#with the recognition that that distinction is ALSO a construct

[queerforscience]

Summary: Unmasking Autism by Devon Price has a lot of good insights, but in my opinion could use more nuance about the harms experienced by early diagnosed autistics and autistics who can't mask.

I've been listening to the audiobook of Unmasking Autism by Devon Price. There's a lot of really good information in it and a lot that's really relatable as a late diagnosed, trans, fairly high masking autistic and I have a few criticisms of it:

It seems that Dr. Price falls into the common "grass is greener" pitfall. The book is focused on the harms of masking and the way that oppression forces many marginalized people to mask. It also discusses the way that this causes many marginalized people to not be recognized as autistic, which robs us of a valuable tool for understanding ourselves and our struggles. I felt that the way these very really harms were discussed sometimes minimized the also very real harms that come with being diagnosed as autistic as a child, especially for marginalized people. These discussions also didn't acknowledge the fact that some autistics cannot mask and experience specific harms because of that.

Similarly, I felt there were some missed chances to emphasize the internalized ableism component of the urge to distance ourselves from the label autism. This was framed in a discussion about how certain stereotypes about autism can make it more difficult to recognize and identify with autism within ourselves, but many of those stereotypes, like "the nonverbal toddler in bulky noise cancelling headphones at the grocery store, do represent some very real autistics who are also valuable human beings. This was addressed some later in the book than when this criticism first arose for me, but I think it's something that should have been more emphasized throughout. Similarly, there could have been more emphasis that people who do fit certain other labels also deserve to be treated better when when discussing the stigma that comes with some misdiagnoses autistic people commonly receive, such as personality disorders.

At least as far as I've gotten, there's a fair amount of discussion of eating disorders among autistic people, but this discussion has been strictly about restrictive eating disorders and primarily anorexia. It's fine to focus on that, but if you claim to be discussing eating disorders generally you also need to talk about bingeing. ARFID should also be included, especially if you're talking about autistics!

There's a lot of discussion about maladaptive drug use and substance use disorders among autistic people, but so far I feel there's been a lack of recognition that drug use can be adaptive as well.

So far, I think I would overall recommend the book. However, I do also worry about what people reading it without also having heard the perspectives of high support needs and/or low masking autistics may take away from it. Similarly, I also think people reading it should be sure to seek out the perspectives of people who do identify with BPD, NPD, schizophrenia, and other highly stigmatized disorders that autistic people are sometimes labelled with.

[lunarlianna]

Planets in the 11th house

The Eleventh House, often called the House of Friends, highlights the strength we find in connections. It's about the power of groups, clubs, and organizations that shape our lives. Within these circles, we discover our potential and grow into our true selves. This house also resonates with our dreams and hopes. It encourages us to envision and work towards our best selves. In the Eleventh House, Aquarius, Saturn, and Uranus reign.

The Sun: in the 11th house fuels a drive for elevating group goals, often leading you to influential friendships and a leadership role within communities. Your open-minded and responsible approach aims for positive change, driven by a desire to empower and uplift. Embrace your social influence, using it to make a meaningful impact on the world around you.

The Moon: in the 11th house often brings female friendships and a sense of security through group belonging. Your nurturing instincts find expression in humanitarian pursuits, valuing collective well-being over personal gain. Working for the group's benefit is fulfilling, driven by your empathy and responsiveness to others. Within your career, friendships play a crucial role, shaping opportunities and enduring beyond tasks. Prioritize a sense of belonging to nurture your emotional well-being, guarding against detachment from your feelings.

Mercury: in the 11th House bestows an ingenious, adaptable, and intellectual mind. Achievement revolves around mental prowess. Friendships, especially with younger individuals or diverse perspectives, energize you. You thrive as a communicator within groups, perhaps as a spokesperson or secretary. Your innovative problem-solving talents shine, but seeking intellectual nourishment from your community remains vital for your growth.

Venus: in the 11th House, your friendly and tactful nature attracts a circle of helpful friends. While your nurturing spirit enhances connections, ensure self-care isn't compromised. You radiate grace in group settings, enjoying diverse activities and fostering ease. Your allure for the unique draws you to like-minded souls, creating a harmonious social presence.

Mars: in the 11th House ignites strong desires and leadership qualities, magnetizing energetic and enterprising friendships. Use caution in choosing the right companions, as you may give too much or inadvertently exploit. Active engagement in group pursuits suits you, inclining towards leadership roles. Your loyal and dynamic nature often makes you the go-to friend, embodying the role of the supportive leader within your circle.

Jupiter: in the 11th House, you thrive through social networks and group dynamics, finding success in business and leadership roles. Your charisma and global outlook make you a natural influencer. While your altruistic drive is commendable, keep aspirations within reach, allowing your positive impact to flourish among friends and the community.

Saturn: in the 11th House brings enduring acquaintances and a sense of duty to purposeful groups. You're drawn to serious connections and work diligently for collective goals, often with limited personal recognition. Patience and hard work lead to later rewards. While feeling distinct might bring challenges, value your unique essence without isolating yourself. Prioritize quality over quantity, nurturing close bonds while overcoming the fear of exclusion.

Uranus: in the 11th House signifies intuitive originality and a strong creative streak, driven by humanitarian ideals. Unconventional friendships with like-minded individuals are common, though you may seem aloof at times. Your rebellious spirit and reformative tendencies stand out, advocating constructive change. Embrace your unique essence, attracting those who resonate with your radical perspectives. Your path is meant to diverge from the ordinary, inspiring transformation.

Neptune: in the 11th House can blur boundaries between self and group, seeking acceptance and compassion within collective ideals. While enjoying group immersion, remember the distinct energy it holds. Your dual nature lets you perceive hidden dynamics, even amid the allure of unity. Empathy guides you, understanding the fine balance between individuality and collective purpose. Cultivate healthy boundaries to avoid being exploited while staying true to your compassionate connections.

Pluto: in the 11th House grants keen awareness of power dynamics within groups, triggering a cautious approach. Sensing motivations and avoiding exploitation becomes second nature. While this can be draining, it shapes a close-knit circle of trusted friends. You may shy away from institutions or new acquaintances due to trust issues. Reconnect with your heart, embrace your uniqueness, and nurture genuine connections that rekindle your spirit.

[literaryvein-reblogs]

hi, i was just wondering if you could make a post on apperceptive visual agnosia? love your posts so so much btw

Writing Notes: Apperceptive Visual Agnosia

Agnosia - A rare disease in which a person can’t recognize objects, shapes, or people. Often due to a brain or neurological condition.

Visual Agnosias - Disorders of visual object recognition following brain damage.

Apperceptive Agnosias - According to Lissauer, are those in which recognition fails because of an impairment in visual perception, which is nonetheless above the level of an elementary sensory deficit such as a visual field defect. Patients do not see objects normally, and hence cannot recognize them.

EXAMPLES. Among patients who have been labeled “apperceptive” are those:

who cannot discriminate a circle from a square,

who can recognize any one object but cannot see other objects presented at the same time, and

whose difficulty with object recognition is manifest only with objects presented at unusual orientations.

Apperceptive Visual Agnosias - also known as visual space agnosias, are characterized by the inability to perceive the structure or shape of an object. Persons with apperceptive agnosias have difficulty matching objects of similar form.

This type of agnosia is also classified as an "Object Agnosia". Specifically, the apperceptive type, i.e., the percept is not fully constructed and, therefore, patients are unable to copy drawings.

DIAGNOSIS

Agnosia is diagnosed through:

physical examination,

neuropsychological testing, and

brain imaging.

Examples of neuropsychological tests include:

visual distinction between real and unreal objects,

facial recognition,

verbal and nonverbal sound recognition,

odor recognition, and

tactile form recognition.

Magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) and computerized axial tomography (CAT) scanning may be used to identify brain lesions to aid diagnosis.

The above image shows the shape-matching ability of an apperceptive agnosic patient. On the left is a set of rectangles matched for overall area, which were presented pairwise to "Mr. S" to be judged same or different in shape. He was unable to discriminate all but the most distinctive, and made errors even with these. On the right are a set of rows containing a target shape (right) and a set of 4 choices to be matched with the target shape. Mr. S’s answers are marked.

CAUSES

It is thought to arise from a breakdown at relatively early stages of visual processing, where the elementary features of the stimulus are processed. Object recognition through verbal description by the examiner is preserved, instead.

These patients have relatively good visual fields, visual acuity, brightness discrimination, color vision, depth, and motion perception. Despite this, shape perception is abnormal in such a way that patients cannot recognize or copy pictures, letters, and even simple geometric shapes.

In most cases of apperceptive agnosia, the brain damage is diffuse, often caused by carbon monoxide poisoning.

In the rare cases with circumscribed brain lesions, the damage primarily affected the ventral occipitotemporal cortex bilaterally.

According to a widely accepted interpretation, apperceptive agnosia can be considered a deficit of shape perception resulting from defective perceptual grouping of object local features into a global percept.

TREATMENT

There is no direct treatment for visual agnosias. However, patients can benefit from rehabilitation to teach them alternative strategies that target specific difficulties.

Few agnosic patients regain sensory function, and most gains in recovery occur within the first few months or year of diagnosis.

Speech therapy and occupational therapy can help agnosic individuals cope with their conditions.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 5 6

Thanks so much for your kind words, hope this helps!

[makeyoumine69]

Hey there! Congratulations on reaching 2k! Your work deserves more recognition. Speaking of celebration, you'd probably call me crazy and I'd understand, but if there's any way you could write a prompt about a reader who's pregnant but has to stay in hospital so Patrick has to cheer her up with some naughty things. I'm addicted to daddy and breeding kinks, so you'll make me so happy if you write it, but you can ignore me if you don't feel comfortable with this idea.

Painkiller

— PAIRING: Patrick Bateman x Fem!Reader

— SUMMARY: Even when hospitalized, you can't resist being all over Patrick, like he's some sort of magnet that draws you in. Patrick likes to think of himself as heartless, but the truth is, he can't resist you either, especially when you give him doe eyes and begs prettily.

— CONTAINS: Smut, cussing, handjob, dirty talk, pet names, Daddy kink, slight angst, pregnancy, mentions of violence.

— WORDS: 2k

— A/N: I have to admit that I really enjoyed writing this promtp, so I'm very grateful for such an interesting concept. Also, I'm currently trying to improve my writing by using new words and things like that, so feel free to give me your opinions and advices. As always, I hope you like it! 😘

— LINKS: [MASTERLIST] [buy me a coffee]💓

The doctor said you'd have to stay in hospital for at least a week, and your mood was getting worse, but you tried to pretend you were fine, as if it could work and Bateman wouldn't read you like an open book.

"You're probably very happy to have some time off from me," you said once Patrick came close to your hospital bed and trailed his hand along the metal rail. "I was so scared I was going to lose the baby." You sobbed and turned away from him, hiding your face in the pillow.

Patrick's face remained impassive as he stood by your bedside, his eyes fixed on your trembling form. Your words pierced through the layers of his detached facade, striking a chord within him that even he struggled to fully comprehend.

His hand hesitated for a moment before reaching out and gently resting on your shoulder, offering what little comfort he could muster. The weight of your vulnerability settled heavily upon him, stirring emotions that threatened to crack the carefully constructed shell he hid behind.

"I… I didn't want anything bad to happen either," Bateman managed to choke out, his voice laced with an unfamiliar tenderness. He took a small step closer, his fingers tracing soothing circles on your back as you buried your face in the pillow.

The sight of your tears tugged at something deep within Patrick — a longing for connection and understanding that had long been suppressed beneath layers of violence and detachment. In this moment, faced with your raw vulnerability, it was impossible for him to ignore the fragile thread that connected both of you.

Gently turning you towards him so your eyes met once more, Patrick fought against the turmoil raging inside him. It was foreign territory — an uncharted landscape where vulnerability dared to exist alongside his darkness.

“(Y/n), you need to rest,” was all he managed to mutter, his large palm kept stroking your shoulder. “When you wake up, I’ll be here.”

Bateman didn't need much persuading as you drifted off to sleep, and after that he sat on the couch next to your bed, watching your chest rise and fall. It was a very short time before you suddenly began to whimper in your dream, calling for him.

Patrick's eyes were glued to your form as he watched you start to writhe around the bed in your dream. The usual steely gaze in his eyes softened, momentarily replaced by a flicker of worry. As you began to whimper in your sleep, his heart clenched tightly.

It was a strange sensation, an unsettling mix of annoyance and, inexplicably, concern. His devil-may-care demeanor slipped as his brows furrowed in a rare sign of worry. The distinct call of his name shot through him, jolting him out of his observations.

"Fuck." Bateman muttered under his breath as he quickly rose to his feet.

It was disconcerting, to say the least.

With an odd sense of urgency, he made his way to the side of your bed. Standing there, he watched your pitifully distressed expression in your sleep, his mind grappling with what he should do.

"I'm here, (y/n)," he finally muttered softly, as if hoping his words could offer you some solace. Patrick reluctantly reached out to touch you, his hand hovering over your body for a moment before finally resting gently over yours. His thumb moved in careful circles over your skin, attempting to provide an unfamiliar comfort.

"Fuck. What the hell am I supposed to do?" Bateman murmured, addressing no one but himself. He found himself oddly captivated and unsettled by the vulnerability, his own included, that the night had brought about.

When you felt his touch, you woke up to see his worried gaze. "Patrick, my love," you whimpered, sitting on the hospital bed. Your pregnancy bump was so big already that you had to be careful when you sat up. "I had a bad dream…Can you hold me, please?"

The desperation in your plea hit Patrick like a punch to the gut.

Shit, he thought, gritting his teeth. He was Patrick Bateman, a man unaccustomed to offering comfort, especially in such tender moments. His life was a well-orchestrated symphony of controlled chaos and bloody violence, not late-night cuddles and shared intimacies. And yet, as he stared at you — the mother of his unborn child — he couldn't suppress the unfamiliar tug at his heartstrings.

Swallowing back his apprehension, he mumbled: "Alright, doll. Just… fucking hell, give me a moment."

Patrick took a hesitant step toward you, his thin fingers clenched and unclenched at his sides. With a deep, controlled inhale, he extended a hand towards you, resting it gently on your protruding belly. The sensation sent an unfamiliar jolt through him, momentarily silencing him.

"Well, shit. Here we go." Bateman muttered, awkwardly maneuvering himself onto the bed and next to you, his body stiff and unnatural in the unusual position.

His uncertainty melted away with the familiar warmth of your reliance on him, power dynamics shifting in unexpected ways. With a heavy sigh, he wrapped an arm around you, drawing you in close, too caught up in your twisted little world to question the impending shitstorm he was sure to face when dawn broke. "Damn, (y/n)," he muttered, hiding his discomfort behind the familiar veil of profanities. "You owe me for this."

Breaking heavily, you ran your fingers along his broad chest, your heart beating against your ribcage at his words.

"How can I return the favor, Daddy?" You asked, lifting your innocent eyes at him while your hand traced along his inviting groin.

Patrick's whole body went rigid at your sudden courage.

It was a daring move on your part, and his immediate reaction was a guttural curse. "Fucking hell, babe," he growled lowly, striving to keep his composure. Despite the coarse words, he didn't pull away, harshly conflicted between desire and his usual detachment. "Daddy, huh?" A wicked grin spread across his face at your choice of words.

Bateman couldn't help but find the situation somewhat amusing, a much-needed relief given the nauseating state of his existence. He cast a sidelong glance at you, his eyes narrowing as he surveyed your faux innocence. "Are you ready to play with fire, my dear wife?" Patrick challenged, his voice oozing arrogance and dark amusement, a stark contrast to the situation they found themselves in — your hand on his manhood, in the hospital, waiting for their kid. A manic laughter bubbled in his chest at the absurdity of it all, slipping out in an almost silent huff. "I've received my fair share of blowjobs, but this," Patrick drawled, gripping your hand on top of his pants, arching a brow at you. "This would be one for the books."

You couldn’t help but gasp at his touch. "But what if someone comes in?" You asked naively, ignoring the fact that it was already night.

Patrick curled an eyebrow at you, an amused smirk forming on his lips. "So what?" He retorted mockingly, the challenging glint in his eyes reflecting his twisted thrill for risk. "I mean, wouldn't that just add to the fun?" he continued, his hand tightening around yours, the blatant disregard for the possible consequences typical of his reckless, self-indulgent nature."Besides," he added, his voice dropping to a malicious whisper. "Do you really think I give a shit, (y/n)?" He chuckled, his laughter echoing harshly in the stark hospital room.

In his world, such niceties as propriety and privacy were worth nothing more than the dirt under his designer shoes. Patrick obeyed no rules but his own. And right now, his rules were beginning to look a hell of a lot more interesting.

You looked down at your swollen belly, which made it so hard for you to bend down, so you decided to find a compromise. "How about a handjob?" You asked and unzipped his pants, teasing his hard length through his fancy underwear.

Caught off-guard by your proposition, Patrick was momentarily speechless, the intrusive sound of his heartbeat all he could hear besides the low hum of the hospital's air conditioning.

"A handjob? Really?" Bateman muttered with an incredulous laugh. But beneath the surface, he was intrigued. The expectancy in your eyes, the daringness of your manner, and the feel of your hand against him were potent enough to stoke his interest, like a moth drawn to open flame.

Patrick let out a hiss as he felt your hand wrapped around him, his eyes narrowed with an intense, predatory gaze. "Fuck," he ground out, his composure faltering. He was uncomfortably aware of the strange mix of emotions this situation was igniting. Driving his hand into your hair, Patrick tugged your closer, the anticipation tightening his features into a mask of dark desire. "A handjob is fine." He finally consented, his voice as cold as winter's frostbite.

He was not a man to refuse a challenge or deny his twisted desires, and this situation was no exception. The game was on, and he was ready to play ball.

Huffing, you were doing your best to give him a good pump, although your pregnancy bump made you feel very clumsy. With a shy smile, you leaned closer to his face to find his plump lips and pulled him into a deep kiss as your hand worked to bring him pleasure. Thank God it's dark in the hospital room and he couldn’t see your embarrassment.

"Daddy… I… I want you to fuck me right here and right now, but I don't know how we're going to do it since we're in the hospital,"you mumbled, feeling shame burning inside of you. "I'm so sorry for asking."

Patrick's heart pounded wildly in his chest at your words. A sense of elation mixed with fear passed through him, creating a feeling of sickening pleasure. The thought of being caught in such a compromising position added fuel to his already burning desire.

"Oh? You want Daddy to fuck you right here?" Bateman scoffed, his voice a low, predatory growl. "You're a dirty fucking whore. A pregnant whore." He added, his words dripping with contempt.

He could feel his pulse quickening as he thought about the risk involved, the scandal it would cause, the thrill of the danger. His eyes gleamed with a perverse enjoyment. "Well, babydoll," his voice came out breathless. "I guess we'll just have to figure it out, won't we?"

With that, Bateman pulled you closer, sealing your lips in a harsh, needy kiss while his free hand roamed over your body, desperate to claim you in the twisted way only he could achieve.

“There's a bathroom," you murmured breathlessly and stroked his thick dick several times. "Maybe we can go there?"

Patrick grunted in response, his body humming with anticipation at the suggestion. "You're a shameless fucking slut," he muttered against your trembling lips, but there was a calculated gleam in his eye that suggested approval."We'll get there," he whispered, his fingers tightening on your body. "But not before I've finished with what you've started."

He grinned wickedly down at you, his hand sliding with purposeful intent down your little frame towards the curve of your abdomen. The fact that the child growing inside of you was his own, twisted his pleasure into something even more perverse.

Hot and bothered, you couldn’t help but bite your lower lip from the burning desire inside your gut, so you had to close your eyes and gasp: “You will probably have to shush me, Daddy.”

Patrick chuckled darkly at your words, a thrill shooting through him. "Oh, baby," he murmured huskily. "I think I can handle that."

Bateman moved closer, reaching out to cover your mouth with his hand, he could feel your hot breath brushing against his skin, your panting filling the small space.

God, you were so fucking insatiable.

"Now, be a good girl and keep those pretty lips of yours quiet." He drawled, his eyes ablaze with wicked intent. Patrick lowered his head, pressing a fierce kiss on the side of your neck.

P.S. I'm thinking of writing part two, so let me know if you're interested. Thanks for reading! 💗🖤💗

I don’t have a taglist. You can follow my side blog @makeyoumineagain and turn on notifications to know when I update!

[justinspoliticalcorner]

Akbar Shahid Ahmed at HuffPost:

The United Nations’ top court on Friday said Israel is illegally occupying the Palestinian regions it has controlled since 1967 and must end its presence in them — a landmark statement that boosts momentum for a change in Israeli policy.

The court found that Israel is committing major violations of international law, including “de facto annexation” of occupied land and breaking the global prohibition against racial discrimination and apartheid. It concluded that Israel should take steps like evacuating settlers and making reparations to affected Palestinians. It also emphasized Palestinians’ right to self-determination, and said other countries are obliged to cease support for Israel’s occupation and to help end the policy “as rapidly as possible.” The advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice covers Israeli practices in the occupied West Bank, in East Jerusalem (which Israel claims as its own territory) and in the Gaza Strip. The opinion from the panel of 15 judges from around the world, selected by the U.N. General Assembly, is non-binding and has no immediate consequences. The ICJ previously issued an opinion in 2004 saying Israel’s construction of a “separation wall” in the West Bank was illegal, yet the wall is still standing 20 years later.

[...] Meanwhile, the ICJ has found that various ongoing Israeli practices, from demolishing Palestinian homes to imposing “a regime of comprehensive restriction” on Palestinian movement, hinder the chances of Palestinian statehood ― which could bolster the argument that the longer the current situation persists, the less likely peace becomes.

[...] On Thursday, Israel’s parliament voted against the eventual establishment of a Palestinian state, backing a resolution that called the prospect “an existential danger to the State of Israel.” Many members of Israel’s security establishment and supporters of the country abroad argue the opposite: that reaching an agreement is the only way to lower tensions and respect Israel’s stated identity as a Jewish and democratic state.

[...] The court’s consideration of the Israeli occupation is separate from the case it is considering between South Africa and Israel, in which the former argues the latter may be committing genocide against Palestinians through its ongoing offensive in the Gaza Strip. The court has said there is a “plausible” risk of genocide, and issued three orders requiring Israel to change its conduct to do more to shield civilians. Those orders, known as provisional measures, are meant to be binding, but Israel has largely maintained the policies the court criticized, such as limits on the provision of aid to Gaza. The Friday opinion is also distinct from the action that another body, the International Criminal Court, is considering in relation to Israel-Palestine. The ICC’s top prosecutor is seeking arrest warrants against Israel’s prime minister and defense minister and three leaders of the Palestinian militant faction Hamas for alleged war crimes during the Oct. 7 attack and Israel’s military response in Gaza since.

The International Court of Justice issued a nonbinding ruling that Israel Apartheid State is breaching international law by illegally occupying Palestinian territory in East Jerusalem, West Bank, and Gaza.

This come on the heels of the Knesset in Israel voting to reject recognition for a Palestinian state.

See Also:

Sky News: ICJ rules Israel settlement policy in occupied Palestinian territories in breach of international law

[starlostlix]

Bungo Stray Dogs and the separateness of Childhood - a sociological view

[So a large portion of this is left over from when I was revising sociology for my alevels, which were done over a month ago now (wow). So I hope there's people out there who find this interesting, it's nice to post this since it goes back to my roots of what started me on tumblr in the first place (sociological analysis, but of MTP). Also this has Stormbringer spoilers.]

Sociologists agree that childhood is a social construct (a concept in society with no fixed definition). The definition of childhood changes depending on culture and time, so it is not universal or 'natural'. Bungo Stray Dogs portrays a definition of childhood much different to many of our own cultures, and part of its presentation is something I want to look into.

The main idea to look at is Jane Pilcher's idea of 'separateness' - childhood as a clear and distinct stage of life in which children are considered physically and psychologically incompetent and unable to run their own lives. This idea of separateness often leads to childhood being considered a 'golden age' of play and having a lack of responsibility. In BSD, the idea of childhood as a separate stage is not as clear - many children 16 or under are seen working in (or looking for) employment much like adults would do. For example, in Stormbringer Shirase (who is 16) works in a car factory, Yosano at age 11 is said to work in a confectionery store (we don't know if this was family owned or not though), and Ranpo in Untold Origins (aged 14) looking for a job when he meets Fukuzawa. With this information we can gather that children have to take the responsibility of work from a younger age than many cultures (for instance where I lived children have to be in education until 18) and that from as young as 11 they are able to employment.

Consider the other children present - the Akutagawa siblings living on the streets for many years without parents or financial support, Kyouka and Q (as well as teenagers like Dazai and Chuuya) being part of the mafia from a young age, Kenji in his village, Chuuya and Mary Wollstonecraft in Stormbringer, and Atsushi living in the orphanage. All of these have different notions of childhood attached to them.

The Akutagawa siblings learnt to support themselves from a young age. Their group of fellow homeless children act as proof of a wide child poverty issue, one which represent the effects of a lack of child welfare support by the government or the effects of the many casualties in the Great War (leaving many without parents). The lack of child welfare support may show a general lack of the idea of separateness, since specialist support for children is not available.

The abundance of children in the mafia, especially those who reach the higher ranks of executives like Dazai and Chuuya by the age of 16, show a distinct lack of recognition of childhood as a separate stage. Those who are children don't seem to be treated much differently to the adults, which is especially apparent in Q and Kyouka's missions (where Kyouka in her first mission we see being considered disposable by the mafia).

Kenji's childhood on paper seems the closest to many farming cultures in our world. He works on a farm from a young age, as many people in his village and in real life farming families do. The recruitment of him to the detective agency however, suggests that (despite his youth) his ability makes him fit for the job. This somewhat leads on to the idea that children with abilities are seen as more mature and subjected to more adult activities and topics from a younger age, with their allowance of separateness smaller than that of non-ability user children.

A few other Stormbringer examples - Mary Wollstonecraft is only 10 years old as of Stormbringer, and yet she is working for the European governments and making robot agents for them. Young children working for governments is a clear example of a lack of separation between child and adult. Another, and arguably much worse example, is Chuuya and Verlaine - both experimented on by scientists/the government and infused with singularities via force. Chuuya is also canonically cloned. Verlaine and Chuuya, in their experimentation, are not treated much differently, despite Verlaine being an adult and Chuuya being around 5 at the time of his kidnapping/start of experimentation. This suggests a lack of seperateness yet again. There is a lot more that could be said about the whole 'cloning/made into a weapon' part of their story, but this is not the post for that.

A more recent one - Teruko. Because of her unique ability to change her age means that within the first few months of her life she was forced to fight in war. She's actually forced to bypass her own childhood for the war effort, and therefore her childlike demeanour during the Decay of Angels arc may be to try and harness what she missed out on. Her ability in itself could also play into the 'old age is a social construct' argument too maybe but again, not the post.

Atsushi's childhood in an orphanage at first seems to match the ideas of childhood as a separate stage dependent on others. The purpose of orphanages is to raise children without parents and help them prepare for the world, but Atsushi's experiences of abuse shows that his ability, to the orphanage director, makes him undeserving of this separate stage. Instead he is abused and eventually kicked out with no real support. This being able to go on unchecked alongside the other examples brings me to my conclusion about the definition of childhood in Yokohama/the surrrounding villages/possibly the world are not being considered a separate 'golden age' to the same standards as our world.

As mentioned earlier, children who are ability users are less likely to have this construct of seperateness include them. In sociology, labels and constructs are assigned by people and society, and so in this universe there are many adults who have removed this construct from ability users' lives in their childhood. Yosano is the clearest example of this - Mori takes her away from her experience of childhood and places her in a war zone, where she, despite being 11 years of age, is treated like an adult and (because of her ability) is placed on a pedestal by the solders. She's stripped of her childhood through not only the standards placed upon her, but the trauma she endures in the war zone - leaving her to spend what remained of her childhood in a psych ward until Fukuzawa is able to take her in.

Ability user children, via circumstances or adult intervention, do not get to experience childhood in the way other children do because that label is stripped away from them. This is most usually because they pose some asset to an organisation or campaign - and this can include the ADA too. Just because the ADA offers a more healthy and safer environment for the children than other organisations, it is still putting children into work and treating them the same as adults. How ethical this is, is in itself another question that I don't think I can give an answer to. But I could honestly talk about how ability user children are treated differently in a whole other essay.

[I do not have much else to say now about this specific area but it's probably better to post than just to let sit in the drafts as it has done for a while. So no proper conclusion sorry.]

[strixcattus]

Right I'm feeling about up to a proper STHeroine route I analysis post on this fine day (author's note: not enough to do it in one go it seems. I'm finishing up the second half the day after.)

I already mentioned how it seems that the Heroine may have a measure more agency than the Princess, putting her in a position where she can actually push back against us and act on her own accord instead of being passively molded by our decisions. The chapter was introduced as the "Sharp Damsel"—our choice to trust her unconditionally did not create a Heroine solely shaped to be someone we can trust unconditionally, but instead her distrust gave her the added wrinkle of "Sharp." Sharp seemingly as in "wary" or "clever." She knows more about the workings of the world than the Princess is supposed to. She can tell that the Narrator is exerting some control over us, even if it's unclear that she knows who He is.

(The Sly Spectre lead-in seems to reinforce the idea that the Heroine contains "agency," but we're not talking about the Sly Spectre right now.)

The rest of the chapter itself doesn't largely have much to discuss. What is interesting is this post and the art of this one. (That's the mirror sequence in reverse order, if you'd rather save the time of rereading.)

The Long Quiet appears the same as it's supposed to be in the one panel where it's actually drawn, and it's even referred to as such by Not!Shifty. From this we can assume that the Long Quiet continues to exist as normal, and that it's probably us. Probably, but not certainly, because of two points.

Most obviously, the arms that take away the Sharp Damsel are not human arms, but versions of ours. (She also seems visibly panicked at the appearance of the arms, clearly able to see them, while the Princesses all appeared more fatigued than scared, and commented on the cold rather than the arms. Another point towards the Heroine understanding more about the workings of the Construct than she's supposed to?) We can be sure that they're our arms because we see our own arms, both earlier in the route and in the art at the mirror. Which I, er, brightened to get a better look at it and confirm this:

As we can see from this image, our arms in the mirror and in the real world are the same as they are normally. The protagonist doesn't seem fully convinced, however, as the text accompanying this image reads a hesitant "It's you?" instead of a confident "It's you." There's very little clarity of the silhouette, but the other detail that seems to deserve mention is that the eyes of the reflection have two points of shine, instead of the one that the normal mirror image has. Of course, there's no way to know how much any small visual detail actually matters, but in light of the doubt cast on the reflection, it's worth pointing out.

Lastly, we have Not!Shifty's dialogue (Not!Shifty because there is very clearly something different between her and the normal Shifting Mound, even if it isn't yet obvious what). Most of what she says is the same as her counterpart, but there are a few distinctions:

Instead of saying we "bring her the gift of a fragile vessel," this one says we "grace her with a new, fragile vessel"

She refers to herself as "threads of something bright that had been torn and unwound." The thread metaphor continues throughout the conversation, replacing the Shifting Mound's water metaphor.

When we say we don't know what we are, she responds with empathy ("it is nice to know I am not alone"), rather than confidence ("I think you are like me").

She shows some level of recognition of the Narrator (!)

When asked if we know each other, she responds with a positive "maybe" (!!)

Instead of insisting that we will have to return to the Construct eventually due to boredom, she acknowledges the possibility of continuing as we are forever

Definitive analysis: Not!Shifty seems more passive than the Shifting Mound, which sits in contrast to the way the Heroine seems to have more agency than the Princess. She never tries to tell us anything about ourselves, and seems comfortable in the fact that she doesn't yet know anything about herself. She's got a different personality entirely, and it's not yet clear whence that comes.

Theory-space: Her recognition of the Narrator and acknowledgement of the possibility that we may know each other somehow seem to imply that this is not the first time we have gone through the Construct, and that there was once a time where she was the one being guided by the Narrator to kill us. Perhaps this is a world where we and her managed to become one again, and then were torn apart improperly? It would explain our identity issues and the matching arms, as well as... no, I'll save Route II analysis for the Route II analysis post.

Of course, it's too soon to tell exactly what has changed in the division between us and Not!Shifty. I'll stand by my "merging and being torn apart again" theory for now, but I'm not ready to hold fast to it. The next route will probably shed some proper light on things, as much as it can that is.

[y-rhywbeth2]

Elves: Clans and Houses

Aka: surnames and the extended family

Link: Disclaimer regarding D&D "canon" & Index [tldr: D&D lore is a giant conflicting mess. Larian's lore is also a conflicting mess. There's a lot of lore; I don't know everything. You learn to take what you want and leave the rest. etc]

Physiology and quirks | Names & Clans and Houses || Pan-Cultural things: Social life | Time and 'Growing Up an Elf' | Homes | Language | Art | Entertainment | Technology || Elven 'Subraces' still a wip || Philosophy and Religion & Pantheons || Half-elves | [WIP]

Todays mantra: I will finish the elf stuff. I will finish the elf stuff. I will fin-

Technically a part 2 to elven naming: surnames. On the off chance anybody has elven pcs that need a House or Clan for, here's some selections(?)

• Houses and Clans and how they work I've done some of this information before, but I'm reorganising.

• Elven Surnames

• Houses by subrace Some examples of elven families. Pick your poison.

• A list of elven words in case names like 'Bluetree' don't do it for you and you want to construct an elven sounding name or something. I don't guarantee any good picks, but hey.

-

'...As I would, so shall the clan; As the clan would, so shall I...' - A portion of the Code of the People

'In some respects you can almost think of an elven House as a small, extremely long-lived organisation with blood-ties.' - Eric Boyd

Aside from their immediate relatives like their parents, siblings and grandparents (their Blesséd), an elf is part of a larger extended family whose surname they bear, their Clan, led by their family elders. More than just being a collection of people linked by generics, Clans have businesses and political concerns that the family usually works on as an organisation. They are not bound by geographic location, but make up the fabric of elven societies and such affiliations are a major part of life.

A Clan that wields enough political power is a noble House - this power being measured by magical might and the artefacts the family possesses; the favour of the gods; how old the House is; the skill of their warriors, bards and artisans; the great deeds and high reputation of individual members; how insanely beautiful and weird your fancy avantgarde mansion is; the wealth mercantile might and political connections they've cultivated, etc. It's a nebulous rank generally gained by peer recognition (other powerful houses, or the local ruler). Rulers like Coronals and Iyilitars can grant House status, but cannot revoke it; a House is gone only when its last living blood relative is gone.

Clan and House are technically interchangeable for the most part insofar as I can tell and the distinction is largely a social construct and matter of politics, but apparently translating the elven term into 'Clan' sounds 'too dwarven' so most elves - especially nobles - don't like to hear it used.

Houses tend to aim for growth, starting with the ruling family and growing outwards into a larger web.

Within the House are tiers, and not all elves bearing the surname of a noble House are nobles (in fact, most probably aren't. Just because your House is rich and famous doesn't mean you are):

At the top are the main family, direct descendants of the family founder and the leaders who speak for and determine the laws of the House across the entirety of Toril. The exact structure varies, many have patriarchs or matriarchs, others have councils consisting of the heads of a House's various septs, or they may have joint rulers (House Nightstar, for example, is led by twin sisters). Often triumvirates and pairs are regencies standing in for a designated heir that has not 'come of age' (ie,' younger than 90 so we don't trust them to make political decisions in a society where people can live for 1000+ years and long reaching consequences need serious consideration.') Twins and triplets probably rule jointly due to being born with the Rapport. Choosing leader/s varies from family to family, both in terms of who is eligible (gender, age, 'blood purity,' and etc may be factors) and how they're chosen. Democratic election, letting a sentient sword that kills the unworthy chose, blood inheritance and all sorts of other methods are employed. Some Clans and Houses - namely moon elven ones - ultimately can't be bothered with sorting it out, nor do they have any interest in being governed, and simply don't bother with having centralised authorities and leaders.

Within individual Realms you also get the local family leaders answering to the House or Clan's main family, who are pretty much the same deal within that area.

Then there are lesser nobles with blood ties to that family, who have the prestige but not the same levels of political power (though they might aspire to it).

Regardless of lesser or greater status, a noble holds no title or power without the ok of their family heads and not until they're at least 90 years old and have finished their 60 years of education. Dark elves might lower the age due to low life expectancies, but they also refuse to let young noble-born wield any power until they've gone through a few decades of mandatory education: No political power in elf-land until you graduate.

The bottom tier and the largest chunk of house membership is the commoners who serve that family in the form of household staff and merchants and etc (May or may not be blood related, and may not even be elves - a human cook who serves, say, the Alenuath family is a member of House Alenuath, and the lowest rung of drow merchant clans is usually made up of N'Quess employees). In most dark elven cultures commoners may not use the House name as their surname, and this may apply to some surface elven dynasties.

Similarly there are different tiers of status for Houses, with some being of greater prestige than others. House standing fluctuates both over time and by geography, a House may hold a place amongst the ruling council of one realm but be nothing more than wealthy landed merchants in another and be demoted to Clan status there. In Lolthite society the ruling family that loses House status is annihilated as punishment for losing Lolth's favour and its commoners and lesser nobles assimilated by another house; in surface elven societies total annihilation of the family is not practiced, though a fair few nobles would still sooner see their line extinct than lose their status and be 'reduced' to 'merely' wealthy.

Each House is a society and culture unto itself; they are not bound to specific realms, often existing in many places. Houses have their own laws and traditions members follow, as well as any laws of the realm they inhabit. Each House generally has its own identifiers, namely house colours (of which there will be at least two) and the house insignia (a coat of arms, basically). A few rare Houses don't have colours, because the family leadership didn't enforce them, while others take it very seriously and have one set of colours for the main family, another set of colours for lesser nobles, and another set for the commoners.

House colours are supposed to be subdued. Moon elves, who prize bright colours and give you more respect the more daring you go, don't necessarily give a damn about that, though there are certainly some brighter colours on other families as well.

House and Clan identity and loyalty can often supersede that to Realm and even the People at large. Your House prestige and inter-House politics is important, as it determines what doors are open (or closed). If an inn is owned by a member of a rival House (or is from a Clan or House that's an ally of a rival) then don't good expect service there, if the House is an ally of your House you can probably expect good or even above average treatment (at least if you're an important member of an allied House/Clan or if the owner wants to suck up to your bosses). The higher a House's standing the more allies it has, and the more weight it has to throw around and the more lesser Houses have to tread carefully and pick their allegiances wisely.

On the flipside your reputation and that of your Clanmates/Housemates is also vital - being a good elf, skilled in your profession and doing good work for the People earns you prestige that also goes to your Clan. Scandals and failures and fuck ups like failed trade deals, or dropping out of school get the whole community gossiping and damage the Clan. Different elven cultures value different things, but the higher the status of individual and family the more the individual-community symbiosis applies. A noble is judged much more harshly than a commoner, who normally has significantly less to worry about politically.

An elf who is behaving in a manner that will reflect badly on their Clan/House or who doesn't want their actions getting back to their family for whatever reason will not be wearing their colours or crest and will not be giving their House name. If required to give a surname they'll make one up, usually a portmanteau in Common as described later on in this post.

There's also a distinction between Greater and Lesser Houses; the former having Septs, where one of the nobles has branched off to form their own sub-House. This may be done by one noble striking out and developing their own family (often seen in drow, when a daughter who can't or won't supplant her mother as Ilharess will instead take her spouse and children and set up shop elsewhere) or by nobles marrying members of commoner clans and taking their spouse's Clan name, elevating that Clan to House status as a Sept of the House (this is the decision of House leadership, not of the elves getting married). So a member of House Olrynn marries somebody from the hypothetical wealthy merchant Clan Nauthspir, and then House Nauthspir becomes a sept of House Olrynn.

Houses are generally classified by subrace, as determined by the clan founder and the main family. For example House Duirsar is moon elven and House Durothil is sun elven. Whether the House allows membership of other subraces and N'Quess is decided by the heads. It's unusual for a House to flat out ban membership of other elves, and the majority of Houses have other subraces amongst their lesser nobility and commoners, but many (sun elven) Houses won't allow such relatives the status of main family or leadership. Others think this is racist idiocy that's poisoning the Tel'Quessir from inside and ignore it.

In the majority of moon elven (and presumably wood elven) Houses any blood relative of the family is legitimate and may receive at least lesser noble status if born to a noble parent, including half-elves and potentially, but much less likely, human grandchildren. In more conservative (mainly sun elven) Houses only 'trueblood' or 'pureblood' elves can inherit, as half-elves are considered bastards and their elven parent and any future elven grandchildren that might result from that half-elf are exiled. Obviously there are conservative moon elves like the Starym and liberal gold elven houses like Llundlar, but by rule of thumb...

Surnames

Elven surnames and pseudonyms usually combine a portmanteau of two things, related to something elven culture values: natural phenomena is the most common, but weapons, arts, magic and crafts can crop up. Elves living in human lands often translate their surnames to common to save non-elves the hassle of stumbling over pronunciation and spelling.

It's also the system you'd have to use to make names for non-noble families, because there's never anything much useful for commoners.

Combinations include [colour]+[noun], 'Blackrose' or 'Bluewater' being given examples.

Weapons, magic, art and crafts are alternatives to nature-themes. ('Blackhelm')

Other combinations include things like [noun]+[verb], still pertaining to natural phenomena. ('Windwalker').

And [noun]+[noun] ('Wrathtree')

Example names from various sources: Sunstar ('Arruar'), Ashgrove, Nightmeadow, Starscatter, Eveningfall, Moondown, Blackrose ('Narlauthspir'), Blackhelm, Bluewater, Windwalker, Wrathtree

To use the name 'Blackrose' as an example that was explained, in its original elvish use it's 'Narlalauthspir,' (Narl (black) + Alauthspir (thorn-flower/rose)) which often gets shortened to variants like 'Narlauthspir' Nalauthspir' 'Nauthspir' 'Nothspir' etc.

I'll put a list of various elven words at the end of the post if you want to mess around building an elfy sounding elf name.

Houses

Split into subrace, with their insignia and colours listed if available.

Unknown Houses: Olrynn, Nyntynel, Telest, Vorondor, Korianthil

Unknown Families: Colbathin, Talandren, Amalith, Braegen, Calaudra, Laelithar, Tarnruth, Maraphiir, Sarynnryllar

Moon elf:

Moon elves range from ultra-conservative (which often indicates sun elves in the family tree) through to the more laissez-faire. They tend more towards the latter.

Moon elven houses are significantly more likely to have non-elven and partially non-elven members, and are likely to frown upon those who refuse to acknowledge such relations. They're also more eclectic in their structure, where a sun elven house has a patriarch (sometimes a matriarch) a moon elf family might have that structure, or might have several leaders or be too disorganised to bother appointing anybody to herd the cats that make up the organisation.

Duirsar [Unknown] The founding family of the realm of Evereska, last bastion of elvendom on Faerûn. Originally a merchant clan from Orishaar back in -11,700 DR when the kingdom was destroyed by dark elven armies. The Duirsar received shelter from the sun elven empire of Aryvandaar and then started getting nervous as time passed and said empire turned out to be pretty evil, so they started shopping around for a way to build a homeland where elves could escape the Crown Wars without heading for Evermeet. A ranger of the clan found an area in the (not yet named that) Western Heartlands where a clutch of silver dragon eggs was being predated on by a red dragon; he died saving them, and was resurrected by silver dragons in thanks. One pact later, a new home started getting built. Following a few more centuries of service for the People's wellbeing Clan Duirsar got promoted to House Duirsar, making them the most powerful family in Evereska ('first amongst equals').

Nightstar Crest: An eight-pointed silver star on a blue field Colours: Navy-blue, violet and silver House Nightstar - possibly House Ahnvaerua, in elven - produces a lot of sailors and warriors, as well as a not insignificant amount of spies wandering around Faerûn aiding elves they encounter and relaying information on current events back to the family heads on Evermeet.

Ahmaquissar [unknown] The House is notorious for its unrepentant criminal activity. They don't go so far as to be considered villains (mostly), but they're definitely 'morally flexible' and produce a large amount of rogues. When not profiting from crimes and causing chaos on mainland Faerûn they can be found engaging in the good old moon elven traditions of drinking, gambling and partying in their villas and mansions.

Le'Quella Crest: Three triangles, one red, one orange, one yellow, on a white background. Colours: Red, orange and yellow House Le'Quella has heavy green elven ancestry, and is known for being rowdy and chaotic with family members often engaging in wild discussions or arguing heatedly over a topic of debate.

Alenuath Crest: The family bow, which the House founder apparently slew a red dragon with (which is inherited by the family head) Colours: Gray and green House Alenuath is considered an excellent family to be employed by, because they're basically never home: the family has a tradition of being hunters and rangers and they're usually scattered around wandering the world, leaving the servants to have the run of the family mansions.

Eroth [unknown] Once a legacy of rangers, rogues, scouts and guides, nobles of house Eroth mostly serve as scouts for Evermeet's army nowadays. The House is devout in worship of Angharradh, Corellon and Rillifane and they're typical memebers of silver elf culture; they speak their mind and value their independence. They served Queen Amlaruil during her reign out of affection, but don't actually see any need for an overarching hierarchy and only obeyed her orders because they wanted to.

Silverspear Crest: The family moonblade, Thoerl. Colours: Silver and green An ancient noble house, whose age and prestigious deeds means they receive a great deal of respect from elvedom. They take their reputation and duty very seriously in response, and are considerably calmer and better behaved than is typical for their people.

Starym Crest: Two falling dragons respectant Colours: Silver and maroon A house that's gold and silver elven in equal measure, once considered 'pinnacle of all that is noble and fine among the elves' before they went downhill, though due to several fallings out over the house's 'ultraconservative' stances and Cormanthyr's liberal governance many elves packed up and left leaving only the moderates (mostly golds). Eventually, around 523 DR, the ruling family was moon elven and all gold elves were lesser nobles. The sun elven family heir was off on a quest and left a power vacuum that a moon elven branch moved in to fill. Said moon elven branch eventually founded the genocidal elven supremacy hate group known as the Eldreth Veluuthra, hell bent on exterminating humanity. There's also a not inconsiderable amount of kinslaying as a method of inheritance in there.

Other Houses: Nihmedu, Ryence, Ammath (four alternating crescent moons of black and white: black and silver), Aunglor (griffin: chesnut-brown, charcoal, kelly-green) Faerondarl (unicorn: midnight-blue, black, and purple) Hawksong (a white falcon: brown and white), Iliathor (four doves around a black circle with gold edge: gold-yellow, gold, forge-fire-red, preferably in stripes or tartan or whatever will give proper society a migraine) Maerdrym (four grey roses entwined around three black staves: black, charcoal-gray, white, and olive green.) Narlbeth (griffon: cranberry-red, burgundy, duskwood-brown) Ongluth (black stag with silver antlers: black, midnight-blue, silver, and white) Omberdawn (red firebird over a rising sun: amber, ember-red-orange, blood-red, and sushine-yellow) Ildacer (six green wands set around a sun: olive-green, emerald-green, and lime-green)

Other Families: Sarsantyr, Mrhulaedir, Bhephel

Dark elves:

Drow Houses take their politics and allegiances Very Seriously.

A drow noble can be spotted by their distinctive haircut/hairstyles and the black piwafwi cloaks they wear which will have the house colours stitched into it. Unfortunately I can't find any house colours atm other than the fact that Do'Urden's colours were purple and red. Each noble wears a pouch hanging from their neck, containing the house insignia, which will have various magic effects (commoners have the same neck-pouches containing non-magical tokens bearing the insignia to show who they serve and are protected by).

A family name should not begin with L, as it's believed to invite Lolth's wrath.

A drow not protected by either a noble House or a merchant Clan is an exile called a dobluth and is usually extremely screwed.

Commoner Clan names: Shadalun, Belek'Tyr, Klendara, Drael Tuabbar, del'Hluanter, Darnruel, Do'Ilisharr, Quel'tlarn, del'Ygana, Xiltyn, Ghaun, Luen, Illistyn, Jusztiirn, Dalael, Hune, Vrinn, Abaeir, Pharm, Quavein, Blaerabban, Blundyth, Argith, Omriwin, T'sarran, Veladorn, Dhuunyl, Mlezzir, Naerth, Olonrae, Zaphresz, Xarann, Wyndyl, Tlintarn, Seerear, Yogh'il'rymmin

Noble Houses of Menzoberranzan:

Baenre The Ruling House, and the largest one; the House has stood since the founding of the city and its matriarchs have held Lolth's favour for aeons. Through 'alliances, agreements, blackmail, loans, and financial guarantees [the House] controls life in the city.' Rules that apply to other houses don't apply to Baenre because they make them.

Faen Tlabbar Famous for its tendency to invent new spells; its statuesque and stunning women who enjoy seeking out the company of visiting men; and for its most bizarre in-house tradition: free speech. All members of the House may speak their mind to each other, regardless of gender or rank.

Xorlarrin A reclusive family whose members always go masked or veiled; known for its magical prowess and producing many high ranking and powerful wizards.

Agrach Dyrr An old and exceptionally prideful house, dominated by a handful of male wizards answering to the lich Dyrr. Agrach Dyrr and Xorlarrin have a bitter rivalry over who makes the better mages.

Tuin'Tarl A relatively young house that clawed their way up from commoner stock by making their wealth off of tactical trade connections with many outside drow communities.

Shobalar An almost exclusively female house, whose wizards are also women. Members of the house don't socialise often and prefer not to be out in public, and the house is subject to the rumour mill. It's popularly believed that there are all sorts of strange experiments involving spiders and necromancy and spider-necromancy-mech suits going on. These rumours are totally unfounded, but when they are seen in public members of House Shobalar always seem to be riding giant spiders. They're also known for abandoning allies the moment they get into trouble.

Duskryn Specialising in military might and quality of arms, also known for its (extremely cruel) pranks and 'legendary' drinking competitions.

Vandree Vandree is known for its abuse of the staff and the family infighting (the family delights in over the top complex feuding) as well as being greatly invested in surfacer affairs. The House compound is littered with furniture, plants, knick-knacks and even kidnapped people and animals brought down to amuse them.

Mizzrym Backstabbers' backstabbers - Mizzrym excel in intrigue and spinning webs of manipulation, alliances and betrayals.

Oblodra Possibly currently fallen; House Oblodra is the Florida Man of Menzo. Members of this house often have psionic abilities, and rumour has it that they get those because they have mind-flayers in the family tree and regularly head off to illithid colonies to train with them and breed with them. They're religious fanatics, prone to beserk rages, completely blinded by vengeance when slighted, and constantly dabbling in mad science.

Other noble Houses in Menzo include: Alevai, Arbani, Arkhenneld, Auvyndar, Barrison del'armgo, Claddath, Despana, Eilserus, Freth, Helviiryn, Hlaund, Hun'ett, Kenafin, Kilsek, Maerret, Melarn, Noquar, Ousstly, Rilyn'tar, Tomtor, Azuviir, Fey'Brandhe

Sylvan Elves

A category covering both green and wood/copper elves. By and large the notion of noble Houses has fallen out of use, and both cultures usually think the notion is far more trouble than its worth.

Green elves in the forest of Tethyr appear to maintain clan identities within a larger tribal umbrella (one tribe containing multiple clans), but it's also entirely possible for one large enough clan to make up an entire settlement - even outside of the sylvan elves, individual villages may have all residents belonging to a single clan/house.

Exceptions have been made for the oldest green elven houses who didn't let go of their ancestral identities like everyone else, dating back to before the Wandering (they may in fact qualify as, partially or fully, wood elves), these houses are:

Other Families: Haell, Briarbosk, Nightmeadow

Audark Crest: Stag saltire Colours: Olive green and black House Audark - all members within the empire of Cormanthor at least - was driven night extinct battling against the incursion of the green wyrm known as Venom, though a handful apparently remained. They appear to have had considerable military organisation and prowess.

Moonglamaer Crest: Moonhorse rampant on a blue field Colours: Ash-grey, silver, moon-white, steel-blue At some point in history the elves of House Moonglamaer decided trying to domesticate wyverns sounded like a stellar idea. It's still very hit and miss, but succeeding in becoming a wyvern-rider is something to brag about and merits respect amongst the Sy'Tel'Quess. The Moonglamaers are also known to marry moon elves.

Kevanarial [unknown] House Kevanarial continues to exist in Tethyr, where Duke Allain 'Foxfire' Kevanarial speaks for the green elven clans of the Elmanesse tribe when matters of international politics comes up.

Selorn [unknown] House Selorn is or was extremely xenophobic, potentially a sign of their general house culture, but other than that I don't see much on them. It's possible they're extinct nowadays.

Oakstaff Crest: Seven acorns and ivy growing around an oaken staff set on a green field Colours: Browns and greens of no specific hue. Possibly a translation of Lianathorn, or something, House Oakstaff was heavily involved in the founding of the Harpers.

Sun elf:

Sun elves take hierarchy and house politics religiously, and thus also account for the majority of elven noble houses.

Durothil Crest: Gold dragon head sinister on a white field Colours: Gold, yellow and snow-white The most ancient of sun elven houses at over 26,800 years old, and possibly the oldest elven house on Toril; they descend from the royal family of the city of Tintageer in the feywild, taking their name from Prince Durothil who played a hand in leading the survivors of the city's destruction to Toril and in leading the sun elves in the aftermath. He was also the key player in 'domesticating' dragons and giving rise to the elven tradition of dragonriding. The family can be found in pretty much any elven realm, past and present, where they're usually amongst the highest ranking houses. Their line has crossed with that of the equally ancient moon elven House Moonflower, which went on to become the elven royal family. The nobles of House Durothil are the sun elven nobles, and they never really let anybody forget it.

Llundlar Crest: Two doves with wyvern-like tails linked in a helix, set back to back with wings at their sides Colours: Umber, tan and dusk-red House Llundlar, at least historically, is one of the filthy liberals of sun elven society calling for elven society to be open to outside influences and for friendship between races. They also put their money where their mouth is and have married a lot of N'Quess; you can't throw a rock without hitting somebody with some degree on non-elven heritage, and they insist on treating their half-elven and non-elven House members with the full respect they would afford a 'trueblood' elf, legitimising and raising their mixed children as they would any other child.

Symbaern Crest: A white espruar rune (the elven letter S) on a green field Colours: White and green A very old gold elven House, which in modern times is known for being relatively quiet and prone to seclusion, as well as for producing Evermeet's best warriors.

Ealoeth Crest: Two pegasi volant on a field of sky blue Colours: Sky-blue, violet and rose-pink While their reputation might've changed over the centuries, House Ealoeth used to be suspected of getting their ridiculous levels of wealth from some extremely sketchy shit and were known for being master manipulators of elves and non-elves all alike while they garnered the wealth and social clout to deflect all accusations. No evidence ever linked them to the numerous assassins, suspicious trade deals, mercenary companies causing problems and so forth so on...

Other Houses: Imesfor Nimesin (An armoured elven hand surrounded by golden flames crushing a long sword in its grip: one of the few Houses not to enforce house colours) Ni Tessine (pegasus and griffon: powder-white and sky-blue (ruling family) and dun-brown and gold (lesser nobles)) Goadulphyn (Two pairs of eagles: No house colours because the family couldn't be bothered to enforce it.) Miritar (Four daggers, points down: Black, cherry red and slate grey) Nlossae (five golden butterflies: gold or yellow with one other colour, black, white, green, or blue) Mistrivvin (An elven arm in chain armour holding a coiled whip: Chocolate-brown, mahogany, wheat-gold and 'parchment-yellow') Haevault (Two crossed spears: ochre and grey) Aelorothi (Red swan: Red and blue) Dahast (A lap harp and dagger: Eggshell-white, midnight-blue, and canary-yellow.) Haladar (golden stag: Moss-green, parchment-yellow, and white) Alastarra (Falcon: Sky-blue and ivory) Evanara (A white horse: Blue and white) Echorn (Hawk with closed wings: Orange, amber and 'duskwood-brown') Auglamyr (Tri-headed gold dragon: Gold and crimson (for high nobles), God and blue or purple (for lesser nobles))

Other Families: Arruar ('Sunstar'), Aluianti, Hai Sylvar, Odaeyns

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

Elven words for (surface elven) surname creation:

(There are multiple elven languages, and furthermore within a single elven language one word in english can have 10 or more translations that all have slightly different connotations, so there can be multiple words with one translation.)

Random example names I made up, which may or may not be 100% accurate but they're fictional names for fictional characters and there's no official guide to Torilian elvish grammar so w/e: Sunspear = Arshal Everlight = Narivae Brightwood = Ivaeor Duskwing = Imburthimae Wintersun = Loressar Mistwoods = Daenora Swiftstorm = Talarrn

Elven: Alu = Water Shil = Shadow Teu = Moon Ar = Sun Rua, Daoin = Star Ruar, Daoine = Stars Mista, Vandor = Forest Aar = Woodland Or = Wood Ora = Woods Aulauth = flower/blossom Shanta/r = Tree/s Lia = Oak Rathnar = Fire Tlarranen = Garden Daen = Mist Hethtalos, Arrn = Storm Alushtas = Rain Dalsein = Thunder Dun = Hill Gyrah = Bird Gyrlass = Falcon Thimae = Wing Ivae = Light Mor = Darkness/Death Nar = Stone Sige = Snow

Kiir/a = Gem/s Dwaor = diamond/s Raor = ruby Eleglim = Sapphire/s Laqaith = Emerald/s Oum = Moonstone/s Ohulnar = Amber Iriador = Garnet

Theur = Shield Vel = Blade Vael = Blades Kerym = Sword Shal = Spear Shaalth = Axe Ehalaer, Nathorn = Staff

Narl = Black

Imbur = Dusk, shadowed Loress = Winter Ahnvae = Night Dur = Twilight

Nar = Eternal, 'Ever-' Theur = Unyielding, unbreakable Ivae = Bright Tal = Swift Ado = Peaceful Taera = steadfast, sure of purpose Aegan = Strong

Vae = Joy Adon, Cinna, Laev = Peace Aegan = Strength, Physical strength Arael = Heart Ever = Home Drannor, Evaliir = Song Onal = Speaker

[minecraftbookshelf]

Who Speaks What Language: The Fae Squad Edition

Scott: Speaks Quenya and Sindarin as dual first languages. Is fully fluent in Silvan. Fluent in Mythlandic but has a notable accent and speaks very formally. Decently fluent reader of Pixandrian but his pronunciation sounds like he learned it from books, because he did, and constructing sentences is difficult. His comprehension is much better than his functional vocabulary though he gets caught off guard when words aren't pronounced in a way he thought they were and it throws him off. Can recognize some common Galactic words but just in the basic pattern recognition sense. Only speaks a few basics of Mezalean and none of the Oceanic Dialects. (This results in a distinct lack of overlap in languages he speaks comfortably and languages Jimmy speaks comfortably, which is a surprise tool that will provide us with dramatic tension later ;) )

Xornoth: Speaks Quenya and Sindarin as dual first languages. Is fully fluent in Silvan and Mythlandic. Does have an accent in Mythlandic but it is less strong than Scott's. Does still speak formally but that is less a lack of familiarity with the language in an informal setting and more general social awkwardness. Is actually more comfortable with the Helianthian dialect due to most of their casual interactions being with Pearl. Has their Helianthian trash talk down to a fine point. Has learned a significant amount of an, ahem, specific category of Lost Empire vocabulary via Joey. Can read Galactic fluently against their will. (Thank you, head demon.) Speaks enough Mezalean and Pixandrian and Manual Oceanic to fake their way through formal greetings but no more.

Katherine: Silvan is her first language, fluent in both Quenya and Sindarin. (She and Scott were unofficially pre-engaged at one point before Shit Went Down so they both learned each other's languages. They were also each others only friends at that point so there was that.) Has made it her mission to be able to speak to everyone in their own languages as part of her quest for peace and neutrality. Has mastered Mythlandic, is passingly familiar with the Helianthian dialect. Can hold a basic conversation in Oceanic, substituting her wings for fins on the manual side and her vocal chords are close enough to most Sea Folk that she can manage some of the verbal components that are beyond the other Land Dwellers. Not all of them, but some. Only started learning Swamp Speech and Lost Empire Language recently, is still a bit unfamiliar with them. Fluent in both Pixandrian and Mezalean. Played hooky on her Galactic lessons. Has been learning Gnomish as well. Is maybe focusing a bit more on that language over Swamp and Lost Empire, despite the lack of political gain.

Shrub Berry: Comes from an entire different dimension, is operating at a distinct disadvantage linguistically. Joey and Katherine have been helping her learn Mythlandic, with some basics in both Lost Empire and Silvan. They have both also been learning Gnomish in return, which she appreciates more than words can express. Of the writing systems in the Empires, Mezalean is the one they've had the easiest time with, which has resulted in an interesting mish-mash of languages anytime they have to resort to written communications. Prefers to stick to speaking when possible.

-

The Ocean Alliance Edition

The Wither Rose Alliance Edition

[boredtechnologist]

Persona 2 Innocent Sin for the Sony PSP presents unique narrative rich with psychological and metaphysical themes that invite a deep philosophical analysis. This game, the second in the Persona series, explores complex issues such as the nature of self, the power of rumor and belief, and the intersection of fate and free will, all of which can be examined through the lenses of existentialism, pragmatism, and postmodernism. The game's main characters, including Tatsuya Suou, Maya Amano, Lisa Silverman, Eikichi Mishina, and Jun Kurosu, each embody distinct philosophical inquiries.

1. Existential Themes and the Construction of Self: "Persona 2: Innocent Sin" dives into existential questions of identity and authenticity. Jean-Paul Sartre’s concept of 'existence precedes essence' is central to understanding the characters' journeys, particularly Tatsuya's struggle with his past and future selves. Sartre's assertion that people are condemned to be free, forced to choose and define their essence, resonates with Tatsuya's confrontation with his own actions and their consequences, embodying the existential burden of freedom and choice.

2. Pragmatism and the Power of Belief: The game's central mechanic, where rumors become reality, aligns closely with William James's pragmatism, specifically his idea that the truth of an idea is determined by its practical effects. In "Persona 2," the collective beliefs and rumors of the population reshape reality, suggesting that truth is a social construct influenced by communal consent rather than objective fact. This mechanism is a literal manifestation of James’s claim that beliefs are true if they prove useful. Lisa Silverman's and Eikichi Mishina's personal struggles with identity and acceptance highlight how personal and societal beliefs can shape one's reality and self-perception.

3. Postmodernism and Narrative Identity: "Persona 2" also engages with postmodern themes, particularly through its exploration of narrative and the fluidity of identity. The game's plot, heavily reliant on the characters' perceptions and the mutable nature of truth, echoes Jean-François Lyotard's definition of the postmodern condition as one of skepticism towards grand narratives. Each character, including Jun Kurosu’s complex backstory and dual identities, serves as a case study in how narratives shape individual identity and social reality, emphasizing the postmodern idea that identity is a narrative construction rather than a fixed essence.

4. Nietzschean Perspectives on Power and Morality: Friedrich Nietzsche's ideas on morality, power, and the will to power are embodied in the game's darker themes, particularly in the characters' battles against demonic forces and their own darker impulses. Nietzsche's critique of traditional moral values and his emphasis on the creation of one’s own values are reflected in the characters' rejection of their destined paths and their decisions to forge their own futures, challenging the predetermined narrative laid out by higher powers.

5. The Dialectic of Freedom and Fate: The tension between fate and free will in "Persona 2" invites a Hegelian dialectical analysis. Hegel’s philosophy, which posits that freedom is the recognition of necessity (the necessity of the world's rational structure), can be applied to understand the characters' gradual realization and acceptance of their roles in the world. Maya Amano, in particular, embodies the Hegelian journey toward achieving freedom through the synthesis of personal desires (thesis) and the realities of the world (antithesis).

6. The Ethics of Memory and Forgetting: Lastly, the game’s exploration of memory and forgetting taps into ethical questions explored by philosophers like Avishai Margalit on the ethics of remembering. The game challenges characters to decide what should be remembered and what should be forgotten, raising questions about the moral implications of memory and the role of forgetting in healing and identity.

In conclusion, "Persona 2: Innocent Sin" offers a rich narrative canvas for philosophical exploration, touching on existentialism, pragmatism, postmodernism, Nietzschean philosophy, Hegelian dialectics, and the ethics of memory. Through its complex characters and unique narrative mechanics, the game provides a profound commentary on the nature of self, the power of belief, and the interplay between fate and free will, inviting players to reflect on the profound philosophical questions embedded in its world and story.

[disenchantedbysociety]

One Night...

Nakahara Chuuya x Fem OC

CW: Alcohol, sexual references, angst without comfort

A/N: This is my first time writing a fanfic so forgive me if it's garbage... (Constructive criticism is welcome.)

Alcohol was a very good aphrodisiac. It was also excellent at removing memories when taken in the right volume and concentration. That’s what Chuuya had thought it would be when he woke up next to an empty bed in nothing, not even his underwear, doused in the scent she left on him.

Except he was wrong, foolish even, to think that the memory wouldn’t come back.

Slivers of it flickered through his mind whenever he slid beneath his sheets.

Flashes of her writhing behind his eyes. Not distinct enough. All he could see was her gorgeous tanned skin. Until it passed through the alcoholic haze; he could discern the ‘XOX’ tattooed inside of her wrist. And he vaguely remembered some semblance of a piercing when he was kissing her.

It wasn’t of the slightest importance really, to be able to find her, months after their one night stand.

Yet she lingered.

Grimacing whenever he woke up to the scent of another one night stand. Longing for her scent again. Delighting when that beautiful ‘XOX’ reappeared.

It was unmistakably her. Standing before him, his newest subordinate. It was her scent and her wrist and her piercings. The same ones that left his lips and tongue cold.

His heart almost stopped when he saw her… realising she did not remember him. Nothing. She showed no recognition.

It shattered him when he realised she was taken. Gazing upon the delicate ring on her left hand.

Engaged.

His world came crashing down as she was taken away before he could even have her.

[sociopathicghost]

What's reality to you might be an illusion.

There's a pervasive reality about how things function in our world. We're all ensnared by a so-called system that restricts us from realizing our full potential. When examined from a macroscopic perspective, the notions of good and evil become irrelevant. The universe, indifferent and unfeeling, doesn't care about our moral distinctions. I often contemplate the essence of living, recognizing its inherent pointlessness. Yet, ending one's life doesn't seem to be a viable option. As Rust Cohle aptly puts it, it's the "damn programming." We are biologically and psychologically programmed to exist on this planet, where most people are just walking corpses, going through the motions of their daily routines. They call it living, marked by fleeting moments of dopamine-induced pleasure. These chemicals trick us into feeling emotions, even when rationally, everything is ultimately meaningless.

All our cherished memories and experiences, whether deemed good or bad, amount to nothing more than nostalgia when reflected upon. But what's the purpose of nostalgia when life itself is driven by evolution and constant change? Time doesn't pause for anyone, nor does the universe. You may be in one place now, but in the next few moments, you'll be somewhere else. The relentless progression of time underscores the futility of our existence.

Consider the absurdity of being the most intelligent species ever to exist, only to live for a mere 80 years before succumbing to death. It feels like a colossal waste. Yet, acknowledging this isn't necessarily pessimistic; it's simply a harsh truth that many find difficult to accept. This perspective often leads me to leave tasks unfinished, as the realization dawns that everything will eventually dissolve into nothingness. The efforts, struggles, and sacrifices invested in mere existence seem ultimately futile. I repeatedly reject the idea of participating in societal norms and expectations. I feel an intrinsic sense of not belonging here. The societal constructs we adhere to often appear artificial and meaningless in the grand scheme of things. We are driven by biological imperatives and social constructs that bind us, leaving little room for genuine autonomy. Our lives are punctuated by chemical reactions that dictate our emotions and actions, making us feel as if we're living, when in reality, we're merely existing. The moments of happiness and sorrow are fleeting, and their significance diminishes over time. What remains is a sense of emptiness, a realization that all our experiences and memories are transient.

Moreover, the concept of progress, both personal and societal, seems illusory when viewed through the lens of cosmic indifference. We strive for goals, endure hardships, and seek fulfillment, yet in the end, all our efforts are rendered insignificant by the vastness of time and space. This recognition can be both liberating and disheartening. It liberates us from the burden of societal expectations but also confronts us with the stark reality of our ephemeral existence.

I often question the value of persistence and ambition. Why expend so much energy on endeavors that will ultimately fade into oblivion? The blood, sweat, and tears poured into achieving success or overcoming challenges seem wasted when viewed against the backdrop of inevitable extinction. The societal pressure to conform and achieve feels misplaced when our very existence is but a fleeting moment in the grand cosmic timeline. I find myself in a perpetual state of disconnection from the societal framework. The notion of belonging feels alien, as if I'm not meant to participate in the prescribed roles and routines. This sense of alienation isn't a cry for help but rather an acknowledgment of a deeper truth: that the constructs we cling to for meaning and purpose are fragile and often illusory.

The recognition of life's inherent futility and the artificiality of societal constructs compel me to question the very foundation of our existence.

[rjalker]

it's just so fucking funny. Oh my gods.

A Square explaining how allowing disabled people* to exist in public would bring about the downfall of civilization

[ID: The meme of someone standing in front of a wall covered in red string connecting dots in a conspiracy theory, with the person replaced with A Square, a Flatlander seen from above. He has a grey exoskeleton, and insides of various shades of pink and purple. End ID.]

= = =

For context, Flatland: A Romance of Many Dimensions, is satire of Victorian England's bigotry, written in 1884. It's also about math and the theory of other dimensions. ("Romance" back then meant "adventure")

Read and download it for free from Project Gutenberg.

An amazing and hilarious audiobook on the Web Archive.

10/10 highly recommend. In the process of "translating" it into casual 2023 English so more people can read it easier.

This is the original text below. I keep getting distracted from "translating" it because it's so funny.

The entire thing is written to show you how absolutely absurd and ridiculous bigotry is.

= = =

Section 7. Concerning Irregular Figures

Throughout the previous pages I have been assuming—what perhaps should have been laid down at the beginning as a distinct and fundamental proposition—that every human being in Flatland is a Regular Figure, that is to say of regular construction. By this I mean that a Woman must not only be a line, but a straight line; that an Artisan or Soldier must have two of his sides equal; that Tradesmen must have three sides equal; Lawyers (of which class I am a humble member), four sides equal, and generally, that in every Polygon, all the sides must be equal.

The size of the sides would of course depend upon the age of the individual. A Female at birth would be about an inch long, while a tall adult Woman might extend to a foot. As to the Males of every class, it may be roughly said that the length of an adult's sides, when added together, is two feet or a little more. But the size of our sides is not under consideration. I am speaking of the EQUALITY of sides, and it does not need much reflection to see that the whole of the social life in Flatland rests upon the fundamental fact that Nature wills all Figures to have their sides equal.

If our sides were unequal our angles might be unequal. Instead of its being sufficient to feel, or estimate by sight, a single angle in order to determine the form of an individual, it would be necessary to ascertain each angle by the experiment of Feeling. But life would be too short for such a tedious grouping. The whole science and art of Sight Recognition would at once perish; Feeling, so far as it is an art, would not long survive; intercourse would become perilous or impossible; there would be an end to all confidence, all forethought; no one would be safe in making the most simple social arrangements; in a word, civilization would relapse into barbarism.

Am I going too fast to carry my Readers with me to these obvious conclusions? Surely a moment's reflection, and a single instance from common life, must convince every one that our whole social system is based upon Regularity, or Equality of Angles. You meet, for example, two or three Tradesmen in the street, whom you recognize at once to be Tradesmen by a glance at their angles and rapidly bedimmed sides, and you ask them to step into your house to lunch. This you do at present with perfect confidence, because everyone knows to an inch or two the area occupied by an adult Triangle: but imagine that your Tradesman drags behind his regular and respectable vertex, a parallelogram of twelve or thirteen inches in diagonal:—what are you to do with such a monster sticking fast in your house door?

But I am insulting the intelligence of my Readers by accumulating details which must be patent to everyone who enjoys the advantages of a Residence in Spaceland. Obviously the measurements of a single angle would no longer be sufficient under such portentous circumstances; one's whole life would be taken up in feeling or surveying the perimeter of one's acquaintances. Already the difficulties of avoiding a collision in a crowd are enough to tax the sagacity of even a well-educated Square; but if no one could calculate the Regularity of a single figure in the company, all would be chaos and confusion, and the slightest panic would cause serious injuries, or—if there happened to be any Women or Soldiers present—perhaps considerable loss of life.

Expediency therefore concurs with Nature in stamping the seal of its approval upon Regularity of conformation: nor has the Law been backward in seconding their efforts. "Irregularity of Figure" means with us the same as, or more than, a combination of moral obliquity and criminality with you, and is treated accordingly. There are not wanting, it is true, some promulgators of paradoxes who maintain that there is no necessary connection between geometrical and moral Irregularity. "The Irregular", they say, "is from his birth scouted by his own parents, derided by his brothers and sisters, neglected by the domestics, scorned and suspected by society, and excluded from all posts of responsibility, trust, and useful activity. His every movement is jealously watched by the police till he comes of age and presents himself for inspection; then he is either destroyed, if he is found to exceed the fixed margin of deviation, or else immured in a Government Office as a clerk of the seventh class; prevented from marriage; forced to drudge at an uninteresting occupation for a miserable stipend; obliged to live and board at the office, and to take even his vacation under close supervision; what wonder that human nature, even in the best and purest, is embittered and perverted by such surroundings!"

All this very plausible reasoning does not convince me, as it has not convinced the wisest of our Statesmen, that our ancestors erred in laying it down as an axiom of policy that the toleration of Irregularity is incompatible with the safety of the State. Doubtless, the life of an Irregular is hard; but the interests of the Greater Number require that it shall be hard. If a man with a triangular front and a polygonal back were allowed to exist and to propagate a still more Irregular posterity, what would become of the arts of life? Are the houses and doors and churches in Flatland to be altered in order to accommodate such monsters? Are our ticket-collectors to be required to measure every man's perimeter before they allow him to enter a theatre or to take his place in a lecture room? Is an Irregular to be exempted from the militia? And if not, how is he to be prevented from carrying desolation into the ranks of his comrades? Again, what irresistible temptations to fraudulent impostures must needs beset such a creature! How easy for him to enter a shop with his polygonal front foremost, and to order goods to any extent from a confiding tradesman! Let the advocates of a falsely called Philanthropy plead as they may for the abrogation of the Irregular Penal Laws, I for my part have never known an Irregular who was not also what Nature evidently intended him to be—a hypocrite, a misanthropist, and, up to the limits of his power, a perpetrator of all manner of mischief.

Not that I should be disposed to recommend (at present) the extreme measures adopted by some States, where an infant whose angle deviates by half a degree from the correct angularity is summarily destroyed at birth. Some of our highest and ablest men, men of real genius, have during their earliest days laboured under deviations as great as, or even greater than, forty-five minutes: and the loss of their precious lives would have been an irreparable injury to the State. The art of healing also has achieved some of its most glorious triumphs in the compressions, extensions, trepannings, colligations, and other surgical or diaetetic operations by which Irregularity has been partly or wholly cured. Advocating therefore a VIA MEDIA, I would lay down no fixed or absolute line of demarcation; but at the period when the frame is just beginning to set, and when the Medical Board has reported that recovery is improbable, I would suggest that the Irregular offspring be painlessly and mercifully consumed.

[decepti-thots]

in lieu of tf fanon, can we all just agree that the fanon around seekers is just WAY too pervasive???? genuinely. why is seeker fanon Like That. why are seekers sometimes treated as a whole exotic subspecies. i feel like people got too attached to starscream, looked at the silly color swapped jet models due to budget in the original 80's cartoon, and just decided to invent a new kind of weird robot racism. sorry that this is on the bitchery side of anons but weirdly set-in-stone fanon stuff like seekers is what turned me off from reading tf fanfic

The answer to this, that is 'why is seeker fanon Like That', is gonna by necessity involve some discussion of NSFW stuff so I will cut this. But it's kinda. Necessary for the topic, lmao, so. And I do think it's worth actually going through ig. I've seen a lot of folks recently express this exact irritation and confusion, so...

OK so the honest answer: a good chunk of it's just fetish porn tbqh. And people, they are horny for those jets, lmao, and Starscream, exactly. Kink with some worldbuilding scaffolded around it as setup. Which to be clear, when someone is straight up just like 'hi, here is some cheerfully self-aware kink about breeding and shit, do not read too hard into this fantasy nonsense as a coherent narrative- we are here for horny egg laying and the implications will not be expanded on beyond that' I am usually like 'yeah cool go for it!!', lmao. Not my thing, can still go places in execution I'm like 'uhhhh think this through better please' about ofc, but like. Kink's kink, and all. Pretend adult fun times engaged in with full self-awareness are fine, a lot of the time.

My irritation really comes with when this bleeds into stuff that is taking itself seriously and is uhhhh. Not that? Or when it's engaged in by people who clearly don't have a level of self awareness about the above. And the answer is... IMO it's just regular fandom racism tbh, with an extra layer of obfuscation over it because it's got the fantasy analogue thing disguising it. Some people enjoy a lot of tropes that derive from certain strands of commercial genre romance, and honestly a lot of classic SFF as well, that are based in things they do not fully realise are rooted in racism, or any number of -isms tbh. And there's also a lot of people who sort of do notice, but they still want to keep enjoying those things without guilt, so they try and take the underlying logics and apply them to fantasy constructs or whatever in the hopes this will make the thing they like Not Racist. (Spoiler alert: the issue is rarely who the tropes are applied to alone, and this basically never works, because humans have pattern recognition and know how analogies work.)

People like stories about Scary Barbarians, or Submissive Sexually Exotic Androgynes, or whatever. And then someone points out 'yeah but mate, those are racial stereotypes, have you heard of orientalism' or whatever, and people feel bad but they sort of. Want to keep enjoying those stories in a way that is not harmful! That strips out that element succesfully. So they try and write an alien fantasy version, but again. This doesn't actually work most of the time, tbh. Because humans have pattern recognition and the tropes, the logic underlying the ideas in the first place, are often the actual issue. Shrug.

And IMO, this is where you get 'biologically distinct races frametypes who are Just Naturally For Breeding' shit, or whatever other example I can pull out of the TF fanon hat, in ostensibly serious stories about geopolitical conflicts or serious personal drama, ones which expect you to engage with this as an actual framework for how a world could work and not just as a loose excuse for 2000 words of smut. It's not as though canon is totally immune to this to be clear- ask me sometime about how I feel about the mess that is functionism being an analogy for 48563 things, lmao- but fanon is more pervasive because you're contending with decades of this stuff being super pervasive in fandom spaces and it becoming standard for fic. We were having discussions about this exact stuff like. When I was 15 on LJ, lmao. And it wasn't new then! I don't think it's anything unique; it's just got those extra layers of abstraction to sort through in terms of 'why IS this happening with these fuckin planes'.

[fragbot]

Recognition in dramatic texts is an event that draws attention to issues of characterisation, motivation, psychology and typology; it is a moment when questions of identity are brought to the fore. Moreover, this connection between anagnōrisis and character is part of recognition’s status as ‘a peculiarly dramatic device’. Recognition belongs to drama more than to any other literary genre, the reason being that it implicates a character’s identity in precisely the same way that theatrical performance implicates an actor’s. When performers assume a role, they not only destabilise their own identity – at least in the eyes of others – but they also raise the far more troubling possibility that all human selfhood is precariously fluid. This possibility arises from the actor’s skill in editing, rehearsing and developing behaviour so that it appears seamless and convincing. Such self-fashioning belies to some extent the idea of naturally unified identity, and when skilled theatrical performers portray an image of unified selfhood, they paradoxically reveal that selfhood to be a construct and its image to be an illusion. The issue, therefore, is not merely that actors engage in contrived conduct, but that their professional activity blends the categories of ‘natural’ and ‘contrived’, and prevents any simple distinction between ‘reality’ and ‘fiction’, ‘person’ and ‘character’. It follows that the anxiety attendant upon anagnōrisis in ancient drama reflects the ontological anxiety surrounding actors themselves.

- from "Recognition and the Character of Seneca's Medea," Erica Bexley

[hiding1ntheforest]

Dark Ages: Apocalypticism, Aeons and Chaos in Paganism

Something that has always fascinated me about the study of religion is the common themes among many of them, especially the various forms of polytheism. Of course, many forms of paganism share the same origin point but it’s nonetheless incredible that so many cultures, some of which have never even interacted, share the same perspectives and similar myths. One of these common themes is that of the cyclic nature of our existence. In paganism, we are constantly going through the process of creation and destruction on a loop. We emerge from a great primeval void, chaos, before transitioning to a period of development and sophistication. In some cases, the process of this cycle is much more distinct, such as the Satya Yuga to the final Kali Yuga in Hinduism. For others, the cycles are less clearly defined. Among the North, our reality was built from the generative substance of the Ginnungagap. Out of this chaos though before its return, the Gods bring order, truth, and beauty. This blog post will explore the significance of birth and rebirth or creation and destruction, the concept of cosmological chaos, as well as “end of the world” events in paganism.

Chaos

The creation of the world is an important aspect to any religion. Germanic paganism explains this from the beginning with the Ginnungagap, or the “yawning void.” This void is first introduced in Gylfaginning, where sparks from Muspellheim enter the void and are then dispersed throughout the many realms of existence. In the Voluspa, we learn that Woden and his brothers built the world from the material of the Ginnungagap. Among the Anglo-Saxons, the word “dwolma” refers to chaos and can be linguistically traced to the Old Saxon word “dwalm” which means confusion. This may illustrate the void possessing the matter which will construct all life. Additionally, some scholars believe that the term Ginnungagap has its origins in Old High German with more mystical connotations. This strongly parallels the perspective of the ancient Egyptians. Like our Germanic ancestors, the Egyptians believed that all life was created from cosmological chaos. Similar to Ginnungagap, this chaos was an empty void; nothingness with the ability to create. They also believed that it was watery, an idea tied to the primeval waters of Nun. Again, water as the prima materia is a widespread philosophy. Aristotle wrote that Thales argued for water being the progenitor of all things. Later, the alchemists claimed that mercury was the prima materia and also referred to it as sacred water. This may be compared to the mercurial force of Woden creating the world from nothingness. I won’t delve into this too much in this post, but it’s clear that ancient polytheists recognized that the potential for all life was conceived out of mystic primordial emptiness by the creator.

The End of the World

If you’re following this blog, then I’m sure you have heard of Ragnarok. Ragnarok, or “the twilight of the Gods”, is essentially the apocalypse of Norse paganism. It should be noted that Ragnarok is specifically attested among the Northern Germanic peoples. Despite this, the return to primordial chaos is certainly rooted in the Indo-European faith, so it is likely that all of the Germanic peoples had some idea of this. Etymologically, the word Ragnarok is very interesting. The first half of the word, “Ragna,” is in reference to the Gods. The second half may be derived from either “Rok” or “Rokkr.” The term “Rok” is striking because it means origin. This may suggest that return to primordial chaos and this will be further propounded by the myth itself. We get the word twilight in the phrase “twilight of the Gods” from “Rokkr.” The word “Ragnarokkr” is found in Lokasenna, though the term “aldarrok” is found in Vafthrudnismal, and this roughly translates to “end of an age.” This also indicates the recognition of metaphysical ages among the Norse. The tale of Ragnarok can be found in Voluspa. Roosters from all over crow and many jotnar begin to approach. The hound Garmr breaks loose. As a result, humanity begins to degrade. It is said that brothers go to war with one another, familial betrayal occurs, as well as lust and violence growing rampant. Ragnarok commences with Heimdall blowing the Gjallarhorn. The Gods then go to battle against the jotnar with the aid of different creatures. The battle results in many of the Gods being killed. Odin is swallowed by the great wolf Fenrir, though is later avenged when his son Vidarr stabs the beast in the heart. Thor slaughters Jormungandr but soon dies from the serpent’s venom. Finally, Freyr is killed by a jotunn called Surtr. The sun blackens and the heavens go up in flames. The Earth is then submerged beneath the sea. As a result of the battle, the Earth soon remerges from the sea and the surviving Gods congregate together. The Earth begins to revive as vegetation grows. We also learn that the brothers Hodr and Baldr will return along with Njord. Two humans, Lif and Lifthrasir will have survived Ragnarok and repopulate the Earth. Again, we can draw parallels between Ragnarok and the return of the primordial waters in Egypt. Chaos will return after the mighty serpent Apophis defeats the sun God Ra, swallowing up the Earth while the creator grows too old and weary to reinstate order. This serpent is associated with natural disasters as well as general disorder and we come across many myths in which the Gods must reckon with Apophis. Moreover, Ra must encounter Apophis every night during his journey to Duat, the underworld. Apophis is extremely similar to the serpent Jormungandr who plays an important part in Ragnarok and the myths as a whole. This serpent is also associated with the water and engulfs the Earth by biting its tail, much like Apophis who swallows it whole. The Gods, specifically Thunor, are frequently disturbed by this serpent. Most importantly, Ragnarok or any apocalyptic event in paganism does not depict the end of the world, but rather a return to the beginning. Woden created the Earth using the body of the jotunn Ymir, meanwhile many of the Gods die due to the jotnar. There is no end- only birth, death and rebirth.

The Yugas

One cannot discuss apocalypticism without talking about the Yugas, specifically Kali Yuga. It may seem that discussing Hinduism does not fit in with this article or this account’s theme as a whole but seeing that it is the Indo in Indo-European, as well as its comparison to metaphysical ages, I feel it’s still important to mention. The four Yugas all together span 4,320,000 years. Each Yuga is a multiple of the other, with the longest being Satya Yuga at 1.7 million years and the shortest being Kali Yuga at 432,000 years. There’s a lot of debate among Hindu thinkers on which Yuga we’re in now, but many believe that we are in the Kali Yuga. If I may interject my opinion, I believe they likely aren’t far off when you take a look at the world. Satya Yuga is often referred to as the Golden Age and overall the greatest time for human civilization. Truth, religiosity, morality, and beauty are at its peak. The first manifestation of Vishnu appears with Mastyadeva. Mastyadeva must battle the demon Hayagriva who attempts to steal the Vedas from Brahma. The Vedas are crucial because with the degradation of the Vedas follows the degradation of civilization. This decline begins to show during Treta Yuga. Truth and religiosity slowly begins to slip. Some humans grow physically weaker while some elevate to almost a godlike status due to enlightenment. Dwapar Yuga, also called the Bronze Age, shows an increase in materialism, violence and lust. The forces of good and evil are at a tie. The Vedas are divided into four. This is also when Krishna recites the Bhagavad Gita which is very important to the coming age. Kali Yuga is the Iron Age. It is the last age before the cycle repeats. The family unit deteriorates, humanity is divided and the Earth is polluted. Out of Kali Yuga, the next Satya Yuga emerges and the continual cycle repeats once more.

Conclusion

The cycle of life, death and rebirth are central to any form of paganism. Across the globe, many different cultures have their own conceptions and myths revolving around this cycle that share common themes and principles. Whether it be the Ginnungagap or primordial waters of Nun, all things come from a dark cosmic emptiness. Moreover, we all must return to that place of nothingness. Among the Norse, Ragnarok resets the universe while the world’s order slowly disintegrates due to an aging creator according to the Egyptians. Perhaps the most popular example of this life-death-rebirth loop is that of the Yugas among Hinduism. From East to West, we are chained to this mystical sequence.