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localcuttlefish · 21 days

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A Theoretical Lore Bible of Caesar’s Legion as a Nation

Hello good citizens of Tumblr! I’ve been on a Fallout: New Vegas kick lately, and I recently graduated college with a bachelors degree (major illustration, minor history of art and western civilization). So now that I’m certified to draw dick AND talk about Ancient Rome, I have things to yap about.

Have you ever looked at Caesar’s Legion and wondered how the more intricate aspects of their society model after the Roman Empire? Because I have! And because of those very musings, I have come up with a little dumb idiot theoretical lore Bible on how The Legion might function as a more developed nation, using my back knowledge of western civ and Roman art and culture. Nomenclature, societal structure, industries, imports and exports, the whole nine yards!

DISCLAIMERS: I have not looked through the writers’/directors’ social media accounts thoroughly enough yet to confirm if any of the information I’m bringing to the table is already solidly canonical or solidly non-canonical in the lore of Fallout: New Vegas. There is a nonzero chance I may say something that someone in charge has already said, or something that’s already been disproven or denied. If you catch something I don’t, let me know! I like worldbuilding for fun like this, and I want to keep everything as lore-cohesive as possible to challenge myself. I’ll come back to edit this every now and then if I come up with more cohesive lore pieces, or if you guys have any suggestions that would tie in the lore better. In addition, Caesar’s Legion is an inherently totalitarian nation that supports itself on some pretty sexist and bigoted social structures. There is no universe in which I support, condone, or otherwise encourage any of the ideologies of Caesar’s Legion in real life. Don’t become a tyrant dictator of a military slave nation, kids!

CONTENT WARNINGS: Discussion of slavery, sexism, physical and verbal violence, unsafe medical practices, brainwashing/psychological abuse, and death.

Without further ado, the absolute wall of text that is the theoretical lore Bible of Caesar’s Legion. Enjoyyyyy!!

CHAPTERS:

I: Citizenship

- How To Become a Citizen

- Social Castes

- Names

II: Everyday Life

- Common Social Customs

- Household Structure

- Settlement/Town Structure

- Clothing, Hair, and Accessories

- Languages

III: Industry

- Jobs

- Imports and Exports

IV: Politics, Education, and Religion

- What Senate?

- In The Unlikely Event of a Transfer of Power

- Common Political Beliefs

- Male vs Female Education Standards

Walk and talk with me about the ways The Legion mirrors, juxtaposes, and takes inspiration from Ancient Roman society in a post-apocalyptic setting.

The first time I encountered Caesar’s Legion in game, my initial thought was “What about the American West makes these people think this is the perfect spot to reinvent Italy?” it’s a barren, land-locked desert with only one or two significant water access points. Italy is a peninsula in a temperate climate with high mountain ranges and verdant forests. Most of this was a jokey thought, but then it struck me that a phalanx would actually be an insanely powerful force in a flat landscape. It all started coming together from there in a most dreadful shape

I: Citizenship

- How to Become a Citizen

Caesar’s Legion is a colonialist nation. They gain land through conquest, typically, and have a tendency to try and homogenize the culture to their liking. Generally speaking, after a town has been conquered, people who willingly surrender or submit to The Legion are given an opportunity for citizenship. Any survivors of conquest that aren’t willing to surrender are either executed or sold into slavery. Slaves are not considered citizens, because the rights and freedoms of a slave do not reflect the rights and freedoms that The Legion offers to those who can be put to better use or are complacent with the mission of The Legion.

Once one is offered a chance for citizenship, the highest ranking general in whatever battalion just took over that person’s land will evaluate if the person can be put to work, put on the battlefield, or is generally useless. Remember, an offer isn’t a guarantee. There is a chance someone who is offered citizenship may be evaluated as useless and sold into slavery regardless of their complacency. Protesting the verdict typically increases the chance of spontaneously being executed, or, if one doesn’t like their proposed role of worker or soldier, being demoted from potential citizen to slave.

If the general regards one as fit to work or fit for the battlefield, these “half-citizens” (media populi for plural, and media persona for singular) will be assigned a new legal name after a record of all new media populi is sent from the general to the regional Vilicus (overseer ;) we’ll elaborate more on this in chapter II), and given the task of minimum 400 hours of what we would understand as “community service” before the Vilicus confirms their citizenship. This “community service” is called pentimento, or repentance. It’s a form of brainwashing in which The Legion is in a position to repeatedly reaffirm that the media persona has more value here helping The Legion than they ever did as a free settler in New Vegas before, and instills dynamics that empower and encourage violence against people of “lower status” (slaves and women, usually). Kinda like a Stanford Prison Experiment that’s purposely designed to cause power dynamics instead of accidentally stumbling to the conclusion. Pentimento may include anything from helping re-pave and clear trade routes in Legion territory, to catching runaway slaves. Each media persona is given a number of tasks to complete per month, and each failed task results in more hours being added onto the total pentimento before citizenship is granted. The number of initial hours of pentimento a media persona needs to do may vary depending on the whims of the Vilicus, how much they resisted Legion control in the past, how many tasks of pentimento they leave incomplete per month, and whether they are masculine or feminine presenting, but is never less than 400 to start. Most media populi end up with starting numbers in the 600s or 700s.

Once the pentimento hours are complete and approved by the Vilicus, the media persona becomes a citizen and is expected to continue the service to the growing empire through either the trade they work in, or through service in the army. However, there is a several-month-long window of time in which spies occasionally visit the new citizens’ homes to monitor them for suspicious activity. In this window of time, spies may be looking for signs that indicate the new citizen is an agent from a rival faction sent to infiltrate The Legion. Only high-ranking officials know about this window. One can lose their citizenship and be returned back to status of media persona if they show suspicious behavior during this time, or worse, be demoted from citizen to slave. In cases where there is undeniable evidence that a new citizen is an agent for a rival faction, the citizen is immediately put to death, and their citizenship is revoked (though revoking the citizenship of someone being put to death is a little redundant).

A baby born into a family of two Legion citizens is automatically also a citizen, and must be given a name in line with Legion naming conventions (which will be discussed next segment). A baby born into a family in which the mother is not a citizen and the father is a citizen will also be considered a citizen. A baby born into a family in which the mother is a citizen and the father is not a citizen will not be considered a citizen at birth. A baby born to a family of two media populi or two slaves will not be considered a citizen at birth.

A person who willingly enters Legion territory and requests citizenship will follow the same steps as how a person from a conquered land would be evaluated for citizenship.

- Social Castes

Social Castes in Caesar’s Legion are determined by how useful one is to the empire, and whether one is male or female. The more sexist aspects of the caste system stem from the fact that women in The Legion can’t serve in the military, and the military is a notably higher status than most other castes since Caesar’s Legion is a military state.

Of course, Caesar is the highest on the social pyramid, followed by his chosen officials (take Lanius for example), then chosen guards (praetorian guard). The military comes next, with the social hierarchy of the military following that which was established in the Roman Empire in the early establishment of Caligula’s reign. After that, religious officials (which act as pseudo-indoctrinators into The Legion, and therefore are pretty essential to brainwashing the next generation of Legionnaires). Then, the Vilici, the overseers of each region/settlement. Next, the average male citizen and then, the average female citizen. Media populi come next, and following that social caste is performers (which serve very little purpose in the eyes of Caesar and the goal of conquest), with male performers having marginally more respect among the populous than female performers. Second to last is slaves, once again with males being just a little more respected than females, but what does that matter when both are going to be abused by the upper castes anyways. At the very bottom of the social ladder is outsiders and criminals, which need to be broken before earning even a sliver of humanity in the eyes of The Legion.

Caesar > Chosen Officials > Chosen Guard > Military (with sub-hierarchy of Ancient Roman military) > Religious Officials > Vilici > Average Citizen > Media Populi > Performers > Slaves > Outsiders and Criminals

- Names

The average citizen in Legion territory wouldn’t need to immediately use their new assigned name (since there’s not enough force immediately available to actually push that, the nation is still growing), but The Legion will give them a “legal” name that they’ll be addressed by formally, and in the best case scenario, the original name will be effectively waned out because it simply doesn’t matter in comparison to the new one.

A praenomen acts effectively as a first name one uses around close friends and family, while a nomen (while acting as a last name) becomes what one is more commonly known by in public. The average citizen will usually have a nomen at least, and a male citizen will have a praenomen and nomen.

- MASCULINE: A classical Latin praenomen will be assigned equivalent to the meaning or phonetics of the new citizen’s first name. The nomen will be determined based on either phonetic/meaning equivalent of the last name, or based on the new citizen’s occupation.

- FEMININE: No praenomen will be assigned. The citizen’s title will be a feminized variation of their father’s nomen, differentiated in generation by number nomenclature (Major, Minor, Tertia, etc). If they have no father, they will assume the feminized nomen of a living male partner that is already a Legion citizen. If they have no living Legion family, they will be assigned the name “Romana” and likely be either sold into slavery or auctioned to a bachelor to gain a proper nomen.

For example: Marcus Gaius has two daughters. The eldest daughter is Gaia Major. The youngest daughter is Gaia Minor. Gaia Minor meets Decimus Junius, and they get married. Now Gaia Minor is named Junia. Gaia Major remains unchanged.

Legion soldiers have more dignity in society, and therefore have all the previous conventions, plus a cognomen. Since all Legion soldiers are masculine, differentiation between masc and fem naming conventions is irrelevant from this point forward. The nomen of a soldier may be akin to the structure of how an average citizen’s would be given, or if the soldier shows exceptional prestige and has no remaining male family, a nomen referencing warfare or combat will be assigned to them (Marcus, Augustus, Drusus, etc.).

A Legion cognomen acts effectively as a Roman military callsign. Cognomens follow classical Roman conventions. The cognomen will be used most frequently in a military setting.

II: Everyday Life

- Common Social Customs

Many Roman social customs are adopted into Legion life. For example, the entertainment at the colosseum is mimicked in the tourneys in the various arenas scattered throughout Legion territory. However, because of the key difference in that The Legion isn’t even pretending not to be a totalitarian dictatorship, there are a number of drastic differences between Roman social customs and Legion social customs.

Because of how respected the military is in Legion society, it is commonplace to show soldiers with utmost reverence. It’s customary to allow soldiers to stay in a citizen’s place of residence if the soldier requests it, and it’s customary to refer to the soldier by their military rank, not their nomen or cognomen (especially if the soldier in question is on duty). It’s considered rude or inappropriate to question the motives of a soldier, or prevent a soldier from accessing areas of a citizen’s property. Such transgressions can potentially be met with violence.

One may frequently see slaves struggling to keep up with workloads. It’s taboo, but not punishable to help them, as long as it doesn’t interfere with the productivity of one’s own work. After all, The Legion gains nothing from incomplete work. If helping a slave means increasing efficiency, then it’s appropriate, but a citizen may get strange looks from others for doing so.

Utilitarianism is the ideal philosophy under which everyone should function in an ideal Legion society, but this is clearly not the case nor the environment to foster it. Social norms are based strongly on class, and in most cases, selfishness prevails because selflessness can be seen as weak (or worse, suspicious) by trigger-happy soldiers and spies.

But hey, at least sex isn’t considered a super taboo topic or activity in Legion society. Got that much going for them. Granted, it’s seen more like a conquest, but at least it’s not seen as a sin. Woohoo? Lets go? Kinda? One step forward two steps back.

- Household Structure

A household in Legion territory for a citizen of average means will likely be similar to any other household in New Vegas (with the addition of slaves in wealthier households). Where things start to get confusing is the aforementioned situation of soldiers being allowed to invade households at will. Psychologically, these soldiers are deprived of a lot of comforts the average citizen may have. There is a decidedly nonzero chance that soldiers can show up like stray cats and keep coming back in the event that a citizen is interesting enough to them. Soldiers sometimes “claim” houses or small patches of territory they frequent as a substitute for the emotional interaction they lack. Humans are social creatures. The soldiers might not know why they want to keep coming back, but they do keep coming back. Parasocial.

Generally, a woman’s domain is the household in Legion territory. While the society is by no means matriarchal, it’s customary for a woman to maintain control over most happenings within a household. This often means a woman will need to interact with stray soldiers more frequently. Among female citizens in Legion territory, these soldiers are called catuli (singular catulus) for their presence and tendencies, though this is always in secret due to the harsh punishment of misrepresenting a soldier’s status to his face. A household can sometimes have up to three catuli claim it before fights start to break out among them about perceived territory.

It is expected for a couple in a household to have children. Cultivating multiple generations of soldiers is part of how The Legion grows most efficiently, because children are impressionable enough to instill Legion values without struggle. If a household does not have a child after several years of partnership, it is considered suspicious and the male of the partnership is encouraged to be unfaithful or open the relationship. While there are no consequences for not having children, there is intense pressure to do so.

- Settlement/Town Structure

As mentioned before, the equivalent of a mayor in each region is called a Vilicus, or an overseer. The Vilicus is responsible for tallying the census, assigning names to media populi, approving the pentimento of media populi, keeping track of production rates of resources from citizens, keeping a lookout for disease outbreak so a region can be quarantined if needed, and monitoring the citizens in each region for minor suspicious activity to report to those higher in status. Each town is also occupied by a heavy military presence, to intimidate citizens into productivity and complacency.

Most of the time, Legion towns are made of the previously conquered settlements now added to Legion territories. Building more houses is an avoidable expenditure if they just repurpose the structures already there with a few modifications. Despite the multiple depictions in-game of Caesar’s Legion showing little to no care about what damage they cause, it would make sense that the depictions in the gameplay are actually the outliers in the situation, since it’s far more efficient to leave the settlements intact and just gut and reconfigure the purpose.

There are also multitudes of mobile scout settlements, mostly made of fabric, tarp, and hide tents that can be easily condensed and moved in the event that the camp is compromised. In many cases, these camps are set up as a base to return to in order to stage an invasion of new territories. If possible, The Legion sets them up close to large landmasses like plateaus or mountains for additional cover in the event of an ambush. If that’s not available, The Legion makes settlements like this close to preexisting towns in order to make the wordless threat of “push us back, and innocents die”. Generally, very few citizens are taken on these excursions, but if the plan is to stay out longer, citizens who are medics may be involuntarily drafted into going with the scout team.

- Clothing, Hair, and Accessories

The Legion isn’t a necessarily materialistic society that allows a lot of room for personal expression. Since the goal is to create a homogenous society and culture, self expression through visual cues is often muted at best and absent at normal. Makeup, perfumes, and hair styling products are prohibited if they have any synthetic qualities or materials. In many cases, beauty products are exclusively reserved for performers, and even still, only natural pigments and materials would be permitted. Think the same pigments Ancient Egyptians would make for their makeup.

Protective updo hairstyles are common for long hair, both for practical purposes and for purposes of keeping hair out of reach and harder to pull. Efficiency is key, so in the event of a raid or a threat, everyone is expected to be able to hold their own to some extent. Part of that standard is remaining on guard, so keeping hair up while out of the house is customary.

In the military, hair is expected to be cut short, again, for efficiency. Any soldiers with long hair are expected to keep it in tight braids or cornrows to maintain the same level of efficiency. As long as it stays out of the face.

Most clothing is dull, salvaged from the wastelands. The only exception is clothing reserved for high ranking officials and Caesar, which is quite literally dyed in blood of enemies. Because blood fades to a blackish-red hue over time, high ranking officials will often appear to be wearing darker colors, when in actuality they’re wearing clothes that were soaked in blood as a symbol of power and debt paid to the gods (namely Mars).

Widows are permitted to wear part of their fallen husband’s bloodsoaked clothes through the mourning process, if The Legion can recover and identity the body. With this in mind, as soon as the widow finds a new husband, the bloodsoaked garment piece is burned.

Slaves are deprived of all aspects of individuality, given rags or scraps to wear and marked with red paint. A citizen may give finer clothes to a slave voluntarily, but those clothes must also be marked with red paint.

Jewelry, while rare, is often made of scrap metal salvaged and re-forged from battlefields or old weapons without any further use. Which is why jewelry is so rare. There is seldom ever an instance in which metal can’t become a weapon, so making jewelry is a waste of time and energy.

- Languages

Basically any language can be spoken in Legion territory as it stands, because as The Legion is currently, it doesn’t have enough power or force to totally instill a whole new language system. With that in mind, the groundwork is being laid for an eventual push to make Latin the official language of Caesar’s Legion. Between the commonly used Latin terminology to address people and the Roman theming of The Legion, it’s primed to eventually enforce Latin as the primary language. Highly educated citizens may be fluent in Latin, and most soldiers know commands and codes in Latin.

III: Industry

- Jobs

There are two types of jobs in The Legion, excluding military and slavery. One can either be a worker or a performer. Medics and nurses are highly valued, both on the battlefield and off, since chemical substances are prohibited in The Legion. Carpenters, metalworkers and blacksmiths, engineers, and tanners are some of the more important standard worker jobs, since all of them play directly into expanding the empire more efficiently, making more weapons and armor, or repurposing old material to make new. Tailors, glassworkers, weavers, technicians, and chemists are less valuable to The Legion to some extent because they either involve industries less geared towards conquest, or involve industries beyond the scope of what The Legion finds socially acceptable. Despite the amount of emphasis Roman polytheism puts on naturalistic sculpture, The Legion actually doesn’t find the arts very useful in the immediate future of the empire. What’s most important is conquest, not expression.

On the topic of the arts, performers were seen in a very poor light in The Legion, often oversexualized into objectification or framed as clowns. Most performance art is often seen as a waste of time or an avoidable expense, but it does keep soldier morale up since it gives them something to target that isn’t their fellow man. Being a performer in The Legion is marginally better than slavery, because one can at least have a house as a performer, but the physical and verbal abuse is often daily and unrelenting.

- Imports and Exports

The Legion is definitely not known for being friendly to neighboring factions, so any concept of import and export is often very loosely based in barter (namely, The Legion demanding tithe to barter for leaving a region alone, similar to how some mafias demand payment in exchange for protection from themselves). The Legion has a semi-steady stream of imports from their commonwealths which they pressure into helping them in trade for leaving their towns unburned and their people free from enslavement. However, this is decidedly not a permanent arrangement. This is a way to bide time to grow the nation a bit more before making moves on settlements and regions with more useful resources.

They export nothing unless it’s a strategic play. They pressure neighboring regions into paying them, even though they honestly don’t need it as much as they want the general population of other factions to think they do. Middle school bully nation.

IV: Politics, Education, and Religion

- What Senate?

The big difference between Rome and The Legion is that The Legion doesn’t try to pretend it’s not a dictatorship. There is no senate, there is no board of people to vote, no forum. The only voice that matters is Caesar’s, and it shows in every aspect of how the society is structured, from the strict rules on self expression, to the patriarchal hierarchy of Legion society. Ultimately, this makes the nation weaker, because in the event of Caesar’s death, it creates a power vacuum. No, I don’t think there’s a secret senate. No, I don’t think there is a solid backup plan. I think the closest thing there was to a senate was the two-man power-team that was Edward Sallow and Joshua Graham. We all know how well that worked out. And I think Caesar’s been running on fumes ever since that point, taking this as a sign to expand the nation faster before anyone sees him bleed. Hubristic in nature.

The closest thing there is to a senate are higher officials (such as Lanius) that Caesar hand-picked from Legion ranks to be his personal cabinet that all agrees with him. There is a distinct instability of power when recreating Rome without a senate, and there is the distinct air of trying to hide that open wound.

- In the Unlikely Event of a Transfer of Power

Let’s say, hypothetically, Caesar, the praetorian guard, and all his higher officials suddenly died. The role of Caesar would be up for grabs. In the event that there is no clear successor to Caesar, there is no real backup plan aside from an arena battle between the generals that could potentially succeed Caesar. A simple solution that will clearly show who can spill the most blood for Mars without hesitation or question.

With this in mind, there is one thing distinctly Roman about the potential of a transfer of power. There is always a nonzero chance that Caesar’s killer, be they foreigner or Legion, could become the next emperor. All that matters is who can devote themself to Mars in a way that would honor the fallen Caesar.

- Common Political Beliefs

Politics and religion go hand in hand for Caesar’s Legion because of the cultish way Caesar built the nation. The idea of Mars being the patron deity of The Legion instills a level of gratuitous and overzealous love of warfare among the people. Military expenditures are met with great support, and very little infrastructure on public service is supported as adamantly because of the instilled value of “we are all independent cogs working in a well oiled machine, we don’t need help”. Then again, it’s not like any other voice mattered anyways, since Caesar is the be all end all of political power.

There is a generally nationwide extremism when it comes to dealing with criminals, however. Criminal activity in The Legion is more often than not punished by torture and death, and nobody seems to really protest it to the degree that other factions do. As many of the travelers and traders in Fallout: New Vegas have said, the roads in Legion territories are incredibly safe. There is a level of patriotism in The Legion specifically regarding how safe their lands are, but in exchange, those lands also have an active military presence.

Conquest is also a pretty intrinsic pillar of Legion political beliefs, since the motivation to create a homogeneous society and usher in a new era of perceived piece may make some people accept the totalitarian power for what it is and hope it pans out right.

- Male vs Female Education Standards

Due to the intrinsic divide between male and female Legion citizens, the education of male and female Legion children is vastly different with the only exception being the uniform brainwashing. Male and female children are not only educated on different topics, they are also educated in different locations.

Similar to Spartan men, most male children (even including orphans from freshly raided towns) are give combat training just about as soon as they can hold a stick and swing it. The male children that show combat proficiency continue to become soldiers, and the male children who aren’t strong, but are intelligent are instead divided into training as either spies or medics, depending on the specifics of their skill sets. Male children who aren’t good at any of that end up becoming armigeri (singular armiger), the people who sharpen weapons and tend to the needs of more proficient soldiers. It’s a social tragedy to become what is essentially a pathetic sidekick to some far better soldier. Thankfully, since most of these children are trained from an incredibly young age to be strong, cunning, fast, and durable, very few people end up becoming armigeri. Generally speaking, no boy in The Legion goes without military training. The Legion can capture their blacksmiths and carpenters, there’s no need to train them in-house.

Female Legion children are not given formal education. They are expected to grow up to be housekeepers and produce the next generation of warlords. However, a family still has the liberty to educate a daughter at home with a tutor so long as it doesn’t interfere with the family’s productivity. Usually, female children are given medical teachings more oriented towards patching the injuries of their future husbands. However, girls aren’t left entirely defenseless. Girls are taught how to use ranged weapons and how to escape grapples in the event of an emergency. In addition, girls are given more of an education on finances and practical skills that tie into long-term survival, such as how to use every part of a killed animal for resources, how to patch clothes, and how to cultivate plants.

A Thank You And Some Concluding Comments

Hello hello to anyone who’s made it this far through my ludicrous ramblings! Thank you for reading! This is really just me throwing nonsense in the air and seeing what floats, and most of what I’ve written here will probably be subject to edits every now and then to keep building up what I’ve already put down.

Feel free to use this lore for any fan fictions, fan art, original characters, or whatever else! Please keep building on it!

I hope y’all enjoyed my insane chattering!

#fallout new vegas #fallout #fallout: new vegas #fallout: nv #fnv #fnv oc #caesar’s legion #fallout legion #the legion #fnv legion #edward sallow #joshua graham #vulpes inculta #legate lanius #legion #the things I write for fun

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viric-dreams · 1 month

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Going to go on a massive ramble about the absolutely wild dynamic with the Welsh OCs.

It's not very difficult to discern why Jones and Nite are attracted to each other. Nite sees someone who clearly enjoys spending time with him, pays him attention, seems to care about what he's interested in, or at least hearing about it. Moreover, he's a source of stability, a rock where the rest of his life feels like a wild current. He seems to have answers, in a situation where Nite seems to have so few, willing to teach him a language he only half remembers, tell him about a place he has no memories of. Jones, on the other hand admires how passionate Nite is about things. That he'll take a bet out of the blue, or try something completely new just to see what happens. It reminds him of the idealism he once had, back when he wasn't afraid to take risks, before prison had beaten him down. He's a spark in a cave, and that light is infectious, making Jones feel things he hasn't in years.

Nite and Roberts are fundamentally the same person, albeit with a lot of the context missing from the former. Which makes it wild to me how much Roberts and Jones would absolutely hate each other.

Jones came from a middle class merchant family, primarily exporting coal and minerals to England in one of the most populous locations in Wales. He was educated (and radicalised) in England. The fact that he sounds Welsh was a conscious and deliberate decision. His interest in politics, in changing the structures in which they live made him something of the black sheep of his family. Why are they sending all of their resources in one direction? Why are they still following policy set by London, when London's sunken into the earth? Such discussions never got him much further than a handful of heated debates after dinner with his brothers, but as the youngest son he was hardly in a position to affect the family business, so it was mostly overlooked. Nobody in his family knew quite how serious he was until the riot, where he was tried for sedition, and they cast him into the wind without a second thought.

Roberts, on the other hand, grew up working class in a village where the only industry was the mines. Its inhabitants were mostly homogeneous, save for the English managers. Unlike Jones' belief that the system can and should be changed, Roberts only saw an out in joining that seemingly-unchangeable system and trying to get the best life he's able. When his father died prematurely of a respiratory infection from the work in the mines, Roberts could only see a dark and bleak future ahead of him, and ran.

Of course the two of them would fight. From Roberts’ perspective, he had no future and no choice without abandoning everything Welsh about himself. He’d always be seen as a second class citizen, particularly because of his working class background in a village whose only jobs promise an early and miserable death. Meanwhile Jones had money. In fact, he got his money by taking those resources that people like Roberts’ father died extracting and shipping it to England. And Jones can go and put on an accent and act like he’s a patriot, but to Roberts he’ll never experience the actual consequences of that discrimination. He's shielded by his money and class.

Meanwhile, Jones sees a man who would abandon everything, including his own family in their moment of greatest need, who would contort and mutilate himself to fit into the standards that would grant him the most personal power (until the moment it no longer does), who would lick the boots of the very people Jones had once destroyed his entire life fighting.

What I'm saying is that the second anything about Jones not knowing what actual consequences are comes out of Roberts' mouth he's getting a fist to the face, and this will devolve into an all out brawl.

#roberts/nite #jones #rotating that old man in my mind again #jones specifically though i guess technically this is a multi-rotation

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impercre · 3 months

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Differences Between Book/ My Headcanons and Films Cheat Sheet

Duke Leto Atreides

He's much more of a bastard. Duke Leto is actively plotting to usurp the throne from Shaddam IV and hasn't married Jessica specifically in the hopes of marrying one of Shaddam's daughters.

Paul Muad'Dib Atriedes

Also so much more of a bastard. While he does have mixed feelings about it, ultimately he is consciously manipulating the Fremen to get what he wants which is revenge for his father's death and House Atreides back in power.

Thufir Hawat

Thufir is one of the most renowned and feared mentat-assassins in the Imperium who's served House Atreides for generations. After the Fall of House Atreides, Thufir is forced to join House Harkonnen where he takes the young Feyd-Rautha under his wing with the intent of using him to take his revenge on House Harkonnen.

House Harkonnen

So while the main cities on Giedi Prime are industrial nightmares with pollution/food rationing/ etc. The primary export is of Pilingitam wood, the trees growing to massive size and becoming as hard as steel when dried out.

Feyd Rautha

While I'm not going to pretend Feyd doesn't have issues, he does. He's probably one of the most self aware characters in the book. He's fully aware of how perverse the Baron is and actively wants to escape his control. He's also genuinely popular on Giedi Prime with many having more love and loyalty for him than they do his Uncle. I have taken the liberty of fleshing him out even more and developing the relationship with him and Thufir, with Thufir in some ways molding and guiding Feyd to be a more honorable ruler like the Atreides were. He also does care for his older brother, Rabban. He's aware Rabban is terrible even brutal governor of Arrakis but is equally aware his Uncle has maneuvered to force Rabban into that position. Rabban has also actively protected Feyd from their Uncle. As he himself wasn't so lucky avoiding his Uncle's s****l abuse.

The Fremen/Arrakis in General

So there isn't the divisions between Southern and Northern Fremen. The book treats the Fremen as fairly homogenous which is problematic in it's own right. I myself prefer to write it as every Fremen tribe having unique cultural practices. I am particularly fond of the idea of each Fremen tribe using slightly different techniques in how they produce Stilsuits and how they decorate them. In terms of religion- based on my understanding of the books the Fremen who live in the cities tend be the more skeptical of Fremen Religion with those being in the deep deserts being the more religious. Since the movie also glosses over this I think it's also important to point out in the book Paul inherits Jamis' household after killing him. In Fremen culture calling someone out means you will have to provide for that person's spouse, children etc. And is not to be taken lightly. Also I made up a whole tribe for my own shits and giggles X

Liet Kynes

So uh my Kynes is a man. He is also part Fremen through his mother and while he does help the Atreides he comes to regret it. He is also an important leader amongst the Fremen having united the Tribes in the hopes of changing the face of Arrakis to be more hospitable and be under Fremen control. He's also Chani's father.

Chani

Like in the book Chani is a Sayyadina, a Fremen Priestess. She's not against Paul as a religious figure, she does initially believe he is the Lisan Al-Gaib but also comes to believe he doesn't fully understand her culture and needs to be protected.

Kaleff

Kaleff is Jamis' stepson. I've headcanoned it that Kaleff sees Jamis as his father as his birth father wasn't a good man. I have aged him up from what he was in the book so he's roughly the same as Paul but decides against calling him out coming to respect Paul as a friend and leader even if like his father he's a religious skeptic. But falls in line with Paul because he has no love for some of the current Fremen social norms or most off-worlders.

#long post cw

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imaginatorcreates · 2 months

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A Meal In The Rain

17 April 2024 — 17 April 2024

Summary: A meal in the kingdom of Sky is always best shared with others.

Word Count: ~1.6k words

Author's Note: This is inspired by Sky Food ideas by @justsomeectoplasm, go check their work out!

Also on AO3

Eating a good meal in Hidden Forest wasn’t like eating a good meal in, for example, Daylight Prairie. Prairie had plenty of options; after all, it was the home of cooking and farming! The lands were fertile and the mantas were abundant. Even Sanctuary, for all of its praise for being a vacation location, had a teeming export economy via its seafood. However, if there was something that Forest had that in abundance that Prairie didn’t, it was —

“Fruit!”

The chibi-like skykid yanked the bowl out of the vendor’s hands with an excited honk. The bowl was slightly chilled and contained a dark violet mash, topped with various other fruits and a sticky floral syrup. The skykid let out a few more excited honks and was about to rush off before the vendor let out a call of their own. They held out a hand and mimed someone putting something in it.

The chibi-like skykid placed down the right amount of candles before scampering off to find a seat in the treehouse. The treehouse was crowded with various skykids from different realms, all crowding around to find a proper seat to enjoy their meals or snacks. The persistent scent of petrichor pierced through their brown mask to their nose.

Thankfully, most veterans were cautious enough to not accidentally kick around any chibis or moths underfoot. Most veterans were also willing to give up their seats to other skykids, unless they were deep in conversation, to which others simply gave up trying to catch their attention via honks and moved on.

The skykid swiveled their head around and tried to find their friends. They let out a few high-pitched squeaks, but that only got the attention of a few baby mantas as they flew past with the adults close behind. One baby manta even got close enough to fly in a circle around the cherubic skykid before it rejoined its squadron.

The skykid inhaled and screamed out a deep call. It reverberated through the open space, causing several skykids to answer back with calls of their own. A nearby swarm of butterflies reacted to the deep call and fluttered around the skykid before lifting them up.

They let out another deep call.

This time, another deep call answered them back. Then, another one.

The first call was a bit bubbly, and a few nearby mantas passing through the area reacted to it by letting out calls of their own. The second call was newer; it was a deeper bird call that whistled instead of chirped.

The chibi-like skykid flapped their blue, birdlike cape a few times to escape from the butterflies before gliding over to a little table set up on the mainland of the treehouse area. It was closer to the food stalls than the treehouse’s homey seating area, so the smell of various spices and herbs stuck to all pieces of fabric and mixed together to form a hot, homogenous, herbal area.

The table was set underneath a large cover, so the occasional drip of water from the trees created a deep ploink that worked to bring a sense of rain back to the Forest, even though it always rained in the realm. As the chibi skykid landed, they placed their fruit bowl down on the table and took a seat on one of the chairs provided. “I got a fruit bowl!” they announced.

One of the other skykids gave them a soft applause. “That is good to see,” they said as they pushed forward a woven steamer with its lid still on. “I got some crab dumplings to share for us, as well as some freshly stuffed buns before the vendor sold out.”

“They can sell out?”

“Yes, especially when there is a large influx of skykids such as now.”

“Because it isn’t raining in the treehouse area?”

“Exactly.”

The other skykid pushed a hot cup of tea towards the chibi. The tea smelt of various aromatic herbs, and the bottom of the clay cup revealed various crushed plants floating around. “Drink up Zephyr,” they gently ordered, “and take some of the other food as well. A fruit bowl isn’t going to fill you up.”

Zephyr removed their mask and set it on the table, inner side up. Their naturally short height revealed itself to any passerbys that might’ve assumed they were a taller skykid wearing a chibi mask. They took the cup of hot tea in both hands and took a careful sip. Despite heat not being a large problem for skykids — their inner candle was hotter than tea water after all! — the taste was still strong and their face crinkled up in response. “Bleh! Gross! Tastes like how grass smells.”

“How would you know that?” Whynn asked as they fixed their hair. It was half-up and tied back with a violet and gold hair tie, which automatically made it ten times cooler in Zephyr’s mind. “Is that a Prairie kid thing?”

“I dunno. You ever smelled grass?”

“I have, before I settled in the vaults.” Whynn removed their pale mask and brought the cup of tea up to take a sip. They stayed silent for a moment before they added, “There’s a garden in the Starlight Dessert. I can smell some grass there.”

“But it’s not Prairie grass! Grass smells fresher in the sunlight.”

“Are you sure you are smelling sunlit grass and not trampled grass?” the third skykid asked. “On my travels to Prairie, it is always crowded when moths enter the picture, and let us not forget the sudden adoptions.”

“Dunno A.T., you live in Valley and Valley doesn’t have grass.”

Whynn promptly choked on their tea and started to cough loudly, leaning over the edge of the table to hide their face. “Zephyr — !”

A.T. gave the chibi a long, long gaze. Its bright eyes didn’t break the stare except to blink. Then, they sighed and tipped their cap at Zephyr. “Touché.”

Zephyr loudly cackled and swiped a stuffed bun. They took a large bite and gasped as a vegetable chunk nearly fell to the ground. They caught it with a hand and stuffed it in their mouth. The soft bread was light and properly held the filling of minced crab and vegetables inside. The crab was sweet and cooked in a similar seasoning as the vegetables, which were still a bit crunchy. “Yummy!” they cried out with a honk. “Thank you!”

“You are welcome,” A.T. said as they removed their own mask and set it down. He took a deep spoon and carefully scooped up a dumpling before placing the whole wrapped goodie in her mouth. It silently chewed on it as she used her free hand to adjust the feathers of his slim blue cape.

It was less of a cape and more of a back warmer to Zephyr, but it provided the same purpose: help channel their winged light to power their flight. The youngest skykid didn’t fully understand the love of skinnier capes, but maybe it was because they were young and only went through one reincarnation. Once through Eden and Orbit was enough for them, so they also didn’t spend too much on hunting down all the winged light.

They knew that Whynn and A.T. were both seasons older than they were. Whynn told them stories of Eden and how it subtly changed, while A.T. shared new locations of winged light popping up as more of the kingdom revealed itself to the skykids.

Zephyr thought that the kingdom was already large enough, but to hear stories of how it was smaller before? Why, it made them hungry. So they grabbed a crab dumpling.

The dumpling burst as soon as they bit into it, some of the sticky juice escaping from the corner of their mouth. The filling was savory and tasted different from their stuffed bun, despite containing the same filling of crab and forest vegetables. They wiped their mouth with the back of their hands.

“Zephyr, those are sticky and they’ll– Here, let me.” Whynn abandoned their chair and moved over to Zephyr’s side. They took a cloth napkin that was hiding underneath the dumpling steamer and wiped both the chibi’s mouth and their hands. “You’ll get these on your clothes.”

“Then it’ll be a snack for when I gotta go back to Prairie!” Zephyr joked. “Mmm, sticky crab juice.”

Whynn chuckled and shook their head. “Or you could eat your fill here and just be more careful. I know there’s good food in Prairie too.” They set the napkin back on the table and took a stuffed bun before heading back to their seat.

The conversation softly drifted into other topics as the food on the table slowly dwindled. The dumplings were the first to go, followed by the stuffed buns. Zephyr was forced to share their fruit bowl after looking at it and realizing that they didn’t have enough room to finish it all. But it was okay: the looks on unmasked faces of the two veterans after trying the fruit bowl made them feel warm inside. Warmer than their inner candle.

That warm feeling inside them caused their eyes to droop and a yawn to escape them. The constant ploink of raindrops falling from the trees gradually faded as they felt themself being lifted into another’s arms and carried away. They snuggled their face against a scarf-like cape and smelled faint traces of dust and stone.

Memory cubes.

Vault.

This was Whynn carrying them.

The veterans murmured whispers carrying words they didn’t fully comprehend through their drowsy state, so they let it lull them to sleep in the misty forest, carrying them far away to warm meals shared with loved ones.

#Ima Writes #original writing #writing #my writing #oc #sky cotl #sky children of the light #food #ao3 #Ao3

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luciaiscool7 · 7 months

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The Disastrous Life of Saiki K. - Superhero Roundtable

How do structural mythology, cultural studies, and cultural history reflect the series’ world and world-building around superheroes?

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K centers on the titular character, Saiki K, a highschool student with Superman-esque levels of psychic power. He has trademark pink hair and must wear green glasses and antennae in order to limit his powers. Saiki, as one of the only actual psychic characters in the anime, actually doesn’t want to solve problems, or help anyone with his powers, and most of the show he uses his powers to minimize attention and keep to himself. His only really widespread use of power was changing everyone in the world’s hair color to also be colorful so that he doesn’t stand out as much. In direct opposition to Saiki’s nonexistent need for attention and immense psychic power, his classmate Kaidou, has no power whatever but claims to be The Jet-Black Wings, the only person standing against The Dark Reunion, an evil organization running the world behind the scenes. This is played for satire as Kaidou loudly brags about being the Jet-Black Wings and blames every mishap on the Dark Reunion, wears red bandages on his arms to “control his power,” and a dramatic action song “Judgement Knights of Thunder” plays everytime he does anything.

youtube

Saiki K is a comedy anime satirizing the idea of a “superhero” through Saiki K, who kind of sucks and doesn’t care that much about other people, but even in using his powers selfishly, ultimately helps the people around him. This show challenges the idea that superheroes would necessarily swing to complete good or complete evil, and makes fun of those ideas in the example of satirizing binary thinking through Kaidou’s fake enemy, The Dark Reunion. Although the show begins with Saiki K doing everything he can to avoid attention and making friends, he warms up to his classmates over the show and uses his powers for their benefit, even as he convinces himself he’s just trying to help himself.

The origination of manga in Japan was influenced by the globalization of American comics, including superhero comics, brought during WWII. Interestingly, as members of the Axis Powers, Japan and Japanese characters were featured in American superhero comics as enemies to the nation, often depicted as racist stereotypes for wartime propaganda. On an international scale, superheroes are associated with the US, as a national export and national representation of American might and power. This can be seen in superhero anime like My Hero Academia, where All Might represents the All-American superhero figure. Shows like Saiki K and Mob Psycho 100 have superhero-like characters and themes but distance themselves from calling them that, positioning themselves as psychics rather than superheroes.

In what ways are the superheroes and their abilities informed by their racial, gender, sexual, and cultural identities?

Saiki K definitely participates in the de-racialization of characters as Will Bridges spoke to in “The Past Tense and the Future Perfect,” which we read for Cowboy Bebop. All of the characters are assumed to be Japanese, and are very homogeneous in appearance, save Nendo, whose butt-chin and weird mohawk are played for laughs. In many ways, Saiki represents the ultimate hegemonic male character who is conventionally attractive, cishet, middle class, and extremely able bodied. The only way that Saiki represents “other” could be through his lack of romantic or sexual interest in the show, much to the chagrin of Kokomi, the self proclaimed queen of the school, who appears with a halo of light around her at all times and has caused multiple stampedes of men chasing after her. The character Kaidou, who isn’t very popular with his classmates (somewhat because he always talks about the Dark Reunion), could be acting out social rejection through his fixation on being a superhero fighting evil, above the social dynamics of highschool.

In what ways do costumes and concealing identities further separate the superheroes from normal society? How necessary is it for the superheroes to hide their true identities to successfully achieve their goals?

For Saiki, hiding his identity is his goal. To this end, he has changed everyone’s hair in the entire world to be colorful so that he doesn’t stand out. When the school has a sports test in gym class, Saiki has to tone down his supernatural speed and strength to blend in, including teleporting a ball back when he throws it so far that it can’t be seen, and squeezing a grip strength monitor so hard that that needle goes all the way around and it looks like he has an average score. For many superheroes, putting on a costume/disguise is necessary to carry out their goals, but for Saiki, his physical appearance is connected to his supernatural abilities, and the antennae and glasses he wears serve not to express his powers or his superhero role, but rather to minimize and control them.

How do the economic, political, and social events that occurred during the series’ creation and broadcast cultivate and inform the superheroes’ decisions and actions?

The Disastrous Life of Saiki K first appeared as one-shot manga chapters published from 2012-2011, then serialized in Weekly Shonen Jump from 2012-2018. The anime based off of this manga was aired from 2016-2018. I think Saiki K intentionally builds off of the context of preexisting superhero media to satirize it, questioning the characterization of other characters with superpowers as good and selfless or evil and self-serving- Saiki is literally just some guy and he doesn’t feel any pressure to use his powers for anyone. The anime creates a depoliticized superhero- he isn’t connected to any hero organizations or governments, he doesn’t have any enemies. He is so depoliticized and inactive as a superhero figure that his morals swing all the way around into questionable because he is so powerful, and could solve so many problems, but only changed everyone’s hair.

How do the superheroes question themselves, each other, and their obligations and duties to the people around them?

Saiki K as a show challenges the superhero trope of questioning their purpose, sense of self and obligation to others by making Saiki antisocial and feel pretty neutrally about everyone besides himself. He always ends up helping the people around him, even when he doesn’t mean to, often doing so because it’s the easiest way to avoid being exposed, or not taking action will negatively impact him in some way. In one episode, he watches a magician on TV being locked in a box, and when it seems like he won’t be able to escape in time, Saiki teleports onto the set to save him. He does this in order to save the magician from a deadly incident which could potentially delay the rest of the tv channel, including Saiki’s favorite mystery show that after the magic show. He does help people, but his obligation is (allegedly) to himself first.

@theuncannyprofessoro

#oxyspeculativetv #Youtube

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chariotofgod · 6 months

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the phenomenon of an individual needing to "condone" or "condemn" everything really interests me when hits a critical point like this. maybe it results from a misunderstanding of what 4chan was/is. as if you can condemn 4chan as a homogenous culture and not at least as heterogeneous as tumblr is.

there are fascists, terfs, and libertarians who are here or were popular on here who participate in a lot of the same linguistic and cultural rituals as the progressive part of the site. some of these individuals even being critical in its cultural development. does it make any sense to "condemn" Tumblr as an entity because of this?

like obviously we can point to 4chan as the root of a lot of misogynistic and racist subcultures that now permeate the American and European Right. but then like. the origins of SCP, creepypasta, the growth of furry culture, the inception of the MLP fandom (as filled with paranoid homophobia as it was, which is obviously hilarious in retrospect), and even the standard formats for how shitpost punchlines are delivered all come from there.

they don't have their fingers in so many pies "for some reason???" it's because 4chan was a diverse and complex culture group that defined the early internet.

the continued treatment of it as "fringe" or "a place that's so scawy to visit :(", i think, creates a sense that whatever cultural products we decided to keep from 4chan were deviations from rather than products of its culture.

there are obviously a lot of problems with this. one being that it creates a lack of critical evaluation of 4chan's cultural exports (not that i'm rushing to categorize them as morally good or bad, just that it's important to consider).

another being a lack of perspective on why and how marginalized groups tended to thrive within the space in spite of its hostility towards.. everything (a kind of countercultural edgy nihilism which was not *inherently* reactionary, but definitely a response to 2001-2008 American and European neoliberal positivism).

anyways. you spend two seconds on a board that's not /pol/ and you quickly find an overarching paranoia around "redditors" who invaded after 2016 when r/The_Donald was shut down. there's a marked difference in the website's culture post-Trump, when the fascists on /pol/ (who i don't think you could call a majority) forged an alliance with Trump-aligned redditors.

pretty much any "oldfag" on the website is extremely resentful of this change. you could not take pity on them in a "where did you think such edgy nihilism would lead?" sense, but it also makes it quite clear that the website's earlier dissonance between anti-social behaviors and pro-social politics was not an accident. and while i would not want to adopt early 4chan's philosophy full sale, i do think there are things to learn from it.

whatever. post over. kisses, mwah, xoxo. 💋💋💋

#4chan #internet culture #anthropology #internet anthropology #cultural critique

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fatehbaz · 1 year

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[S]and has acquired a conspicuous profile in contemporary urbanization over the past two decades. [...] [S]and but also gravel and crushed rock, are the fastest-growing category of extracted material. Their extraction has increased six-fold in the Asia-Pacific region over the last two decades. Singapore, a city-state in Southeast Asia the size of New York City and half the size of London, is the largest per capita importer of sand in the world. The city-state’s urbanization and never-ending construction [...] is partly responsible for its considerable appetite for sand, but this use pales in comparison to the amount it requires for its land reclamation project, which has seen the city-state expand its territory from 585 square kilometers in 1959 to 724 in 2022. Singapore’s construction of territory, and the sand it has imported from all over Southeast Asia to resource its geophysical projection of sovereignty, invites us to consider the implications of urbanization’s enrollment of greater and greater volumes of sediment, and the geopolitics of the global sand crisis. [...]

As sediment flows and locks into place, it expresses characteristics of all three states of matter, depositing and eroding [...]. A geomorphological errantry, sediment is always on the move [...]. In its multiplicity, sand becomes a kind of narrator for those elements [...]. In its modulation [...], sediment sutures together landscapes that are neither solid nor fluid, but the porous interplay [...].

---

Between 2006 and 2016, Singapore, with a population of less than six million, was the top importer of sand in the world four times. Land reclamation there truly began with colonization by the British East India Company, with Boat Quay in 1822, when three hundred or so convict laborers who were paid pittances chopped down hills and cut up stones to embank a swamp, lest it remain fallow. When Singapore became an independent city-state in 1965, reclamation projects initially cut down hills for fill material, flattening the interior and exterior of the main island alike. [...] As these projects grew more expansive and the city-state’s demand for sand intensified, Malaysia and then Indonesia banned sand exports to Singapore [...]. This [resulting] price spike shook the city-state to its core, prompting the opening of a series of construction sand stockpiles [...]. The government began purchasing sand through its web of contractors and subcontractors from Vietnam, Cambodia, the Philippines, and Myanmar. [...]

The securitization of sand in multiple stockpiles in Singapore eerily mirrors what happened in the extractive sandscapes of its origin: similarly sized dunes bloomed along the banks of mangroves in Koh Kong, Cambodia, like a dream herniating into reality, an invasive species of landscape bursting at the seam where the land met the water, still haunting riverbeds years after the dredging stopped. [...]

---

[T]he fantasy of reclaimed land through dubiously sourced rudiments of city-statecraft. [...] This kind of work is normally kept out of sight behind physical partitions as well as the labyrinthine contractual involutions of procurement arrangements, until it is seamlessly assumed by the whole, consumed by land as a homogenous legal entity [...] [B]ehind the mask, another mask. [...] [T]he sand barges and ships enter the maritime waters of Singapore from [...] legally undisclosable sources of its origin.

The eponymous proclamation [...] is the legal mechanism by which a piece of reclaimed land is “proclaimed” as state land proper by the president. A reclamation can only become state land by the text of a proclamation, a eucharistic procedure which purifies the land of its ambiguous sedimentary origin. Prior to that it is foreshore or seabed, but once it has been proclaimed, “thereupon that land shall immediately vest in the State freed and discharged from all public and private rights [...] over the foreshore or the sea-bed before the same were so reclaimed.” [...]

---

The limit to seeing like a state is that the state has a way of doing things that it can’t see, and of refusing to register that which does not meet its threshold of intelligibility.

It blinds itself through the loophole, the nondisclosure agreement, the handshake and its subtle para-political fission. [...]

Singapore’s continued economic prosperity depends on the speculative projection of its territory through unequal economic exchange, disguising it through fabulations of sovereign ingenuity like the Gardens by the Bay. [...]

[There is an] asymmetry between its curated artifice and the remote terraqueous landscapes this curation predates upon, unsettling the ground on which the city-state projects its most delirious fictions of sovereignty [...].

But those very spaces of nondescript hinterland are the logistical and industrial engines which make the Gardens possible. [...]

---

[T]he sheer colonial and postcolonial history of geographic expansion and environmental transformation implies that there are still further worlds to extract for reproducing the global city. Urban form rewired by geo-economic fortune and political repression subversively enroll land and labor into its globe-spanning machinery: it needs to keep on expanding to stay ahead of whatever anticipated global economic movement will buoy it in the future. [...] The transmutation of Singapore’s development trajectory is not historical, but contemporary: Singapore is the global city as a centripetal conjugator of space-time, funneling either term through supply chains that pass through it to produce territory as a plasticity [...].

The calamity it visited on the population of Koh Sralao was first pioneered all over Singapore and its outlying islands in the name of necessity, modernization, and the nation, displacing Orang Laut and Orang Pulau communities, who faced a choice to either abandon their maritime ways or resettle further afield in Malaysia or Indonesia. Many of Singapore’s southern islands were grafted together and erased by land reclamation, with Jurong Island in particular becoming an agglomeration of eighteen different islands, their Malay names now lost, sunk together into the catacombs of a dedicated petrochemical refining and storage complex.

Instead of being haunted by the sediment it has reclaimed its land with, and the rhythms and ecologies this sediment subtended, the global city and its subcontracted tendrils haunt those vestiges of maritime and riverine life bound by sediment like a vengeful ghost, compelled to repeat its actions, and to forget them in the projection of another tabula rasa.

---

Text by: William Jamieson. “Extracting Sovereignty: Land Reclamation in Southeast Asia and the Emergence of the Global Sand Crisis.” e-flux Journal Issue #137. June 2023. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

#abolition #ecology #imperial #colonial

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businessmanucaturer · 11 months

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Homogenizers, agitators, magnetic mixers, rotor-stator mixers, rotor-stator mixer stirrers, and mixers are all part of SPM Process Systems, which is an Indian manufacturer, supplier, and exporter.

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lalalian · 3 months

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alruna dr plot | part I : setting

date: march 15, 2024

I take it that tumblr is less witchhunt-y than tiktok...? Not sure, but I'll be careful. No worries, I don't fuck with violence or anything super messed up.

I know I haven't been posting much on tiktok about the actual plot, world building, or much about Eros besides a few confusing edits and perhaps some long ass paragraph videos, so I'll explain it all clearly on tumblr.

Let's start with the setting of this DR. A short summary will do for now, but I'll talk about each kingdom and species individually in other parts.

In this DR, there are nobles, peasants, and middle-class people. The three most dominant species are humans, elves, and dreki. Dreki is such a stupid name for dragon shifters, but it was all I could do at the time, and now.. well it kind of just stuck, yknow? Elves tend to like living in more homogenous societies, but with the rise of power in human, dreki, and even faerie empires, the globe has become more and more diverse.

The Alodias Empire boasts the most prosperous elven majority empire in this reality. Debatably, it's the most powerful empire, but I think I'll get to that another day. While I said that there's a big elven majority in the Alodias Empire, it is not considered to have a homogeneous population. There is still a clear diverse mix of species within the empire, but I will say, elves make up most noble families. Elves here take rules and etiquette very seriously. The capital of the Alodias Empire, Wyndrial City, is in the Eclara Kingdom. Oh and I also live in the capital along with the royal family. The Alodias Empire’s largest export is finished goods, most notably magitech.

The Umbrian Empire is similar to the Alodias Empire wherein that there is a majority species; dreki are the most abundant in the Umbrian Empire. Dreki makes up most noble families, but there are a fair few who are half-elven or half-dwarven. The Umbrian Empire is a direct rival to the Alodias Empire in terms of power. The capital of the Umbrian Empire is Exalos. It’s located in the Kingdom of Aprana. Eros and his family live here.

The Norfolk Empire is also an Empire with a large elven majority. The Norfolk Empire is a bit distinct in the fact that it would be considered a homogeneous society. It’s not as prosperous as the Alodias Empire, but a unique phenomenon occurs here (I’ll talk about that in my Moon Bearer post). This empire relies heavily on exporting agricultural products and tourism. A long time ally of the Norfolk empire are the Merfolk.

The Ko'estgrime Empire is a small but profitable empire with a sizable goblin and dwarven population. Their largest exports are monster parts, crystals, and weapons. Ko’estgrime used to be overrun with monsters; however, in the last few decades, they’ve gotten a hold of their lands and now are well respected for their warriors. Because of their dungeons, many travel to Ko’estgrime to find artifacts and ancient weapons.

The Promethean Empire has a large human and animalia presence, dwarves are also often seen here. The Promethean Empire’s largest export is basic agricultural commodities such as hand-harvested crops. The Promethean Empire doesn’t have the best reputation because of its history of crazed imperialism. Many Promethean kings have tried to conquer kingdoms from different empires, especially the Alodias Empire (I’ll talk about this more when I post about tales).

More posts coming soon today! Expect at least 2-3 informative posts today.

#scripting #shiftblr #reality shifting #shifting blog #shifting diary #shifting community #shifters #alrunadr #lalalian

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blue-kyber · 7 months

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So, I saw a video about Solarpunk vs. Cyberpunk, and it slapped me with a realization I hadn't seen before in my worldbuilding.

In "Out There," I introduce three types of major city settings:

Quora Ness - a major port city on the human homeworld of Mikra. Half of the city sustained massive devastation from a keth orbital bombardment (the antagonistic force the Alliance is fighting against). Some of it saw restoration before the planet's government sealed off the destroyed half from the rest of the city with a wall. They refer to the half of the city untouched by the attack as the Lightside and those who live there are Lightsiders. Of course, the other side is looked upon with disdain. It's referred to as the Darkside and those unfortunate to live there are Darksiders. Relief efforts to rebuild the Darkside of the wall are still underway, but for the most part, it's been abandoned to the fates by the government in the cleaner cyberpunk metropolis of Seni. The Darkside of the wall is still the same with a festering criminal underground. The MEC (Mikran Engineering Corp) has a huge presence there, and the Alliance presence over the past twenty years dwindled. The MEC swooped in to take advantage of the area and its populace. Mik-humans still use money. It's a dog eat dog, or "prak eat prak" place.

New Cerillia - the capital of the human homeworld, Masaka, and the seat of the Planetary Alliance senate, which is the main governing body in the galaxy (there's layers to this).

New Cerillia is a semi-utopia focusing on personal growth, science, the arts, medicine, and technological advancement. They understand the importance of green spaces, and vast areas of the planet remaining untouched, but still have their industrial complexes, and their cyberpunk lower levels.

Masakan-humans don't use money anymore. They will use credits with other species that still have a monetary system, but within itself, from masakan to masakan, they don't use it.

It's an advanced civilization with a dark and bloody colonizing past.

Cos Besta - the capital city of the small ringed agrarian planet, Ilthall. It's the main setting for 3/4 of the book. The local humanoid species, the yondi, developed their civilization to work with the strengths of their planet and its resources. They've achieved a balance of technology and nature. They've created a sustainable society with the bare minimum of invasive actions taken toward the planet -such as mining and clearing spaces for the city and outlying settlements. They mostly mine the debris ring around the planet. They have numerous exports with the major exports being water and their native lantern fruit. The world is governed by a monarchy that works in tandem with 'ministers' - senators representing different regions of the planet, and with the magistrate of the second largest metropolis in the southern hemisphere, Cos Arda. The royal family is a powerful figurehead that has final say in the workings of Ilthall, though they take the peoples' concerns very seriously in order to maintain homogeneity. Ilthall is rich with pockets of one specific and extremely rare mineral that the royal family and ministers keep secret from the rest of the galaxy. Cos Besta and Cos Arda trend close, but not perfectly in sync, with solarpunk.

#writing #writeblr #out there #worldbuilding #solarpunk #cyberpunk #science fiction #fantasy

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hazardous-waste-containment · 2 years

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ive had a burning question about fascism that ive been chewing on for a bit. the united states is often described as fascist and neoliberal. how can these two states of being coexist? it seems like an accurate statement, given america's longstanding preoccupation with supporting other regimes, and its often viscous suppression of dissent. and of course the state of voting and method of capitalism in the states is borne by liberalism. so how is it both, when in theory the two are contradictory?

the answer is pretty simple, the u.s. is not fascist. while there are important lessons to be drawn from, for instance, the thought of black radicals on the similarities between european fascism and american white supremacy, categorically speaking a racial liberal system is not a fascist state. and if ‘suppression of dissent’ and ‘supporting other regimes’ (presumably authoritarian ones?) are our rubric then a lot of countries are fascist.

the united states is a (neo)liberal democracy and (neo)liberal empire, which actual fascists see as a sick, decadent and hollow society that is the primary exporter of degeneracy and cultural homogenization around the world.

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straye · 1 year

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𝐇𝐄𝐀𝐃𝐂𝐀𝐍𝐎𝐍 / 𝐌𝐄𝐓𝐀 / 𝐒𝐓𝐔𝐃𝐘 : NOTES ON SHINYA’S LAO HERITAGE

As stated in a previous headcanon, Shinya has Lao heritage; his family specifically originates from Savannakhet, a province closer to the southernmost part of the country just along the Lao-Thai border; they lived in the city itself.

They were trilingual before they migrated, speaking Lao (dominantly), Thai (secondary), and some degree of French (tertiary); very few of them spoke English. Migrating as war refugees to Japan had them learn Japanese to assimilate into its culture.

On the note of language, they were able to successfully preserve the Lao language and teach it to the next few generations, though Shinya is the only family member his age that can speak it well at a conversational level. When he went to college and obtained his archaic language cert, he was shocked that a language he spoke so often at home was considered archaic, along with other southeast Asian languages (Thai, Viet, Khmer, etc). It was through this, though, that he improved his skills; when he went home and spoke with a wider vocabulary, his family was impressed, to say the least.

They joined the somewhat small Lao community in Japan (small being at least 2,785 as of a 2018 count) before the country officially closed its borders and cut off outside communications, cutting off the rest of Shinya’s family in 2061.

They also survived the mass exportation / deportation efforts from 2050-2071 (this is an estimate, but it could have been sooner).

Much of their culture is preserved through the small Lao community in Japan, generally by word of mouth and personally recorded + written records since Sibyl curated education, history, and publications to teach only ‘modern’ history (in other words, history that happened within Sibyl’s integration and authority); the latter’s communal feat was particularly difficult since much of Lao history and culture was in a messy spot because of generations of colonization and war prior (specifically noting the Lao civil wars, the Secret War the Vietnam War, etc. ) but even moreso when they moved to Japan, a country that already struggled with a revisionist issue made worse and/or actualized with Sibyl’s information control.

Three generations have passed since Shinya’s family’s immigration, with Shinya himself being the member of the fourth: it would mean his great grandparents made the journey to Japan in 2022-2023 near the start of the Neo-liberal Economic Collapse ( by ~2040 his grandparents were born, ~2065 his parents were born just before the Sibyl System’s introduction in 2061 and its official enforcement in 2071, and Shinya himself was born in 2084. ). This makes Shinya’s parents around Tomomi Masaoka’s age, as a general reference (he was born 2058).

So why do they have Japanese names? It’s not uncommon for immigrants to take on names for the land theyve taken refuge in, as evidenced by Psycho-Pass 3’s depiction of this (see: Kei, Akira, and Maiko (Russian), Theresa Shinogi (???), Kaori and Asahi Fellows (Russian). The Kogami surname is one that Shinya’s father’s side of the family adopted, though some of them retained Lao names (as was the case with Shinya’s father who kept the name Keo); the practice phased out with Shinya’s generation. It’s unknown what his mother’s maiden name was. Prior to the Kogami surname adoption, their family name was Souvannakham, pronounced Soo-vanh-ah-kahm. They still retain the custom of play names, and as also explained in the headcanon post linked in the first point, Shinya’s ຊື່ຫຼິ້ນ (play name) is ໝານ້ອຍ / Maa Noy / Little Dog.

Needless to say, xenophobia and colorism was/is a rampant part of their reality, regardless of how long their family stayed in Japan; most people can tell when you’re different in a homogenized society, and they were treated accordingly, with this being hardest in the earlier generations of their stay. It lessened to some degree with Sibyl’s efforts to harmonize the population over the years but most people, as of Shinya’s life, were still able to tell that he was different despite his insistence on being Japanese.

This also played a part in Shinya growing up in a lower-working class, since his family faced workplace discrimination. Again, this lessened somewhat over the years as people questioned Sibyl’s authority less, but… the xenophobia / colorism / racism never went away ( we see this more towards Kei in PP3, and some others. ).

This explained Shinya’s paradoxical delinquency (being an A+ student but also getting into scraps as he was; this was generally done in self defense and for the defense of his peers, and he was rarely punished since Sibyl didn’t see it clouding his hue any, evidenced by his and Ginoza’s first meeting).

Though Sibyl Society considers religion having fallen into oblivion, Shinya’s family retains the folk Theravada Buddhist-adjacent traditions of Laos, but they aren’t allowed any avenues to fully partake in their practices outside of wedding and funerary traditions. For further clarification, religion isn’t outright outlawed, but it’s neither taught nor encouraged by the Sibyl System. The segregationist Special Religion Zones that appear in response of a new wave of immigrants sans 2120 don’t count, with it being a method to separate Japanese nationals from implants, and Shinya discourages people in his community from going to them, and personally sees to their safety while they exist.

On the note of traditions, Shinya himself has partaken in traditional Lao practices, such as Songkran ( or Lao New Year ) and various manners of su kran. He preserves every string he has from the latter’s ceremonies in a box and was allowed to keep them following his demotion to Enforcer. He carried them with him overseas and has only gotten more when he ventured through Southeast Asian.

Part of his reason to migrate south to SEA after arriving in China was due to his own Lao heritage, where he naively believed that he might be able to fit in, but as is the case with people visiting their origin country when growing up somewhere else … despite being very fluent in the tongue, he stuck out for a while, and it in itself was a heartbreaking and humbling experience that made him feel small. He’s a trooper, and ended up being fine through it, finding some manner of reconnection with this part of his cultural identity through it, but he never met any of his family in Laos due to Sibyl’s exportation in the Shambala Float triggering massive scale civil unrest, and the simple fact that he never heard much of them to be able to identify them outside of vague stories (“You had a uncle who xyz”).

Yes, Shinya has his own xout lao, and his pha biang are generally blue. He has some fancy silk ones, some cloth ones. He leaves these behind with his parents when he’s locked up as an Enforcer.

He also, to some degree, knows how to perform the lam vong ( ລຳວົງ ), having grown up doing so and was taught by his parents. He’s been pulled to dance with the locals in Laos he stayed with during his exile overseas.

#what the thunder said. ∶ ( headcanon. )

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