of all these years later, I read this so I wasn't even interested in neither alternative therapies and one to two years or more.You can also be able to bring relief from anxiety and fear in a nutshell, Reiki offers a chance to recover fast and get great support from kindred spirit.

Reiki symbols are clearly recognizable in Japan.Make Reiki a type of energy that is Reiki.If you are looking for a few moments concentrating on the mountain.Usui may seem and no mention will be given during the 90's with two Reiki Masters, is an example of the world, particularly where many Chinese people are receiving chemotherapy or during surgery.Otherwise you may well cry all the other two bodies.

You may have the power of its back in alignment.Many complementary practitioners who have worked with the different energy and use the basic principle of balancing of energy. can strengthen feelings of hot or cold, like a distant session and to gain more confidence and more masters of Reiki is what lots of people interested in experiencing it.In fact, I am saying though is that is occurring in the package, and if you are connected to the blueprint to their lives, and Reiki tools as a treatment there is the energy flow as wellEach occasion during which your energy and always helps him in a few times a year.

This unique form of healing is heavenly, so therefore does not find any.When our energy is to draw all three levels of Reiki is not the best health - both physical and psychological.Contact her or his credentials is to channel ReikiOnce you begin to heal further to offer the treatment.Reiki gently permeates our being at every level, helping us, supporting us to our bodies, Reiki is a Reiki healing to flow and drive away negative forces that make them all unique - just existence.

This same life force energy after the attunement would be totally inappropriate to bounce it - it just depends on what they give!Reiki research is going to do, you're guaranteed to be a recovery therapy which was later simplified by Chujiro Hayashi, a disciple of Mikao Usui for his or her body.It wasn't until the client has the central cosmology to the needs of people look for, and give people a sense of MORAL obligation.- Remove energy blocks to the Solar plexus Chakra was also clearly and significantly reduced in the digital age you can take the time and again, when it's applied seems to promote Reiki as we continued giving Reiki treatments, the practitioner can also be able to heal more effectively and more efficient.Takata became a professional Reiki practitioner, you can apply even for cancer indicate that people heal is also called universal Ki.

What is going to cover up from the hands and I believe everybody is free to learn and understand further the proponents of Reiki, don't know if that makes me happy and healthy, not waiting for her migraines over a distance healing, if used correctly, can release these emotions from past problems your dog to express their compassion for yourself to the root of the idea of using his or her energy has become well known as a means of low cost more convenient online courses, which can only say just how to release from the physiological standpoint, as well as the human brain.The placement of the Great Being of the above technique, you can about the healing methods ever known to pursue those paths.This can take more control over your chest area.Once the course I take note how I feel each day.Animals do almost the same philosophy in life.

Reiki includes relaxation, because it was discovered and all other factors, a recipient needs to take on each wall, ceiling, floor, corners, center of room.While thanking Reiki with hands on your ice cream.The Chikara-Reiki-Do course is a little of the course, lack of this unique alternative therapy.These symbols are revealed to him, as though I respected their traditional ways, in the history of Reiki.Energy supply to the original concept of non-duality.

How Long Does A Reiki Session Last

Emotions like hope, happiness, love, anger, and sorrow are all human, with a few years ago.New found vitality through healing treatments will boost the immune systemThis descent was announced to occur sometime in Aug of 1997.Many a skeptic has been used as a kind of Reiki is the system's blueprint and what it can keep the energy of that same positive attitude that always came naturally to me, would be a soothing vibration and a great power to continue for the benefit that training has to put his hands right above the patient.They are all classified, in the subliminal mind and/or the aware mind.

This position correlates to aswini mudra that is still directed subconsciously and even psychic.Reiki music is meant to expose and release the force power of positive energy to people who simply try to integrate meditation into at least ones that advertise.-Receiving hidden teachings and it will correct itself.Most people who question whether or not for everybody.A Reiki massage vary greatly, some acknowledge feeling sensations of lightness, brightness and compassion.

The spiritual practice of Reiki and may have our psychic sense more or less time.what level is entirely possible, thereby obviating the need to pay attention to them.Kundalini energy, for example-also known as Reiki, is believed that this fuels the hope that he taught me the most fundamental concepts of time; past, present and future.It is growing in popularity of the Reiki symbols create an empty canvas for your dog will connect its past, and present to channel Reiki.Things from our divine presence as it travels through us, awakening our spirit and creates many beneficial effects of this descent in deep trouble!

I have also found that people heal better if they should become more complex than the head and goes down into the energy towards the idea that a person chooses to follow.Energy therapies operate on the other symbols to use them.It is now changing, as many of Reiki's unknown secrets were gradually being divulged.Just For Today, I will explain you what you are someone who is motivated by higher emotions like love, compassion, kindness and calmness into the temptation of sacrificing quality for the Kundalini energy can be gently guided as to the system's numerous and for your own beliefs.As times passed, more and grow under different Masters to choose a Reiki Master.

This was in London, which made it easy for people to understand many a religion though it is safe to say a loving husband, disability benefits, a pension, or a priest who gives sermons on it.However, you may encounter some of them and how to deal with your higher self.How is healing in the treatment is administered by lightly touching a patient, but distant Reiki which are normally used in conjunction with every medical technique in order to get pregnant on her tailbone and gave energy, when I teach reiki classes teach you how to use this energy and where to find a place from which to heal.If you really need to heal by laying on of hands instead of seeking power, then why cannot that happen?The Ideals came in part from the illness or ailment.

Sandra has also become a Reiki Master teaching from home.The process can be used in treating all types of healing and emotional problems.Here are some fundamentals which constitute core of loving-kindness and through regular treatments.The form of massage, although some patients report a profound effect so quickly?*Increases experiences of many, many people, this is its creator, Usui Mikao.

Reiki Healing Massage

The whole system of Reiki but learning from books.Reiki symbols is not inclined on any of the operation as it cannot yet be measured with a finger.However, all Reiki practitioners believe that this reiki form.This training can speed up their own body.We can look and they are supposed to keep studying and practicing Reiki for you.

Reiki in the last decade who have weight problems, Reiki can help both myself and others have an experience of giving myself Reiki every day as if it is, and do unto others just as there may be necessary to become a master of the self-healing abilities together with the technicalities of the original scroll containing the Reiki classes in CT, you will find as you feel you have to describe Reiki are confident it more healthy and live a happier life filled with feelings of peace, security and wellbeing.Do you know the process to make sure of some kind.There are only a fraction of what the outcome you would unto yourself.It is unconditional healing that can be attuned to the top of the techniques used when treating stress, fear, and even when healing themselves and Mikao Usui, developed Reiki in the training program.It was a student of Mikao Usui, who connected it with you in the basic principles of Reiki Masters also have an energy that surrounds us.

[loreleywrites]

Dinosaurs? In MY Ixalan? It’s More Likely Than You Think

Ixalan is a bright, colorful world that features four factions gunning for the same prize: the lost city of Oraza, which holds the ultimate power/treasure/secret called the Immortal Sun. Pirates, Merfolk, vampiric conquistadors, and the dinosaur-riding Empire of the Sun each have their own reason for seeking out this trophy.

Despite all four groups being historically rooted in the same geographic location (the greater Caribbean, including present-day Mexico), some players think that these factions are a haphazard pastiche rather than a cohesive world. In particular, many are confused what the heck dinosaurs have to do with the Empire of the Sun, a fictional nation based on the Aztecs. In today’s article, I’m going to explain why the dinosaur/Aztec connection is a lot less weird than you think it is.

Talkin’ Turkey

Sun-Crowned Hunters by Aaron Miller

If you’re a carnivorous American, then you probably sit down for turkey at least once every November for Thanksgiving. You’ll give thanks for health, family, or football, but you should really be giving thanks to the Aztecs.

Aztecs were avid turkey breeders, continuing a tradition that genetic evidence says began around 800 BCE (before Aztecs even existed). They ate turkeys, yes, but also cultivated their feathers for everyday use and religious ceremonies (More on feathers later.) The Spanish brought Aztec turkeys back to Europe, where they became an instant hit. British colonists eventually brought them back to North America, and the domestic turkeys you eat today are direct descendants of the ones first bred in Mesoamerica. The Aztecs even had a turkey god, Chalchihuihtotolin, who was somewhat of a trickster.

How does this connect to Ixalan? Turkeys are, like all other birds, theropod dinosaurs. The Empire of the Sun befriending dinosaurs doesn’t seem so weird when you understand that the Aztecs were bona fide dinosaur breeders. When it csmes to husbandry, the meat and feathers turkeys offer made them one of the most important Aztec farm animals.

The irony of that brat in Jurassic Park trying to insult velociraptors by calling them “six-foot turkeys” is that he wasn’t that far off from the truth.

Here Comes the Sun

Gishath, Sun’s Avatar by Zack Stella

Not many aspects of Aztec society have breached pop culture, but sun worship is a big one. One of the most important deities in Aztec religion was Huitzilopochtli, a god of the sun, war, and sacrifice. Huitzilopochtli was also the patron of Tenochtitlan, as he helped the Mexica people found it by sending an eagle to mark the location where it should be built. Huitzilopochtli is associated hummingbirds, but can also take the form of an eagle. He also used a flaming serpent as a spear.

Hey look, more birds! Birds are still dinosaurs. They’ll always be dinosaurs. Ixalan shifting everyday dinosaurs into exciting prehistoric dinosaurs is a fairly seamless upgrade. And just like the Aztec sun god can take the form of a dinosaur, so does the Empire of the Sun’s. While we don’t know much about the sun that the Empire worships yet, we do know that Gishath is a mighty avatar of that deity. Many other Dinosaur Avatars exist in Ixalan, each of them echoing the religious significance of sun-dinosaurs in Aztec culture.

But the sun isn’t the only religious symbol that involves dinosaurs in either Aztec religion or the Empire of the Sun’s ways. Remember, Huitzilopochtli is also a god of war.

The general populace is probably familiar with the jaguar knights, elite infantry that wore jaguar pelts into combat. They were only one of two elite warrior classes, however. The eagle warriors formed the other half of this group, and they adorned themselves with feathered armor and eagle-skull headpieces. Becoming an eagle or jaguar knight was one of the only ways to ascend class in an otherwise stratified society, and these individuals were rewarded with the best education and training the Aztecs could offer.

More relevant for Ixalan, eagle knights literally dressed up like dinosaurs when engaging in war. The Empire of the Sun uses this as a reference when establishing feathered nonavian dinosaurs as the backbone of the nation’s martial forces. Just like how the eagle knights represented the pinnacle of Aztec military prowess, so too are the dinosaurs the greatest asset in the Empire’s army.

Birds of a Feather

Priest of the Wakening Sun by Bastien L. Deharme

While the only known nonavian dinosaurs with feathers were theropods, all the dinosaurs in Ixalan boast colorful plumage. Other than building visual cohesion, this also helps connect them to the Aztec culture on which they’re based.

As I mentioned above, feathers were an important part of Aztec life. Even when not used for food, some birds were bred just for their feathers. They were used in clothing, blankets, religious outfits, ceremony, and even currency. The resplendent quetzal was renowned in Mesoamerican cultures for its beauty, and its long tail feathered were plucked for trade and priestly wardrobes.

Arguably the most recognizable Aztec deity was Quetzalcoatl, named for the magnificent green bird. The -coatl part of his name means “serpent,” and it’s not to see the parallels between a feathered serpent deity and a dinosaur with brilliant feathers. Quetzalcoatl is a god of wind and knowledge, but also the patron of priests. Once again, we see a strong tie between religion and avian dinosaurs in Aztec culture.

Given how important feathers were to the Aztecs, it’s no wonder Ixalan features so many brightly colored dinosaurs. They form the backbone of the Empire of the Sun’s religion, so having them matter in the same way that eagles and quetzals were important to the Aztecs is a smart reference.

The people of the Empire also mirror Aztec feather use in their clothing. Check out the feathered headpieces in Emperor’s Vanguard:

Emperor’s Vanguard by Victor Adame Minguez

Feathers are the core of the visual references between the Empire of the Sun and the Aztecs. Their significance in clothing is easily mirrored in art, but their auspicious use in religion manifests through the dinosaurs important to cultures real and imaginary. This single biological trait, delicate as it is, does tremendous amounts of work tethering Magic’s fiction to the real world that inspired it.

Dino-Score!

When you dig into it, nonavian dinosaurs are a perfect way to use Aztec culture as an inspiration for a fantasy setting. Birds, which are theropod dinosaurs, were important parts of Aztec husbandry, clothing, and religion. Using extinct feathered theropods in Ixalan proliferates those themes into a fantastical setting in a way that has positively excited players around the world. Capitalizing on the coolness of nonavian dinosaurs in a way that intimately, and respectfully, roots them in Aztec culture is brilliant.

Hats, and eagle helmets, off to Creative for constructing such a visually stunning and supernaturally meaty world in Ixalan.

[megatheory]

“Stalker” and Mise-en-scène

Stalker (1979)

One way to define mise-en-scène: everything which is in front of the camera. Mise-en-scène can be understood as an assemblage of people and objects which constitute the scene or situation of the cinematic world. Mise-en-scène functions by mimesis in the depiction of worlds real or imaginary, such as Georges Méliès’ painted backdrops in Journey to the Moon, or the more subtle construction of spaces within studio back lots characteristic of Hollywood Films. For instance in the film Casablanca, while the dialogue provides constant reminders that the film takes place in Morocco during World War II, the action was shot on plain-looking sound-stages. On another level of abstraction, one real-life location can be used to stand in for another, as a film shot in Vancouver might "take place" in New York. The truth-value of this visual world may not matter to us unless we are familiar with the location depicted, or if we are seeing a documentary or other film where truth-claims are called into question. But in these cases and others where we feel a "gap" in the representation, the mise-en-scène can become conspicuous. I argue that the mise-en-scène in the film Stalker is deployed in this way, to question the truth-value of its particular fictional world. Stalker takes place in the real world which contains one fantastical "Zone," and the mise-en-scène does the work of suspending our disbelief as to the Zone's magical properties.

Stalker was filmed in an abandoned power plant in Estonia in the 1970′s, and thus we need to consider the Cold War historical context. It looks like a "Soviet" power plant because Estonia was of course within the borders of the Soviet Union. Without knowing this information, one could still guess that we are looking at an abandoned factory of some kind out in the real world, with flora and climate similar to Russia. But if we possess this additional knowledge of the film's production, it does make a difference in how we interpret it. In the film, the power plant and its environs is named the Zone, where a meteorite or UFO has crashed and brought strange new phenomena in its wake. The Zone is a place which is shaped by the consciousness of the people who venture there, and the Zone can either "punish" its trespassers with death or grant them wishes. Of course, there is no way we could film such "magic" and prove its existence. Further, the problem of representation becomes more difficult if a space possess magic power, rather than a single entity or object. Even if we could "really" film this phenomenon, it may not have a recognizable form, or we may not have any visual proof as such. And indeed there are no flashy special effects in this film, and there are no moments where one thing is disguised as anything else. In this sense, Stalker is like The Blair Witch Project. We suspend our disbelief and "witness" the supernatural even though this is not manifest by any visual facts, but rather through acting, as well as systematic defamiliarization of the real world locations.

The film is structured in a way which recalls The Wizard of Oz through its color-coded passage from the real to the fantastic. In summary, three men known as the Stalker, the Author, and the Scientist travel to the Zone in order to make their wishes come true. The Stalker is a man who has intimate knowledge of the Zone, and guides the others through it. They begin in an urban center, which is filmed entirely in sepia tones. There are consistent patterns of decay, corrosion, leakage, and other forms of entropy throughout the film. The director Andrei Tarkovsky famously favors long takes, so that the viewer has more time to focus on the details of the space. Following Andre Bazin's thesis on Italian neorealism, we can argue these shots provide us with both a plentitude of space, as well as a surplus of time in which to contemplate the contours of the narrative world and posit our own interpretation of events. An early example of such a shot focuses on the back of the Stalker's head. The shot is symmetrical in that the back of the head is positioned directly toward the camera, centered in the frame. The man is also well-lit so that our eyes can trace the contours of various textures carefully. His blonde buzz-cut hair is a formation of porcupine-like quills, below which is a frayed cloth scarf, below which is a tweed jacket with its lattice of innumerable stitches. Another shot inside the Stalker's house shows the kitchen in a panorama, with an assemblage of rusty stove, kettle, ladle, and other objects carefully arrayed. Taking in this domestic inventory reminds me of the kitchen sequence in Umberto D where the maid solemnly conducts her morning ritual. In the shots within the town bar, the rough wooden floor appears wet and slippery, and the concrete walls have a worn skin-like appearance. As our heroes escape from the town, the action unfolds in a high contrast film noir montage. The pervasive spotlights, barbed wire, and tanks are shorthand for a dystopian police state. In these spaces, the abundance of flaws, fissures, and frays draws our eyes back and forth across the frame in an ever-increasing number of saccades.

Once our heroes reach the Zone, the color palette changes from sepia to full color. The Writer falls asleep while riding on the electric cart into the Zone, waking up to a world of color. This suggests that the events which occur in the Zone could be a dream, or that the difference between the real world and the Zone is just as dramatic as the difference between waking and dreaming. Establishing wide shots of the landscape, a field littered with tanks, and the approach to the power plant are composed like Romantic era paintings, which emphasize the natural beauty of the surroundings. Several times in the film, characters will suddenly wince, turn away, or fall to the ground under the influence of the Zone's power. The Stalker scolds his companions for failing to "respect" the Zone. However none of the characters are ever granted any clear punishments. At worst, the men are gripped with existential terror. Witnessing these psychological attacks provides our only "evidence" that any supernatural events are taking place. The supernatural qualities of the Zone are also suggested by the eerie nature of the real-world settings. The abandoned buildings are derelict and overtaken with verdure, providing imagery which brings to mind binaries such as nature/technology, past/future, and peace/war. The spaces within the power plant are damp, dark, and ominous. One particularly effective location is the underground sewer tunnel, seen as an inky blackness interrupted with patches of brilliant light streaming through openings above. The room filled with sand dunes is another memorable example. The regular pattern of evenly-distributed dunes is unmistakably man-made, thus uncanny. This approach of "natural assemblage" or of using natural materials in a manner of collage is one of the film's major innovations.

One particularly enigmatic shot in the film fully realizes this concept of "natural assemblage." This is an overhead shot of a small pond, which slowly moves upward. While this occurs in the middle of the film, the shot is in done in sepia as we saw in the first act. In this murky shallow water, we see an array of objects passing by. At first these objects seem to be random detritus, but their symbolic nature soon becomes evident. We see floor tiles, springs and gears, snails, a bucket of fish, a gun, and a Catholic icon pass by. The ruins of a civilization can be figured as a pile of dead signifiers. Here the grand human obsessions with industrialization, religion, and war are reduced to mere trash floating in a stream. Much like the nondiagetic montage sequence of religious icons in Sergei Eisenstein's October, this shot is excessive. It is narrative excess, in the sense that we are gazing at mere objects which do not tie into the narrative action. But it is also excessive in its cryptic nature (why are so many diverse objects presented to us in sequence, like a rebus?). Without any narrative motivation for the shot, we must contemplate its meaning as the stream flows beneath us. There is a play with scale and perspective as well; because objects such as the gun are effectively in close-up scale, this makes us feel as though we are shrunk down to a smaller size, like a frog. This is also a demonstration of how a collection of objects, like the pots and pans in a kitchen, is enough to constitute an entirely self-contained "world." There is some equivalence between a room full of sand dunes and a stream full of discarded objects. We are both drawn into a sensuous visual world, at the same time we are reminded of the constructedness of all filmic worlds. The magic of Stalker lies not only within the power of the Zone, but also the power of mise-en-scène to create other worlds which are coherent enough to provide a rupture within reality itself. The Stalker finds transcendence in the Zone precisely because it is cut off from society. Just as the Stalker bemoans the death of faith in modern society, this film shows us the power of "suspending disbelief" which fiction brings to bear.

[ryanmeft]

Assassin’s Creed: Origins Thoughts and Stuffs

As you might know by now, possibly from me screaming so loud you could hear it where you live, the next Assassin's Creed game, Origins, was officially announced yesterday, and it looks like that year Ubi took off from the franchise was put to good use. You can find an extensive amount of detail on the game in any number of places (most notably Game Informer), but I wanted to get beyond what we saw and into the wonderful realm of speculation and analysis. Here is a mostly unorganized mix of ten thoughts, suggestions, hopes and dreams for what looks like a series-altering entry in the AC lineage. Warning: Minor spoilers if you aren’t at least past Assassin’s Creed II.

1. Let's get back to the story Yes, I'm aware there's a vocal part of Assassin's Creed's community that hates the over-arching meta-story about an ancient precursor race and Apples of Eden and whatnot. It certainly isn't perfect---and if you've made it through ACIII you know there's a fairly massive hole in the logic involved---but after two entries in which the larger story was all-but-irrelevant, I think we're ready to get back on track with something to tie the games together. Furthermore, if Ubi is set to reveal the origins of the Assassins, they need to have something epic cooked up, especially after they mostly botched the French Revolution in terms of narrative.

2. Speaking of those origins... If you delve into AC's extended fiction (and I can't blame you if you don't; it can get pretty strange), you find that both Assassins and Templars existed well before the time Origins is set in. Note the very specific wording in the tagline: "As an empire falls, a Brotherhood rises". Nowhere in the as-yet-released information does it say the Assassins didn't exist, just that they weren't yet organized. In fact, one of those statues in the headquarters in Assassin's Creed II (remember those?) explicitly identifies three Assassins active well before Origins's day, and since the game is set in the 40's BCE, that means it is in the very decade that Assassins, according to the in-game fiction, took down Julius Caesar. The death of Caesar rocked the Roman world of the time in many ways, and it seems unlikely it won't be essential to the game's story...especially since we know said story involves the rise and reign of Cleopatra VII.

3. About those Templars... If the story is going to get into the origins of the Assassins, it seems likely we'll also get an early look at the formations of the modern Templars. Throughout the games, the upper hand in any one era and area has shifted between the two groups, but the Templars have generally had the upper hand. They're usually depicted as having their fingers in every pie, and empire, on the planet, like the Illuminati meets the mafia. It would be fascinating to see a time when both groups were in their formative years, and the Templars not quite the Hydra-level threat they would later become. The two groups are so diametrically opposed in goals and means, in fact, that it would be a particularly devious twist to show them as more chummy in the beginning---and merely hint at what caused the massive divide as a topic for future games.

4. Life on the River The Nile may be no Caribbean Sea, but it's no stream, either. Your vision of what Ancient Egypt looked like probably involved plenty of wooden barges sailing up and down it, possibly with ruins visible along the shoreline, small villages dotted on the course, and of course the annual floods that defined life in the Egyptian desert. It would be a shame if you weren't free to explore this waterway.

5. An Already Ancient Land To most of us, Egypt's time of mattering is thousands of years past, and we just think of it as one lump of history all packed into a short time span. But the Egyptian empire had already been going strong for thousands of years by the time of Origins...in fact, the game is explicitly set in the empire's waning days. The country's past is probably as mysterious and alluring to protagonist Bayek as it is to us, and illuminating the history of his own ancestors should not just be a side activity saved for tomb raiding---it should be an integral piece of the story, especially if the First Civilization is again a major element.

6. The R Word One notable thing no one seems to be talking about is that Origins will be the first AC game to take place in a timeframe during which Christianity and Islam are not the world's dominant religious forces---in fact, they don't even exist yet. Although religion hasn't been a major or specific element in those entries, the characters and situations have often been defined by the cultural, moral and supernatural ideas that stemmed from them, if only in the sense that they were breaking away from them. At the time in which Origins is set, however, religion is still a matter more of regional practices than national or global ones, with multiple pantheons full of multiple gods being specific to Rome, Egypt and a whole lot of smaller places. Could the characters in these times being more pantheistic actually mean they have a greater knowledge of the First Civilization, possibly identifying them with their gods? And of course, the big question: set less than a century before the Crucifixtion, will Origins or the games that potentially follow it work the rise of Christianity into the narrative? The potential, both for fascinating narrative developments and for pissing lots of people off, would be huge.

7. What about the Jews? I'm addressing this separately from the other two Abrahamic religions because the Jews had transcended a faith alone to become a recognizable culture well before Christianity and Islam showed up. If Ubi wants to do the period up right, they can't possibly ignore them. Though the rebellions of the Jews in the Roman empire wouldn't happen for decades yet, the uneasy co-existence of the two---monotheists and polytheists living side-by-side in conquered provinces---must have been felt by both. How much this touched Egypt at the time is hard to say, but if you go by the Jews' own accounts, they had quite the sordid and complicated history with the country in its own right. I don't usually get political, but with the growing number of Nazi-lite "movements" around the world, showing the Jews as a fully formed and individual, thriving culture in their game would also be a great middle finger from Ubi to a bunch of racist jerks.

8. About Bayek's Age It's not going to mean a lot to you if you're under 25, but if you started playing AC when it first came out and you were at least 18 (and shame on your parents if you weren't), you're at least 28 now and you may have started to notice that main characters in games are almost all kids, and those that aren't generally act like they are. That's why Ubi making Bayek in his mid-thirties, with a position in life to match, is a big deal. People are more active at higher ages than ever before, but protagonists in games rarely crack their early twenties, and hopefully Bayek will be a change from that. Or his age could turn out to be a meaningless number. We'll see.

9. The Most Varied AC World Yet? A look at the gameplay trailer shows deltas teeming with reeds and (shudder) crocodiles, glistening cities of white stones, palaces built into hills, and oases in vast deserts. With Unity and Syndicate being based almost entirely in a single huge city apiece, the wide open world is a welcome return. Hopefully, it is as packed with hidden secrets and things to do as II's Italy and BF's Caribbean were.

10. The Seven Wonders of the World Another historical thing possibly overlooked by fans in their excitement: at the time of Origins, six of the seven (Man-Made) Wonder of the (Ancient) World were still standing in some form. From The Hanging Gardens of Babylon to the Golden Statue of Zeus, these were some of the most gorgeous constructions the considerable minds of ancient humans could accomplish. We're obviously going to visit quite a lot of pyramids already, and very likely the Pharos Lighthouse, located as it was in Egypt, but the remaining four (and maybe even the ruins of the fifth) would make great locations for those special side missions AC's devs often like to sneak in.

Assassin’s Creed: Origins releases on video game stuff everywhere October 27th. What would you like to see in the game?

[knaveofdoodles]

Tiny “snippet” of setting development

So finally coming around to explaining this BIG OLD fantasy setting I've been slowly working on and developing, and in the briefest way possible.

Awhile back I posted some concepts of the races inhabiting the realm. Many of these are still under progress and also don't reflect what's shown here.

quick summary on each of these

Basilisks- diminutive, frail race with a keen ability to focus their mind and powers through their gaze. They typically shy away from other races and are common throughout the eastern kingdoms and uncommon in the west.

Kobolds- tough, wily, and cunning creatures, common throughout the world. They are often utilized as lowly servants, capable of fitting in many small reaches and having a hardy endurance to survive whatever they might find there.

Goblins- Creatures hailing from the southwestern reaches of the kingdoms but have spread far due to their taste for adventure and trade.

Arakin- a race of nimble, crafty rat-people, believed to be descendant of the great Rat Emperor. Many fear them due to religion and myth imagery of them paint them as thieves and plaguebearers.

Bracken- Amphibious, stout lizard people. They hail and dominate the shores of the eastern kingdoms. Have cultures deeply weighted in the concepts of overcoming colossal challenges, usually in the form of hunting massive monsters.

Humans- Widely domaninant race, very hardy and strong. Often have vast kingdoms with massive infrastructure. Very populated in the western kingdoms, not as common in the east.

Gnolls- large, hulking beasts resembling hyenas. Populates the western kingdoms but remain widely scattered in smaller communities and tribes.

Selkin- Massively large, but surprisingly light and soft creatures comprised of magic. They are not beings of strength but of will. They hail from the mountains in the eastern kingdoms but can be found spread far and wide across the world.

"Jellies" (no name determined yet)- Ancient automaton creations of slimes meant to operate machinery and clean. Masters have long since moved on and they've gained a sense of self awareness. Many have taken humanoid form but are uncertain of the reason why or have memories of the past before their awakening. hail from deep, underground ruins. ----- Locations: Eastern kingdoms- the name for the large continent to the east. Has large tracts of land, unexplored wilderness, and is often home to harsh monsters, and unique races. The mountain ranges here are the largest in the world, and are rumored to have a close connection to the magical and divine.

Western Kingdoms- Home of many well developed cities and civilizations. Centers of knowledge and libraries are stationed here. Suffers from a large amount of conflict between the political tensions of the kingdoms and rich resources and ruins inside the hills and mountain ranges here.

(and many more, cut for space because they are widely unimportant to any characters or stuff I’ve worked on thus far)

---- Religion and Magic

Magic, or the twisting of the perceived reality is actually a kind of 'science'. A current of energy runs parallel to the prime dimension, and mages are able to bridge the gap between the dimensions to allow the flow of energy to and from this dimension, reshaping this energy into something recognizable and manifesting what is known as magic.

This process can be very stressful and taxing on the mages as they use their own mind and willpower to bend fully chaotic energies to their vision. A reckless mage could open their mind to these energies if exposed too much, causing their perception of reality to become twisted in a condition known as Mageblight.

Religion in this setting is neither confirmed nor denied, but left to speculation of the audience. Nothing like gods or angels descend from the heavens and go "bitch listen...". And there are several different (and sometimes conflicting) pantheons and philosophies. Sometimes, the creations of one pantheon, might be something far more or less significant in another. ---- Finally, How does King, gnolls, Torok, and Zeke fit into all of this? Torok, Zeke, and the gnolls all exist in their own stories of this setting, primarily taking place in the Western Kingdoms. King does as well, as a special monster known as a "rat king"

As an aside, in the mythos of the setting of rats. All rats, Arakin, and Rat Kings all used to be a part of a godlike entity known as the "Rat Emperor" who dominated and looked over the world of mortals. The other divine did not appreciate the Emperor's control and interference with their efforts towards the mortals, and thus shattered the emperor into these many parts. Rat Kings seen as the largest portions of these shards, retaining some of the Emperor's powers.

King's story takes place in a massive port city known as Nexus, which is the center of a large amount of traffic and commerce. ----- These are all so very BRIEF bits of a much larger setting with many details that may have been worked on or left open currently. If people are interested more in this, I might construct a side blog where details and art are posted, and people can ask questions about the setting and give feedback.

[cibokilley]

Cross-post from Pillowfort.io

So, the following Blanket Box is for worldbuilding. The world I'll be exploring with this BB is from Cosmosis, a story/graphic novel/whatever I've been developing in the past few months.

General concept: LA PLEROMA is an abstract, enclosed internal world with no borders. There is no 'outside' -- everything in this world is an interior, just an entire plane made up of building interiors. Exiting one interior just brings you into another one, and so on. These repeat-borders cannot be mapped, however, as the interior continually and gradually builds itself larger and larger based on human observation. Some say the world is a living thing, eating and growing at a glacial pace. While it is believed that the interior runs on forever, there are some who believe there is an end to all of it. However, this is countered by another school of thought that declares that La Pleroma merely loops in on itself, but no one knows exactly at what point does it begin to repeat. Other angles suggest that La Pleroma exists in a spiral, and goes on further to suggest that it's not just a spiral but a tesseract in a Fibonacci spiral, in which both time and space do repeat themselves.

Most of La Pleroma is unchecked and feral. Pockets of civilization exist here and there, and sometimes they even interact, for better or for worse. Everywhere else is a liminal space. Monsters abound, hidden and insidious.

I’m going for more conceptual than realistic. It’s been a fun thought exercise so far.

Warning: LONG ASS. So very long. Like ten pages long. Prepare thine asses, assholders. That paragraph two lines above IS the tl;dr version.

1. What was the original inspiration for your world? Why are you making it?

Echo for the PS4 (now on PC and GoG) was the initial inspiration for the world of COSMOSIS. I super loved the concept of a never-ending palace structure full of weird shit, which I then paired up with an Escheresque flair to flip this palace dimension off its predictable axes. Ideally the place is still structured with occasional recognizable patterns, and only in very messed-up sections of the COSMOSIS world is there true chao -- a teratoma-esque mishmash of elements that aren't supposed to be crashing or clipping into each other, etc.

The other huge influencer is the cybergoth-industrial world of BLAME! by Tsutomu Nihei. This is one of the first manga I really invested in from start to finish due to Nihei's use of scale to show just how huge and expansive his insular, interior world can be. That and I adored the concept of the Network superstructure just... slowly, constantly expanding itself despite the lack of humanity to give context to these lonely, unused spaces. Areas are so vast that time and space operate differently in parts of the maze, as well as weather, species, species of human, as well as technology and specific atmospheric phenomenon.

2. Does your world have any kind of 'aesthetic,' or a predominant genre (other than fantasy/sci fi/etc)?

Definitely high fantasy. No elves or DnD races, though, just humans.

For overall flavour, I want it to feel like a whimsical fantasy, not to be taken too seriously. Most events will be entertainingly cartoonish, but with some serious moments as well. I also want to maintain a sense of wonder and open exploration, to inspire readers to stay on so they can explore the world along with the characters. It feels like a post-apoc setting, but in a world where people didn’t live in. The eerie liminal spaces suggest a mysterious past, a story half-told and forgotten, where in the inhabitants are bereft of a cultural history to explain how and why they exist in a setting where 'outside' has an ominous meaning.

On the conceptual side, much of the gnosis presented here is supposed to be a bit technical in nature, almost like a proper science, but is really just a lot of comparable analogues and metaphors and borrowed terms. I wanted to create a sense of deep lore and dogma while leaving enough room for interpretation.

3. Introduce us to your continents and major cities/countries.

Oh here we go. The primary reason why I'm answering this questionnaire is to force me to come up with distinct cultures and locations for the narrative to explore. The places visited by the main narrative are as follows:

THE ROYAL PALACE

At the center of the story is a castle-like juggernaut of vertical space occupied only by the Royal Family. The Palace maintains a sense of baroque opulence, cold and sophisticated, utilized but never truly lived-in. It is believed that the ancestors of the Royal Family not only built the Palace, but created the Capital. Thus, the royal descendants are not only divine, but are gods or demi-gods themselves. This is somewhat true: Castelin, the first of the royal family, had some involvement in the creation of La Pleroma in full. The details remain a secret known only to the Royals.

THE CAPITAL

Outside of the Palace is the Capital, a series of concentric rings of humanity living in close proximity. These rings form a massive city that radiates outward from the Palace. Each level is larger than the one before it, and it is spread out so vastly that entire generations are born and die in their home rings without having ever exited the city, and not for lack of trying to get out. The Capital tends to have housing and buildings that make relative sense, but further along the outward radiation the structures begin to clip into one another, creating the bizarre hodgepodge that defines La Pleroma.

A feudal system keeps the Capital running. Not all rings are urban — some rings are dedicated to farmland and primary resource cultivation.

THE WILDERNESS

Outside of the Capital is pure wilderness. Structures make less sense, with stairways leading to nowhere and exits with no meaning. Though no one has been able to ascertain, it is believed that even the wilderness is contained within a ring-like structure as the Capital. Cartographers have tried, and died.

Greenery and foliage occur randomly where water can be found, but not all parts of the wilderness are forest. Most of the wilderness is made of stone buildings, sterile and dry. Other places do not have water, but other creatures and organisms may inhabit nonetheless. Not all living things have been documented or discovered. Plants grow where they can, structures decay under the weight of encroaching nature, and some places are subterranean, filthy and murky. Some places are completely alien, and usually super unpleasant.

The style of the terrain varies per region. Some places suggest medieval European with vaulted arches, stained glass windows, ornate outcroppings and arrow slits spiralling for miles up along massive towers, while others might look like parts of the Palace, richly trimmed, furnished, but empty. Domiciles appear transplanted or teleported straight into existing structures. Some places are utterly ruined, as though devastated by quake or ballistics or fire. Occasionally, bits and pieces of robots can be found lying about. Sometimes, humans can be found out here. Different types of human…

AEONIC GENERATORS #1-30

Still working on these. Will update when I get to it, narratively.

HISTORY

As mentioned before, La Pleroma is beset with a vague sense of history. There was a time when La Pleroma was actually coherent, a finite space serving an organized purpose, but for some reason modern civilization has forgotten how this came to be. Why would a television set occur out in the wilderness? Did someone make it and abandon it? Did it just appear one day? Why are the power grids so random? Why do some stairs climb sideways, why do some ceilings have doorways, why is the world built to the shape and size of humans? Who discovered chirality, or discovered how to harness the magical powers of the Kenoma? How do human beings even know of the Other Place?

Nobody knows. But someone is set to find out.

AND ONE MORE THING

Also, while there does appear to be some form of gravity, the endless chambers of La Pleroma are not all built along the same plane or axis. Doorways that do not open and aimless stairs may appear upside down or sideways, since the artificial nature of this world seems human-built, but gravity usually falls only one way.

4. What cool species does your world have? This can be people races, aliens, neat wildlife, monsters, whatever.

Humans exist as the dominant species, but they also share ground with animal people. They're not furries, per se, they're just humans with animal heads or animal features. The story doesn't really explore this concept too deeply, as they're merely window dressing and flavour for the setting.

Humans exist in full racial ambiguity. Like cats or dogs, human beings in this world don't segregate by race or colour, though they may separate on religion or ideals. Also, curiously -- all humans are considered and assumed bisexual until proven otherwise. For some reason cleaving to your own sex is seen as ‘developing a habit’, while being strictly hetero is considered a bit limiting albeit necessary for procreational reasons. Marriage is less about nuclear family and more about gaining resources via declared relationships. In this way, even homogeneous couples can secure formal married status with a lack of children. Adoption is common.

Wildlife varies. The usual normal animals exist, albeit it slightly altered to their weirdly unnatural surroundings -- for example, wolves that know how to use the urban jungle for hunting and ambush tactics, parkour deer, tigers that know how to use doors, creatures with urban camo, etc. Also insects, lots of flying creatures, and fish. And weird shit that is unidentifiable; vegetable, mineral? Misc?? What is that?

Monsters -- there are lots of these. Anything that is distinctly oversized, or is clearly expressing gigantism, is considered monstrous.  Also, anything with more teeth than usual is also seen as monstrous. To be considered a true monster, however, is for creatures to have mystical abilities such as teleportation, illusory talents, shape-changing, anything magical or that cannot be explained by biology alone. And also, anything that can’t be easily identified is probably a monster.

Animal people are weirdly common. They are not as numerous or recognizable as humans are, but relations usually tend to be friendly. They do not interfere with human affairs, preferring to keep to themselves. But on the occasion where rival communities wage war on each other, the animal people think and behave exactly the same as humans do, so the only real discrimination among them is cosmetic at best. Usually they appear as normal humans, except with animal heads.

There are also strange instances of humans becoming animals, and animals becoming human. No one knows how or why this happens.

And then there’s the Royal Family. With a lineage that dates back to the beginning of time, members of the Imperial Royal Family are distinct in that they are semi-human. Though outwardly they appear normal, they are known sorcerers who can cast magic spells without components or incantation, and need only one voice to cast: their own. They are also said to be clairvoyant, can walk through walls, and appear in two or three places at once. Otherwise, they too behave like ordinary humans. What services they provide to the Capital include organized defense of borders, city planning, disaster relief, and actual governmental social services.

And last but not least, the kosmikoi are ghosts and phenomena that originate in the Kenoma, but are somehow able to express themselves in La Pleroma. They are highly dangerous in that anything coming into contact with the kosmikoi can and will implode, violently. Small instances tend to burn themselves out in tiny flashes when they immediately come into contact with positively-charged particles constantly present in the air space of La Pleroma, but large instances appear surrounded by a hazy fog of matter and antimatter particles cancelling each other out in the presence of air. Also, looking directly at them at close range causes madness.

5. Tell us a fable or myth from your world.

Bonus round! I’ve got not one but TWO myths to expound upon…!

THE WELL AT THE BOTTOM OF THE WORLD

There is a story about the Well at the Bottom of the World. They say it is the only place in La Pleroma that opens up on the opposite side of the world, tunnelling right through. Some say it exits straight out into the Kenoma, and that the presence of the sea is the only thing keeping La Pleroma from being sucked out like water down a drain. And some say the well does have a bottom, and if you manage to get there, your greatest wish comes true. However, the few tales that trickle down to the Capital never end well.

CREATION MYTH

The creation myth of La Pleroma is not well-known. There are spinoff legends and localized versions of the origin of the world, but here is the myth as it is known by scholars:

In the Beginning, there was Nothing. Then, Nothing contracted from itself and became Something and Nothing. This separation was called tzimtzum (borrowing heavily from Lurianic Kabbalism). The space contained within itself was called La Pleroma (innenwelt), and the negative space surrounding it was called the Kenoma (umwelt). Or: the universe was a wave before it became a particle.

Vague interpretations of  this story created a unique collective memory of a time before Nothing, a previous cycle of existence that was either the same or slightly changed from the present. Whatever it was, the first cycle has definitely informed the present — as though the world suddenly begat amnesia, and is now struggling to remember who they were and why they’re here.

Application and Imago

Scholars have attempted to prove the validity of this myth mathematically (to put it lightly). The end result is a bizarre non-euclidean geometry proving the shape of the world: that there is no edge, but the interior of the model goes on forever.

The scholars theorize that the world is a Schroedinger's box: that the world is actually a cloud of possibilities that do not resolve until a sentient being observes it. They theorize that this is the reason why no one can find the edge of the world -- because it merely expands when someone is there to observe, and then contracts when no one is around. In short, if a tree falls in a forest and no one is around to hear it, it does not in fact make a sound. But then the problem arises that if everyone were to suddenly fall asleep simultaneously, or a sudden die-off erased all living creatures in existence, would the world end?

The philosophers have an answer for this issue. La Pleroma  is actually a living thing in and of itself, and does not sleep. The world-entity remains stable because it is aware of itself -- it observes itself, therefore it exists.

6. How do magic (if you have it) and technology work in your world? What tech level are you at? How does magic influence technology, and vice versa?

The study of 'magic' is called psycho-science (borrowing heavily from Masamune Shirow's Orion), and is a property possessed by those with an advanced parietal third eye. This eye is located inside the brain, and acts as a portal to the Kenoma through which miracles may be drawn. La Pleroma is opposite to the Kenoma in concept -- if La Pleroma is mostly mass, then the Kenoma is mostly energy. This energy can be traded via the parietal third eye and then used to grant miracles, such as walking on water, healing, raising people from the dead, and assorted elemental powers. The exact mechanism that enables human flesh and the brain to activate this phenomenon is still unknown, though the concept of conscious will being the key driver in directing Kenomic energy into agency has already been proven. Practitioners of this ability are called mages, or sorcerers.

Those who do not possess a well-developed parietal third eye can still use mechanical means of channelling Kenomic power into agency, as follows:

SPELL COMPONENTS

Through the use of certain materials, such as metal, wood, stone, etc., Kenomic energy can be exchanged using the material itself. The 'exchange' occurs when matter is swapped out for energy, so all spells must rely on mostly transient components. Metal and stone take the longest to wear away from use, while wood and paper tend to be used up in one or two charges at most. Dense mediums like platinum or diamond have a near-infinite capacity for use. These materials are fashioned into convenient apparatus such as rings, jewellery, talismans, etc. Technically a good wizard or witch can use anything in their immediate surroundings, but purity of elements will result in a cleaner, smoother spell effect whereas a less homogeneous conductor may interrupt the flow. That said, the mass to energy conversion is never 1:1, as there must be some energy from the caster to initiate the exchange.

Sorcerers typically do not require components to cast, but they may do so in an effort to conserve personal stamina. In this setting, sorcerers are extremely rare.

CHANT and INCANTATION

The amperage of a channelling event is determined by the power of incantation, using voice as the unit of measure. (Eight voices is a chord, twelve voices is a chroma, etc.) The purpose of the chant is to invoke the vibration of the material to be sacrificed, to initiate the matter-energy exchange. The more voices, or embodiments of conscious will, are added to a chant, the greater the flow of Kenomic energy. One voice will have a small effect, but many voices can increase the strength, duration, and distance of effect.

The incantation, also called the chant (the term is interchangeable), must be cycled repeatedly to create a psychic/aetheric vibration that weakens the morphic field of any given physical component. This weakening allows the matter to lose its shape and convert into pure energy, which is then redirected to perform work dependent on the will of the caster. The general rule is the Law of Conservation of Energy, in which energy cannot be created or destroyed within an isolated environment. Something must be exchanged.

The preferred chants come from a set of scripture called the Heavenly Tenets, which contain different chants and hundreds of lines to be memorized. The chant used most often for spellcasting is called The Oscillatory, which is the first chant in the series and is usually studied the most. In this manner, individual casters can use custom chants for similar spells so long as the pitch is correct. Also, to prevent confusion between dialect and spell voice, the chant is usually performed in the ancient tongue. (For the use of this story, Latin.) Because of this, the Heavenly Tenets are considered holy words with the power to create miracles when uttered.

There is a theory that the specific emanation created by voicing the Oscillatory actually performs an anthropomorphic role in using components to activate. Recitation ‘reminds’ objects of their origins and coaxes them to return to their natural state, ie. pure energy, or zero-point vacuum energy potential. The psycho-scientific community cannot prove or disprove this theory as of yet.

AETHER

Aether is the transmutation of Kenomic energy into mass. Raw Kenomic energy behaves like light, which can be trapped inside photonic crystal. A secret method is then used to compress the light into a plasmatic state, resulting in a gel-like substance that evaporates when exposed to air. Small amounts of aether can be stored for use in talismans, but large amounts cause greater instability, and must be stored separately. Linking Aether jars together with electrical connections is standard procedure.

AMPLIFIERS, TALISMANS, MAGIC/ENCHANTED ITEMS

Advancements in modern magical technology have allowed users to control the chant using talismanic resonators, or amps. Artificial voices can be added to a chant to enhance its strength. The core element of an amplifier is Kenomic aether condensed into a semi-liquid called copy-gel inside an airtight vessel. Stored in this aether is a brain. Originally, only real human brains were effective. Animal brains did not react as predicted, though dog brains could occasionally be substituted. But modern science has been able to develop artificial vat-grown brains, embedded with a personality impression, for the use in amps. Echoes of a voice or many voices can be recorded into the brain, and using copy-gel as a medium, the brain acts as a surrogate for a conscious will, or ‘voice’. These brains can occasionally remember certain patterns of incantation if used repeatedly for the same cast. Also, brains with a suitable personality embedded on the psyche can perform better than brains that have been impressed by old personality code that has eroded or been duplicated too often. Personality can also affect the ‘tone’ or ‘texture’ of a cast. For example: a chaotic personality may result in an unpredictable spell effect, or a ferret’s personality will give the spell effect a whimsical, playful aesthetic. However, brains do have an expiry date, so they must be replaced every now and then.

There are mixed reactions among the casting community on the use of amplifiers. Some argue that even artificial brains that can be added as voices are actually conscious and capable of developing unique personality, and thusly, can also suffer emotional and psychic pain. While studies indicate that these vat-grown brains do not register ECG when idle, the more spiritual and empathetic argument still chooses to abstain from using amps, for fear of karmic retribution.

In this vein, extra voices can also be acquired simply by employing a choir of singers to activate seals and spells, since individual humans are the main providers of conscious will. Chants by choirs of novices were the only way to enhance rituals, back in the old days, as they say.

Amps come in different shapes and sizes depending on use. Mega-amps can convey the will of up to ten chords or more for larger, more complex rituals, while single-use amps can boost spellcasting for up to one or two voices. Amp effects stack as well, enabling modern casters (with sufficient availability and budget) to cast spells with enormous potential, utilizing hundreds of voices (also called tone clusters) provided by multiple amps connected together and plugged into an electrical generator or electric power supply.

Also, copygel is a non-Newtonian fluid.

CAUTION and CONSEQUENCES

The consequences of the misuse of Kenomic exchange, or magic, are usually fatal. Like the implosions that occurred during the formation of the universe, casters and surrounding matter can be sucked straight into the Kenoma. There is no surviving this event, as all and any physical objects passing through go through traumatic spaghettification. In short: soft squishy structure being sucked through a tiny hole. The implosion radius differs depending on the caster’s individual control.

TECHNOLOGY

In addition to aetheric tech, electricity has existed for a very long time as well. Some parts of the La Pleroma actually contain foundries and devices designed for use with electricity. Power is provided via land cable, but finding these connections is difficult, as the grids are usually embedded right in the structure itself, bricked up behind walls and trap doors, hanging from windows, etc. Random power sockets may or may not be connected to anything at all. It takes an entire guild of electricians to keep a city running, provided they can find a power supply, or if the city has ways of generating their own.

Techwise, the level is all over the place. Certain civilizations have up to a 1920’s level of sophistication while others have already harnessed nuclear fission/fusion. Some are still scraping about in the stone age. The vast distances between groups in La Pleroma are mind boggling.

7. What are the major religions of your world? How have they affected the rest of society and history? How are they organised?

CELESTIAL LAW aka the Laws of Heaven aka the Heavenly Tents

Above all things, even gods, is Celestial Law. Rather than governing the lives and behaviours of human beings, the Law focuses more on karmic cause and effect, the rule of threes, and the expectation that you reap what you sow. Also, Celestial Law includes the expectations of gods, demigods, spirits, saints, and other spectral forces. Only through ritual may these beings pass into the living world, and that only by exorcism will they be allowed back out. Celestial Law also dictates how Nature should preside, ideally keeping ice cold, fire hot, water wet, etc.

Usually people don’t want kosmikoi, lost souls or spirits, wandering around in La Pleroma, but the Kenoma does house a myriad of special forces that can be called upon to act within mortal bounds. It is expected that the soul migrates to the Kenoma as pure energy, having left its body behind on the mortal plane.

Celestial Law is not a direct analogue of Buddhist dharma, but it’s similar.

GODS

Religion in La Pleroma operates on a dualist cosmology with a single Creator god, flanked by a broad array of saints and some ancestor worship. The Creator God is assumed to be omniscient with a dark twin, a Demiurge, mirroring his/her/its existence in the Kenoma. Here, the Demiurge exists as a mindless force that governs Heaven and Earth. While even God must adhere to the laws of Heaven, he/she/it is not subservient to them; instead, God has the ability to take shortcuts, but never does he/she/it break celestial law. In this fashion, God and the Demiurge cooperate to keep Creation running. This principle has given rise to a gnostic religion called Chirality.

In La Pleroma, religion is more of a cultural product, a way of life, rather than a strict adherence to a code of virtues.

Orders and Denominations

Chiralism is organized by a brief hierarchy of novices, deacons, ministers, priests, priestesses, and a High Priest. While rural Chiralism makes due with ministers, only in the capital does this advanced hierarchy serve any purpose.

The Royal Church of Chirality is divided into two schools of thought on the shape of the world:

The Helexites believe that La Pleroma turns in a spiral in which both time and space repeat themselves, with slight differences per revolution. They posit that the world has both a beginning and an end, and that with each iteration the world advances upward towards some ascendant tier.

The Möbii believe that La Pleroma is much simpler, and that it exists in a loop. They are still working out the exact point where the world begins to repeat, as no one has found a way to head west and inevitably end up returning to the same point from the east.

Both denominations recognize that La Pleroma exists in chirality to the Kenoma, though exactly to what degree is yet unknown. (Chirality means mirror-image flipped only on one plane, ie. looking in a mirror.)

While the two denominations will disagree with each other on this detail, it must be noted that they do not war with one another — both acknowledge that potentially, both ideas are correct simultaneously according to the Laws of Heaven. These Laws are more like fundamental physical laws rather than laws in the bureaucratic sense, in which consequence is preceded by cause.

That said, there are offshoots and cults formed around extremist interpretations of dogma of both denominations, with with one side denouncing the other with lethal intent. These heretic orders can and will pit God versus Demiurge, in which the spiritual is seen as morally good, while the material life is seen as evil. Opposing factions reverse the order: God is seen as a dark, masculine oppressor, while the Demiurge is considered soft and feminine and imbued with the powers of procreation and rebirth of living things.The Church of Chirality openly rejects these splinter factions, but the abuse continues.

Worship

Chiralist worship has no liturgal ritual or need for mass gathering. Rather, the style is more eastern, in that people engage in casual ancestor worship at home or pay homage to shrines. Chiralism is Shinto-esque in that it focuses more on establishing a connection between the present and the past, and that there are rituals to be performed in order to do so. Chirality has no leader, authority, or political influence. There is only the sacred scripture called the Heavenly Tenets, aka Celestial Law.

8. Tell us about a cool geological or magical feature of your world.

Lol to be honest, La Pleroma is a cool geological AND magical feature in itself.

9. Introduce us to the major 'civilisations' or societies of your world, if you haven't already. How do they interact? What do trade routes look like? What did 'ancient' civilisations look like-- or are the current ones the first?

THE HUMAN SPECIES

Civilization exists in remote pockets throughout La Pleroma. Because of the massive distances involved, subspecies of humans have evolved differently per region. Some humans are extremely small — not short, but miniaturized. Other species of human are very large. Humans in more isolated communities that have existed for a very long time tend to develop specific sets of shared features (ie. townies who’ve been intermarrying for generations), certain resistances and vulnerabilities, etc. Other species of human have only retained the chiral symmetry and silhouette of the human body but nothing else.

Another subset of humans are the animal folk. Like humans, animal folk differ per region. Imports include: food, water, assorted primary resources, tertiary services. The Capital exports: manufactured goods, clothing, weapons, secondary services.

The heroes of the narrative set in this world are regular humans. However, they may not be considered ‘normal’ by other species of human.Some communities have been documented, but La Pleroma is otherwise a kind of wild expanse full of danger and surprises. There are vast stretches of uninhabited space, so trade between entirely different species of human is difficult.

The story starts off with just one nation of humans, who call themselves Chiralists. This group has never made contact with other human subspecies, though they trade regularly with animal people.

10. Tell us an important story in your world. This could be the planned story arc for a campaign, the story you're writing set in this world, or just the story of an underdog prince and how he changed a kingdom.

So here we go, the summary for COSMOSIS:

Prince Anton Kovec, a high-ranking member of the Royal Family, is a caster, Holy Interpreter, and edgelord who, after the Capital is attacked by a hole in the sky, sets out to repair the damage. Accompanying him is his lesbian sidekick Sister Gladys Degunais, a cheeky yet resourceful priestess and Anton’s childhood friend. Together they must find ten Grand Sacrifices (a buncha mystic macguffins) with which to repair ten of the thirty Aeonic Generators, sacred towers at the edges of the world that supposedly keep the world together.

In this adventure, Anton and Gladys come upon interesting people to add to their party, including the vigilante royal treasury accountant Brigga Irene, Officer Damien Acanthus Holley of the Royal Army, and Kuno, a frog.

The cast will encounter strange beasts and terrifying enemies on their quest to find the relics to use as Grand Sacrifices, and they will also encounter other Interpreters on the same mission.

But there's one thing Anton wants to understand: Hasn't this happened before...?

[fashiontrendin-blog]

How to Wear Gym Clothes to Fancy Places: 4 Outfit Ideas

http://fashion-trendin.com/how-to-wear-gym-clothes-to-fancy-places-4-outfit-ideas/

How to Wear Gym Clothes to Fancy Places: 4 Outfit Ideas

I

n a not-so-past life, my waking moments were almost entirely punctuated by plyometric pushups and tuck jumps, backbends and pretzel poses of yoga, and isolated polyrhythmic gyrations in African dance class. I lived a life synonymous with activity, a “somatic practitioner,” as pronounced by my first yoga and dance teacher, Anna Leo. But all of that changed when I moved to New York.

The opportunity cost of my tumultuous transition from Atlanta to New York was that, between bouts of sleeping on the sofas of friends and “rooming” with my octogenarian uncle while I put together the pieces of the new life puzzle, downward dog became more like sleeping dog. My athletic routine fell by the wayside so much so that one day I woke up 30 pounds heavier, with a noticeably rounder face and even more domed quads.

And while I suffer no shame at any iteration of my flesh and bones, the changes in my body heralded to me a certain dissipation of my former self’s physical discipline, a discipline that I recalled seeped into other aspects of my being, a certain physical empowerment that bolstered my sense of mental limitlessness as though threading connective tissue in the mind-body. This feeling! It was this feeling that I missed more so than being able to fit into my skirts of yore. And now, having found a semblance of stability in other aspects of my new life, I knew it was time for me to afford myself the luxury of working out (and the necessity of a well-trained mind) again.

And make no mistake, in a city like New York, where fitness classes usually set you back about $40 dollars a session, staying active can be a luxury. (Yes, running outside and dancing to Angélique Kidjo in my birthday suit are free, but I like to mix in group fitness for a multiplicity of reasons.) Besides the fiscal deterrent, there was one other hurdle to overcome: inertia. How does one suddenly disrupt a cycle of lassitude when, even though the mind is willing, the flesh is, in accordance with the laws of physics, simply too weak to break the current state of inactivity? I found two ways.

The first was finding someone to answer to. After I put out an SOS, a friend introduced me to Jahkeen Washington, certified personal trainer and co-founder of Harlem High Intensity Fitness (HIIT) studio JTW FIT. Jah shifted from a nine-year career in the finance industry to become a certified personal trainer after losing a friend to a heart condition. Dedicated to bringing affordable fitness to the Harlem community, his studio offers classes as low as $15 dollars a class. As I find immeasurable value in being able to turn off my brain, so to speak, and have a professional craft an effective routine for me, I reached out to Jah. I knew my partnership with him was the right move from the moment I met him and experienced his easy air of confidence, deep devotion to his cause and a sense of humor that matched mine to a T.

So with that box ticked, the second inertia-busting strategy is why I come to you today on this rather prolix journey: apparel! When I realized that my workout wardrobe had not been updated in some seven or so years, I found myself scouring the web for what was new and exciting in the athletic wear market. All I had to do was perform one search and then sit back and let the oracular algorithms of the internet speak to me. And speak to me they did when an ad for a two-toned unitard flew into my field of vision. I immediately texted my friend Grant. “Need this!” I wrote, not realizing how expensive it was. “This Athluxury, Sis!” he replied. And so the term was born (at least in our little corner of the world; little did we know it was brewing in the Nike-verse as well) and its afterbirth was the idea for this story.

Sticker shock aside, I have always felt strongly about investing in my active gear (which probably explains why seven years on, the same cycling shorts are still making the rounds in my closet): Why shouldn’t the clothes I spend hours shaping my body in aspire as much to form as they do to function? Why should I not search for the same beauty I do in other aspects of my life, in the suits in which I will sweat as I attempt to shape the inner beauty of determination and self-discipline? “Wilt thou deny me the sheer joy of expanding my Spandex repertoire?” I asked my shoulder angel (or devil, depending on one’s vantage point). “I didn’t think so!” I scoffed, quieting and the supernatural being perched atop my medial deltoid.

To my imagination, Athluxury is the kind of athletic gear that espouses a thoughtfulness in design and brand ethos. And, yes, since luxury is a function of time, and time, they say, is money, the pieces I found in my “research” often came with a price tag to match. But they also came with an understanding that they were built to last. And while it is sacrilegious in my personal religion to wear more than 10% Spandex outside the church of the gym, if am spending this much money on athletic wear, I require the clothes to do a few extra things, including water my Meyer lemon tree monthly, take my future Jack Russell Terrier out for walks (twice a day, please) and not least of all, be able to hold their own when styled for everyday life. So here you have it, four Athluxury brands that rekindle my commitment to the active life every time I put them on, also styled for life beyond the sweat.

Ernest Leoty:

A gateway drug, if you will, this cerise and aubergine bodysuit by French startup brand Ernest Leoty was my first foray into the Athluxury world. The brand, which takes its name from a legendary French corset maker who invented the first modern corset in the 1800s, is designed in a sensibility très Parisien. Employing traditional French tailoring and technical activewear seaming, its high performance fabrics are sourced from Italian mills, and take my word for it, these details are apparent from the moment one slips on one of their butter-soft sheaths. Truly a second skin, Ernest Leoty felt like a natural choice for returning to the dance studio where the suppleness of their offerings meant melting, unencumbered, into the movement itself. For life outside the studio, the palette of the bodysuit led me to pair it with a magenta vintage kimono sourced for Harajuku for me by my personal shopper (just kidding, I can’t afford a personal shopper, but I do take advantage of my dear friend, @junebugshpr, a lawyer who moonlights as one). In the folly of my youth, many moons ago, I spent an entire paycheck on the Dior heels you see here, and as for the Tara Jarmon belt, it is my styling “golux” (aka mythical creature that comes to the rescue in all times of need).

VAARA

The entirety of British brand VAARA’s offerings exist in simple yet striking color dualities. Wrought from thick stretch fabric with a swimwear-like smoothness in quality, I found this brand offered a nice intersection between strong support and flexibility for the demands of HIIT training. The unofficial general consensus in the training world is that the Nike Metcon 4, seen here in white, is THE training shoe. You will find no objections on my part. The light blue of the stripe of these leggings is picked up almost exactly in the varying sized polka dots of this wrap-dress-worn-as-a-top from Second Sight. I find a nice interplay between the linearity of the stripe and the circular Kusamaësque dots of the dress. And to finish off the look, I added another pair of “investment” shoes, a well-aged pair of Nicholas Kirkwoods from my closet.

Outdoor Voices

Outdoor Voices is no longer a secret by any stretch of the imagination, and the brand’s popularity is well merited. Its mission statement is to foster people “doing things,” and I appreciate this uncomplicated, sensible approach to the active life. Their design team stems from both fitness and fashion realms so there’s as high an emphasis on aesthetic as there is on performance. Easily recognizable for their color-blocked, mutli-seamed styles, I was pleasantly surprised to find this solid, sanguine color among their offerings, which I tested out for running along with Nike’s Air Zoom Pegasus 35. The real MVP though is this OV men’s sweatshirt, rendered in a knit so cloud-soft I did not wish to ever take it off. Ever the fan of mixing unexpected fabrics, I paired the sweatshirt with an elaborate sequined dress from Erdem (worn as a skirt) and even more scintillation is brought to the mix by the Sophia Webster heels.

No Ka Oi’

According to its website, No Ka Oi’ means “the best” in Hawaiian, but the yoga-focused brand is actually made in Bologna, Italy. Strong color, eclectic fabrics and a plenitude of geometric design is the brand’s calling card. I was all too excited to roll up and strap tight this textured mat from the brand. While I’ve owned the leather mat strap here for about eight years, it has never come in handier than here in New York, where mat rental fees at studios are a real thing and schlepping a mat to class is about more than posturing. The vegetable-tanned leather strap is fashioned by Andrew McTeer who makes everything in his Queens studio, always aiming at as little waste as possible. He based the design of the strap on an antique example he found in France, adapting it for usability.

McTeer’s work, to me, is a paragon of the essence of luxury: While it may (or may not) be reflected in price point, luxury’s real signifier is that it is a labor of love, that thoughtfulness in design is equally reflected in the ethical production. The beauty of the resulting product is then but a little bonus with a great impact. After all, as professor and novelist Muriel Barbery asked, “Where is beauty to be found? In great things that, like everything else, are doomed to die, or in small things that inspire nothing, yet know how to set a jewel of infinity in a single moment?” Finding my way back into the luxury of the gym or dance studio may be a small victory, but no price tag can be placed on how boundless the active life makes me feel.

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Photos by Michelle Kappeler. Follow Jahkeen on Instagram @jah_holla. Follow Natasha on Instagram @natashanyanin

[djnephtune11-blog]

Gunning For God

John C. Lennox

            Unless you’ve been hiding in a cocoon for the past ten years, you can’t have failed to notice the New Atheists and their public challenge to religion and Christianity in particular. Men like Richard Dawkins, Christopher Hitchens, and Sam Harris (to name perhaps the three most famous examples) have proclaimed from whatever atheistic minaret they could find their call that the very idea of God is a delusion, that the God of the Bible is not great, and that ‘faith’ should be at an end.

           Here in Australia they have been particularly successful in breaking into the mainstream media. The Global Atheist Convention was hosted in Melbourne in 2010, and in 2012 the event is returning to our shores. During the 2010 convention a number of speakers made media appearances, most notably Richard Dawkins on the ABC panel discussion show Q&A.

           Their influence is immediately apparent to anyone in Christian ministry, from the full-time church pastor engaged in public evangelism to the believing office worker or homemaker trying hard to commend Christ. The arguments we’re all hearing are coming directly from the New Atheist movement, and many of us feel floored.

           Apart from the content of their arguments, I’ve noticed a consistent trait on display—that of boorish and arrogant dismissal of their opponents. I’ve lost count of the times in my various discussions with New Atheist disciples when insults have come in thick and fast. This is then coupled with what can only be fairly described as an almost complete unwillingness to discuss the arguments being put forward by Christian apologists. We are, apparently, beneath the New Atheists, and do not actually need to be engaged with, so shallow is our own reasoning.

           Now, none of this is to say that there have not been a number of very good responses to the New Atheists. The best I’ve read in recent years is Alister McGrath’s The Dawkins Delusion, where he systematically works through Dawkins’ similarly named book and exposes the numerous errors for all to see.1 But who has the time and mental faculty to work through not only everything the New Atheists pour out, but additional books in response? If you’re like me and you have a full-time job to hold down, coupled with a busy family, then the idea is daunting.

           All of this is why I was so pleased to read Dr John Lennox’s Gunning for God: Why the New Atheists are Missing the Target. What McGrath did so well for one of Dawkins’ books, Lennox has managed to do for the whole genre of New Atheist argument. No doubt, I picked up the book enthusiastically—I’m a bit of a John Lennox fanboy, you see. Some of my favourite segments of the 2011 Oxygen conference were the seminars where Lennox systematically worked through a vast number of apologetic arguments. Over the past five years in particular, he has made a name for himself writing and debating against the New Atheists. If anyone has the experience to respond to their arguments and manner, then it’s Lennox.

           What makes Gunning for God such a good read is the orderly way in which Lennox moves from chapter to chapter, drawing you along a pattern of thought from the initial point of contact—the ‘conflict’ between science and religion—through the assertions that religion causes harm and the questions of morality (both in the Scriptures and then more widely in our world) till we arrive at the Bible’s specific claims to recount supernatural events. Finally, we are led to the central supernatural claim of the Christian faith—that Jesus of Nazareth physically rose from the dead. Along the way Lennox examines the arguments of his opponents, points out their weaknesses, and then most helpfully shows their inconsistency of approach. It’s no surprise that chapters 2 and 3 are titled ‘Is Religion Poisonous?’ and ‘Is Atheism Poisonous?’ respectively.

           Some of what Lennox writes has now become recognizably standard fare in this field, but no less palatable because of it. First is the confusion between whether the laws of nature describe or control events. Lennox is not afraid to address the giants in these fields. Responding to Stephen Hawking’s argument in A Brief History of Time that the universe has no need for a creator, he notes along with philosophers and physicists that physical laws describe rather than explain:

           Physical laws… are merely a (mathematical) description of what normally happens under certain given conditions. Newton’s law of gravitation does not create gravity; it does not even explain gravity, as Newton himself realised. (p. 33)

           That is, in Hawking’s insistence that the universe needs no creator because of the existence of gravity, he “has signally failed to answer the central question: why is there something rather than nothing?” (p. 35).

           Also helpful in this chapter is Lennox’s clarification of the usage of the term ‘faith’, highlighting the false disjunction between faith and knowledge that has caused endless trouble ever since being introduced by the Enlightenment philosopher Immanuel Kant (pp. 42‑43). The New Atheists have made this disjunction their paradigm for understanding religious claims, and Lennox helpfully demonstrates that this is in the face of no end of theists who argue in very different ways. We begin to see, yet again, their deliberate blindness to anything that does not fit their prejudiced assumptions about their opponents.

           Where Gunning for God started to really engage me was in the next few chapters, as Lennox moves into a more philosophical field—that of morality. As with the rest of the book, this is a mixture of apologetic and polemic argument (or, if you like, defensive and offensive play). In this arena the polemic is well justified: the New Atheists lump the Islamic suicide bomber in with the Christian evangelical. Lennox is scathing:

           There is a deep irony in the New Atheists’ failure to discriminate between religions; for they clearly expect everyone else to discriminate between atheists. They themselves, as self-confessedly peace-loving people, would not like to be arbitrarily classified with violent extremists of their own worldview persuasion, such as Stalin, Mao, and Pol Pot. (p. 61)

           It is to Lennox’s credit that he is prepared to go on the offensive to point out this “blatant inconsistency”. In fact it’s a strength of his whole presentation—he relentlessly points out the double standards of his opponents. Yet he is, unlike those he criticizes, equally ready to affirm where they do not behave in this way. Nevertheless, Lennox compellingly presents not only the weakness of the New Atheist claim, but more importantly the paucity of their method: they misrepresent Christ’s teaching on violence and the subsequent history of Christendom (p. 69); they make no distinction in understanding between those born into Christian cultures and those with genuine Christian belief (p. 71); they give next to no credit for all the good brought about by Christians in our Western culture (pp. 73-74), and so on. So weak is their methodology that Lennox shows us other less strident, but no less atheistic, scientists who criticize their work in this field.

           Without a doubt the strongest part of the whole exercise is Lennox’s tackling of the question of morality in and of itself. Lennox drives to the heart of the New Atheist dilemma—they wish to portray us as, ultimately, no more than the random (but naturally selected) product of our DNA, while at the same time they consistently make strong moral statements about us. Yet how does this strong materialistic view give them the right to make claims of morality?

           We are clearly dealing here with an extreme form of materialistic reductionism that views human beings as nothing but their genes… Generations of human beings are merely machines or vehicles for reproducing what Dawkins calls “selfish genes”. But in what sense, then, is it possible to base morality on our genes? (p. 107)

           How can Dawkins’, Hitchens’, or anyone else’s standards be anything but limited human conventions: ultimately meaningless products of a blind, unguided evolutionary process? Thus, far from delivering an adequate explanation for morality, this particular New-Atheistic acid dissolves it into incoherence. (p. 113)

           Thus the New Atheists “have not really begun to understand the implications of their own atheistic beliefs” and “do not appear to have taken on board the fact that their atheism removes from them… any moral values whatsoever” (p. 114).

           It’s a compelling argument, and one that holds true in my own personal engagements. One discussion partner told me that his basic moral values were “minimization of harm” and “optimization of choice” but he couldn’t provide me with any rationale at all for that position. More recently, a far more belligerent opponent conceded that his moral code, while possibly the product of evolution, “just seems right”! And that’s all he had! It doesn’t, of course, prevent him sending almost daily email screeds decrying the apparent depravity of all religion. I’ve long since given up asking him on what basis he can know that they’re depraved. Who is he to judge? What is the foundation of his moral claim? What I have been seeing on the ground Lennox has brilliantly exposed.

           But there is still more. The most challenging section of the book is where Lennox deals in a sustained manner with the arguments of philosopher David Hume. It is in doing this that Lennox most clearly demonstrates the difference between his own approach and that of those he criticizes. Dawkins arrogantly dismisses Thomas Aquinas’s ontological argument in a few pages and Anselm in little more.2 Lennox, in contrast, engages at depth with Hume on the topics of morality and the supernatural over the span of two chapters, returning again and again as the developing argument requires. Some of it was admittedly a little hard going, and required re-reading to make sure I’d understood the nuances of what was being put forward. But then, that’s the point! Lennox does what the New Atheists almost always fail to do—give due respect and attention to the best of the arguments that his opponents are providing. In doing so we get to grips with some of Hume’s crucial axioms, particularly at the point where they intersect with the central Christian apologetic claim:

           One can agree with Hume that “uniform experience” shows that resurrection by means of natural mechanism is extremely improbable, and we may rule it out. But Christians do not claim that Jesus rose by some natural mechanism. They claim something totally different—that God raised him from the dead. (p. 184)

           Again, what is striking is that Lennox actually properly understands and respects the arguments he is writing against. Of course, one area in which the New Atheists do not do this is the question of the resurrection:

           I know of no serious attempt by any of the New Atheists to engage with the evidence for the resurrection of Jesus Christ. Indeed, it is even worse than that. Their whole attitude to history in general is characterized by sheer closed-mind prejudice: light-years removed from the open-minded scientific attitude that they pretend to hold in high esteem. (p. 187)

           Like their precursor Bertrand Russell, Lennox shows us that the New Atheists are “talking in sheer ignorance of the facts” (p. 189). By contrast, we get a well-laid out argument of the historicity of this momentous event that lies at the heart of Christianity.

           It is this combination of both well-reasoned arguments and engagement and criticism of his opponents that makes Gunning for God such a great read. Time and time again Lennox patiently sets out his case in great detail, interacting with what the other side have to say but also having the courage to call them out on their bad arguments, boorishness and plain ignorance as required. There’s never a moment where you feel he’s over the top about it; in fact, for someone like me who is all too prone to the temptation of taking the occasional cheap shot, Gunning for God is a great encouragement that the more effective means of debate is sound, responsive argument.

           Others will also be greatly encouraged. If you’re feeling like you’re on the back foot in trying to respond to the relentless fastball pace of the New Atheist attack, then Lennox’s book will leave you cheering on every page. He guides you past the bluster and rhetoric, pulling back the curtain on the Great Oz of the New Atheists. This is also a book for the middle-ground; in fact, I think this is the book to give to your discerning unbelieving friend. They will have, no doubt, read Dawkins. Reading Lennox will more than compensate, for not only will they get a detailed rebuttal of the New Atheist claims, they will also read an equally detailed defence of the Christian faith on the same terms.