arcanumofthorns

[arcanumofthorns]

actually i'm thinking about emotion sharing as a trope because i will always go balls to the wall for it. the way that intimacy is required and inescapable. this person is a part of you they are linked inextricably to you they know the things you hide behind your mask. this person can feel when you're scared or shocked or grieving and knows you even when you don't want it. the way that the lines between the individuals are blurred. is this my rage or yours. do i love you or do i only feel the love you have for me as my own. arguments that only get worse because the anger is doubled in each of them. nobody else can understand what's going on in your head but i know, i feel you even when you and i don't want it to happen. the unbearable horror of being known in such a raw and unfiltered way. the unbearable tenderness of always having someone who will understand you in a way nobody else can. catch me at the bottom of the ocean about it.

[arcanumofthorns]

From: Dior Autumn-Winter 2020-2021 Fashion Film

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— via knjfedog

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The 'Carnyx' Nightmare of the Roman Soldiers

The Carnyx was a brass musical instrument used as a psychological weapon of war by the ancient Celts between 300 BC and 200AD in western and central Europe and beyond.

The carnyx was once widespread throughout much of Europe, although only a dozen or so fragments are known to us.

It was carried by bands of Celtic mercenaries; it was present at the attack on the Greek sanctuary at Delphi in 279 BC; it defied Julius Caesar in Gaul; and it faced Claudius when he invaded Britain. They are even shown on a Buddhist sculpture in India, proof of the far-flung connections of the Iron Age world.

However, they were not only used by the Celts; they were also used by the Dacians in modern Romania. The term “Celtic” is a complicated one. The concept of a pan-European Celtic culture is a myth; rather, aspects of art and technology were shared across vast distances by diverse cultures. The carnyx was one example of this.

A 12-foot-long, thin bronze tube with right-angle bends on both ends made up the carnyx. The lower end ended in a mouthpiece, and the upper end flared out into a bell that was usually decorated to look like a wild boar’s had. Historians believe it had a tongue that flapped up and down, increasing the noise made by the instrument. The carnyx was played upright so that the boar’s head bell protruded well above the warriors’ heads. Its primary goal was to create more noise and confusion on the battlefield.

The Greek historian Polybius (206-126BC) was so impressed by the clamor of the Gallic army and the sound of the carnyx, he observed that “there were countless trumpeters and horn blowers and since the whole army was shouting its war cries at the same time there was such a confused sound that the noise seemed to come not only from the trumpeters and the soldiers but also from the countryside which was joining in the echo”.

And the Roman historian Diodorus Siculus wrote, “Their trumpets are also of a peculiar and barbaric kind which produce a harsh, reverberating sound suitable to the confusion of battle.”

Archaeologists discovered a hoard of ritually destroyed weapons in 2004, including a dozen swords, scabbards, spearheads, a shield, bronze helmets, an iron helmet shaped like a swan, a cauldron, animal remains, and seven carnyces. Before the Tintignac discovery, the remains of only five actual carnyces had been found.

The finest was unearthed in Deskford, Scotland in 1816. The Deskford carnyx only has the boar’s head bell and is missing the mane, tongue, and tubing. Images of Carnyx players have been found as well. A Roman denarius, dating from 48 BC bears a representation of a Carnyx. Three carnyx players are featured prominently on the Gundestrup Cauldron, which was found in a Danish peat bog.

One of the seven found at Tintignac, on the other hand, was almost entirely complete. The Tintignac Carnyx was broken into 40 pieces. When puzzled back together, it was found to be just an inch short of six feet long with a single missing section of the tube. The bell was a boar’s head with protruding tusks and large pointed ears. Once restored, the Tintignac Carnyx proved to be the first virtually complete carnyx ever found.

By Leman Altuntaş.

Music video by John Kenny.

[arcanumofthorns]

There’s nothing quite as soul-healing as coming back home to your magical world. To inkstained fingers and scribbling and sketching on paper, whirling up new ideas, playing with watercolors and acrylics and oils. Organizing lists and polishing chapter titles, reading older snippets and connecting the dots to create new ones. Finding the frayed edges of the latest chapter’s latest paragraph, and picking them up one by one to yet again weave a beautiful tapestry that opens the door to my favorite realms. It’s good to be home.

[arcanumofthorns]

Dande wrote this.

How do you make people fall in love with you

challenge them to a duel 

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The haunting ancient Celtic carnyx being played for an audience. This is the sound Roman soldiers would have heard their Celtic enemies make.

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Michael Aristides

Art for Celtic fantasy series Arcanum of Thorns © S.K. Lumen

[arcanumofthorns]

Being a writer is like [blankly stares at laptop screen of manuscript for 30 min but is actually dreaming up next scenes] [creates playlist for specific scene] [watches movie/show and gets 2916382 ideas for plotline] [tries to write but too burnt out so ends up messing up next scene and then deleting it and questioning entire life choices] [starts writing midday and comes out of frenzy at 4 AM with another 2k words written but having forgotten how to human] [fingers ink-stained from brainstorming ideas for book] [gets 10 new book ideas and can’t decide which to focus on so ends up not writing either] [rereads draft and cracks up at own jokes] [rereads draft and yells at characters for being foolish] [rereads draft and cringes] [rereads draft and feels proud and accomplished] [wants to share writing with the whole world because it’s a piece of own soul] [mortified at sharing writing with the whole world because it’s a piece of own soul]

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“It was an eerie sensation. Her astral chord had just been severed and she was left floating in this suspended twilight, a world between worlds, where night was past and the sunrise an unreachable breath away. The heights mesmerized her into a bliss that only arcane knowledge could induce; but liberated as she was from strings, she was equally free to plunge into the vast depths before her.”

— © S.K. Lumen, “Arcanum of Thorns”

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“The moment I stop running, it all rushes back.”

Photography and fragment from Celtic fantasy series Arcanum of Thorns © S.K. Lumen

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They say the children of Danu, descendants of Source, had arrived to the Human World in a cloud of green mist. Over a thousand years later they returned to their homeland in the Otherworld, disheartened but not defeated, learning from their misplaced trust by locking themselves off from the foolish world of mortals.

From Celtic fantasy novel Arcanum of Thorns © S.K. Lumen

[arcanumofthorns]

why are cyberpunk tabletop things so obsessed with decency and personhood being tied to how many surgeries you haven’t had

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After so many years I feel like I've finally mastered my writer workflow, but if anyone so much as mentions a civilized sleeping schedule, buddy you're out of luck I can't help you.

Wake up at 5 AM routines for high productivity? Can't relate, I'm genetically engineered to write 2k words in two hours at 3 AM and then spend the following day in a daze only cured by multiple mugs of heavily steeped black tea.

The muse wants what she wants and her will must be upheld, I don't make the rules.

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So my outlines are like 1000-2000 words with only a vague description of what’s happening and for some reason when I read my outlines it’s just like the story is at 3x speed and it’s so fast I can’t hear what they’re saying but I know the basic idea of what’s happening. And then I have to interpret this into a cohesive story.

[arcanumofthorns]

every writer: i love my characters so much, they're my babies & i would do anything for them, absolute sweethearts also every writer: that one dies, and that one goes through fire and brimstone, and that one gets abandoned and lives through his worst nightmares, and that one loses everything he's ever loved, and-