pineconeius

[pineconeius]

Hands you a mic. Talk about the religions in ISAT please.

fumbles with the mic as the suddenly spotlight floods from above with a click

ohhh there's so much to talk about with this!!

as i said here, there's actually a bit of an overlap of between the change belief and the universe belief. it can only be expected, of course; the two countries are extremely close in proximity and beliefs of different cultures that have some trace similarities, often even started off from the same base source, a bit like languages!

to sum up the similarities from that post, both the change god and the universe have to do with fate and your place in the world. they're about leading you through life, offering protection and support during your journey through life and its avenues.

that's not to say these religions don't clash; first off all, the change god clearly has some divine beef with the universe and we'll get to it, but besides that there are certainly some foundational differences that you can see really well when the party examines the first key we can find - the circle key, the symbol of the change belief, portraying how everyone and everything belongs to this world.

siffrin can, after some time, question that even if the smaller circles are within bigger ones, the biggest one is not inside of anything. in their first reaction, and thus most honest one, they're quite indignant and ruffled about it, and even later throughout act 2 they seem wholly unconvinced.

this is of course because siffrin's faith has an explanation for it that the change belief lacks, although we don't learn about it until act 4, when they seem to not be able to hold it in anymore.

that's the first crucial discrepancy - the thing inset into the belief in the universe is the sense of belonging to something bigger than you can imagine, bigger than your mind can envelop. the change belief seems, in contrast to that, more cozy, approachable. this fits well with the concept of the houses of change that serve kind of as community centers for help and self-betterment, and with the housemaidens that serve as examples, help others fulfill their goals or help them get better, be it skill- or health-wise.

(the rest of this long ask response is under the cut for care of mobile users that can't use the J hotkey)

the change belief is about providing you with safety during your inner journey so that you can become your better self. it doesn't need anything bigger than the world because the world is where all the people are. the universe belief needs the world where everything and everyone is to be within something else because it's about trusting something bigger than you is in charge of your fate and keeping you on track.

i said this already in the other post, but the change belief largely focuses on your end goal. you can take any road you want, in any length of time you require, and take any measures you want in order to achieve change. in the end, what matters is that you've achieved it. the universe is completely the opposite here - it values your journey and your experiences during it, it leads you so you can safely follow it, and you'll end up where you're supposed to be because of that.

the universe, unlike the change god, in not an advisor; it requires your blind trust and perhaps baseless faith, and honestly this might be why the change god mocks the universe as a god that doesn't even talk to you.

they explain pretty well why the time loop goes against their nature; after all, the end goal slips from the story's grasp every time. they don't care for all the fluff between the points on the map, they want the result most of all. this ceaseless wandering is not their domain; it's the universe's. the change belief needs the possibility of change and evolution and the universe requires you to follow and journey both inward yourself and outward to the world to know and understand both—

HA! I HAVE TRICKED YOU AND LULLED YOU INTO A FALSE SENSE OF SECURITY!!! THIS POST IS ACTUALLY A HIT PIECE ON THE KING

if you really think about it, the king goes against the principles of both the religion of the country he grew to call his new home, and the country he hails from. him freezing vaugarde stops everyone from changing, making them stay exactly the same forever, but that part is clear from the text and rebuked by the party, especially by mirabelle. however, his wish also stops everyone and himself from advancing forward, from continuing the journey. he clings onto the scraps of the past with fear and desperation and is too scared to just trust the universe to lead him into a life that's different but no less good. he'd doubly a hypocrite.

if you can't take my word for it, siffrin's might do. after the event of the king trying to coax them into saying the name of the northern island with him, regardless of what you pick, this is how siffrin, who seems to be a pretty devout believer in the universe, seems to sum it up.

siffrin in general seems to have accepted that his home is gone - not in that he doesn't care or that he made peace with it but in that he is fully aware nothing can bring back what's been lost. it's gone forever and that's that.

(honestly that sense of finality seeps into even things that are far from being concluded often and siffrin overdoes it by accepting his conjectures as final truths that can't be changed. but that's neither here nor there)

the king twists the fact his wish got granted into approval rather than a tool for his journey, a goal that the universe sets you out in. because that's what wishes are - the universe sets and reroutes a path towards them for you, braids your fate in such a way that it's bound to come true. no wish in isat, when granted, gives you something material; you can't just ask for a new bike and have it materialize in front of you. the granted wishes, siffrin's and the king's, most prominently, aren't granted for their own sake. instead, they assist them in leading them to the fate that was preordained for them; the king, at the cost of being frozen himself, gets to remember all he lost and keep it with him forever in that form, and siffrin's wish, as broken as it is, makes him realize him and his family can and will stay together. you get exactly what you need to self-actualize as best as possible while enroute to the resolution of your wish. but the journey is the resolution, the process is the reward itself. that's what the universe's deal is.

(as for the expressions, we get very little on them but they seem the most typical to the pantheon of gods we're familiar with. they remind me a lot of the muses; an essence you seek guidance in that you hope will imbue you with its domain.)

thank you sooo much for giving me space to ramble about this ake you're the best ╰(*°▽°*)╯

[pineconeius]

i think a lot can be done with headcanons about the northern island because we're bound to get very little information on it in canon. what little we get is enough to get our curiosity going and the only way to sate it is to think of stuff yourself, and it's genuinely so fun

take the beaches and the black sand we're told they're made out of, for example. i think that it'd be really cool if, on some occasions, like maybe for festivals, the islanders would arrange constellations and other elaborate patterns on it with white rocks. i'm talking elaborate, long-spanning collaborative collages that you can't see all at once, just like the sky

another idea for beaches is for it to be popular to make art in the sand during the low tide and allowing for that art to be washed away. the universe is all about the constant journey and impermanence, so letting in be taken by the sea and having this be something not ever finished in a way you can see later would work well to mirror that

moving a bit off the topic of the seaside but still keeping to art, i think public collaborative pieces like murals anyone can add onto might also be cool to have, what with being a part of something bigger and only one small part of the universe that works with other parts to live their life

i find it interesting how such an ideal-based religion - that doesn't seem to worship anything, since the universe is something more of a guide being asked for advice rather than a divine being that's revered (which i talk ab here a bit) - would influence and permeate the cultural and day-to-day life. cool to ponder :) i have many a thought about the island, as always

[pineconeius]

Firewind my beloved

I wrote a fic!

[pineconeius]

Sachiko

In reference to this

[pineconeius]

so it’s the month of may huh?…well if you replaced the ‘m’ in may with ‘g’ well…you ‘may’ be surprised at what you find 😏😏

[pineconeius]

you wanna end my reign of terror so bad it makes you look stupid

[pineconeius]

POV: You're the tutorial sadness in Act 4 and this rogue is looking at you funny

[pineconeius]

yknow the story of odysseus tricking polyphemus by giving him a fake name and then blinding him is great, but i think a lot of people really sleep on the hilarious fact that, after odysseus reveals his name to polyphemus and polyphemus remembers the prophecy that a man named odysseus would blind him, polyphemus is like “WOW when i heard that prophecy i thought odysseus was going to be tall and sexy and strong but turns out you’re just short and an asshole”

[pineconeius]

[pineconeius]

oh. I fear I’ve made a grave mistake

[pineconeius]

birds that look like fruit <3

[pineconeius]

I've told you several times that your advice doesn't work for me!

Just focus instead of getting distracted by everything.

You make it sound so easy..... Ugh.

I don't like drawing on my phone due to the fact that I can't see well on it and sometimes overdo the colors. But I hope it's not that bad.

I saw that people liked my simple art (admittedly, I didn't try because I didn't expect to get even five likes), so I decided to draw a full-fledged art in my style, but I had a little trouble with colors. ("TwT)

My English is bad, I'm sorry

[pineconeius]

Post-Night Raven Windy

Everything heals or fades eventually, except for the gem, I'm keeping that!

[pineconeius]

herald and lil baby cap

[pineconeius]

Fire Spirit 🔥

[pineconeius]

The Various Flavors of FireWind

I love them way too much

[pineconeius]

guess whos hyperfixated on the stupid cookie game

i really dont know how it happened i just woke up like this 2 weeks ago and went with it