#alien structures

[upmala]

strangest water tower you'll ever see (56.820317, 24.248359), 2023

[valtsv]

[guuuhhh]

✨ acantha & arcadia zenith ✨

[bornulhu]

Small bit of a Koolu settlement. A common root farm. Due to a lot of planet Zardis being mountainous and rocky, Koolunku raise their buildings slightly above the ground, with the space beneath often being used to grow their various edible root plants, which only need little to no light and a fine enough soil. They make their buildings out of wood and various clay mixture materials, as well as metals and glass for any important bits in more developed settlements.

[junewongapologia]

The fact is tho that no matter how you look at it, no matter how insufferable she is, no matter how Out Of Touch, regardless of whether she’s doing herself no favours: Eloise is right about society and just about everyone else in the show is wrong.

Like, she’s not got the full picture, she’s blinkered and her political philosophy is not very in depth or well thought out. But she’s right, and I think that’s why a lot of people watching really don’t like her because she’s breaking the illusion. All in all, the 1810s were a shit time to be alive for most people, and you can “well actually” it all you like, but the Luddite movement existed for a reason, the Chartists existed for a reason, Porto-feminist writers like Wollstonecraft and de Gouges wrote what they did for a reason.

So when you keep being reminded that it was a terrible social order for women - in a show targeted mainly towards women for escapist purposes then that character is going to come across as irritating, because she’s ruining the immersion.

Really, her attitude isn’t more anachronistic than the dresses, or the hairdos, or the diamond necklaces (men and women had been advocating women’s right to vote since before Eloise was born, lads), but it’s a problem because people are watching the show for the sweeping romances and the general regency vibe, they don’t want to think about how the regency was for most people. Which inevitably leads to some incredible projection, when watchers of a show with the central conceit of only being interested in the love lives of the top one percent of the one percent of the British aristocracy acting as though Eloise is the only privileged person on the show.

And yeah, she is better off than most of the people who exist in all of Regency Britain (though if you were to take the show as read, Britain is made up of about 70% aristocracy, 1% gentry, 5% urban bourgeoisie and 24% urban workers), but she’s the only one whose privilege is harped on out of her whole family and social circle. 99% of the speaking characters in the show come from a posher background than Beau fucking Brummell.

And! Eloise is literally just about the only main character who ever has to question her privilege! And when she is in season 2 she doesn’t throw a shitfit, she’s willing to learn! She goes out of her way to hear perspectives that she wouldn’t have heard in her social circle! But the narrative punishes her for that, and that’s because for all the criticism she gets about needing her privilege checked, they don’t actually want her to learn, they just want her to shut up and enjoy the trappings of regency decadence as much as they do.

Also - I know it’s really fashionable to rag on “pick-mes” and “Not Like Other Girls” - but actually, no, “traditional femininity” has never been socially unacceptable for women the way being GNC is, and it is in fact ruthlessly socially enforced against GNC women, even more so in the 1810s. Eloise is a teenaged girl in a society that stigmatises her for her wish for more legal autonomy, the idea that she’s somehow the villain for not being able to enjoy “feminine” hobbies without seeing them as just another element of the way women’s education is trivialised as ornamental, is farcical. “Sewing is a valuable and useful skill” so is cooking, but there’s a reason my mam, and not my dad, had home economics lessons, and that reason is still misogyny, despite the fact that it set her up better for being able to operate independently as an adult.

Idk I’m just kind of uncomfortable that in a world of rising reactionary political sentiment towards women, and this seemingly increasingly re-normalised view that women need to be wives and homemakers, people feel that the person on the show who needs to do the most introspection regarding their politics is an eighteen-year-old who is vocal about the fact that she has limited legal rights, and not any of the adult men in the show (a lot of whom probably have seats in the Upper House!!!) who never mention politics at all.

And frankly, given the shower who were Having Political Opinions in the long eighteenth century, Eloise’s brand of semi-anachronistic protofeminism is infinitely preferable to Hannah “I refuse to teach the poor how to write in my schools” More, or Edmund “don’t read my big thesis on revolutions too closely it’s definitely not all lies and junk history” Burke, or even a load of prominent members of the Bluestocking Society.

[lightparty-fullparty]

Can't possibly be me Zenosposting again - what is this a day ending in Y?

Anyway, I've been thinking about the murder boy again. This has mostly spawned from my replaying of the Stormblood patches and seeing Amnesiac Yotsuyu, which sparked a bit of a Nature vs Nuture debate between me and my friends.

Basically, my question for this post is "How much of Zenos' whole deal is Nature (aka He was just born like that) and how much of it is Nuture (aka the enviornment he grew up). Some of you might content to say Nature and leave it at that, which is a completely valid outlook to have. But for me there's just one... teeny... tiny... little detail that has sent me on a wild consipriacy theory of a ride that's resulted in this post. Emet-FUCKING-Selch.

Listen to me, listen okay? I cannot, CANNOT ignore the fact that this absoulete motherfucker (affectionate) is Zenos's cannonical Great Grandfather. Who was very much alive and kicking during his childhood. Emet-Selch or Solus zos Galvus whatever moniker you wanna give the man, is an Ascian. One of THE Ascians. Not only that, he's 'The Architect" the guy who's job it is to design and engineer the calamities meant to rejoin the Shards of the World back together again. What does he do to achieve this? He builds empires, he starts wars, manipulates people and situations to result in untold elemental chaos. Iirc correctly he's responsible for causing all eight calamities that have occured so far in FFXIV. (Eight got undone but I'm still counting it).

Now for this post I'm going to be focusing mainly on the Seventh, Eighth, and Fourth Umbral Calamities. (Which are the ones coincidentally we're told the most about in game). This Calamities all involved Empires. The Allagan and the Garlean, both of which Emet-Selch was responsible for creating. From the Allagans we have the creation of Dalamud, Cyrus Tower, and the Ultima Weapon. As well as an extensive history of biological research. Cloning, Gene Splicing, Mutation and so on. (A sundered mortal's attempts at creation magjicks perhaps?) The Garleans too, have a notible history of biological research, they draw a lot of their modern technology from Allagan design. No coincidence there given Emet-Selch's involvement. But we've seen them use genetic mutation, cyber augmentation, and cloning (Emet-Selch's shadow the hedgehog ass clone bodies because he refuses to look like anyone other than his unsundered self). The also so a lot of research into the Echo. Hydalyn's mark for her champions, and soul maipulation. (Ala Mihgo Dungeon and In From the Cold Duty both points of note for examples of the Soul being manipulated here - physically torn out of the body).

"Now Gengar " - I hear you ask - "What does this have to do with Nature vs Nuture or Zenos?" Well, I tell you, everything really. Hear me out. Emet-Selch designed the Garlean Empire to be the perfect chaos causing conquest force. They have no ability to use either, making them initially vulnerable as a people to the rest of the races. Building up a tasty, tasty resentment and need to feel superior. He sent them marching to 'reclaim their home' and then to 'unify the three contents under their superior peaceful, organised leadership'. The 'Savage Races' summon evil primals and weild evil distructive magjiks. He gave them a perfect cause and reason to hate everyone else. He gave them magitech to level the field and make them supieror at combat. Garlemald as a nation is the perfect war machine. Allagan 2.0 if you would. And Zenos is the perfect 'Champion' to lead that nation into battle. To spark that next Calamity. Look at the guy. Garleans might be on the taller side (depending on the character. Cid is a shorty), but Varis and Zenos are HUGE. Emet-Selch isn't nearly as tall as either of them despite being a blood relation. Which makes me think there was some of that Allagan/Garlean/Ancient playing with genetics and form at work. Make them bigger, more durable, stronger, more intelligent.

It's like Captian America. You want the perfect solider. And a perfect solider for Emet-Selch would also need to be cold, ruthless, manipulative.

There was a post I saw a while again about Mecha Pilots. And OP pondered on the idea of physcially having your brain and body contiditoned to love battle. To love destruction and killing and fighting.

Do you see where I am going with this?

You want someone bloodthirsty enough to cause a Calamity for you, you need them to feel nothing for their fellow man. (Insects all of them. Disappointing. Found Wanting.) You need them to find such overwhelming joy in battle that no other earthely pleasure can compare to it. (Brilliant. Blinding. Trandsenant Moment.)

No attatchments. No emotions, Just violence. I offer to you dear readers, that Emet-Selch carefully modified Zenos' litterally brain chemistry. Making him predisposed to a lack of empathy and his brain releasing those pesky joyous chemicals during battle. Inflicitng and feeling pain. I offer the theory that Zenos has literally been built for combat. If you cut him open, his bones and muscles and organs would be so alienly perfect. Denser, perfectly optimised. Exceedingly perfect. His brain remapped for pattern recognistion and quick skill building, Easy to train in the art of slaughter and tactics. Unable to forge the emotional connections that would only serve to hinder him. (To isolate him from family).

What evidence to I have? Outside of Emet-Selch's known history of building Empires? Easy. I already know he's done this kind of thing before.

Vauthry. The baby Emet-Selch mutated into half a Lightwarden. Able to command the Sin Eaters and ensured would be raised into a tyranically, childish, king. To keep the First from Uniting. To ensure the Eighth Umbral Calamity would continue along it's march to completion.

Why wouldn't Emet-Selch have done as much to Zenos too?

[stirringwinds]

Man, just thinking of the dynamic between Kiku and Yao, the politics of men’s haircuts from the Opium Wars onwards, and how two nations who have known each other for so long see things. When Kiku first cuts his hair short in the western style upon the dawn of the Meiji-era, it’s naturally a tad strange and unnerving. But it’s a transition he’s able to make, especially because the western world is simultaneously unfamiliar but also familiar through his longtime relationship with the Netherlands and rangaku (Dutch studies). Short hair marks him as severing his ties with the old Sinocentric order, and what feels incredibly alienating eventually symbolises power, adaptability and recognition, in the aftermath of his victory in the first Sino-Japanese war.

But of course, it is the opposite for Yao. It symbolises defeat, it is the admission of failure, that he is well and truly no longer the standard bearer of civilisational prestige. I think one moment where it really sinks in for Kiku that the old order is truly upside down isn’t just the moment he wins—but seeing Yao himself later at the peace conference, tense and weary, but now with his own hair neatly cropped short, in drab western clothes so different from the more colourful silk garb of a Qing official—as the ink dries on the Treaty of Shimonoseki. A mourner at his own funeral, a pale shadow of the forceful, proud and towering empire whose presence used to fill the room effortlessly, in whose shadow Kiku used to walk.

[firstroseofspring]

duuude look at this close up i found. society if

[cringesnail]

Im not over the wool fight actually. The code starting with his sword but switching when etoiles keeps using the bow because he can't do close combat without dropping his weapon. The blocks towers everywhere. Most of them made of wool. Etoiles giving the code multiple weapons because he's not using good weapons. Fighting with the fucking sharp 5 wool block named Avast. Accidentally placing Avast. The double wool L at the end

[leonardalphachurch]

not to be a hater but istg everything new i learn about halo lore makes me dislike halo lore a little bit more

[zehpeh]

"ROVING" - acrylics/ink/digital - April 2024

[killershrike]

ok guys here's a tiny sneak peek at a section in chapter 7 of dark suspension. just because languages are one of my autistic special interests lol I thought this might be fun to share to the fandom. I finally figured out how I imagine yautja to speak to one other, outside of human translation or you're reading two yautja converse in my fic. This is a COMPLETELY UNEDITED SECTION please do not think this is the final draft lol this is just the bare bones I thought would be neat to share

Han-e'sain's POV:

"Can I ask a question?" So-yin hums from his side, and the yautja rumbles in approval. He nods. "How did you get so good at English? No offense, I know you're smart. You just picked it up so fast-"

The warrior laughs, reaching out to rub her back in an easing way. "No offense, little one." Ghost assures her before continuing. "This device," He gestured to his gauntlet. "combined with my bio-mask allows me to trandlate any language to yautja. I can also search for specific things, translations, whatever I want." The woman looks astounded.

“While you slept and I could not sleep, I would study the ooman language." So-yin nods.

“You said it was kinda easy, right?” 

Ghost chuckles. “Yes. Now, no offense to you, little one, but there are species out there that do not even use words to communicate. Only facial expressions, gestures, sounds. Your ooman language is not so hard.” She considers the thought, looking intrigued and interested before getting herself back on tack, pretty green eyes focused back on Ghost.

“Too me, that hardest parts were identifying the correct region. And translating my language to you. It was.. very difficult. I probably sounded very stupid at first." The yautja even clicks, looking down at ground in embarrassment.

So-yin reachs out to teasingly tug a long dreadlock, smiling. “No, you didn't. You sounded better than a lot of other humans ive spoken to.” She giggles. “What was so hard about the translation?”

Ghost had to think for a long moment, trying to find the right words that weren't overly complicated for his sweet human. “The structure of your language versus ours. Very few ooman languages operate like yautja. We have an.. usual word order if i attempted to directly translate from my language, without added context or interpretation.” The woman looks even more curious now, and the yautja rumbles with humor as they walk.

“How's the structure different? I'm no writer or anything, I know plants more than I know language. But I'm curious.” A soft hand reaches out to grab onto his, managing to grip only three thick fingers in her small human hand.

Her lover rumbles on, "Yautja place the object of a sentence first. Then the verb, then the subject.” When So-yin tilts her head in confusion, Han-e’sain chatters in amusement. Her scrunched up button nose with a thick gold ring hanging from it was just too adorable.

Leaning down to pluck a vibrant pink and white striped flower, he holds it out to her. So-yin takes it, closing her eyes and inahling deeply before tucking it behind her ear, meeting Ghost's gaze again.

“Flower to her gave I.” He rumbles. “You would say something like, I gave the flower to her." Ghost clicks, with a little annoyance. "In my head, I kept switching the words around. It took me time to sound out the correct ooman sentence, in my mind."

So-yin understands, giggling now. Raising his hand and pressing a warm, soft kiss to it, she murmurs. "Love to him gave I?" The look of unsurity makes the yautja burst into deep, loving laughter.

"Very good, little one. You will speak yautja in no time." The rumble ends with a deep kiss.

-------

Anyways, I entirely based the structure off of Klingon! Object first, then the verb, then the subject.

So if you wanted to say something like "I gave him a book." It would translate to "Book to him gave I."

As we place the object (book), before the verb (gave), and then the subject (I.) Hopefully that makes sense and is interesting for any of my other language nerds lmao I know it's not that deep or complex or cool but I just thought it was Kinda Neat

[bornulhu]

Inside a Koolunku hut. It is a small but cozy structure, built by carefully and sturdily sticking tree bark and planks together. They usually have two doors, one on each end so that if more than one member inhabit the hut, they don’t need to stumble over each-other to leave. Floor is covered in warm pillows and sheets while the walls are covered with shelves or storage units. The hut preserves heat radiating from koolunkus and any other heat sources, very well. 

[brittlebutch]

"You're a good girl, Tula," Mama comments indulgently, as if Tula was still a kit rather than something fully grown, settling back in to poke and prod Tula into place enough to continue combing through the dust and knots matting up her fur. Bitterly, Tula wishes she didn't have to be. But whatever world exists where Tula had the option of that freedom, it isn't this one. She had gotten tantalizingly close, near enough to taste it for a little while, but the path took a hard turn a the last second, and now Tula is left to salvage what little she can from the wreckage of what could have been.

words: 3,241

[sylviaritter]

Speedpainting 08122023

Advent Calendar Door 8

Created with Krita. Copyright © 2023 Sylvia Ritter.

www.sylvia-ritter.com, Twitter, Facebook, Instagram. 

[shkika]

Regarding ancient space exploration, I like to think that the area we play in in Rainworld just wasn't their space exploration hub. They probably did make colonies on other planets, but its been so long that all of those colonies either got ascended, broke down without support from the main planet, or became their own society entirely. Maintaining space colonies is expensive, and if your main focus suddenly switches to going within the planet instead of leaving it, their space exploration was likely left behind... besides satellites for comms and such!

Oh! So I am a little confused then why the information isn’t talked about as a myth, but a ‘maybe it’s true maybe not’ concept.

Moon explains it matter of factly and that other iterator expresses joy in the idea of becoming a mountain. I think this question in particular, what’s true and what isn’t is very open to interpretation!

I really really do like your take though! Thank you for sharing,,