#Lexical Earth

[scribe-of-stories]

Get to Know Your Moots Writeblr Interview

Was poked by the wonderful co-writers of Sunset @sunset-a-story and @touloserlautrec. Go read their posts here and here!

On the Tumblr Writing Community

How long have you had your writing Tumblr/Writeblr? A short eternity (first post is mid 2022)

What led you to create it? Was very bored at work and wanted to share some recent stories. Also I had never tried social media before, it this looked like the most interesting place to try it.

What’s your favorite thing about the Writeblr community? Getting to see other people's imagination unfiltered. I've read plenty of great works before, but it was definitely an entertaining first to see the author later publicly say "this is my favorite little guy, can't wait till the next time he suffers."

What’s one thing you’d like your mutuals to know about you? I constantly feel like I'm bothering people and or feel self conscious when talking about me/my stuff, so bare with me hah.

Is there anything you’d like to see more of on your dash? Just some really unhinged stuff about y'alls stories. I want to open my phone and see someone discussing the seven major heresies dictated by some cabal of priests only to later realize "oh, this is someone's fever dream, not a history lesson".

What tips/advice do you have for someone who made a Writeblr today? Interact more, take up the offer of "open tags" on other people's posts. Also throw your ideas onto the table for other's to look at, we all seem to love just watching someone go off about something they love.

WIP it Good

Which Works-in-Progress (WIPs) or writing projects are you noodling about, lately? Been in a bit of a writing drought. Lexical is always getting worked on, more so the TTRPG stuff than any story right now though. I've had a few projects pop into my mind and leave over the past while. Have a cluster of characters I can't get out of my head, but no narrative or setting to properly put them into. A god of violence and the man that cut her out of himself, a cultish vampire philosopher and his favorite little guy (little guy has a knife). Surely something will come of this, or they'll continue to just exist in one-off stories in my own head. Amber Hill, specifically The Lawman, is still somewhere in here but it's been struggling to come out for a while. Been trying to find Lars' voice as a POV character.

How long have you been working on them? I've been working on something based in Lexical since mid 2022 (huh, exactly around I first posted here); the other guys are new and only a few months old at most.

Do you remember what inspired them/what got you started? Lexical is a can of worms. The short answer is that my irl DnD group wanted to play something more free form and creative leaning than what our 5e campaign was allowing, so I said fuck it and started homebrewing a system based in a world I have vague ideas about. The long answer is that Lexical is a sequel to a Pathfinder campaign titled "Demis", which was about fantasy super heroes. It was heavily inspired by My Hero, Worm, and inescapably Homestuck. So when it came time to make a whole new system for these same players I took some concepts that worked in Demis, applied some occult-adjacent philosophy I was/am into, and ended up with my years long passion project. Atem and Sadaf were born out of my growing need to explore violence as a concept, philosophy, and inescapable existential crisis. The Vampire and his thrall Ish spawned out of a desire to have a toxic romance to think about. And AmberHill was inspired by a desire to create something cozy and occulty. Ended up being SCP adjacent but maintained the idea of a small community that cares about itself.

How much time, in your best estimation, do you spend thinking about them? Lexical- not enough, I'm lucky I have at least some productive thoughts throughout the day. Atem- too much, his tired ass sat down in my head and I've been too polite to ask him to leave.

When someone asks the dreaded, “What do you write about,” question, what do you usually say? "Urban Fantasy with science fiction elements"

What do you want to say (if it’s different from what you do say)? "My dissertation on the semi-real building blocks of both physical and social reality, also wizards punching people."

Let’s Rotate Blorbos

Name any characters you created. We've got the original Lexical boy Samuel Smith, Atem and Sadaf who you've already heard of, Lars DuPont from Amberhill.

Who’s the most unhinged? Sadaf.

Who comes the most naturally for you to write? For whatever reason Samuel's self-loathing PI perspective just comes very natural and is maybe someone I should write more about.

Do you ever cringe at them? Nah

How much control do you feel you have over your characters? Depends, my mind does not wonder so much that I don't feel like I am ever not in control. But who I am able to focus on tends to be a matter of debate.

Do you enjoy people asking questions about your characters? Yes absolutely. Characters, worlds, magic systems; I'll rant about any of them given the chance.

On Writeblr Engagement

What makes you want to follow another Writeblr account? A combination of preferred genre (urban fantasy), shared interest (books/games/table top). Also if they have Scribe as part of their name it's just an auto follow.

Do your mutuals’ characters occupy space in your noodle? There's a few. The telepaths from Sunset and their many ways of being terrifying are the first that come to mind. Since I already mentioned the scribes I'll go ahead and tag @scribe-cas , @covenscribe and leave the rest of the tag open. Here is an empty template

[cheshiire-warper-archived]

Image id: Two lexegender flags, both have 7 even horizontal stripes. The first is colored, from top to bottom, tangerine, strawberry pink, pink, white, pink, strawberry pink, and tangerine. In the middle is a black arrow pointing up. The second is colored, from top to bottom, aquamarine, electric blue, dark blue, black, dark blue, electric blue, and aquamarine. In the middle is a white arrow pointing down. /end id

Dopelexic [left]

Gender related to, or best described by, the word "Dope"!

Nopelexic [right]

Gender relatef to, or best described by, the word "Nope"!

〰

Color Meanings

Both are based on the Dope or Nope channel logo

Entomology

Dope + -lexic

Nope + -lexic

〰

@lexegender-archival

Image id: Lavender banner with black text saying "Read pinned for BYF. Anti-endo/tulpa or MAP/Pedo DNI. Do not purposefully recoin/reclaim. Our terms can be used by anyone." /end id

[max1461]

I have a lot of thoughts about epistemology and the nature of procedural knowledge. Studying linguistics really impresses upon you just the sheer amount of human knowledge that is procedural and implicit. Languages are these huge, ridiculously complex systems, and even when it comes to the most thoroughly documented language in human history (English), you can still make an entire career documenting as-yet-unknown minutiae of some corner of a corner of the system. It's very difficult to impress upon non-linguists just how big and ill-understood languages are.

There is no book which explains the whole of English grammar. No one on earth knows the complete rule-set of English grammar. Not even for one dialect, not even for one single speaker. No one on earth could write a comprehensive treatise on English pronunciation. We do not know how English works. We do not know how any language works.

And yet, these systems are, in their entirety, already stored in the mind of every native speaker.

When it comes to synchronic information, I literally already know everything there is to know about my dialect of English. I know the timing of every articulation, the exact rules for verb and auxiliary and quantifier placement, the phonology, semantics, syntax, the lexical variation, the registers, all of it. I can deploy it effortlessly while I am thinking about something else. I can form reams of perfectly grammatical English sentences without a second thought. I can deploy the most arcane rules of wh-movement and quantifier raising and whatever else. With no effort at all.

Tens of thousands of people having been making careers trying to document these things, not for my exact dialect but for varieties essentially the same as mine, for 60 years in earnest. And they aren't close to done. And I already know it all. And so do they! They already know it too! The hard part is accessing it, putting it down on paper. That requires experimentation, systematic empirical investigation—science.

So what this has really impressed on me is how much of human knowledge is procedural. How much of it is known only in the doing. I'd wager that's the significant majority of what we know.

This is related to two thoughts that I have.

The first is about the value of unbroken lines of cultural inheritance. With language, the difference between native speakers and second language learners is stark. I think it's safe to say, per current research, that someone who learns a language in adulthood will simply never have the same command of it as someone who learned it in childhood. There are a variety of tests which consistently distinguish native from non-native speakers. You can get very good at a language as an adult learner, good enough for basically all practical needs (except being a spy), but there's a bar your brain just cannot meet.

The unfortunate fact about language is this: if the line of native-speaker-to-child transmission is ever broken, that language is lost. You can try to revive... something, if you want. Like was done with Hebrew in Israel. But it will not be the same language. And not just in the sense that, by the passing of time, all languages inherently change. In a much stronger sense than that. No matter how big a text corpus you have, no matter how well documented the language is, there is an immense body of implicit, undocumented, procedural knowledge that dies when the last native speaker does. And you cannot ever get it back.

I think, often, about the fact that so much human knowledge is procedural, is used and understood and passed on in illegible, difficult to codify ways. I think about the effect that a rapidly changing world has on this body of knowledge. Is it going to be essential for human prosperity? Probably not. But that doesn't mean that losing it will harmless. Certainly I expect much of it to be missed.

The second thought is about an epistemic distinction that I've had in my head for a long time, a distinction I'd like to refer to as that between a science and an art.

An art is any endeavor for which there is an established methodology, an established set of procedures and rules. These rules can be explicit and codified, like the rules of a game, or implicit, like the grammar of a language. They can be absolute or they can be mere guidelines. But in essence, an art is anything you can get good at. Math is quintessentially an art. Football is an art. Ballet is an art. Painting is an art. An art is any endeavor in which procedural knowledge is acquired and channeled and refined and passed on.

Art contrasts with science. A science is any endeavor in which one is shooting blind. Science is the domain of guesswork and trial-and-error. Sciences are those domains that do not lend themself to practice, because... what would you practice at? You cannot get better at science, because science is not about skill. Science is about exploration. It necessarily involves forging your own path, working with odd and faulty tools and odd and faulty ideas, trying to get them to work. Science only exists at the frontiers; when a path is well-tread enough that a body of procedure becomes known and practiced, that path is now art and no longer science.

This distinction is not a taxonomy. Everything we do involves a little bit of art and a little bit of science. Everything involves both a refinement of known skills and an exploration of new avenues. Of course there's a little bit of science in painting, there's quite a lot of science in painting. Every modern and contemporary art museum is full of it! And there's science in math, every once in a while. And there's art in biology and chemistry. Art and science are two modes of engagement, and different endeavors demand them of you in different ways.

Perhaps science is like a glider (you know, from Conway's game of life?), traveling ever outward, and with enough passes over the same area leaving art in its wake. And I think in some sense that all real human knowledge exists as art, that all endeavors capable of producing true insight are either arts or sciences buttressed by a great many supporting arts. Although maybe I'm wrong about this.

I think history is mostly science, and in large part history as a field seems to be on quite solid epistemic footing. So I don't want to convey the idea that science is inherently dubious; clearly from the above description that can't be my position. Nor is art inherently trustworthy—for instance I think jurisprudence is primarily an art, including religious jurisprudence, which of course I don't place any stock in. But I do think I'm getting at something with the idea that there are a range of epistemic benefits to working within an art that one lacks access to in a totally unconstrained science. This is also closely related to my ideas about abstraction and concretization schemes.

Language is an art, one of the oldest arts, but modern linguistics is more or less a science. Like any good science, linguistics has certain arts unique to itself—fieldwork and the comparative method come to mind—but the most vibrant parts of the field at present are science through-and-through. It's a science whose objects of study are arts, and I think maybe that's part of why I've become so aware of this distinction. Or, language is the ur-example of an art, the art from which (if I were to conjecture wildly) I think the cognitive machinery for very many other arts has been borrowed. But I don't really know.

Anyway, those are my thoughts.

[sag-dab-sar]

Namma/Nammu

𒀭𒇉

Sumerian Goddess, primarily from the city of Eridu

Mother of the Gods. Creator of Mankind, specifically in Eridu, elsewhere this role went to Nintur or Ninmah

—How to use internet archive link

🔵 Information

From Gods Demons & Symbols by Black [Internet Archive Link]

"Nammu was a goddess who was considered, in some traditions, to have given birth to An (heaven) and Ki (earth) and to many more of the more ancient gods. Especially she was regarded as the mother of Enki. She came to be thought of as one of the mother goddesses. Her name is written with the same sign as engur, a synonym of abzu, and it is probable that she was originally a personification of the subterranean ocean." [p134]

Dictionary of Ancient Near Eastern Mythology by Leick [Internet Archive Link]

Her name is usually written with the sign engur which was also used to write Apsu. In ancient times she personified the Apsu as the source of water and hence fertility in lower Mesopotamia. She may well have been worshipped in Eridu before Enki, who took over most of her prerogatives and functions. Significantly he was called the son of Nammu. In spite of her decline following the superiority of Enki, during the Neo-Sumerian period, at least at Ur, she was still considered important enough to have statues commissioned in her honour and she also features in the name of the famous king Ur-nammu. In mythology, Nammu appears as the primeval Mother-goddess in Enki and Ninmah who 'has given birth to the great gods'. She has the idea of creating mankind as a help for the gods and it is she who goes to wake her son Enki, asleep in the Apsu, that he may set the process going. [p 124]

Handbook of Gods & Goddess of the Ancient Near East [Google Books Link]:

"Namma: Sumerian goddess of the primeval, subterranean ocean. In the lexical series Diri the name has a syllabic rendering na-am-ma. In some traditions she was the mother of the sky god An, the earth goddess Ki, and a number of other deities. Enki/ Ea, the god of freshwater and wisdom, was considered her son. In the myth of "Enki and Nin-mah," when the other deities began complaining about how hard they had to work, it was Namma who awakened Enki from his sleep to urge him to create more creatures to take on the work of the gods. However, he delegated the task to Namma, who then received the credit for creating human beings. There was a shrine to the goddess in Marduk's great temple at Babylon, and at least one other of her sanctuaries is known"[p222]

Excerpt from Oracc [Link]:

"Very little is known about Namma, who belongs to the oldest generation of Mesopotamian deities and is associated with the pantheon of Eridu. She is mainly known for her role in the cosmogony of early Mesopotamia and her importance in magic, which is restricted to texts written in Sumerian [...]. According to the god list An-Anum, tablet I line 28 [...], Namma bears the title "mother who gave birth to the heavens and the earth. Because this goddess's name is written with sign for "(cosmic) subterranean waters" (Sumerian: engur) Wiggermann [..] has called her the "Cosmic Ocean. [...] In the Sumerian poem of Enki and Ninmah (ETCSL 1.1.2, line 17 link) Namma is called the "original mother who gave birth to the gods of the universe", again according her primary status among all the gods and describing her role in Mesopotamian cosmogony"

Section from Enki & Ninmah (ETCSL 1.1.2) [Link]

*Bolded part that explains her mother of Gods role, and also her creating man (different deities depending on myth)

*How deity, people, and place names are spelled is wildly inaccurate in the ETCSL, they don't even follow their own rules. But I still did not change the quote

"The gods said, weeping: "He is the cause of the lamenting!" Namma, the primeval mother who gave birth to the senior gods, took the tears of the gods to the one who lay sleeping, to the one who did not wake up from his bed, to her son: "Are you really lying there asleep, and ...... not awake? The gods, your creatures, are smashing their ....... My son, wake up from your bed! Please apply the skill deriving from your wisdom and create a substitute for the gods so that they can be freed from their toil!" At the word of his mother Namma, Enki rose up from his bed. In Hal-an-kug, his room for pondering, he slapped his thigh in annoyance. The wise and intelligent one, the prudent, ...... of skills, the fashioner of the design of everything brought to life birth-goddesses. Enki reached out his arm over them and turned his attention to them. And after Enki, the fashioner of designs by himself, had pondered the matter, he said to his mother Namma: "My mother, the creature you planned will really come into existence. Impose on him the work of carrying baskets. You should knead clay from the top of the abzu; the birth-goddesses will nip off the clay and you shall bring the form into existence. Let Ninmah act as your assistant; and let Ninimma, Cu-zi-ana, Ninmada, Ninbarag, Ninmug, ...... and Ninguna stand by as you give birth. My mother, after you have decreed his fate, let Ninmah impose on him the work of carrying baskets."

The Harps That Once by Jacobsen [Google Books Link]

"Namma, Enki's mother, was probably seen as the power in the riverbed which, empty or nearly empty in summer, gives birth to the fresh waters, to Enki, in the spring flood. This interpretation gains a measure of support from the fact that the cuneiform sign with which her name was written served also, if supplemented with the sign for "water," to write the word for "river." Etymologically the name Namma goes back to Nin-imma (nin-immaran-amma nama›namma) "lady female genitals," a personification of the numinous power to shape, mature, and give birth to the child, and it is as birth goddess generally, rather than as goddess of the riverbed, that the text here characterizes her. That latter aspect she may conceivably have acquired because the mythopoeic imagination conceived of the great gash in the earth which the dry riverbed presents as the genitals of Mother Earth herself, and the prototype of all female parts everywhere. Namma's role as birth goddess generally and as the one who gave birth to man probably represents a local tradition, perhaps at home in Eridu. Elsewhere it is the goddess Nintur, or Ninmah as she is called in this composition," [p 158]

From Wiggermann "Nammu" [PDF Link]

*He disagrees with Jacobsen on Nin-imma, but Wiggmann addresses many other authors both agreeing and disagreeing but its too densely written for me to even remotely understand the back & forth between the Assyriologists.

"Nammu is an ancient goddess of Eridu, who plays a part in the local (and early national) mythology as creatrix/mother goddess and as supporter of Enki in Magic. Most references relate to either of these two roles [...] Only her epithet "(^munus)agrig-zi-é-kur-(ra-)ke", "true housekeeper of Ekur" points outside Eridu to the pantheon of Nippur, but it may be due to a confusion with Nin-imma, Enlil's scholar and scribe." [p 137 Column 2]

🔵 Titles / Epithets

*I did not use š, ḫ, or ĝ when typing these for ease of reading. See Sisterofiris' posts on transliterations [link] & normalizations [link]. Page numbers correspond to Wiggermann's Nammu PDF, linked above.

🔹Amaùtuanki — "Mother who gave birth to Heaven and Earth" (p137 column 2)

🔹Ama-palil-ù-tu-dingir-shár-shárra-ke-ne — "Mother, who gave birth to all the gods" [I kept dashes so it can be read] (p138 column 1)

🔹Amarhusheke — "Compassionate Mother" (p138 column 2)

🔹Amagal — "Great Mother" (p138 column 2)

🔹Agrigziékurrake — "True housekeeper of Ekur" (p137 column 2)

🔹Amadingirdingira | Modern— [Link]

"Mother of (the) Gods" in Sumerian

𒂼 — Mother, ama [Link]

𒀭𒀭— Many Gods, dingirdingir [Link]

𒀝 - "of" genetive case suffix, .a(k) [Link]

🔵 Iconography

She has no known iconography that has been found yet according to Oracc.

I made these tonight on my phone. Left has an ocean as its background to represent the "Cosmic Sea" aspect.

Its the Mesopotamian horned cap/crown of divinity then her name 𒀭 (diĝir) and 𒇉 (engur)

(click on right its not cut off as mobile shows)

[jasperjv]

Hey. So 2 years ago Connor Lavery's aka khonjin's psychological torture of me reached fever pitch in my psyche and I was involuntarily committed to a psychiatric hospital in a severe psychotic breakdown that lasted almost 3 months. Now I'm indexed in his long story of his supposed inexplicable persecution. He thinks me, in my psychotic state, demanding monetary compensation for his gaslighting and harassment, was some kind of attempt at "cancellation" and me throwing a tantrum instead of communicating like an adult. However I deleted my entire social media presence after getting back from the hospital and haven't bothered him since. But he still thinks I did something to him.

The man is dangerous. He believes that the worst sin of mankind is the ego, so he makes it his mission to bully the fuck out of everyone until they have no self-esteem, boundaries of their own, or healthy sense of self whatsoever. The elimination of the ego however is what psychosis is, also unable to suppress the flow of the unconscious, identical to a waking dream. But when that happened to me after 2 years of mind games, he retreated into himself and framed it in the most disgusting way possible. Which you will see.

Embedded here is the first video I made myself specifically on this topic. You will see more details in a more recent video, and follow the trail I put in that video's description to get my full story. For the podcast in particular I would give a content warning for assault, sexual assault, ableism ("saneism"?) and general torture and terror.

There's nothing on God's green earth I could do or say to force him to take me seriously. I have probably half of you people blocked because just seeing anything to do with him would make my blood pressure spike. And it's high enough as-is just due to genetics. Maybe the rest of you might be able to be reached.

I'm so sick of fucking self-centered freaks trying to hold me accountable for actual psychosis because they're so desperate to blame anyone or anything but themselves for their part in tragedy. I really get gaslit about my own psychosis, and forced to prove a negative repeatedly (which we know is a lexical impossibility). I'm handed a blatant double-standard about mental health awareness and basic human decency, when in many cases I desperately need it more than most. Schizophrenia sufferers are 1% of the population. We're dwarfed by most, if not all, other mental illnesses. In this I continue to be thrown alone to the wolves. Sometimes even while being laughed at, it truly feels like. So I feel like I have to do all in my power to help make sure that this happens to fewer people than it would otherwise.

The callouts in 2018, the types of points of persuasion they were trying didn't make sense to me. Maybe this, though, could strike others. I'm more specific about how exactly he destroys people from the inside out. Stay the fuck away from him.

He's scared of losing his financial support from Patreon and ad revenue or whatever. I really, truly felt for that for a long time. But now I know that none of us are obligated to keep his ass afloat. It would be nobody's fault but his own if he didn't even try to heal his fucked up mindset and was just a raging misanthrope nobody wants to deal with. When you get to be my age, you become aware of all the ways to make a living. He could get disability. He could get a factory job, for instance. And that paid me an absurd amount of money. He needs to make up his mind about if he wants to be around people or not. Because he can't keep treating them the way that he does.

Oh, and if you're reading this and you happen to have any social connections with him whatsoever, for the love of God, do not let him put you on the defensive. About anything. Over and over again. It chips away at you. He doesn't have the answers. He doesn't have any objective taste like he desperately wants to think. He doesn't know any wisdoms that you couldn't get from someone who won't talk down to you.

Took me quite a while to convince him of the truth that he is only older than me by only a few months. I needed my hope in humanity and the future in order to not go and end it all. He did not give a fuck. He kept accusing me of lying about not being a naïve teenager. Just for that. Ask any well-adjusted and experienced adult and they will tell you to stay far away from people like that. The motivations that drive them to that behavior and opinion are bad, bad news.

He is intelligent, in the scariest ways. Intelligence of that type allows dysfunctional people like him to fabricate lines of logic that justify and enable the abuse they already sought to do. Literally anything can be justified with just the right kind of logic. Trust your gut. Guard your mind. It's the only one you've got.

He leads an excessively stressful life, creates his own dysfunctional world both inside and around him. I truly believe that this causes him many health problems. I've been having nightmares because of him. And as this built up and weighed heavy on my mind I got a fucking hemorrhoid. It went away very quickly after I made this video.

I'm feeling anxious as I type this. But I have to tell myself that anyone who would continue harassment of me over all the truth I've spoken is not worth my time or space. This isn't for them. It's for me, and it's for people who still have basic respect and empathy left in them.

Yours truly,

"slug"

[rockislandadultreads]

Book Recommendations: More Geology Picks

In anticipation of our upcoming 150th anniversary rock dedication, check out these books about geology! The unveiling of our engraved rock will be held next Monday, November 14th, at 10am at the corner of 2nd Avenue and 17th Street. This was the location of the Rock Island Public Library in 1872, which was also the first public library to open in Illinois! Everyone is welcome to join us for this special event.

Geopedia by Marcia Bjornerud

This volume is a trove of geologic wonders and the evocative terms that humans have devised to describe them. Featuring dozens of entries, this illustrated compendium is brimming with lapidary and lexical insights that will delight rockhounds and word lovers alike. With whimsical illustrations by Haley Hagerman, it is a mix of engaging and entertaining facts about how the earth works, how it has coevolved with life over billions of years, and how our understanding of the planet has deepened over time.

Underland by Robert Macfarlane 

This volume delivers an epic exploration of the Earth’s underworlds as they exist in myth, literature, memory, and the land itself. Traveling through the dizzying expanse of geologic time - from prehistoric art in Norwegian sea caves, to the blue depths of the Greenland ice cap, to a deep-sunk "hiding place" where nuclear waste will be stored for 100,000 years to come - Macfarlane takes us on an extraordinary journey into our relationship with darkness, burial, and what lies beneath the surface of both place and mind.

World of Geology by Tony Waltham

So many of the world's great natural attractions are features of their geology, with landforms that range from awe-inspiring to simply beautiful.  Within these pages, photographs and their accompanying texts offer just a taste of the visual delights within the world of geology.

Rock, Bone, and Ruin by Adrian Currie

The "historical sciences" - geology, paleontology, and archaeology - have made extraordinary progress in advancing our understanding of the deep past. How has this been possible, given that the evidence they have to work with offers mere traces of the past? In this volume, Currie draws on varied examples from across the historical sciences, from Mayan ritual sacrifice to giant Mesozoic fleas to Mars's mysterious watery past, to develop an account of the nature of, and resources available to, historical science.

[c0rpseductor]

have spent 14 hours doing conlang shit. kept trying to take breaks but they’d only last for a few minutes bc i’d keep thinking about conlanging. i’m still thinking about it.

let this set the stage for you. i’ve been awash in phonemes and syntax and lexical bullshit all damn night, okay. i’m no linguist, but i’m doing what i can here. for fourteen hours — Four Teen Earth Hours — i work on developing an alphabet representing a distinct set of phonemes, how loan words are altered to fit that linguistic schema, how loan words taken out of the language are frequently mangled, a set of TWENTY ONE!!! pronouns that indicate social standing and how they’re additionally used as modifiers, i am bragging a little but mostly i want you to understand i barely know the terminology for what i’m doing here and i’m working my ass off to get down something interesting.

such is the work i have been doing on zygerrian. nobody cares about zygerria; it’s a bit planet in clone wars and all the worldbuilding sucks. i’ve done a bunch of shit with it from the ground up purely to honor my catboy OC and give some texture to his backstory.

i think, man, thrawn has a lot going on, right? certainly more people are interested in the chiss. it’s a shame there’s just not any significant cheunh in canon. what if i did a conlang of cheunh as well? While I’m Taking A Break From 14 Hours Of Zygerrian, Why Don’t I See If Anyone Else Has Done Some Work On Cheunh? (i think i may need to get tested for adhd)

so i google cheunh. first real result is from wattpad. sigh. ok. open it up.

it’s a poorly constructed cipher of english with no underlying logic

[sleepydross]

I don't want to be angry on here a lot, but sometimes I have a lot of heavy thoughts and want to talk about them so... like, white, cisgender, heterosexual, allosexual, endosex people, please sincerely... shut the fuck up.

Like idk, I'm not even gonna be specific, cause no one in good faith is going to seek any lexical hole to widen or something, so it doesn't matter, but cishets, please.

Shut. The fuck. Up.

No, I don't want to hear your opinions. Nope, not interested in your activist work, I've done and have my own thank you. No, I don't have any interest in what makes you an 'ally' and find your desperation to pin that on your chest beyond distasteful and weird. No, I don't want to hear what you think about being trans, queer, gay, bi, your definitions, your opinions, your wah wah wah shit? I am not interested. I really... I'm not. I'm sorry. You've had control of the Earth for however long and this is what you've made of it. Sit the fuck down. Your opinions mean nothing to me, and your voice is of negative use. Be silent, and listen to the people who your entire life's privilege pile is built on.

Like, all of you exist inside of this deeply fucked system of privilege where you're treated as the 'default' and you act accordingly. You've got fucking main character syndrome. You think you're fucking even more annoying Batman, no killing, no violence, no force. Its uncouth, it's wrong, it's...

But this isn't a comic book and youre not a member of the fucking justice league, and we're not fighting a colorful gallery of rogues with no meaningful longterm consequences we're fighting FUCKING NAZIS, and FUCKING FASCISTS, and FUCKING ZEALOTS. You know why you think violence bad?

Because you know the violence is against YOU. You will suffer the glorious retribution of BEING LESS PRIVILEGED if you actually support marginalized people, and you KNOW that privilege makes your life easier. I've seen it, I've heard it.

"Lucky I'm straight, whew, lot of bigotry out there"

Literally had that sentence said to my face. To my credit I didn't bust the guy's nose. That day. He earned that later for a far more awful casual bigotry, alongside some dental work.

I can see it, we can all see it. In the back of your head.

The fear. The FEAR. You're the default, aren't you? What happens to you if you're not the default anymore? This is how things have always been! This is how-

Until you cishet whatever the fuck freaks get it through your goddamn head that the fear, that fear, is a poison that makes you an enemy, you're... an enemy. Duh. Every piece of software still plugged into the system is potentially a foe.

So please.

Shut the fuck up. You're incapable of helping if you speak, if you do *anything* but listen.

Shut. The Fuck. Up.

[potentiallypolyglot]

The world is so big and so small.

Sometimes I get down thinking that the whole world has been discovered. There aren’t billions other planets and places that we can visit and cultures that we can experience like in Doctor Who or Marvel movies (terrible point of reference I know). I was foolishly worrying the other day that once I “master” Chinese I’ll get bored because there won’t be more that I’m excited to learn. (Ridiculous bc I haven’t even scratched the surface as it is and there will be no end to learning, especially with a language so beautiful and with so much history).

For a bit, I lost interest in other languages I used to love and worried I’d never fall in love with another language. I used to want to learn so many and suddenly felt I couldn’t be bothered.

I’d look at Chinese dramas and think these people are so similar to me, what’s the point of another culture if it’s not that different? (Ridiculous, I know) But this is just another part of the big/small earth dichotomy. Of course it’s different! Cultures can be different and still be made of people who are are fundamentally the same at their core. That’s the point!!!

Anyway, I found myself perusing a language development tree and saw Frisian, which is the closest modern language to English. I’d never heard of it! I looked it up and Google ‘helpfully’ told me that it is spoken in Friesland, which I’d also never heard of. It’s a region of the Netherlands, and there are six (6) branches of the Frisian language. And despite being 80% lexically similar, it is not mutually intelligible with English. Nor is it mutually intelligible with Dutch (official language of the Netherlands).

It is such a delight to discover that there is more to the world than the things I already know or am aware can be learned. I know all of this is obvious and some is the product of irrational/limited thinking. But I think that’s sometimes the beauty of it. Being a little blind and finding new light.

So I looked into how to learn Frisian and found this great (and adorable?) resource . It’s a website with a free program to learn Frisian, including audio files and exercises. With their premium program, you can even interact with native speakers via WhatsApp or Telegram.

There are about 500,000 modern speakers of Fresian. And you can learn their language!! There’s probably not much commercial value to learning it and you aren’t likely to encounter a speaker randomly, but it’s theirs! And you can learn it too!

So my search for novelty lead me to the language most similar to my own. And even now I feel somewhat bad that apparently is biggest claim to fame is that it is similar to English (can’t it be amazing in its own right? It shouldn’t have to live in a shadow!!) But it’s comforting to know that when you think there’s nothing to be discovered, you can find something new so close to home.

I know this post probably comes across as naive and narrow minded. And I know I haven’t written eloquently and the ideas expressed are much more profound in my head. But I was delighted so I wanted to share as best I can.

ALSO!!! The first words I’ve seen so far in Frisian are:

Hello - ‘goeie’

Goodbye - 'oan't sjen' or 'sjoddy'

🤯🤯🤯

I know it’s novelty (that’s the point) but those words seem so much more foreign to me now than 你好 and 再见, despite apparently being so similar to English. I’m so glad I have so much to learn. 😁

I’m still focused on and delighted by Chinese and so excited to visit China soon (hopefully) and study there next year (if everything goes amazingly well). But I might just dabble a little in Frisian for fun. At least enough to figure out what makes it similar to English. (The words I’ve seen so far don’t look similar - is the grammar the same?? I have to know!!)

Thanks for letting me be silly.

[robothrt]

I think that a lot of people who are alterhuman or therian identify that way because they've already been outcasted from humanity one way or another. I can guarantee you almost 100% of the time the alterhuman in question is trans or genderqueer in some way, autistic, mentally ill, etc. and has gone so much of their life feeling out of place and denied their humanity because society at large wasn't made to accomodate them. And more often than not, the alterhuman identity they identify with aligns with the way they see themselves through the eyes of others. As an animal. As a robot. It's a way of reclaiming that view and tailoring it as one's own. In the wise words of one of our most lexically fluent: You can't blame anyone for identifying or relating to something alien to them when they were outcasted by the only society there is on Earth. Or I don't know maybe it's just me.

[scribe-of-stories]

Smith of Masks: An Old Friend

[Urban Fantasy/Nior-esq/690 words] @flashfictionfridayofficial

Ashley was on vacation, a sudden windfall of canceled family plans left her free and halfway across the world. So it fell on me to man the office. Or maybe the term was 'to wyrd' the office? Haunt? Yeah, it fell on me to haunt the office. Not that I minded it. She deserved the break, and the community knew that I could use one as well.

My office building was an unassuming place, but it had grown stranger since I became aware. Used to be my office neighbors were lawyers and office workers. These days they were petty mages and alchemists. Though there was still a lawyer kicking around, but she had stopped hiding her horns. I had thought to share a lunch with her, if the day was slow enough.

Sadly that didn't end up being the case.

Smith and Byrne Investigation Agency was scrawled across the fogged class of my office door. The locks were simple, the wards more complex. Which made the fact that someone was already standing inside all the more worrying.

Unnervingly perfect in one too many ways. Red hair and an amount of Irish descent now mixed with the intoxicating delight of Fae physiology. It failed to compel me now just as it had back when we first met.

“Smith, a pleasure to see you again,”

Annabelle’s tone was disarming, words an enticement. I wondered which part of me she was referring to: the Smith as it is written on my door, or the Smith of Masks. I doubted she even knew there was a difference. Some nights I might agree.

I closed the door behind me, made my way to a bookshelf, and chose one at random. The pages had words this time, but it didn't relieve me any.

The faeling chuckled with a lifted hand to her mouth. A measured set of movements. “Ah, you remember our first meeting.”

“Hard to forget your first encounter with the supernatural,” I brought the book with me to my desk and relaxed into it. Technically it wasn't my first, but no need for her to know that. “You can cut the court act.”

Her soft features and mannerisms melted away ever so slightly to something more natural. The amused smile turned coy and a touch smug. Fucking courteers.

“Ashley's on vacation, why are you here?”

The amusement in her eyes deepend, “You're the investigator, read the narrative.”

Fucking hate Faes. Acting like they were in control all the time, holding all the cards. It was even more annoying that they often were.

We shared a moment of annoyed silence while I stared at her. I wanted to see if she would hand over the information if I didn't answer; but I was also taking the time to put the pieces together. She held her tongue, and my own thoughts were fighting to leave my skull.

“Your family ends up canceling their plans for a get together in their homeland, but Ashley's calendar was already cleared and her tickets paid for by then. She texts me this morning that she landed safely, and shortly after you show up at our office.

“I'm guessing there was no planned family vacation, just you pulling strings to get Ashley away from here or to somewhere you've already made safe. I'm reading that you have a job for me, and it's something you wanted to keep your dear sister away from.”

“And I've come to the best paranormal investigator this side of the Mississippi for help,” Annabelle took a seat across from me and folded herself up into a proper, courtly, posture.

I got out my notepad, ripped the pages from the last investigation off of it, and settled in for another job. “First things first, the fees. Though half of this office's investigators are gone I'll be asking for our usual price, considering the circumstances.”

Her false softness returned and she put on a sad tone like a clown puts on makeup. “Oh? No favors for an old friend?”

[keithmichaela]

THE MYSTERIOUS TREASURE MAP

Once upon a time, In the scorching heat of Oakville, where the sun beat down relentlessly, resided a trio of intrepid companions: Alex, whose scent wafted through the air like a sweet summer breeze; Emma, whose aroma evoked the earthy freshness of a forest after a summer rain; and Max, possessing a heart as pure and valuable as gold itself. One day, amidst the towering presence of their grandmother's attic, they stumbled upon a dusty tome that seemed to scrape the heavens, its mere presence casting shadows capable of engulfing the entire town. Within its weathered pages lay a cryptic treasure map, waiting patiently to be discovered.

Excitement bubbled within them like a simmering cauldron as they gathered around the map, eager to unravel its mysteries. The first clue beckoned them to the town's ancient library, where the soft whisper of turning pages mingled with the gentle hum of fluorescent lights, enveloping them in a serene cocoon of knowledge. There, they were greeted by Mrs. Jenkins, whose initial doubt melted away like morning mist in the face of their determination.

"Welcome, young adventurers!" Mrs. Jenkins exclaimed, her smile a beacon of encouragement. "To unveil the next clue, you must embark on a word hunt, where each term conceals a fragment of the puzzle. Seek out these elusive words within the titles: adventure, quest, treasure, discovery, and mystery." With hearts full of determination, they scoured the shelves, pouring their souls into the search. Despite Mrs. Jenkins' initial skepticism, she found herself astounded by their tenacity, her hesitation melting away as she reluctantly handed them the next clue.

The second clue led them to the verdant embrace of the town park, where they were tasked with a lexical challenge amidst a tapestry of vibrant flora and fauna. The soft caress of grass underfoot and the kaleidoscope of colors surrounding them provided a backdrop for their quest. They embarked on a scavenger hunt, seeking objects that embodied the essence of exploration, antiquity, value, revelation, and enigma. With each discovery, they wove sentences that showcased their newfound linguistic prowess, their confidence blossoming like the flowers around them. Grateful for Mrs. Jenkins' guidance, they accepted the next clue with eager anticipation.

Their journey took them deep into the heart of the forest, where they confronted a riddle steeped in ancient mystique. "I am a hidden treasure, buried in the earth's embrace," it whispered, the words weaving a spell of intrigue. "Unearth me carefully, for within my depths lie secrets of bygone eras, gleaming like stars in the night sky. What am I?" After much contemplation, the answer revealed itself: an artifact, a relic of ages past, waiting to be unearthed. With bated breath, they excavated the designated spot, their hearts pounding with anticipation as they uncovered a glimmering prize.

Returning triumphantly to their grandmother's abode, they discovered a hidden compartment within the attic, its contents a testament to their victory. Within lay a trove of gold coins, precious gems, and a note of congratulations, a testament to their perseverance and ingenuity. As they reveled in their success, they plucked an apple from a nearby tree, its tart juices a sweet reminder of their triumph. With gratitude and camaraderie, they thanked each other for their unwavering support, ready to embark on even grander adventures that lay ahead.

**Imagery:**

- Thermal: "In the scorching heat of Oakville"

- Olfactory: "Alex, whose scent wafted through the air like a sweet summer breeze" and "Emma, whose aroma evoked the earthy freshness of a forest after a summer rain"

- Auditory: "The soft whisper of turning pages mingled with the gentle hum of fluorescent lights" and "the soft caress of grass underfoot"

- Tactile: "the soft caress of grass underfoot"

- Visual: "the kaleidoscope of colors surrounding them"

- Gustatory: "they plucked an apple from a nearby tree, its tart juices a sweet reminder of their triumph"

**Figures of Speech:**

- Euphemism: "grandmother's attic"

- Simile: "whose scent wafted through the air like a sweet summer breeze" and "Emma, whose aroma evoked the earthy freshness of a forest after a summer rain"

- Metaphor: "possessing a heart as pure and valuable as gold itself"

- Hyperbole: "a dusty tome that seemed to scrape the heavens"

- Personification: "the soft whisper of turning pages"

- Synecdoche: "each term conceals a fragment of the puzzle"

- Oxymoron: "the soft whisper of turning pages mingled with the gentle hum of fluorescent lights"

- Irony: "she found herself astounded by their tenacity, her hesitation melting away"

- Understatement: "her hesitation melting away as she reluctantly handed them the next clue"

[almaqead]

"The Months." From Surah At Tawbah, The Repentance.

You know it don't go easy...Donald Trump still lives, as do his Republican Party and his faith, the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter Day Saints and their criminal cohorts, the anti-human Family Research Council and Heritage Foundation.

Ukraine still does not have the aid it needs, and the Russians are advancing. The floods are flooding, the volcanoes are erupting, the clamshells are clamping but still Joe Biden will not obey federal and international laws and defend life on this planet. He has God on his side and the wind at his back but as of today evil is still winning.

So, no repentance today.

But Allah, the Magnificent, the Most Wise and the Most High told Muhammad His Prophet:

9:35-40:

The Day ˹will come˺ when their treasure will be heated up in the Fire of Hell, and their foreheads, sides, and backs branded with it. ˹It will be said to them,˺ “This is the treasure you hoarded for yourselves. Now taste what you hoarded!”

Indeed, the number of months ordained by Allah is twelve—in Allah’s Record1 since the day He created the heavens and the earth—of which four are sacred. That is the Right Way. So do not wrong one another during these months. And fight the polytheists together as they fight together against you. And know that Allah is with those mindful ˹of Him˺.

Reallocating the sanctity of ˹these˺ months1 is an increase in disbelief, by which the disbelievers are led ˹far˺ astray. They adjust the sanctity one year and uphold it in another, only to maintain the number of months sanctified by Allah, violating the very months Allah has made sacred. Their evil deeds have been made appealing to them. And Allah does not guide the disbelieving people.

O believers! What is the matter with you that when you are asked to march forth in the cause of Allah, you cling firmly to ˹your˺ land?1 Do you prefer the life of this world over the Hereafter? The enjoyment of this worldly life is insignificant compared to that of the Hereafter.

If you do not march forth, He will afflict you with a painful torment and replace you with other people. You are not harming Him in the least. And Allah is Most Capable of everything.

˹It does not matter˺ if you ˹believers˺ do not support him, for Allah did in fact support him when the disbelievers drove him out ˹of Mecca˺ and he was only one of two. While they both were in the cave, he reassured his companion,1 “Do not worry; Allah is certainly with us.” So Allah sent down His serenity upon the Prophet, supported him with forces you ˹believers˺ did not see, and made the word of the disbelievers lowest, while the Word of Allah is supreme. And Allah is Almighty, All-Wise.

Commentary:

The life to come happens after the end of the Quran and God hears the final prayer of Muhammad for what is called Masjid, a global messianic phenomenon.

The Prophet said this is preceded by Four Sacred Months:

The four sacred months of the Hijri calendar are Rajab, Dhu al-Qadah, Dhu al-Hijjah, and Muharram. These months are considered to be of great importance in Islamic tradition and culture, and have a special importance in comparison to the other months. The Four Saced months are always taking place in preparation for the onset of Masjid, global law, order, and peace:

Rajab= ajab (Arabic: رَجَب) is the seventh month of the Islamic calendar. The lexical definition of the classical Arabic verb rajaba is "to respect".

Dhu al-Qadah= Dhu al-Qa'dah, also spelled Dhu al-Qi'dah or Zu al-Qa'dah, is the eleventh month in the Islamic calendar. It could possibly mean "possessor or owner of the sitting and seating place" - the space occupied while sitting or the manner of the sitting, pose or posture. 

Dhu al-Hijjah=Dhu al-Hijjah is the twelfth and final month in the Islamic calendar. Being one of the four sacred months during which war is forbidden, it is the month in which the Ḥajj takes place as well as Eid al-Adha, the “Festival of the Sacrifice.”

Muharram=According to traditional customs, Muharram is the first month of the Islamic calendar and considered to be highly religious, only coming next to Ramadan. Muharram, in itself, means "forbidden" and since it is considered to be holy, many Muslims use it as a period of prayer and reflection.

The objective of the observation of the Four Months is to heighten the practices of the Pillars and the noble virtues of the religion and to be more adverse than usual to transgression in order to avoid being punished.

As the verses above say we the righteous are being called to treat this very day as if one were practicing the Four Months all at once and proceed on Jihad against the polytheists, the men of America who think they are gods and give and partake of the bounty of this world at a whim without paying heed to the Laws of God or man.

The world is spiralling out of control because believers are not in control. Allah told Muhammad the kind of control that is needed, the right kind through practice and belief is learned through the Four Months.

When the world's faith in the Verses is greater than the freed of the American polytheists, then as the Quran says, "serenity shall descend, and the Words of Allah shall be placed above the rest."

The Republicans and all they stand for and the dog president have to go. Joe Biden has to dispose of them and he has to do so at once. They have attacked American soil and the saced soil of Israel and their power is unmatched and unchecked. This is not correct or proper. Those who believe must insist the White House do what has to be done, otherwise peace on earth will remain the subject of prayers and fantasy and this is not enough.

Masjid must be established all around the world and like the Four Months, its victory must be happen this very day.

[sag-dab-sar]

Goddess Tiāmat

Akkadian Goddess in the Enūma Eliš

Goddess of the primordial salt sea. She does not seem to have ever been worshipped in Mesopotamia.

*That is Akkadian cuneiform, her name does not seem to be recorded in any Sumerian resource.

—How to use Internet Archive link

🔵 Information

Tiāmat information on the Open Richly Annotated Cuneiform Corpus (Oracc)

From A Handbook of Gods and Goddesses of the Ancient Near East by Frayne & Stuckey [Google Book Link]:

Ti'amat, Tâmtum (page 345)

Primeval goddess, personification of the sea, in the Enuma eliš. Attested as early as the Ur III period in a theophoric name of one of the wives of Šu-Sîn. The goddess's name means "Sea" ti'amtu(m). At first, according to the Enuma eliš, Ti'amat's salt waters were co-mingled with those of her husband Apsû, the fresh waters, and together they engendered various deities, including the sky god Anu. Eventually, Ea, Anu's son, slew Apsû. Then, in a heroic battle, Ea's son, Marduk, slew Ti'amat, splitting her body in half. Marduk made one part into the vault of the heavens and the other into the surface of the earth. He made the clouds from her spittle, the mountains from her head, and the Tigris and Euphrates Rivers from her tears. She had bestowed the Tablet of Destiny on Qingu, but when Marduk defeated Qingu, he gave the tablet to Anu. There was a "seat" of Ti'amat in the temple of Marduk in Babylon, and Marduk's "seat" there was named Ti'a mat An Ugaritic lexical text equates Ti'amatu to the Mesopotamian goddess Antu(m). She occurs in an Ugaritic god list as Tihāmātu / Tamatu.

From Gods Demons & Symbols of Ancient Mesopotamian by Black & Green [Internet Archive Link]:

Tiāmat (page 177)

In the unique version of the creation of the gods preserved in the Babylonian Epic of Creation, after the separation of heaven and earth the only entities in existence were Apsû [...] and Tiamat. Apsû personified the fresh subterranean waters and Tiāmat the salt waters: the name is a form of the word tiamtum, 'sea'. Apsû and Tiāmat were envisaged as a male-female pair, although it is said that 'their waters mingled together'. They engendered a line of gods including Anu (An), Anu's son Ea (Enki) and (apparently) other deities, whose activities so disturbed Apsû that he planned to exterminate them (despite Tiāmat's protests). When Ea slew Apsû, Tiāmat determined to be avenged and created eleven monsters [...] with, as her champion, the god Qingu, described as her 'lover'. Eventually, after a heroic contest, Marduk, champion of the younger gods (in the Assyrian version his name is substituted with that of Aššur), defeated the monsters and Qingu and destroyed Tiāmat by splitting her skull with his mace, while standing on her 'lower parts'. He broke her in two 'like a dried fish', using one half to roof the heavens and the other to surface the earth: her breasts formed mountains, Tigris and Euphrates flowed from her eyes, her spittle formed clouds. While in some respects Tiāmat, like other deities, is described in anthropomorphic terms, it is difficult to form a precise picture of how the author of the Epic envisaged her. In other passages it seems to be implied that the salt sea waters were inside her.

Tiāmat's Creatures (pages 177-178)

In the Babylonian Epic of Creation, in order to avenge herself on the younger gods, Tiāmat gives birth to eleven monsters, or groups of monsters (bearing some resemblance to the Slain Heroes defeated by Ningirsu or Ninurta in a story of earlier origin). The eleven are:

the mušmahhu, ušumgallu and bašmu (three types of horned snake)

the mushuššu (a snake-dragon)

the lahamu (possibly identical to Lahmu, the long-haired ‘hero' figure)

the ugallu ('great storm-beast', the lion-demon)

the uridimmu ('raging lion', the lion humanoid)

the girtablullû ('scorpion-man': see scorpion-people)

ūmu dabrūtu ('fierce storms')

kulullû ('fish-man': see merman and mermaid)

kusarikku (a mythical beast probably derived from the bison: see bull man).

All of these are defeated by Marduk (in the Assyrian edition, Aššur) in a great battle. Images of them were placed by Marduk in the apsû (abzu) as a monument to the victory. The creatures of Tiāmat were sometimes invoked in magical incantations [...], and figurines of some of them were among those used in Neo-Assyrian protective magic, as a consequence of which their distinctive iconography can in most cases be determined.

🔵 Myth: Enūma Eliš

The myth she appears in. It was a very political myth used to justify Marduk as chief deity and therefore the government (at a later date it was for Aššur)

Read it:

L W King Translation from 1902

Translation on Electronic Tools and Ancient Near East Archives (ETANA)

Compiled translation primarily based on E.A Speiser

E.A Speiser's translation is available in The Ancient Near East an Anthology of Texts and Pictures by James Pritchard page 28. Available on Internet Archive Library (How to use the internet archive Link)

Interesting analysis of how it represented the creation of government

Analysis from Treasures of Darkness by Thorkild Jacobsen also available on Internet Archive Library

🔵 Iconography

These are academically debated as to whether or not they are Tiāmat but they are possibilities so I've included them. I have increased the contrast in both photos for visibility.

Faience, now cream probably originally glazed, cylinder seal; a standing archer (Marduk?) aims an arrow at a serpent (Tiamat?) with a crested head which rises before him. The figure wears a horizontally-striated robe and lines above his shoulder indicate arrows in a quiver. There are groups of wedges between the figures and above the serpent's coiled tail. Line border at top and bottom. — British Museum Asset Number 159745001

Black or dark brown and pale brown serpentinite cylinder seal in the linear style; a snout-nosed, horned reptile (Tiamat as a dragon?) faces left; the upper third of it's long, cross-hatched body rises vertically from two front paws or hands, one of which is raised; the remainder of the body runs around the bottom of the seal and supports three figures; there are no hind legs. A bearded god (Ninurta?) runs along the reptile's body towards the left; he wears a feather-topped head-dress and a vertically-striated, tiered and fringed open robe over a fringed kilt and has crossed, wedge-tipped quivers on his back. His arms are stretched out on either side, and in his right hand he holds a six-pronged thunderbolt below which is a rhomb, while in his left he holds two arrows. Behind the god, and advancing towards the left, is a smaller bearded god in a horned (?) head-dress with a long, tasselled streamer or necklace counterweight hanging down behind; he wears an open robe similar to that of the running god and holds a spear before him in both hands. On the tail of the reptile, with her back to the smaller god, stands an even smaller goddess, who wears a feather-topped, horned head-dress with a short tassel or necklace counterweight hanging behind, and a belted, vertically striated, tiered robe; she holds her arms open to seize the snout of the reptile. To the left of her head is a small globe-with-rays and to the right, a crescent. Line borders at top and bottom broken by the running god's head-dress. The seal may illustrate a scene from the epic of creation in which the forces of chaos, led by Tiamat, are defeated by a god representing cosmic order, probably Ninurta. Shiny, some chipping and weathering; note that there is a chip by the smaller god's shoulder and the tassel of his streamer may mask damage. — British Museum Asset Number 159863001

🔵 Please Avoid

Because she was not worshiped in history (as far as we know) there is little info available. So people often turn to other sources, as you try to research yourself I ask you to keep these in mind as warning signs.

⚠️The book "Grimoire of Tiāmat" is bullshit, and from a Mesopotamian religious point of view completely dangerous

Anything that uses her with dragon magick & neo-pagan/witch sources in general

Feminist & Jungian sources, they twist Goddesses' stories for their, usually westernized, agenda, and preconceived archetypes

-not audio proof read sorry-

-overhauled post-

[questionsonislam]

What exactly is ikhlas (sincerity)? How can one get ikhlas?

Ikhlas lexically means refining, purifying, separating and removing impurities.

Ikhlas means, for an individual, to be closed to anything except Allah Almighty’s orders, requests and grants in worshipping. It means to keep secrets in the relationship between the slave and the Creator, in other words, to fulfill his duties and responsibilities because He wants them, to aim His consent while fulfilling them and to turn toward His otherworldly courtesy. It is regarded as one of the most important qualities of the purest, loyal people.

Ikhlas is a deed of the heart and Allah values man based of the tendencies of his heart:

"He does not look at your shapes and outward appearance; He looks at your hearts and the tendencies of your heart." (Muslim, Birr, 33)

Ikhlas is a magical credit that Allah granted to clean hearts, that makes little things big and shallow things deep and that makes limited worshipping unlimited so much so that man can demand the most expensive things in the markets of the world and the hereafter with it and is valued in the places where people crawl thanks to it. The Messenger of Allah states the following due to this mysterious power of ikhlas:

"Be sincere in your religious life; few deeds will suffice." (Munawi, Faydul-Qadir, I, 216)

"Always try to do your deeds with ikhlas because Allah accepts only sincere deeds." (Munawi, Faydul-Qadir, I, 217)

Thus, the Prophet warns us to base our deeds on ikhlas. Ikhlas is a secret between the slave and the Creator; Allah has placed this secret in the hearts of His beloved slaves.

It is necessary for man to realize why ikhlas is so important and to demand sincerely to be able to attain that level of belief in order to practice ikhlas with its real meaning. For, the people who have not realized the importance of ikhlas may seek power in the worldly values and pursue them in order to have a position in the community. Fame, glory, wealth, beauty, academic career or prestige are the things that those people seek. However, none of them can make man gain a permanent power or prestige in the hereafter in its real sense.

Badiuzzaman Said Nursi states the following:

"You should know that all your strength lies in sincerity and truth. Yes, strength lies in truth and sincerity.”

Thus, he reminds us that a believer can gain power both in the world and the hereafter only through ikhlas.

What is necessary in order to gain ikhlas and to preserve it:

1. Fear of Allah is the most important means that enables man to increase his ikhlas. A person who realizes the greatness of Allah, that there is no power except Him and that the one that created the universe out of nothing, that takes care of all living beings and shows mercy to them is Allah is affiliated to Allah with a deep love. He understands that his real friend in the world and the hereafter is only Allah and hence the one whose consent is necessary to seek is only Him. Along with this strong love, he fears Allah.

"... Then fear Allah, and know that ye will surely be gathered unto Him." (al-Baqara, 2/203)

Allah tells people that they need to fear Him in the verse above.

Fearing takes place when a person avoids the attitudes that Allah rendered haram and is not pleased with and when he fulfills His orders without any laziness. A sincere person who fears Allah knows what attitudes He will not be pleased with and steps into action to correct them. For instance, if his soul has a tendency and weakness toward worldly possessions, he notices it. In that case, he uses his wealth in the way of Allah in order to overcome that weakness.

2. One of the responsibilities of a believer is to attain a level of belief that can appreciate Allah as it is necessary by being aware of the fact reminded in the verse below:

"No just estimate have they made of Allah, such as is due to Him: On the Day of Judgment the whole of the earth will be but His handful, and the heavens will be rolled up in His right hand: Glory to Him! High is He above the Partners they attribute to Him." (az-Zumar, 39/67)

To be able to appreciate Allah can be attained by knowing Him with all of His names and to see and realize the manifestations of those names in his life all the time. For, man can fear Allah and attain a sincere belief only if he can realize Allah’s greatness.

A person who can appreciate Allah as it is necessary knows that there cannot be any power except Allah and does not fear anyone except Him. He knows that nothing will happen unless Allah wishes, which enables him to worship by turning to Allah only. When he wants to do a good deed, he does it not because of fearing the reactions of people but because he does not want to act contrarily to Allah's order. Similarly, when he decides to give up doing something, he does not give it up thinking that people will get angry with him but in order to attain Allah’s mercy and avoid His wrath.

3. A person who wants to show the most sincere attitude in everything he faces needs to seek "Allah's consent as much as possible". This order of Allah is reminded through the following verse with the phrase "strive as in a race in all virtues":

"… so strive as in a race in all virtues. The goal of you all is to Allah..." (al-Maida, 5/48)

The following is stated in another verse:

"Then We have given the Book for inheritance to such of Our Servants as We have chosen: but there are among them some who wrong their own souls; some who follow a middle course; and some who are, by Allah´s leave, foremost in good deeds; that is the highest Grace." (Fatir, 35/32)

As it is stated in the verse above, there are some people who ‘follow a middle course’ among believers and who are ‘foremost in good deeds’. A sincere Muslim is foremost in good deeds. He works very hard in order to display the attitudes with which Allah will be pleased and tries to be a righteous slave by using everything he has.

4. A person who wants to gain ikhlas needs to be aware of this fact: man should expect the rewards for what he does in the world only from Allah. If a person does something for anything except Allah's consent, mercy and Paradise, his ikhlas is broken and he is led to insincerity. If a person serves in the way of Allah for years with this thought, he will not have gained ikhlas in its real sense unless he does them for Allah’s sake only. Only the deeds of worship that he does without adding anything except Allah's consent can gain him great rewards and thawabs.

Allah states in the following verse that deeds of righteousness will be given ‘a magnificent reward’:

"Verily this Qur´an doth guide to that which is most right (or stable), and giveth the Glad Tidings to the Believers who work deeds of righteousness, that they shall have a magnificent reward." (al-Isra, 17/9)

Badiuzzaman Said Nursi attracts attention to the fact that ikhlas can be obtained when man becomes happy with what Allah gives him and shows contentedness:

"… One should also take as one’s guide the quality of preferring others to oneself, the same quality of the Companions that is praised in the Quran. For example, when giving a present or performing an act of charity, one should always prefer the recipient to oneself, and without demanding or inwardly desiring any material reward for religious service, know one’s act to be purely Allah’s grace and not impose a sense of obligation on men..."

"This world is a place of service; it is not a place of rewards. The rewards, fruits and lights of righteous deeds are in the hereafter. To want those eternal fruits in this world means to make the hereafter subject to this world. The sincerity of that righteous deed is broken and its light disappears. Those fruits are not demanded and intended. If they are given, man thinks that they have been given for encouragement and thanks Allah."

5. It is necessary to base everything directly on Allah’s consent. Even if everybody is against a person and nobody is pleased with him, it is of no significance if Allah is pleased with him. For, the hearts of all of those people are under the control of Allah. If Allah wishes, He will make them pleased with that person.

On the other hand, if Allah is not pleased with a person due to an attitude of his, it is of no significance if everybody is pleased with him and is grateful to him. A believer knows that it is of no significance in the eye of Allah and that people’s being pleased with him will gain him nothing in the hereafter unless Allah is pleased with him. The group that will be pleased with him may consist of financially or politically powerful people. However, they are all weak beings that were created by Allah and that will decay in the grave one day, losing all of their power. Therefore, their number, support and appreciation will be of no use in the hereafter. The one who is eternal and whose consent needs to be attained is only Allah. What will make man gain a permanent understanding of ikhlas is ‘to ignore the consent of people and to aim to attain Allah’s consent’ by realizing this fact.

6. Conscience is a power that Allah has created so that it will show man the true path. It warns man against the evil of the soul, provocation of Satan and all attitudes contrary to the Quran throughout man’s life. It inspires man the attitude that Allah will be pleased with and the deeds that are in compliance with the Quran. A person who obeys the voice of his conscience unconditionally in all incidents obtains ikhlas. For, ikhlas means being able to make use of one’s conscience ultimately and not making concessions related to acting in compliance with one’s conscience even if he conflicts with his soul or encounters difficulties.

Therefore, a person who wants to obtain ikhlas should check whether he uses his conscience as it is necessary first. If he sometimes stops his conscience, does not heed its voice and acts in accordance with his soul deliberately, it means he does not use his conscience in compliance with the Quran.

"Nay, man will be evidence against himself, Even though he were to put up his excuses." (al-Qiyamah, 75/14-15)

What is more, as it is stated in the verses above, everybody knows that the voice that whispers to him is conscience and knows with what excuses he suppresses it.

7. Thinking about death is one of the most important means of obtaining ikhlas. Everybody in the world, without an exception, mentions or at least thinks about something: to live long and if possible not to die. Scientists have been researching seriously and trying to find a way of making man live longer. However, no improvement haven been made in those researches up to now.

Many people view death through a wrong perspective; they regard it as an end where all of the beauties of the worldly live finish, man bids farewell to life permanently and goes under the ground to decay. However, this belief originates from the fact that they have not been able to understand Allah's existence and the purpose of their creation. Those people are not aware that the worldly life is only a testing that will determine their real life after death. They regard this world as real life and the hereafter as a deception. Therefore, they regard death, which ends worldly life and starts life in the hereafter, as an end.

Thus, 'death' is very scary for them and 'thinking about death' is very disturbing for them. They believe that they will not take pleasure from the world as necessary if they think about death and that this thought will make all pleasures bland and meaningless. They think they will be affiliated with the worldly life more and benefit from its pleasures more if they do not think about death or if they try to forget it.

However, the result will not change whether man thinks about death or not whether he remembers or forgets it:

"Say: ‘The Death from which ye flee will truly overtake you: then will ye be sent back to the Knower of things secret and open: and He will tell you (the truth of) the things that ye did.’" (al-Jumua, 62/8)

As the verse above reminds us, man will definitely face death. Then, what is reasonable is not to try to forget and ignore a fact that will definitely happen but to make preparations to face this fact.

If man leads a life that Allah will be pleased with, death will not harm that person. On the contrary, it will be a means of starting his endless and perfect life. If he has turned toward Allah with a sincere heart, death will not give him any pain no matter under which circumstances it takes place. Allah states in the Quran that the angels of death will remove the spirits of the believers softly without giving pain. It is also stated in the verses of the Quran that death is a painful incident only for deniers. (an-Naziat, 79/1-2) Therefore, if a person is a believer and has ikhlas, death will not be a painful end for him.

On the other hand, to think about death is not something that pulls man away from the world as those people think; on the contrary, it is something that makes man take maximum pleasure from the boons of the world. For, man takes more pleasure when he understands that boons are ephemeral and temporary not when he is attached to them fully and regards them as lust. The Prophet expresses the importance of thinking about death as follows in a hadith:

"Mention death a lot because this pulls man from the world and sins." (Tirmidhi, Zuhd 4, Qiyamah 26; Nasai, Janaiz 3)

Besides, death is not the end of life, boons or beauties as those people think. On the contrary, it is the beginning of real life; it is man’s transition to his real world where he will lead his endless life based on the preference he made in his worldly life. If he has understood Allah's greatness and led his life in His way, he will spend his endless life in beautiful gardens. However, if he has been deceived by worldly life and forgotten the day when he will be reckoned in the presence of Allah and the hereafter, his eternal place will be Hell. Trying not to think about death in his worldly life will not save him from encountering this fact.

A person who can think about death with all these aspects knows that he can face death anywhere and that his life can end any time. This makes him act sincerely and to use his mind, conscience and means in every moment of his life. He acts based on the clear consciousness that he can be reckoned in the presence of his Lord soon and that he can be sent to Paradise and Hell any time. He spends his worldly life as if he has been to the hereafter and returned after seeing Paradise and Hell, with a belief and ikhlas that makes him sure that they are true and close. He spends every moment with a deep fear of Allah as if he is experiencing the moment when he will meet the angel of death who comes to take his soul, when his book of deeds is shown and when he waits for the decision of being sent to Paradise or Hell. He keeps in mind the closeness and horror of hellfire and acts by feeling the fear of being punished with hellfire eternally. He is also full of the enthusiasm of being saved from Hell and living in Paradise as a slave that is Allah’s friend eternally. He acts with the consciousness that expressing excuses like the following ones will be of no use when he is taken to the presence of Allah on the Day of Reckoning: "I did not know; I did not understand, I did not notice; I was heedless with other heedless people; I acted lazily; I was deceived by Satan; I though Allah would forgive me anyway; I worshipped and thought my worshipping would be enough..."

This consciousness becomes apparent with a strong conscience, a sharp power of understanding, a superior mind and an uninterrupted understanding of sincerity. A person who has this consciousness knows that he can die any moment; therefore, he does not postpone any charitable deeds; he does not act slackly and lazily regarding any issue. He thinks that his life may not be enough "to do something that he thinks he will do an hour later or tomorrow". He knows that he will regret in the hereafter for the deeds that he postponed or did not complete.

[joeabdelsater1]

Blog post 4: Intertextuality and Transmedia

This is a blog post where I examine intertextuality and transmedia through some artistic interpretations that were derived from the Bible. I will also be explaining the constructive relationship that all the media objects share despite their differences.

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In order to carry out a thorough analysis, I will first begin by defining the keywords proposed. "The concept of intertextuality describes the relationship between media products where one text references another text by reusing some of its ideas and meanings" (https://media-studies.com, 2022). As for transmedia, it is the multimodal form of intertextuality. In other words, transmedia is the interaction between different forms of media objects, which leads to the merging of all their contents or their transfer from one form of media to another (https://www.futurelearn.com, n.d.). The media objects don't necessarily have to be of a similar nature as in traditional intertextuality.

Initially, the Bible has always been perceived as a single text which cannot be altered. However, the reality is that not only has the Bible seen multiple versions with translations and the divergence of Christianity, but it has formed a ground for storytelling and artistic creation in many cases as well. This dissipation of biblical concepts is an application of intertextuality in itself. But is it fair to say that this challenges the credibility of the Bible's content?

I believe that just like any other form of intertextuality, one media's representation does not negate another. In fact, all the different forms come together to create a common lexical group for the subject presented. To elaborate, each one of these representations adds to the other even if variations or negations exist between them. Each option pushes you the reader/viewer/audience to question all truths or signs offered and reinforce your belief in a specific representation of your choice. As a Christian believer myself, the concepts that were extracted from the bible (whether altered or not) and were used to produce other creations, serve as a platform for me to discuss, examine and understand the holy book even better.

it is in that same manner that all cases of intertextuality/transmedia form a holistic experience where the reader and his thoughts become the subject in focus, and the author fades away from the spotlight. It is the reader's subjective analysis and understanding of all versions presented that determines the real meaning or truth of a story and the world where it takes place.

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Here are some examples of biblical adaptations over the years:

Paradise Lost

One of the earliest examples of transmedia related to the Bible is "Paradise Lost", an epic poem or a long story told in verse form. The book was first published in London in 1667. The poem narrates the story of Adam and Eve from the Old Testament and explains the creation of Heaven and Earth and the story of the original sin. This interpretation stretches the original story told by the Bible and imagines the couple’s reactions to the multiple events that led to their expulsion from Paradise. The story also shows satan's internal thoughts and reflections, his desire to rule over the world whether it is hell or heaven, and his wish to make it his own empire (Loughborough University, n.d.). All of these details were added by John Milton who transformed the book of Genesis into a 12 books-long allusion (The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2023). In this case, we can say that Milton's work is a self-conscious form of intertextuality since it represents a direct reference to the Bible and the initial story of Man, Earth, heaven, and hell. Whether it is accurate or not, his retelling of the biblical classic added more insights into the human condition and sin, and more depth and understanding of satan's rebellion, which makes the overall religious chronicle more believable.

Lucifer

A more recent series inspired by the Bible is Netflix’s Lucifer (2016). The tale follows the first fallen angel Lucifer who has grown tired of his life in hell. After retiring to Los Angeles and abandoning his throne Lucifer indulges in his favourite pastimes (women, wine, and singing). This continues until a murder happens outside of the nightclub he frequents, and for the first time in a billion years, Lucifer feels something frightening close to compassion and sympathy. He meets Chloe an appealing homicide detective who holds an inherent kindness in character, unlike what he is used to. This chain of events depicts Lucifer and his internal conflict and questioning of whether his soul has any hope for redemption (www.rottentomatoes.com, n.d.). It is very apparent that the creation of this story and its main character is highly influenced by the Bible, having satan as its main protagonist. Some of the key concepts used in the series are borrowed from the Holy Book, especially the portrayal of satan's desire for a peaceful life of entertainment away from hell. The constant reference to angels in the series and their personification as characters is also a strong indication that the storyline has direct correlations to the biblical narrative. In return, this once again proves the self-conscious nature of the intertextuality existing as a result. On the same note, we can characterise this case of intertextuality as transmedia, since the information moved from text to film, which are two different types of mediums.

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To conclude, a dynamic relationship is uncovered when exploring different forms of Media that are inspired by biblical stories. Diverse interpretations are thus revealed, which challenge the traditional perception of the Bible as an unchangeable single text. In fact, in transmedia, each version of the text adds to the collective understanding and the engagement of the reader. Additionally, intertextuality is the result of contemporary authors and filmmakers who continue to engage with the Bible in their works. On many occasions, themes and characters are directly reimagined in the context of modern storytelling as shown in Lucifer. In other instances, more subtle references to the concepts of angels and demons in media can be seen as indirect, unconscious cases of transmedia.

Sources

The Editors of Encyclopaedia Britannica, 2023. Paradise Lost | epic poem by Milton. Arts and Culture. [e-journal] Available at: https://www.britannica.com/topic/Paradise-Lost-epic-poem-by-Milton. [Accessed 18 Nov 2023]

www.lboro.ac.uk, (n.d.). Paradise Lost by John Milton. Loughborough University. London. [online] Available at: https://www.lboro.ac.uk/subjects/english/undergraduate/study-guides/paradise-lost/.[Accessed 18 Nov 2023]

Media Studies, 2022. Intertextuality | Definition and Examples. [online] Media Studies. Available at: https://media-studies.com/intertextuality/.[Accessed 18 Nov 2023]

‌FutureLearn. (n.d.). "What is transmedia?". Transmedia and Storytelling. Future Learn. [online] Available at: https://www.futurelearn.com/info/courses/transmedia-storytelling/0/steps/27333#:~:text=Transmedia%20Storytelling.[Accessed 18 Nov 2023]

www.rottentomatoes.com. (n.d.). Lucifer. [online] Available at: https://www.rottentomatoes.com/tv/lucifer. [Accessed 18 Nov 2023]