#The Secret History of Magic
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when I finally have friends who like reading but I can't ask them for book recs because these mfs like everything and can't be trusted

#like wdym you liked the worst book ive ever read#and you also liked my favourite#those are not the same AT ALL#books#reading#thoughts#book club#friends#the raven cycle#trc#the foxhole court#tfc#the shadowhunter chronicles#tsc#acotar#the secret history#heartless#caraval#the cruel prince#shatter me#stalking jack the ripper#six of crows#throne of glass#shadow and bone#red queen#powerless#a darker shade of magic#vicious#the invisible life of addie larue
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A non-exhaustive list of art, pieces of media, franchises, authors, and thinkers that I really need my fellow Cultsim/BoH/Secret Histories fans to get into and discuss with me and between themselves.
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(WARNING A LOT OF THE FOLLOWING RECOMMENDATIONS COME WITH A LIST OF CONTENT WARNINGS AND ARE SOMETIMES CONNECTED TO CONTROVERSIAL ARTISTS AND PUBLIC PERSONS. THIS LIST IS NOT A ENDORSEMENT OF ANY PROBLEMATIC IDEALS OR STATEMENTS MADE BY ANYONE MENTIONED IN THIS LIST AND IT IS HIGHLY RECOMMENDED THAT ANYONE WHO LOOKS INTO ANY OF THE MENTIONED WORKS OF ART DO THEIR DUE DILIGENCE AND THOROUGHLY CHECKS FOR DISTURBING / TRIGGERING CONTENT AT THEIR OWN VOLITION)
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Film Recommendations:
1. Dario Argento's Three Mothers trilogy, especially Suspiria & and especially especially the 2019 remake of Suspiria. Very Dancer DLC-coded, very Sisterhood of the Triple Knot and Thunderskin.
2. The Magic Lantern films of Kenneth Anger, who was a practicing Thelmaite* for many years. Lantern Principal is obviously what comes to mind when you hear of the name of the series and the dreams that were mystical experiences that inspired and were expressed in art, in this case films is very much akin to stuff we see in Cultist Simulator.
(* As shown in later parts of this recommendation list I argue that the games of Weather Factory become even more interesting and artistically impactful if you learn more about late 19th and 20th century occultism and movements like Theosophy and Thelma.)
3. Hereditary and Midsommar are obvious recommendations but even more so I would recommend the original 1970s The Wicker Man. Folk Horror in general is a great source of what the arts of The Bosk would look like in real life. They were definitely worshiping The Low Red Sun on Summer Isle.
4. A Dark Song, a 2016 horror film that actually revolves around the performance of a very famous and important real life occult ritual. I think a lot of the visual imagery in that film can give some inspiration for the kind of Rites our player character in Cultist Simulator is performing.
5. The Lair of The White Worm is a movie loosely based on a Bram Stoker story and is also very much a Gods of Stone overthrown by forces associated with humans raised to Divinity and the powers of the Sun and Apollonian principles type of story. Plus the whole Worm/Wyrms thing going on. I also recommend it because it's one of the more light-hearted and comedic entries on this list and I want some variation in tone. Also its psychedelic visuals compliment a lot of the surrealist elements that are tied to things like the Moth Principal.
6. Black Swan isn't explicitly supernatural but it is very Dancer Coded.
7. The Hellraiser movies, but only the first second, fourth, and the reboot. Leviathan, being associated with pain and pleasure and having the name of a mythical sea monster is probably very similar to whatever the hell The Tide was before The Red Grail vored her. The Cenobites are Long with Grail, Knock, & Forge as their Principals.
8. Pan's Labyrinth, for the Woods and the Bounds appreciators. I also think there is something to be said about the fascist subtext that underlines much of the Edge Principle, especially in The Colonel that can be explored and appreciated in this film and its reckonings with the evils of Spanish fascism.
9. To compliment the recommendation for the Magic Lantern films, also check out the short film The Wormwood Star, you can find it easily on YouTube and it's another piece of art heavily influenced by Thelma and stars Marjorie Cameron who I will talk about more later in this list.
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Game Recommendations:
1. Hollow Knight, it might as well be a story set in the era of the Carapace Cross. Sentient bugs, mighty Wyrms and dream gods with the powers of light but not necessarily moral goodness. Even the Void in Hollow Knight, and it's antagonism to The Radiance is very similar to The Nowhere and it's relationship with the established hierarchies in The Mansus.
2. The Silent Hill games, particularly the entries that revolve around The Order; like 1,3, Origins, and Homecoming. Dream worlds, Sun worship, the Dark Feminine and female psychics/mediums with deep associations with blood, birth and menstruation. Valtiel is totally a Name. Even the fog and mist of Silent Hill is giving The Bounds and it's Forge smoke meets Woods darkness type energy.
3. Vampire The Masquerade Bloodlines, it's basically playing a Grail Long.
4. The tabletop games Geist: The Sin Eaters and Wraith: The Oblivion line up really well with the Ghoul / Medium DLC. *
(basically most if not all of the World of Darkness and Chronicles of Darkness tabletop games contain some themes, elements, or bits of World building that should appeal to anyone interested in the games created by Weather Factory)
5. The video games created by Korean studio Project Moon. Lobotomy Corporation has a lot of timers and simulation elements that have many similarities to those found in Cultist Simulator, and as the title implies Liberty of Runia takes place literally in a paranatural library just like Book of Hours even though the game play between the two is very different.
6. Fallen London and it's related media. The reasons why should go without saying. The controversies around AK aside, Echo Bazaar and Secret Histories are blood siblings and I desire more intersection and interaction between the respective fandoms.
7. The Bayonetta games have a surprising amount of real mythological and occult influence in their world building. The Solar Lumens juxtaposed with the Lunar Umbrans definitely has some resonance with Church of The Unconquered Sun and their on again, off again antagonism and allyship with The Sisterhood of The Triple Knot. The Apollonian natured House of the Sun contrasted with the Dionysian Woods & House of the Moo, and the Nowhere being connected to all three but being distinct; is not all together that different from the division of the Bayonetta universe into Inferno, Paradiso, the human world and Purgatorio between all of them.
8. The Shadow Hearts series of JRPGs are a Gothic, urban fantasy, historical fantasy, lovecraftian adventures around late 19th / early 20th century Europe and Asia. It has a lot of comedic elements and its world building and cosmology are not all that similar to the ones in Weather Factory games (barring their shared history as being inspired by Lovecraft). But if you want Lovecraft in video game form without the racism associated with his writings and you found Cultsim/BoH to fill that niche, then I recommend you give these games a try as well.
9. Secret World Legends, a functionally dead MMO but still incredibly fun to play and I think one of the best examples of urban fantasy / soft Lovecraft or post lovecraftian media in existence. Absolutely fantastic & memorable fully voiced NPCs and characters, really intriguing and rich world building and takes on mythology and folklore. Also given that you play as a quasi immortal with a deep association with bees and an ancient techno-organic goddess you're basically a Long.
10. To compliment the Lobotomy Corporation recommendation and the later SCP mention I think it's only natural that I also recommend the urban fantasy games of remedy entertainment like Alan Wake 1 & 2 and Control. Artists channeling / being used by Eldritch Forces in other dimensions and government institutions related to keeping a control on the supernatural are the most obvious similarities to stuff in WF games.
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Visual Artists:
1. Francisco Goya, especially his Black Paintings, his insights into the witchcraft and folkloric traditions of the Basque region and elsewhere in the Iberian peninsula should be very appealing to fans of The Twins and The Thunderskin. Plus all of the Catholic imagery brings to mind The Mother of Ants.
2. Austin Osman Spare, Rosaleen Norton, and Marjorie Cameron. All three of these people were heavily influential occultists and illustrators/painters so their work is definitely a great representative example of the kind of occult art that you are making when you Paint in Cultsim.
3. Salvador Dali is also a relatively obvious, but I think very appropriate all the same recommendation. Surrealism is by and large the big big tonal influence on Secret Histories in my opinion. He also did a tarot deck so that brings in the Lucid Tarot connection
4.Erté, absolutely the kind of art and fashion you would find in Cultist Simulator's 1920's. Art Deco for days but also his works in particular show a more flowy and organic influence that we would more stereotypically associate with the Art Nouveau of decades prior.
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Comic Books:
1. Alan Moore's run on Swamp Thing and Grant Morrison's run on Animal Man. DC's Red and Green (plus all the other elemental forces) are a deeply underappreciated and underexplored element of the setting, and I think they have a lot of similarities with the Principles we find in Secret Histories.
2. Related to the above, Alan Moore's Promethea and Grant Morrison's The Invisibles for an exploration of 20th and 21st century occultism. Despite the two authors general distaste for each other, their works are often very complimentary.
3. The Hellboy franchise doesn't have a lot of one-to-one parallels with Cultsim & Co. but they draw from the same artistic influences of gothic fiction, weird fiction, mythology and folklore and the occult. So I feel very strongly that fans of one would and should find the other to be enjoyable. Both fandoms need to be more active on this hell site and though there are a handful of quality hidden gems of fanfiction for both franchises I desperately need more people to be writing & reading fan fiction for both. Plus I do strongly believe that Mike Mignola' s art style would really excel at illustrating characters and settings from Secret Histories. His non Hellboy work is also recommended especially the works that fall under his Outervers setting, like Baltimore and Joe Golem.
4. Although I will admit that I am not up to date on it, and that there has been a considerable amount of discourse around the quality of its storytelling (especially within the past few years) I would recommend the webcomic Gunnerkrigg Court to fellow Cultsim fans. Alchemic imagery, interesting reinterpretations of folklore and a setting and tone that is quintessential British urban fantasy / science fiction, Gunnerkrigg is in my opinion a work that has a lot of appeal for fans of WF's games and stories.
5. Lackadaisy Cats is an awesome Webcomic and animated web series. 1920s/ 30s gangsters and bootleggers in the form of anthropomorphic cats! And absolutely beautiful Art Deco illustrations! What's not to love.........
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Anime & Manga:
1. Any of the anime directed by Ryūtarō Nakamura especially Serial Experiments Lain and Ghost Hound(this one is seriously underrated in my opinion.) Surrealism is the name of the game as I've said earlier.
2. Le Chevalier D'Eon, both it's manga and anime even though the two are very totally different and have divergent takes on a similar premise. Historical fiction that reinterprets 18th century historical events through an occult lens is so very very Secret Histories. Plus both works have interesting explorations of gender and the nature thereof. It helps that as far as we know the French monarchy's Secret Histories equivalent are associated with the Hours, my personal headcanon is that Louis XIV was Lantern Principal aligned, and Louie XVI had Knock as his Principal. Also the manga version of the story has a lot of its magic system based around the Tarot.
3. You can't recommend D'Eon without recommending it's biggest inspiration (apart from Rose of Versailles of course) and that would be Revolutionary Girl Utena. Edge Dyads for days with that one. Utena and Anthy are totally The Twins. And the whole show and it's movie are full of surrealist pseudo occult imagery practically to the bursting.
4. Baccano! , a light novel / anime series that's about a bunch of immortal Mobsters in the 1920s and 30s. I mean that's basically The Exile DLC right there.
5. xxxHolic and Legal Drug / Drug & Drop, by CLAMP. A shop that grants wishes and a pharmacy that handles the paranormal are both the kind of businesses that I could see existing alongside Morland's, Oriflamme's Auction House & The Ecdysis Club. Plus both manga are hella gay and I will push my Weather Factory games are inherently Queer pieces of media agenda till the day I die.
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Theater, Operas, Music and Albums:
1. Jimmy Page's unused soundtrack for Kenneth Anger's Lucifer Raising. Definition of Occult rock and role.
2. Kiki Rockwell, especially her two most recent albums Rituals on the Bank of a Familiar River, and Eldest Daughter of an Eldest Daughter.
3. Stravinsky's Rite of Spring might just be the closest we will ever get in real life to an occult ritual in the form of an entire ballet like we see in Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours. Definitely a skill that could fall under the Wisdoms of Birdsong and The Bosk.
4. On that note, Mozart's Die Zauberflöte is also full of Hermetic Elements, Lunar / Solar antagonism, mystical initiation and ritual deity impersonation. Mozart was a Freemason so the fanfic of him as a Heart Adapt practically writes itself.
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Literally Fiction:
1. The webnovels Pact and Pale by wildbow. A magic system that revolves around incredibly hierarchical relationships between humans and mystical beings, where magic fundamentally requires discarding one's humanity and transforming into some kind of mystical being yourself is very similar to the Adapt to Long pipeline we follow in Cultist Simulator.
2. The Rivers of London series is one that I'm still familiarizing myself with but it's another example of wonderful British urban fantasy (that isn't the wizard books that shall not be named) The fact that the main characters of the series are magic police officers gives it a certain Suppression Bureau appeal.
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Nonfiction- Philosophy and Occult works and Authors:
1. Georges Bataille!!!!!!!! If you only pick one thing from this list to investigate further let it be the philosophical works of this man. His theory of religion as it relates to concepts such as economy, sacrifice, and eroticism you literally completely change how you understand The Hours and The House Without Wall.
2. Aleister Crowley, and any of his students, especially Kenneth Grant. He really is the quintessential modern English occultist, whether or not AK and Lottie intended it, the DNA of his beliefs or those of his Golden Dawn contemporaries, or his students is all over Cultsim and BoH. The Red Grail is like, so blatantly Babalon it's kind of ridiculous.
3. The Book of English Magic by Phillip Carr- Gomm & Richard Heygate, is a good introductory source of information on the history of magical practice and occultism on the British isles.
4. Occult Paris by Tobias Churton is a fascinating insight into some of the mystical practices that were en vogue in Europe just a few decades prior to when Cultist Simulator takes place.
5. Atlas of Cursed Places by Oliver Le Carrer. I could totally see some of the places documented in this book as being locations you could send your Followers to in Cultsim.
6. Please read everything you can that is academically critical about Greek magical Papyri. There are tons of resources for reading translations and analysis of these documents that are some of the most foundational examples of what real historical magical belief and practice actually looked like.
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Web Original Content, Podcasts, YouTube Channels and Tiktok Recommendations:
1. Greedy Peasant over on Instagram and tik tok does fascinating content related to Catholicism, medieval history and art, and other related topics. If you like all of the interesting reinterpretations of Christian religious iconography into sun worship that happens in Book of Hours I highly recommend his content.
2. The last few years have really seen an incredible ecosystem of academic scholarship on religion, mythology, occultism and esoteric philosophy develop on YouTube. Channels like Esoterica, Angela's Symposium, Let's Talk Religion, Religion for Breakfast, Jackson Crawford, The Modern Hermeticist, The Archaeology of Ancient Magic, and others are just overflowing gold mines of accessible and easily digestible but still academically critical and pseudoscience and conspiracy theory free information about mysticism historical occultism and esoteric religion and mythology.
3. There are also a number of great YouTube channels that aren't academically critical but are run by actual practicing witches and occultists and they offer fascinating and interesting insights into these same topics but from a lived more personal perspective which is just as important I think to learn about as the academically critical sources. Great channels include Benbell Wen, Maevius Lynn, Marco Visconti, & Nordic Animism.
4. In terms of fictional internet media, SCP is so broad that there's a lot of stuff that is completely different in appeal from what is enjoyable about Secret Histories, but there's also so much overlap. I need crossover fanfics and fan art more than air!!!!!
5. Lastly this is a fiction podcast so it's a little incongruous with the other nearby recommendations but, I cannot stress enough......... The Mangus Archives and Magnus Protocol!!!!!!!!!!!!! There are a lot of key differences between those two podcasts and Weather Factory games, but there are so many similarities that I have to write an entire three other posts about how similar the settings are and how I want to write a crossover/ fusion fic. I've seen like, one or two pieces of fan art and fanfiction that was related to both series but in my humble opinion it's not nearly enough. I really really really really really need Cultsim fans to talk more about Magnus and I need Magnus listeners to play these games soooooooo badly!!!!!!!!!!
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Well that mostly concludes this piece of propaganda for the time being, will probably make another post with further additions in the not so distant future. Feel free to reblog this with any other pieces of media that you think would also be appealing to fans of Cultist Simulator and Book of Hours.
#cultist simulator#weather factory#book of hours#secret histories#indie games#cosmic horror#media recommendations#fandom crossover#suspiria#wicker man 1970s#hellraiser#clive barker#hollow knight#bayonetta#silent hill#shadow hearts#secret world legends#pact wildbow#xxxholic#the magnus archives#the magnus protocol#the magic flute#gunnerkrigg court#hellboy#remedy entertainment#world of darkness#project moon#serial experiments lain#lackadaisycats#aleister crowley
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It’s very funny to me that the inciting incident of The Secret History is the bacchanal but we never actually get to see a bacchanal. It occurs to me that this book easily could have had a supernatural element and indeed from any other character’s perspective it likely would have. But because Richard is our narrator, we never need to question if Dionysus was really there or if the bloody cleansing was really necessary because Richard despite being a liar and generally unreliable narrator is still the most firmly grounded in reality of most of the classics class.
#like imagine this from Henry it would have been straight up magical realism horror#we easily could have been questioning the existence of ghosts and gods#the secret history#richard papen#henry winter#bacchus
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Modern AU: Hogwarts Legacy

Two seconds earlier...

A chance meeting in a bookshop📖✨
I really just wanted to draw Sebastian and Phoebe as if they were both living in North East London and are the most INSUFFERABLE, sustainable, soft boy/girl versions of themselves lol (and that isn't complete without the secret history, sally rooney and THOSE tote bags)
I had to really fight giving Seb a moustache
(and because everyone and their uncle is reading intermezzo atm)
#you cannot tell me seb wouldn't be completely insuffrable if he was born today lmao#and he would so have a daunt books tote#and he would read intermezzo performatively on the tube#and phoebe DEFINITELY has a pret subscription lol#the secret history because its autumn and they are both going for the dark academic aesthetic ofc#ALSO SECRET HISTORY BECAUSE ANCIENT MAGIC IS THE SECRET HISTORY??????#every bose over the head headphone girlie needs their airpods man#I SEE THE BARBICAN AND DAUNT TOTE BAGS EVERYWHERE (can't lie i want them both)#i keep drawing phoebe left handed so she is ambidextrous now#hogwarts legacy#modern au#sebastian sallow#phoebe honeyball#fanart#hogwarts legacy mc#hogwarts legacy oc#sebastian sallow x mc#no one cares but i really struggled with the hands so these ones are based on my own weird double jointed ones that r weirdly long so enjoy
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Most Whipped in a BL Season 2

#bl bracket#love in the air#meet you at the blossom#only friends the series#last twilight#history 3: trapped#we best love#blueming#round 1#to my star#cherry magic#pit babe#4 minutes#the heart killers#secret crush on you#wandee goodday#fourever you#word of honor#i feel you linger in the air#monster next door#i cannot reach you#love sea#cherry blossoms after winter#guardian#until we meet again#utsukushii kare#ghost host ghost house#the spirealm#gameboys#cherry magic th
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Do you have any information on the root scholars that you can share? They’ve always been a cool cult/organization to me
Ok it’s a facet of the Eterhimhamdli religion, which is The most widespread single belief system east of the inner seaway (which isn't saying much in terms of scale but it's still pretty significant) and also one I've barely introduced so I'll go over it a bit here.
Eterhimhamdli has spread past its initial sphere of old (~500 years BP) southern Lowlands Yuroma kingdoms, has many folk practices, and has schismed a few times, so there's a good deal of cultural variation. But its basic tenants/tendencies are:
-Creator deities are wholly rejected, the universe is an interplay between non-personified dualistic forces of Body(evil)/Mind(good). In one schism, the interplay of these two forces is the Dream, in others dreaming is an aspect of Mind.
-Deities in general are not wholly at odds with Eterhimhamdli, but their importance is de-emphasized and worship is usually discouraged in favor of making them objects of contemplation and/or tutelary figures.
-The Mind of the universe exists as a collective soul from which human souls emanate
-every person has two souls: an egoistic soul that animates the body and an ethereal soul that animates the mind. The latter is conceptualized as a single drop from a greater sea of the collective soul.
-belief that true wisdom is derived through access to this collective soul.
-belief that the trappings of the the ego-soul and the body's demands inhibits access to said collective soul.
-belief in the concept of enlightened beings who gain full experiential knowledge of the collective soul while remaining in a body, thus becoming capable of directly communicating aspects of their wisdom to the masses.
the biggest schism in this religion is over whether enlightenment just means experiencing full knowledge of the collective before you die, or whether it means transcending the limits of the body entirely and functionally becoming an immortal, godlike being.
deities of older/other religions absorbed by Eterhimhamdli are often reframed as enlightened mortals.
-most sects believe that only sophont life (or sometimes Only humans) have a etherial-soul along with the ego-soul, while animals exclusively have the ego-soul. Plants and inanimate objects Usually aren't ascribed souls outsides of heavily syncretic folk practices.
-belief in a fundamental good-evil cosmic dualism, though in a fairly complex way (evil is a necessity for life that is to be tempered and grappled with, rather than outright vanquished from the world entirely). The notion of 'evil' here is most associated with bodily desires (this includes all bodily needs like hunger and thirst, necessary to support life but viewed dangerous in excess, and being the root of conflict and pain).
the evil nature of bodily desire is not About sex, but does translate to non-procreative sex being frowned upon to varying extents.
-belief that life is a state of internal warfare between the evil ego-soul and the good ethereal-soul, with the former being more powerful and influential. To lead a good life is to bring the ego-soul into equilibrium with the ethereal soul. To live a wise and venerable life is to fully tip the balance in the latter's favor (this is not an expectation for lay followers, as it is considered profoundly difficult and requires separation from worldly life).
-lay followers practice forms of temperance to bring these forces into equilibrium, priests practice forms of asceticism to subdue the ego-soul and gain experiential wisdom in the process.
-The way you balance your life has consequences for the afterlife. An evil life causes an eternal death (this is usually posited as an underworld), a life in equilibrium causes one to be reborn into a new human body (a neutral fate), and a good life results in full return to the collective soul (this is a state of complete peace and contentedness and access to infinite wisdom).
-A selection of hallucinogenic plants are central to the monastic/priestly aspects of the religion, being seen as the key method through which the body can be transcended and the ego-soul can be quieted in order to tap into the collective. Lay followers do not participate in this facet on a regular basis.
-Priests also participate in self-flagellation, as the struggle with physical pain is a key microcosm of the broader internal war with the ego-soul, and can be a source of wisdom and contemplation. They are extensively tattooed for partly related purposes. Laymen are not expected to flagellate as a practice but rather to apply teachings to/learn from struggles with everyday pain.
-Very complicated relations with violence as a concept. Some strains of Eterhimhamdli philosophy see violence as an exclusive result of evil to be avoided whenever possible (usually more completely by priesthoods than the wider societies they live in), others see it as a neutral tool in of itself that Can be a force for good when used wisely. (Large scale 'wise usages of violence for the sake of good', shockingly, tend to favor the in-group's position in preexisting ethnic/religious/territorial conflicts).
-Most sects are proselytizing and see conversion as a necessity to create a better world, and have broadly unfavorable views of other religious practices.
This does not extend to seeing all societies that practice Eterhimhamdli or even The Same Schism Of Eterhimhamdli in a positive light (the birthplace of this religion is currently about 60 semi independent city-states organized into leagues that are frequently at war with each other)
-Highly favors education, literacy, rhetoric, debate, and the acquisition of material knowledge along with deeper spiritual wisdom. Knowledge and wisdom are venerable traits and societies should be led by the learned, or at least by people under their guidance.
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The Scholarly Order of the Root is one order of Lowlands Eterhimhamdli monastics, functioning as a closed cult/mystery religion. They’re based out of Suurota (one of the biggest Yuroma city-states and dominant member of its league). They're at the top of the league's hierarchy of monastics, very wealthy, and have some involvement in governance (being an advisory body to the magistrate).
The Scholars primarily interact with the general public by hosting many of the league's institutions of scholarship and philosophy, and some of the biggest libraries in this part of the world. Their institutions are used by laymen Suurota citizens and members of government for study, and they host monks and priests (uninitiated to the inner cult) in their halls.
Actual membership to the Scholars cult is limited, they neither expect nor want associates to participate in their rituals. Rather, they position themselves as teachers- revealing small aspects of their secret knowledge to laymen and the lesser monastics as a form of guidance, while keeping dangerous knowledge for only the trusted inner circle.
Their baseline belief system aligns with the general schema of Lowlands Eterhimhamdli (one of three major schisms of this belief system), but their closed cult practices revolve around fairly unique interpretations, understood to be the ultimate underlying truths of this worldview.
The Scholars focus on an extention the Mind-Body model of the universe where their synthesis is the Dream (this itself is not unique to this cult, but the depths of their focus is). Under this model, the world is the dream of the collective consciousness, and achieving enlightenment or even temporary lucidity can allow the dream to be shaped to one's will.
One of their most secretive practices is god-building, in which they utilize altered mental states to shape the fabric of the dream into entities they can use as personal teachers of secret knowledge (also as a type of magic in general, they use it to 'build' guardians and curses and the like).
The process involves using mild doses of Ur-Root brew (mostly derived from roots of the clonal Ur-Wood colony, whose bark has notable concentrations of dimethyltryptamine and also hosts milder fungal hallucinogens) while maintaining an object and concept as a focal point of concentration. The altered state provided by the Root allows the user some access to the wisdom of the collective soul, and they will experience secret knowledge and revelations about this object, how it can best be used (this will be supplemented by material knowledge about the subject). This process is repeated until the user experiences a sense of Presence in the object, which must be interacted with, given a name and a face. Through more repetition, the object is believed to be shaped into a sort of thoughtform god which has come into material existence via manipulation of the dream.
This is considered to take immense time and effort to come to completion, god-building projects can last for years and be the combined effort of multiple Scholars. In the end, you have shaped an entity to your will that can operate independently of you.
The Ur-Wood itself is the center of Scholar cult practice, as it is both the purveyor of their most important hallucinogen and believed to have been the first god ever shaped by this form of lucid dreaming (it's a pilgrimage site for Eterhimhamdli where thousands of followers have undergone Ur-Root trips over the past four centuries, using the woods as an object of contemplation). To them the Ur-Tree is the ultimate teacher of their cult, an extremely powerful built-god that has been involved in almost every journey to enlightenment and contains all these journeys within its substance.
They believe that communing with the tree via Ur-Root can grant access to all enlightened mortals- full trips (with a DMT breakthrough type experience) will often involve sensations of encountering entities, which they interpret to be these historical figures. Within their religious framework, they're kind of speedrunning enlightenment. Under most conventional frameworks, the teachings of wise and/or enlightened people are conveyed in writing or speech as things to Contemplate on one's own journey- you might be able to understand them Conceptually but true understanding is Experiential, a process that can take a lifetime. In their framework, they're both receiving these teachings directly AND embodying states in which they can experientially comprehend them.
That summarizes most of their secret practices, and the rest of their practice is pretty standard for devout Lowlands Eterhimhamdlist priests. They live a partly ascetic lifestyle, they bear extensive tattoos as a contemplation of pain and marker of their journeys, they flagellate, they use tutelary hallucinogens, they refine their non-experiential body of knowledge through debate and rhetoric, they work to accumulate both worldly and spiritual knowledge, they work as scribes, etc.
#When I say 'cult' I'm using the 'specific form of veneration within a broader religion' definition. These people are very well known#and established in the religious framework of the Suurota league and not like a weird fringe thing.#The practice of upper priesthoods retaining secret knowledge is pretty standard for this religious sphere. The general public knows#they are Hiding Knowledge and this isn't an issue.#A lot of their secret practices would be questioned or viewed as potentially heretical by other Eterhimhamdlists though#Particularly their speedrunning brute-force approach to acquiring wisdom and perception that they are directly communicating#with enlightened mortals. A lot of the philosophy of this religion focuses on the journey to arrive to these truths across the span#of a lifetime. Most historical figures though to have achieved enlightenment did so on their deathbeds after a lifetime of work#and communicated the most important parts of their knowledge with the little time they had left. That's kind of the point.#Also it would have to be rewritten from the fucking ground up but the story that Whitecalf was originally a prequel to involved#the Scholarly Order of the Root attempting to godbuild a person into a weapon against a 30+ years down the line beefed up#Imperial Wardin in an expansionist period and at war with the Suurotan league#The original story still had all the magic stuff so they actually kind of did turn a kid into a magic weapon of mass destruction#These places aren't right next to each other btw and they've had pretty minimal direct interaction until recent history due to#having a Massive Fucking Mountain Range between them#(and also a good deal of space between themselves and said mountain range)#The Yuroma-Wardi population does originally descend from the general area of Eterhimhamdli's birth but the group that#Established this population arrived after a couple generations of moving place to place (some settling) in exodus after being driven#from their homelands in an ethnic/religious conflict with one of the earliest Eterhimhamdli states#Yuroma-Wardi is also a kind of placeholder name that I need to change. They derive from speakers of the Yuroma language family#but would not consider themselves related to the contemporary ethnic groups that are called Yuroma
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Reki, the History of Kamigawa
"After his death, monks spent ten years transcribing the tattoos from Reki's body and gathering stories from those who spoke with him. Thus the volume you hold was written." —*The History of Kamigawa*
Artist: JungShan TCG Player Link Scryfall Link EDHREC Link
#mtg#magic the gathering#tcg#$10.94#jungshan#reki the history of kamigawa#secret lair drop#legendary#creature#human#shaman
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#pyramids#technology#tech#machines#archaeology#engineering#architecture#ancient#consciousness#light#ascension#energy#magic#alchemy#extraterrestrial#aliens and ufos#art#history#anthropology#esoteric#occult#secret#mystery
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Alchemical etching, circa 1624
#rijksmuseum#old art#illustration#occult#witchy things#engraving#gothic#alchemy#artwork#esoteric#witchcraft#art#goth#goth vibes#goth art#dark aesthetic#October#spooky season#mystical#magick#magical#mystery school#hermetic#secret society#witchy aesthetic#witchy art#hedge witch#witchy vibes#art history#occult engraving
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Victoria Schwab - Shades of Magic; Donna Tartt - The Secret History; Victoria Schwab - Vicious; Alphaville - Forever Young; Queer as Folk; Shaun David Hutchinson - We Are the Ants; Laini Taylor - Lips Touch; Fall Out Boy - Immortals; Homer - The Iliad; William Shakespeare - Sonnet XVIII
#web weaving#web weave#on living forever#victoria schwab#ve schwab#shades of magic#a darker shade of magic#vicious#victor vale#donna tartt#the secret history#tsh donna tartt#queer as folk#brian kinney#we are the ants#laini taylor#lips touch#forever young#fall out boy#homer#the iliad#shakespeare#sonnets#quotes
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no man of woman born
the loophole in this macbeth prophecy is larger than your mom. here's some ways to get through it:
caeserean section (not 'born' of woman)
woman (not a man)
momotaro (born from peach and not woman)
dog (not a man)
dionysus (born from a man)
child of a trans man (not born of a woman)
robot (built, not born)
creature of paradox (not born)
conclusion: the chandler can harm macbeth
(bonus: if macbeth had just married his and banquo's families together or if he had just been patient nothing would have gone wrong)
#shakespeare#classical literature#book of hours#secret histories#(mentioned)#the chandler#original content#loopholes#fae law#magic#japanese mythology#gender#fun#please add more loopholes
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Aero traded their coolass jacket for...whatever this is i made them wearing
#pkmn rejuv#rejuv OC: Aero#His name is Neil but i lowkey want to use different name#They were born in Hoenn so their starter is Torchic. He then moved to Paldea for education around age 10#Then become a transfer student to Aevium and graduated Axis university#He likes going to ruins and learning about history. Garufan civilization is one their interest but not because they are fan of them.#More like. Their ''magic'' methods are so bizzare to Neil that he just want to uncover the secret just to criticize on them.#They are a competitve player but not the type to be too serious in winning the most battle#They battle mostly because they just want to test out their newest strategy or observe others battling methods.#So like. Even after winning a badge. They still want to redo the fights just to try out new strategy#Is friend with Sonia. Mainly because they meet eech other a lot whenever Neil asked for few rematches with Valarie/Saki/Adam#Also they are nice to talk with even tho most of the times Sonia is the one doing the talking#Kieran's nickname for them is Litten#...........#Yeah this design feel like it didn't...convey their personality i writing here#KArts
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Most Unhinged Loser Bracket
Round 1
Ruan Lan Zhu (The Spirealm) vs Fu Yong Jie (HIStory 4: Close to You)
Ichikawa Mitsuo (Double Mints) vs Phaya (The Sign)
Ye Zun (Guardian) vs Tin (Triage)
Ayan (The Eclipse) vs Tol (Triage)
Noey (I Will Knock You) vs Han Ying (Word of Honor)
Kim (Kinnporsche: The Series) vs Taohu (The Miracle of Teddy Bear)
Kurosawa (Ossan's Love) vs Zhou Zishu (Word of Honor)
Meng Shao Fei (HIStory 3: Trapped) vs Mo Yi (Stay with Me)
Charn (Laws of Attraction) vs Xiang Hao Ting (HIStory 3: Make Our Days Count)
Aoyama (The Shortest Distance is Round: Noir) vs Nuan (Something in My Room)
Way (Pit Babe) vs Non (Dark Blue Kiss)
Akk (The Eclipse) vs Charlie (Pit Babe)
Prom (Playboyy) vs Nuea (Secret Crush on You)
The Parents (My Eleventh Brother) vs Ritsu (End of the World with You)
Bun (Manner of Death) vs Ai Di (Kiseki: Dear to You)
Prapai (Love in the Air) vs Karan (Cherry Magic TH)
#bl bracket#the spirealm#history 4: close to you#double mints#the sign#guardian#triage#i will knock you#word of honor#kinnporsche#the miracle of teddy bear#ossan's love#history 3: trapped#stay with me#laws of attraction#history 3: make our days count#the shortest distance is round#something in my room#pit babe#dark blue kiss#the eclipse#playboyy#secret crush on you#my eleventh brother#end of the world with you#manner of death#kiseki: dear to me#love in the air#cherry magic th#unhinged
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I strongly associate this song with Henry Winter.
#tsh#the secret history#donna tartt#henry winter#seeming#seemingmusic#seeming music#art#aesthetic#magic#music#poetry#literature#dark academism#dark academic aesthetic#dark acadamia aesthetic#dark#dark academia#dark aesthetic#Spotify
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“People are always more complicated than we realise, Remus. Especially when it comes to relationships. You think you know what’s going on, and then, boom, a new piece of the puzzle shows up.”
Chapter Three Out Now!!!
#remus lupin#severus snape#harry potter#james potter#sirius black#marauders#marauders era#peter pettigrew#pro severus snape#snape#dark academia vibes#dark magic#dark academia#if we were villains#the secret history#remus lupin x oc#remus lupin x reader
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The Secret No One Ever Knew
They say somewhere deep in an old forest, beneath the moss, a secret is buried—not the kind meant to be told, but the kind that chooses not to be found. People tried—bringing shovels, maps, questions for the stars. But something always distracted them: a mushroom with a face, the scent of childhood, a mother’s voice. No one ever reached the end. Because the secret doesn’t hide from the world—it hides from you.
#ramozovart#great story#art history#artists on tumblr#artwork#digital art#my art#original art#small artist#storytelling#short story#original story#story#minimalist#the secret history#inspiration#cute#magic#moments
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