#Knowledge through experience

[iyemarathichiyenagari1971]

स्वानुभवातून उमजलेलं, हृदयाशी एकरूप झालेलं ज्ञान म्हणजे विज्ञान

जो हा विज्ञानात्मकु भावो । तया विचारितां जाहला वावो ।मग लागला जंव पाहो । तंव ज्ञान तें तोचि ।। ८८ ।। ज्ञानेश्वरी अध्याय सहावा ओवीचा अर्थ – अनुभवाला येणारें जें हें दृश्य जगत् त्याचा विचार करतां, तें त्याच्यादृष्टीनें मिथ्या ठरलें. व मग आपण कोण आहों, असें जेव्हां तो पाहावयास लागला, तेव्हां ज्ञान तेंच आपण आहोंत, असें त्यास कळलें. या ओवीत संत ज्ञानेश्वर विज्ञानयुक्त अध्यात्माचे अत्यंत सूक्ष्म आणि…

[recsspecs]

The kind of romance I deserve

[sunlight-shunlight]

thinking about veilguard and bioware in general, i think we are reaching a point where people need to grapple with the inherent limits of what stories can be told in our Current Society and in AAA gaming companies.

on a labour level: mass layoffs, tons of developers leaving despite previously talking about how passionate and happy they were to be involved, not even paying severance, and crunching employees to the point of burnout. this is unfortunately pretty standard for AAA game companies.

on a cultural level: it is SO white and SO centrist-ly Canadian. i wrote up these asks outlining how. it is a repeated pattern of writing in which they go into tortured racial oppression allegories at best, while constantly peppering in a "but BOTH SIDES were wrong and made mistakes :( :( :(", in between their fictional atrocities that are clearly mirroring irl genocides and enslavement. or at worst, it's "the qunari are radical islamic borg" which has even less nuance. i personally thought, since dai came out in 2014, and a lot has changed since then about the world and in public awareness, that this would have filtered into the narrative and resulted in more satisfying and historically grounded writing. unfortunately not the case. it's shocking if you compare it to how sharp and aware and unflinching something like disco elysium is.

so what does this mean?

under these conditions, it is unavoidable that we get development by people who are rapidly cycled out of the company or demoralized into burnout. we get digestible, easy little soundbites of lore without much substance, because any complexity needs more time and coordination rather than the process of "quick, we have these assets, a lot of people involved in making them just got laid off, we need to make Something by next quarter to show the CEO". we get very little cohesion between games, despite the clear intent from dai to have so many plot points set up to follow through in a sequel, because the team and development are so chaotic that they can't hold onto a vision and complete it.

we also get this inherent caution and "conservatism" from the narrative, because on an ideological level, they're largely white people who want cops to be included in pride. so any major change to even a fictional society is Bad and Scary, and shouldn't be done without making sure that every character finger-wags appropriately at non-state violence. there is clearly not much ideological or even ethnic diversity within the leadership; or at least not enough that anyone there felt comfortable even speaking up on minor issues like the Incredibly Orientalist Isabela Outfit, let alone anything larger.

i don't personally think there's too much value in trying to analyze veilguard's plot or lore at this point. the final product is chaotically developed and does not seem to reflect the goals of the creators as set up in prior games, it's basically a ship of theseus in terms of the people and ideas involved in making it. this is sad for all of us, who were interested in the story, and attached to the characters, and were creatively fulfilled by engaging in the fandom. it's probably worse for the developers who have lost their jobs, burnt out, or feel unhappy with the game that they spent years of their life working on. it's certainly miserable as an indictment of The Industry, as well as the general societal climate of white Canadian centrism.

the solution is to create a society where people can develop games in peace and prosperity and stay on projects for longer, rather than constantly getting turfed out without severance pay. and to get some genuine leftists, poc, and indigenous people on staff who can weigh in and provide significant input, rather than a Council Of Liberal White Edmontonians every time.

in the meantime, at the very least, let's please stop preordering AAA games and supporting companies who notably abuse their employees.

[elysiality]

everyone saying that Jackie was comphet's biggest opp but so was Shauna tbh.

I mean— this girl vehemently denied that she was in love with her bestie to the point that it morphed into hatred bcs she didn't wanna love her SO BAD and then started hooking up with said bestie's boyfriend just to compensate for the fact that she couldn't have Jackie.

then she blew up at Jackie for confronting her about said boyfriend hookup thing and indirectly caused her death, which proceeded to haunt her for the rest of her life and then finally got her first girlfriend in the wilderness and then IMMEDIATELY fumbled her by being a jerk—

then proceeded to MARRY dead bestie's boyfriend instead of finishing college or whatever, like- two seconds after being rescued and had a whole ass KID with him and became a SAHM like if you don't look at her and immediately think 'comphet would have a field day with this one' then idk what to tell you man

[quietwingsinthesky]

the thing is, i don’t disagree that what and how you choose to write about things is a reflection of you, the writer, and cannot be divorced from your beliefs and biases. but to assume that anyone can perfectly pick out your beliefs from a piece of fiction you’ve written is an extremely weird and paranoid thing to claim, especially if you’re positing that the secret truth is that the writer is a dangerous person and they’re “revealing” that through fiction that upsets you, personally. at the end of the day, the artist is not the art, and no matter how upsetting, no matter how much you dislike it, no matter how much it disgusts you, you don’t know the person who made it and you can only guess how who they are shaped what they made.

like, really, is it more likely that the secret “belief” that’s being revealed when you’re reading something that is really upsetting to you is that the author is a secret Bad Person™️ who wants all of this fantasy to happen in real life, or that the author knows it’s a safe and normal thing to create upsetting works of fiction and so did that.

[aventurineswife]

"A Happy Moment" - Anaxagorus x Astrologist! Reader This particular track is characterized by its gentle melodies and harmonious arrangements, which together evoke feelings of tranquility and introspection. It's the kind of piece that might accompany a poignant scene between them and serve as a backdrop for moments of reflection. <3

“The Future will Understand Us”

Summary: The world roared louder when he spoke—wild, defiant, and fierce as dawn breaking through storm clouds. Before the fall of the Grove and the firestorm of accusations, Anaxagoras was a force of nature you couldn’t help but love. Together, you shared stolen nights beneath forbidden knowledge and whispered truths beneath star-studded skies. Through rebellion and broken walls, through grief and quiet moments of unexpected tenderness, your bond became an unshakable anchor. Against the cruel weight of prophecy and the gods’ gaze, you found in each other a fragile refuge. Though he died a thousand deaths before the final one, you carry his memory—defiant, brilliant, and achingly alive—in the silence between the stars.

Tags: Anaxagoras x Reader, Astrologist!Reader, Slow Burn Romance, Mutual Emotional Healing, Academic Heresy, Angst with Comfort, Tragic Past, Forbidden Knowledge, Found Family, Intimacy Through Philosophy, Memory Fragment Format (basically after Chapter 1, the other chapters are just memories of Reader with Anaxa), Soul Experiments, Tenderness in Defiance, Subtextual Devotion.

Warnings: Themes of death and grief, Implied past enslavement and emotional trauma, Religious and academic persecution, Body modification (eyepatch, tattoos from experiments), References to experimentation on the soul, Hints of war, child endangerment (non-graphic), Emotional vulnerability and intimacy, Mild language, Bittersweet ending/prelude to canon character death.

Tagslist: @sewoui, @tremendoustragedybard, @axolotsofluv

The world was always louder when he spoke.

Even before the war of thoughts, before the tribunal accused him of blasphemy and treason, before the Grove collapsed under the weight of prophecy and ambition — Anaxagoras spoke like the sky breaking open at dawn. Wild. Free. Terrifying. Divine.

And you loved him for it.

You remember a night gilded by starlight, long before the fires. There had been a lecture — not one sanctioned by the Grove, of course. One of his unsanctioned symposiums deep within the library’s forbidden wing. Titan dissections diagrammed in chalk on the stone floor, soul-fusion theories sprawling across parchment.

You had entered unnoticed, your young charge asleep in your arms, until you asked him:

"What if the stars disagree with you?"

He had stopped mid-sentence.

His head tilted, ponytail shifting like silk over his shoulder, and that one visible eye — the one that still shimmered with reckless clarity — locked on yours.

"Then I shall argue with them," he said, grinning like a heretic under moonlight. "They, at least, have the decency to be brilliant in their defiance."

There was a festival once. A celestial convergence — five planets aligned perfectly in the heavens, a sight that would not return for another two centuries.

You had taken him with you, disguised among the crowd.

It was laughable, truly. Anaxagoras — the Demised Scholar, the fallen golden boy of the Grove — hiding beneath a traveler's cloak and wide-brimmed hat. Still, he complained less than expected.

"This is beneath me," he said, brushing crumbs from his lap. "That child just wiped jam on my cloak."

"You're enjoying this," you replied.

He didn’t deny it.

Later, beneath the star-kissed dome of the sky, he held your hand. Not in passion. Not in desperation. Just held it. Like it was his anchor. Like you were.

There were darker nights, too.

When they tricked you — used the child as bait to silence your rage.

You shattered three walls and bled on the temple floor before they forced your surrender.

Anaxagoras found you there, broken but breathing. He said nothing for a long while. Then he knelt and touched your hand. Not your wounds. Your hand. That was when you cried.

"They will pay," he said simply.

You knew then: he would not rest until they did.

In the observatory you built together, tucked in the ruins of a temple abandoned by gods and men, he traced constellations onto your back with ink-stained fingers.

"You’ve always been a galaxy," he murmured, voice quieter now. The bravado dulled, but not extinguished. "And I—an errant comet, foolish enough to fall in love with one."

You laughed. You kissed him.

And in the silence that followed, you allowed yourself to believe the world might allow this. That the gods wouldn’t notice. That prophecy would forget to arrive.

He died a thousand deaths before the final one.

Each theory rejected. Each student lost. Each lie he told himself.

But you—

You remember him beneath the stars. His hands cradling your cheek. His voice soft. His defiance — momentarily— at peace.

"I found truth in you," he whispered.

And for one heartbeat, the war ended.

It was a happy moment.

One you never told anyone else about.

[Navigation]

[haneentifosa005]

You don't understand I HAVE to talk to ollie about taylor swift. Like oh his fav artist is taylor swift, right but how much of the lore does he know? How deep in the rabbit hole is he? You don't have to know everything to enjoy her music but has he watched the eras tour movie? I don't think he has or otherwise his playlist would be a bit different. oh here's his fav taylor songs, he has The Way I Loved You tv on there, he has Cruel Summer, Exile, I Knew You Were Trouble, Wildest Dreams tv, All Too Well 10 min tv, Red tv, and Enchanted. but what other songs has he listened to? oh his favorite song is Love Story because he's "a bit of a romantic" but does he know Sweet Nothing? You Are In Love? Labyrinth? invisible string? This Love? Paper Rings? Call It What You Want? I just feel like you can know so much about a person based on their opinions on taylor's music and taylor herself. And him admitting that he likes her music and naming her as his fav on main says alot and I love that. He's already halfway there, someone just needs to hold his hand and drag him a lil and he'd become a full time taylor fan.

[awesome-cookies-and-cream]

im back to dcst fixation with the new season so im rewatching. i remembered how much i like senku's principle of how humanities, arts and sciences aren't so far apart. i like that he thinks of course it more logical to care for people and that no matter how weird you are, science has room for you. it's curiosity for curiosity's sake. a different kind of greed.

[thepersonalwords]

Knowledge will reveal its value only when we use it to gain wisdom through experience.

Debasish Mridha

[doctorweebmd]

ok my OTHER reflection:

on the one hand its really frustrating to see the posts about docs and healthcare in general on here be so narrow-minded. bad experiences with certain providers have lead to a huge spread of misinformation and mistrust with the whole system. which can and HAS lead to people avoiding 'evil' doctors for perfectly treatable illnesses and dying from them (the vaccine bullshit, anyone?)

but on the other hand. it is TERRIFYING how some of these docs practice medicine. at times i think 'are you just burned out and don't give a shit or are you straight up just stupid?' and i work in critical care. where quite literally every case is life or death. even in the academic sector where there is supposedly a standard of excellence, some doctors i would not let touch my loved ones with a ten foot pole.

and that sucks. i know this is the no nuance piss on the poor webbed site but 'the medical system and people that work for it are fallible and aspects of it are morally questionable at best/unethical at worst' AND 'the field of medicine exists to help people first and foremost and mistrusting/avoiding it can be detrimental in the long run' can and DO co-exist

[scene-iii]

if some form of yuu doesn't show up in ace's dream i'll speedrun a bake no hana animatic for dinah.

[puke-ur-gutz]

ppl r taking the term weaponized incompetence too far methinks. why do we want everyone to know everything but we dont want to teach them.

[pointlessjey]

How color theory

Good question ! When it comes to colour I believe the best way to find what works is to have fun and experiment until you find what works best for you!

I've already covered a bit about how I choose and create the colours here (making base colours colourful) and here (working with palettes)!

But in terms of what I know about actual colour theory, I can only offer this:

It's not a lot and it is just the basics so if you already knew this then apologies but it's all I know/ all I think is worth knowing. Please note that colour theory is more of a suggestion then a rule! Different colours look good to different people and you should do what looks good to you!

[randomnameless]

I meme a lot about the latest banner and the various videos and lines it gave us but, if there is one thing it reignited about my general thoughts about Fodlan, it's frustration.

Or, why must we wait for Forging Bonds centered on dragons from other verses to have breadcrumbs about Nabateans and how they perceive their role and existence in Fodlan ?

Musings about the Seteth/Gotoh convo under the cut

Imagine if that character learnt Rhea, the seemingly random Archbishop, was actually the legendary Saint Seiros revered through Fodlan, who also lived more for more than 1 000 years?

It seems that there are some Shambhala loyalists in Nemesis's forces. As long as they're around, we can expect them to continue with their cruel experiments. Yes. We have to. It's the only way to ensure nobody else will go through what I went through. We must obliterate them in the next battle. It's the only recompense for Edelgard's death.

Nah, let's not think about it and pour a cup of earl grey tea instead !

---

All jokes aside, this?

Is peak distortion/gap that exists between Fodlan characters in Fodlan, and Fodlan characters when they are logically explored outside of Fodlan, in FEH (or even for Billy, in FE17!).

Seteth, in Fodlan, can never talk or mention his feelings, thoughts or experiences as a Nabatean walking alongside humanity in Fodlan.

The closest thing we have is Rhea's parting words in Golden Trashfire, where she laments that without Nabateans to guide them, humans are bound to repeat their mistakes of the past.

We infer Seteth agrees with her, but we never hear his version of what he thinks is his role in Fodlan... bar this FEH exclusive conversation, with a fellow dragon, Y!Gotoh.

Much like his siblings (?), Seteth finds humans fascinating - but the adapting and evolving according the "times they live in"? That's a pure FEH thing.

It's Gotoh who has to point out - using "we" - how Seteth, and Rhea and Sothis, bestow their knowledge and guide humanity, passing on their teachings.

However, given how Gharnef isn't singing Jpop songs while wearing a sailor fuku of freedom, Gotoh's guidance and teachings are never thwarted in some "pointy ears control us", so this conversation, which is all about acceptance and what dragons can bring to humans, can be held.

It's only in FEH that Seteth can talk about what he feels, as a Nabatean, and how he also perceives himself as someone who can observe, but also guide humanity, passing on Sothis' teachings.

This part about knowledge is interesting too, because Nabateans are known to have banned/slowed down knowledge (the various bans) and while Sothis shared freely hers, it led to Titanuses, giant missiles and war.

Through his interrogation about Athos' motives to teach "so many" apprentices (afaik there's only Pent? Unless he's talking about Eliwood and co?), we can guess he's making a direct parallel with Sothis' teachings being shared through the CoS, but also, in a way, his own guidance shared through the Officer's Academy.

Knowledge blooms when it is shared and put to good use...

This is a bit bittersweet coming from Athos, whose friend Nergal lost himself in the pursuit of "knowledge" and even more bittersweet when we take into account this convo is about Gotoh!

Who is Gotoh's most famous student?

Who developped Imhullu and brought the continent to ruin not once, but twice?

Since this FB is all about hope Naga had about peaceful coexistence with humans, the devs didn't want to add Gharnef to the "student-teacher" reunion that is Gotoh's last conversation lol, but that's the caveat : dragons can share their knowledge and walk alongside humanity... when humanity is supposed to use that knowledge to prosper, bring warm food or "light the world".

If humans don't use that resource properly though?

The world ends up with Gharnef, the Agarthans, CF!Billy, Fraud, etc etc.

And yet, both Gotoh, Athos and Nabateans - at least for the ones that aren't wiggling weapons - still share their wisdom with people because they hope for a better future.

In Fodlan?

Seteth could never say this, after all, someone says dragon blood is the reason why the world is irrational and broken, or reveal his identity to anyone but the player's avatar because someone says Fodlan has to become a world for humanity, and how Seteth's race isn't needed in said world.

All of the knowledge and wisdom Seteth shares is distorted through the game, by playable and non playable characters, without letting him just once chime in and saying that was not he intended, or meant, or envisaged. Seteth's role as one who guides humanity is erased, to either make place for the player's avatar, or to push a world for humanity, or in general, erased because Fodlan needs to enter a new dawn.

Seteth can never say how he finds humans fascinating - it's only something we infer since he accepted to walk with humans unlike Macuil and join Rhea in her Monastery - hell, in a way, Seteth can never be a "nabatean" in Fodlan, because this verse tries its hardest to ignore its dragon people.

And while I liked this new twist of dragon people - aka not have them only muse and talk about their role as people who guide humans and share knowledge, but as people who have their own worries and everyday lives (Seteth worrying about Flayn or being involved in Manu shenanigans or being picked on by Rhea, Macuil and Indech, etc etc) - given their different roles in Fodlan, Nabateans were never given any voice about what they feel towards humans, or what they feel their role is in Fodlan.

Only Rhea is allowed to, when she's either PTSD'ing hard, or preparing to sacrifice herself when she believes the Goddess finally returned, or when she marches to her death in Trashfire.

But for Seteth, a Nabatean who has less attachment to Sothis/Billy than Rhea has? Is he also feeling like he should act as Sothis' proxy, or is he feeling like he too, as a Nabatean who walks alongside humans, wants to guide them and help them propser in non "kill every pointy ears to gain power" way?

Fodlan cannot develop Seteth under this angle (or develop Nabateans tbf) for tea time reasons, but also, because at its core, FE16 is a game where the player's self insert + their lord of choice has to unify* the continent under their "IdEaLs" -> you can't build parasocial relationships to the extent FE Fodlan intended if there's suddenly a fourth/fifth faction that is all about wisdom and passing knowledge to help people prosper, especially if this faction has to be shat on by every party whenever possible, as Nopes demonstrated, to sell pots of tea.

And so, Nabateans can only exist outside of Fodlan, not in the Supreme sense, but whenever writers can develop and write them, without worrying about having to bend backwards to pretend the continent's writing and conflict has any shades of grey.

It's frustrating because there would have been ways to insert them, or this writing aka Seteth musing about his role as one who guides humans, in Fodlan, alas, it would lampshade how empty the writing is for some other characters who are supposed to be likeable enough to sell alts or worse, it would have ran contrary to what Kusihakara tried** to cook in the FE games he directed, aka, taking responsability for your actions is dead and you should rather direct the blame to some other party (remember when Duma is somewho responsible for Berkut Berning his fiancée or for Desaix's coup ?).

*AM's unification, aka Fraud fucking away from Fodlan to let Dimitri as the sole ruler of Fodlan, is as forced as his myopia during Gronder, and another example of KT forcing a sphere in a square shaped hole to make their point stand.

**FE15 by virtue of being a remake still had to keep the "madness lurks in dragon and human hearts" complete with writing Grima as Forneus' pet project that ultimately blew in his face, and AM has shades of it, but then everything vanishes after the "parley".

[neembu]

so many of you get so incredibly defensive about your opinions and beliefs because you dont have anything to actually defend them. because your only tie to them is the fact it has been drilled into your heads since childhood and you never dared to explore deeper let alone question it

[doodlejoltik]

my favourite writing device is having an un-Rei-liable narrator