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Shuffle your favorite playlist and post the first five songs that come up. Then copy/paste this ask to your favorite mutuals, if you want!

Okay my *most played* playlist is definitely the boss fight one I use when I draw or play Monster Hunter, soooo

A Thoughtful Strategy -- Motoi Sakuraba You are My Hope -- Revo Formidable Foe -- Shoji Meguro Dragon Fight -- Nobuo Uematsu Boss Battle (Guitar and Ukelele) -- Dustin Bozovich

Also here, have a spare 'cos I like this one: Like Chimeras -- Joel Baylis

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Snow patrol, Motoyoshi Arai

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reblog and put in the tags your favorite underrated tv show

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what if garak made little build-a-bear-esque outfits for kukalaka. but he doesn’t say anything about it. just one day julian walks in his quarters and kukalaka is wearing a tiny little outfit that looks suspiciously like something from garak’s wardrobe. julian questions garak abt it but he’s just like “why would you think I had something to do with your bear’s charming little number, my dear doctor? I’m just as confused as you :)” while wearing an outfit that is identical to kukalaka’s

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Last one before spooktober takes over

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Tasmanian Giant Freshwater Crayfish

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04 of 15 - Modern Compendium: Full Moon - Beast Phantom Cat

Although cross-cultural myths are becoming more common these days, thanks to ease of travel and the internet’s increasing ubiquity, there are still very few stories that appear in a wide variety of disparate cultures. The Phantom Cat, which can be seen from North America to the United Kingdom to Denmark to India, is one of these myths.

Generally speaking, the actual story behind the Phantom Cat is pretty mundane. Typically someone will be out for a walk, or even just looking out of their window, and see a gigantic black cat in the distance casually skulking through the brush. In more extreme cases, people have claimed to see them near the carcasses of recently deceased farm animals, tying them to mysterious cattle mutilations. Although responses to these sightings vary, it’s not uncommon for the local constabulary to be called out – in England, where Phantom Cat sightings are fairly common, there have actually been cases where the Royal Marines have been called out to search for the beasts.

Explanations for Phantom Cat sightings are about as varied as you’d expect. Cryptozoologists are convinced these animals are surviving Ice Age fauna, the general population seems to view them as escaped exotic pets wandering the suburban landscape, and skeptics look at the vast majority of Phantom Cat sightings as dark-colored ordinary domestic felines. And to be fair, humans are really terrible at judging the size of things, especially small objects, from a great distance.

At any rate, the cross-cultural ubiquity of Phantom Cats puts them way up high in the Beast family – right at the top, in fact. They aren’t hugely powerful, as is typical for the Beasts, but the Phantom Cat does get one of the Absorb skills, so its not a total loss.

For more info on this and every other demon in the modern Compendium, have a look at our extensive Data File, right over (here).

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03 of 15 - Modern Compendium: Full Moon - Lady Black Annis

The true origins of what we think of as the stereotypical modern witch is a winding, complex trek back through history. Involving everything from plague memories to religious persecution to culture-bound misogyny and even actual gods and goddesses, the pointy-hatted, green-skinned hag we know and love is the product of a long history of cultural cross-pollination.

Black Annis here represents a surprisingly large piece of the puzzle, contributing a number of defining features to our modern witch’s identity. Derived from an old English boogeyman myth, parents in eighteenth century Leicestershire would tell their children of the flesh-eating old woman who lived up in the hills, whose solid iron claws could rip a man limb from limb, and how the blue-skinned hag would hang the skin of her victims outside of her hovel to dry. 

Today, scholars are firmly divided as to where Black Annis actually comes from. Some point to Celtic goddesses like Danu, others to the Germanic Hel, while some actually go all the way back to Egypt for a glimpse of Isis-Hathor or the Greek Demeter. However, Black Annis’s most popular depictions today come from the Goddess Movement and neopaganism, where it is speculated that this hag’s true roots lie in an actual person by the name of Agnes Scott.

Agnes Scott was an Anchoress (that is to say, a female hermit of sorts) whose life of prayer and seclusion was twisted during the religiously polarized atmosphere of the Protestant Reformation into a tale of a wild woman with a taste for flesh. Of course, there’s not a huge amount of evidence for this theory either, but it found strong traction in the arena of matriarchal religion.

In terms of her position in the Compendium, Black Annis’s main problem is that she’s been slowly going out of style for a long time now. Neopaganism and wicca don’t like to see depictions of witches as cannibal monsters, unsurprisingly enough, and so Black Annis’s stock has been falling as people look for more positive representation. And so, although she has had a big role in shaping the way people think about witches, Black Annis ends up near the bottom of the Lady family.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here).

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02 of 15 - Modern Compendium: Full Moon - Holy Foo Fighter

The ultimate genesis of UFOs in the public consciousness is frequently pinned on a wide variety of events. Some people point to the sightings of Kenneth Arnold’s 1947 sighting of discs over Mount Rainier, some to the crash at Roswell later that same year – heck, some even point to the halos and angels in medieval paintings as evidence of UFOs in ancient times. But from a sociological point of view, UFOs were born in the skies of World War II. Never before had a war been fought so intensely in the air, and for the first time during that conflict, people all over the world looked to the sky with fear of what they might see.

This was especially true of the pilots who fought in those skies. Pilots reported seeing bulbous balls of light floating in the sky, sometimes hovering out of range, sometimes engaging the pilots with complex maneuvers that defied the laws of physics. There were, and indeed still are, a variety of theories as to what Foo Fighters actually were. Atmospheric phenomena is a favorite, aliens too, naturally, but there’s also a theory that Foo Fighters were some sort of bizarre German super weapon, concocted as a last-ditch effort by the Nazis as the Allies started to breathe down their necks.

The most popular theory these days seems to be a combination of those last two theories; that the Nazis somehow got their hands on a downed UFO, and reverse-engineered it into a wonder weapon that could fly rings even around jet aircraft. These days, the Foo Fighter represents a foundational part of many UFO belief systems, as it introduces the idea that humans can reverse-engineer alien technology, and reinforces the idea that this is what the government of the United States is now doing.

Foo Fighters enjoy a certain level of popularity amongst UFO buffs, but really only as an interesting piece of history. Certainly no one reports seeing Foo Fighters anymore. So despite their place as a rather important part of UFO history, they fit rather low in the Compendium, sitting near the bottom of the Holy family.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here).

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01 of 15 - Modern Compendium: Full Moon - Beast Rods

Rods are just weird backwards and forwards. They occupy a place in mythology which is very modern; creatures born out of quirks of technology, created when a large population interacts with complex gadgets that they don’t fully understand.

See, the first Rods were sighted in the mid-90s, as the first really affordable mass-market video cameras hit the streets. People would take camcorders on vacation, record some landmark far off in the distance, take it home, and suddenly notice these weird elongated winged things in the foreground of their recording. As always happens, people began coming up with stories to explain away the unexplained, eventually settling on the term “Rods.” These creatures, the stories went, were either an undiscovered insect capable of supersonic flight, or very small UFOs, or – and this is my personal favorite – they were extradimensional beings who lived on the Sun.

In truth, Rods are an artifact of the way cameras work. People assume that the camera just takes a huge number of perfectly clear pictures, and then runs them back at very high speed to create the illusion of movement. In fact, modern cameras take alternating pieces of pictures at extremely high speed, which are slotted together while the video plays back. This allows for a much higher frame rate and smoother movement, but also creates bizarre illusions when small things move through the camera’s field of vision very quickly. Basically, Rods are small critters whose high rate of movement leaves their image spliced across several frames of film.

In a mythological sense, Rods are genuinely bizarre. They have little connection to any other established mythology – even the UFO connection is little more than a glancing blow – and the technological nature of their sightings seems to make people uncomfortable associating them with actual religion. Without any connection to Spiritualism or paranormal tales, Rods are kind of like non-ghostly Orbs, which leaves them seriously wanting for a Family in the Compendium to fit with. In the end, the popularity of the “mysterious hypersonic Cryptid insect” theory means the Rods get dumped in with the Beasts.

As cameras have improved over the last decade-and-a-half, Rods have fallen somewhat out of favor. They just don’t show up as much without the interlacing video of camcorders and cheap VHS tapes. Rods do still have some fans, though, so they drop in on the Beast Family around Lv. 50, with some genuinely bizarre skills for that group.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here).

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04 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 4 - Vile The Rake

One of the more popular spooky critters to be created by the internet in the last decade or so, The Rake actually bears a strong resemblance to another member of the Vile family, Slender Man. There are a number of reasons for this, not the least of which is that they were both created in the same Something Awful forum thread. But both creatures fit into the category of violent monsters that are never seen directly, but can be caught on film.

The original stories about The Rake tell of a creature who stalks people while they sleep, often taking up residence in the homes of their victims to better observe their slumber. The presence of The Rake has a debilitating effect on the psyche of its victims, inducing hallucinations, psychotic behavior, and even suicide. And those humans who do not take their own lives are often found disemboweled and dismembered.

The monster itself is described as a pale, hairless humanoid with huge vicious claws and constantly bared teeth. Its movement is erratic and looks almost painful, its knobbly limbs and joints twisting as it crawls in a kind of bizarre mockery of human locomotion. 

As with Slender Man, The Rake has seen numerous attempts to divest it of its internet origins and bring it into the realm of “legitimate” folklore. It has never been quite as successful, though, despite enthusiastic YouTube hoaxes and even attempts to cross it with Cryptids like Virginia’s White Thing for extra credibility. I think the main problem is just that The Rake doesn’t have Slender Man’s level of inexplicability; Slender Man’s goals are always inscrutable, while The Rake’s intentions are quite obvious.

The Rake sits comfortably in the middle of the Vile family. It’s still fairly popular nearly a decade after its creation, and it definitely strikes a chord in the human psyche, all of which makes it a fairly strong, if obvious, demon.

For more information on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here).

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03 of 05 - Modern Compenidum: Deity Family, Part 4 - Rumor The Hook

We couldn’t let October pass without a good ol’ fashioned urban legend. And I’ve had a very clear idea for The Hook’s design practically since I started the Compendium, so it’s nice to finally get to it. ^^b

First off, a little background: The Hook is an extremely popular urban legend which has been passed down from generation to generation since at least the 1950′s. The story goes that a young couple drove out to Makeout Point (or whatever local equivalent exists in the area of whoever is telling the story) on a date, and stopped to watch the stars for a while. They turned on the radio, but instead of music they got a news report about a hook-handed mass murderer who had escaped from jail and was now wandering the area. The teens freak out, and rush home. Once they arrive, the young man chivalrously gets out of the car to open the door for his young lady, only to find (dun dun dunnnn) a bloody hook hanging on the car door.

As with all urban legends, there’s a lot of variation to the tale. Sometimes the young man actually gets out of the car, either to prove there’s nothing out there or to use the bathroom, but either way he gets horribly murdered. Sometimes his decapitated head is used to bang on the car roof, which is a nice touch. During the 70′s, there was a vogue for the hook-handed dude to be a mental patient rather than a simple mass murderer. 

But no matter how the story is told, there’s always two underlying messages to the tale, depending on who does the telling. When told by a parent or authority figure, the point behind The Hook is, “People who park cars and make out have horrible things happen to them.” When told by teenagers to each other, the point is, “Well here we are all alone at Makeout Point, here’s a scary story to encourage you to put your arms around me.” Which makes this a nice little multipurpose story that everyone can enjoy.

In Shin Megami Tensei terms, The Hook is a low-to-mid level demon who tends to focus more on physical offense than most other members of the Rumor family. The fact that it’s basically just a disembodied prosthetic makes it pretty fragile in terms of defense, but nobody ever expects you to block with a hook anyway.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our expanding and informative Data File, right over (here).

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01 of 04 - Modern Compendium - Lady Madonna Oriente

I’m really trying hard not to go back and re-do all of the early Compendium entries, but there are a couple where I think it’s pretty much inevitable. I did a run of very high-level demons pretty early on, and… They pretty much all look like poo to me now. ^^;;; So here’s a redesign of Madonna Oriente, hopefully now a bit less of a ripoff of Skadi.

Anyway, Madonna Oriente is an unusual figure in that, historically speaking, she’s on extremely shaky ground. The central piece of historical evidence citing the existence of this goddess comes from a pair of Italian heretics, two women imprisoned and eventually executed by the Inquisition in the year 1390. Initially, their story of lavish celebrations and demonic worship of an obscure female figure in the houses of Milan’s well-to-do was dismissed as pure fantasy, and indeed to this day there remains very little evidence that Madonna Oriente was ever a major religious figure in Italy or anywhere else in Europe.

Today, modern Neopagans take Madonna Oriente as evidence of a matriarchal religion spanning the whole of human history, regardless of the poor quality of the evidence for her existence. Neopaganism has never had a particular problem with adopting the religious figures they require, or even creating them whole-cloth, and on the whole I’m a fan of that idea. But it is interesting to see how little it takes for a religious figure to become central to a belief system, as long as it fits a certain place in the puzzle of modern belief.

Madonna Oriente is the highest-leveled demon in the Lady family, largely due to the importance of her placement in the religious pedigree of modern Neopaganism. Her association with the moon and the power of witches is another point in her favor; Madonna Oriente makes one hell of an offensive spell caster. ^^b

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our Data File, right over (here).

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02 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 4 - Lady Mother Carey

A personification of the cruelty of the sea, Mother Carey actually has a wide variety of depictions in popular folklore. She’s been portrayed as a vengeful witch, a cruel-but-fair woman, and even as the wife of Davy Jones, the sea devil who was once one of the most popular figures in maritime legend. One particularly interesting version of this figure played off of the possible Latin origins of her name, Mater cara, meaning “precious mother,” depicting her as the Virgin Mary.

Generally speaking, though, Mother Carey is depicted as a capricious and occasionally vicious old woman who controls the sea. She’s often seen as a figure who favors strength above all else, consigning the weak to a watery oblivion. This very Chaotic, in Shin Megami Tensei terms, bend to her figure is further supported by a series of tales that cast her as a nature spirit, a sort of force of evolution that culls weak sailors in order to improve the human species as a whole.

Due to her very Chaos-styled philosophy of evolutionary superiority and association with magic and the devil, Mother Carey fits into the Lady family. Which is a happy coincidence, because some of the most popular illustrations have Mother Carey appearing as a downright stereotypical incarnation of a witch. Seriously, all she needs is a black cat and we’d be in business.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our spooky Data File, right over (here).

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01 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 4 - Genma Headless Horseman

Holy crap that took a lot longer than I expected. I did not have a full appreciation for the complexity of this design. @_@

But yes! The Headless Horseman! Introduced to the United States in the early 19th century by Washington Irving’s The Legend of Sleepy Hollow, the Horseman is based on a long-standing tall tale that has surprisingly deep roots in history. Irving’s version of the Headless Horseman is said to be the ghost of a Hessian mercenary who had his head blown off by cannon fire in the Revolutionary War, but there are tales of Horsemen as far back as the Middle Ages. In fact, there’s a good chance that early tales of headless riders were inspired by the long-standing Irish fairy story of the Dullahan, an animated suit of armor that rode a black steed through the countryside, and who could kill simply by speaking the victim’s name.

The Legend of Sleepy Hollow has always been a popular American myth, especially around Halloween, and its impact on pop culture is pretty easy to see. The Horseman appears on Halloween-themed merchandise every year, there’s a popular Disney short about him – hell, there are even high school football teams that have the Horseman as a mascot, and if that doesn’t say mainstream acceptance, I don’t know what does. The Headless Horseman is unique in one interesting way, though; it is one of the few Halloween monsters that have been able to resist the slide into kitsch. You might see cutesy ghosts and witches at Halloween, for example, but a cute Horseman is pretty rare.

As a uniquely American monster, the Headless Horseman fits neatly into the Genma family. He is right at the bottom, but the Horseman is a powerful demon for its level, and would probably qualify as one of the early special Fusions.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our extensive Data File, right over (here).

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05 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Kishin Family, Part 5 - Kishin Wanjiku

There really is nothing more revealing about a national identity than the figures and ideals they use to represent them. For example, when the United States of the 1950s saw Uncle Sam, they knew they were looking at a paternalistic figure, a figure of authority with just a hint of familial affection. So when the people of Kenya chose to refer to the common man in the street as Wanjiku, it represents an interesting insight into their national identity.

The name Wanjiku comes from the origin myths of the Agikuyu tribe, one of the largest ethnic groups in Kenya. They say that the first man and woman, known as Gikuyu and Mumbi, were created by God and had nine children. Wanjiku was one of these children, and later went on to found the Agikuyu tribe.

Interestingly, the practice of referring to the general public of Kenya as Wanjiku is a relatively recent thing. It seems that during a crisis, former president Daniel arap Moi dismissed calls for a new constitution by saying, “Do you think Wanjiku understands what is a constitution?” Which, frankly, makes the whole thing downright hysterical in my eyes. You have to have a wonderful little contrarian streak to take a name hurled at you as an insult and turn it into the personification of your country.

Though Wanjiku is quite popular in her home country, knowledge of this figure is in no way wide-spread. Because of this, she hovers around the middle of the Kishin family. She does have a nicely broad selection of skills to learn, though, so it’s not a total loss.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our ever expanding Data File, right over (here).