#ancient alter

[the-masquerade-council]

Age slider alter, ancient alter, and ageless alter flags, to go along with my other alter age flags

[somnas-writes]

Hc that by Illyrian standards Azriel is considered unattractive.

Illyrians are a more practical group, they’re strong and have traditions they want to follow. They live in cold mountains in camps. Strength and endurance is a top quality, and while Azriel embodies this— He doesn’t look it.

Illyrians want someone whose body reflects their strength. Huge arms, wide wings, tall and bearing tokens of war (scars but not too many scars because that then signifies defeat). Azriel is trained for reconnaissance. His job is to be unnoticeable, being a huge hulking figure doesn’t make that easy. He’s tall and large yes, but he’s not that ideal Illyrian man. Hes just slimmer that average and plays sneaky. Not the big bold way that they believe is honorable. So by the cultures standards, he’s not attractive.

Cassian and Rhys both know this, that their sworn brother is considered “unattractive” by their peers. They never really think about it because that’s their brother, you don’t go around agreeing that your partner in crime is ugly. (Also because he could totally kick their asses and hey you don’t call the guy who is covered in conscious shadows ugly)

It becomes irrelevant as azriel ends up sticking to his job and doesn’t have to often interact with large groups of Illyrians (that gets to be Cassians job).

On the flip side, other groups of fae need that man CARNALLY. What makes him unideal in Illyrian standards makes him the perfect man in theirs. Strong beyond what they could achieve, skilled, quick witted and mysterious—he’s a 10/10.

Rhys learns about this after Azriel makes a rare appearance at a large event to let Rhys know about a new development in one of his missions, the crowd immediately hones in on this hunk of a man. Later, Rhys has to deflect multiple offers of marriage from court nobles.

[burstfoot]

Was curious about how long it takes the alter operators to get their new outfits and came up with a list that has no concieveable pattern any which way. Tell me if you can draw any conclusions from this otherwise its just neat trivia

[artofrolsch]

She's fine, she's just fine, you're fine, we're ALL FINE

Kind of a redraw of this frame from the book! Just wanted to play with some glitch effects yk

[slugcatmusings]

What is the Rot? Why is the Rot?

Spoiler Warning and Holy Wall of Text Batman Warning. I got WAY too into questioning the turbo-cancer here, hopefully my rambling makes sense.

So, the Rot is… weird, from a biological standpoint. Really weird, if you stop to think about it. It’s most frequently described as some variation of cancer, and it certainly fits the criteria for it. Caused by damage to DNA? Check. Multiplies uncontrollably? Check. Comes in both benign and malignant forms, one stationary and the other mobile? Big fat check. Heck, even the Rot cysts eating other creatures kind of fits, according to some research I’ve done – there are apparently cancer cells that will eat other cells, which makes sense in hindsight since cancer cells are cells that have lost important genetic restrictions, which may include whatever lets cells identify other cells as “do not eat.”

(I ain’t a biology whiz and I’m doing research on the fly while getting my thoughts out here, so take whatever I say about biology with a grain of salt)

So, Rot is clearly cancer of some kind, right? Case closed. Except when me and a friend of mine were talking Rain World theories on Discord, she brought up some interesting points that got me thinking.

First point: Rot cells obviously mutate in a way that affects FAR more than just cell replication and termination. Some of the cysts can HEAR. As far as I know, cells in the body do not hear sounds. They communicate via chemical signals and maybe, MAYBE react to temperature. Hearing involves complicated, specialized sensory apparatus to pick up on vibrations in the air. Even if you simplify it and say that it’s only vibrations, that’s STILL a multicellular thing, not a single-cell thing. It’s something that took millions of years to evolve on Earth, if not billions.

And while Rain World’s timeline goes on for long enough that it those kinds of mutations might happen eventually, Rot cysts have the ability to hear pretty much right from the start – because even the Proto-Long-Legs react to your presence like the Daddy Long Legs do, and the Rot in Spearmaster’s campaign, where Pebbles has recently contracted it, reacts the same way as it does in later campaigns. It’s already able to hear.

As far as I know, cancer just means the same cell duplicating over and over again. Are more mutations possible with each division, as errors are made in the DNA during splitting? Probably. But not to THAT extent. There’s no way a lump of cancer somehow mutated the exact complicated genetic blueprint needed to grow organs, at least not without outside interference.

Second point: Cases of Rot are way too consistent across the board. Now, we don’t have a huge sample size to work from, but from what we see from both Pebbles’ Rot, and Hunter Long Legs, they’re… pretty similar. Hunter Long Legs is basically a mobile Rot cyst. They move the same way, seem to grow the same way (starts as a growth inside/on the body before eventually freeing itself from whatever wall/flesh it grew from in some capacity and moving elsewhere), they have the same senses, and they even eat the same way, via something like phagocytosis (how white blood cells “eat” invading organisms via engulfing them and breaking them down in a sac in their main “body.”)

Now, this doesn’t tell us much, because cancer, when it does emerge, is pretty consistent in symptoms/what the mutated cells do once they start replicating. It’s pretty much the same regardless of whatever organism the cancer is happening in. But what ISN’T consistent is what causes the DNA error in the cancer cell in the first place. IRL, cancer can be caused by all kinds of things – smoking, radiation poisoning, being out in the sun too long, drinking deadly chemicals and whatnot, anything that damages DNA. But in RW, the only time we ever hear Rot talked about, or see it present, is in the context of an iterator having f*cked up while mucking around with DNA. Pebbles was trying to create an organism that could change his own genome, and No Significant Harassment created Hunter as a messenger and probably mucked something up in the process in his haste to get them to Moon.

This doesn’t mean that there aren’t other causes of it, of course, we’re working with a sample size of two in an apocalyptic world with who knows how much potentially DNA-damaging stuff around, but… that’s still awfully consistent.

So, combining these points and everything we know to be canon, Rot is:

an organism that lives inside another organism

Until a certain condition is met, it cannot harm said host organism.

Once said condition is met, it goes out of control, wreaking havoc on the organism’s systems and mutating, giving it sensory capabilities and an appetite

Said condition is apparently someone messing up when re-arranging genomes, in yourself or others

It is widespread across multiple different species, at least iterators and slugcats but potentially other species as well.

Once you have a bad case of it, it is apparently NOT CURABLE. Pebbles tried everything he could think of but apparently exhausted all of his options by the time of the Survivor/Monk campaigns.

So, with all the context FINALLY laid out, here’s my wild theory: Rot isn’t a cancer. It’s a symbiote turned parasite. Specifically, I believe it’s a symbiotic microbe that lives inside the cells that make up every other creature in Rain World, and is held in check by a specific gene that all species share, and altering or getting rid of that gene causes it to go berserk, taking over and eventually mutating the host cells.

Yeah, I did watch Parasite Eve let’s plays as a kid, why do you ask? Anyway, hear me out here.

There is precedence for single-celled organisms living inside of other single-celled organisms. They’re referred to as intracellular endosymbiots (hopefully I got the spelling right there), and the most well-known one is probably the mitochondria. The powerhouse of the cell is thought to be descended from some bacteria way, WAY back that was engulfed by a larger cell and not only survived it, but BENEFITED from it. Since then those ancient proto-mitochondria and eukaryotic cells have mutually evolved to be dependent on each other. So it’s entirely possible for something similar to have happened in Rain World.

However, I don’t think it happened NATURALLY, here. Because something that’s able to take over a cell entirely and begin wildly mutating it is NOT something your average cell wants inside of it. There’s a VERY high chance of extinction if you do that. Which means that of course those funky bio-tech loving Ancients either took a look at a wildly dangerous cellular parasite and went “hmmm we can use this” or made one themselves.

Why did they do this? Who knows! Currently, I’m tied between “they needed a better powerhouse for the cell to power the various weird adaptations they’re building into various creatures,” “there was some sort of disease that this parasite gave immunity against and they wanted to make use of it,” and “it gave their creations massively powerful regeneration factors that made them much easier to maintain.” Possibly it was all three. Whatever the reason, the Ancients either found or created this parasite, and put it into their creations’ cells, hoping to reap the benefits.

Well, they got the benefits, but they also got a microbe that hijacked the cells and harnessed their pre-existing DNA blueprints to build organisms disguised as great big blobs of cancer. Which is not exactly ideal, but hey, they just had to figure out a way of keeping the cell hijacking from happening! And the way they ended up going about it was to alter the thing so that so long as there was a specific DNA sequence in the cell, it laid mostly dormant. All the benefits, none of the risks – so long as that specific string of genes remained intact.

And then BECAUSE it was so beneficial, they spread their artificial symbiote and it’s genetic reins throughout ALL of their creations, from the smallest pipe-cleaning slugs to the iterators. Which meant that as their purposed organisms replaced most of the original ecosystem, they spread the symbiote as well. Thus making it possible for pretty much ANY creature on the planet to come down with a bad case of the Rot. And with the iterators, I wouldn’t be surprised if this symbiote is tied to their self-destruction taboos. Try to cross yourself out? Well, it’s gonna maybe happen now, but it’ll be a slow painful death as you’re eaten alive from the inside and all your own parts turn against you, so was it really worth it?

And they never told their creations this perhaps even actively hid it, because why tell them the cause of the main deterrent to them mucking with their taboos? They might find a way around it. The iterators were left ignorant of how Rot works, and because of this they never figured out that Rot HAD a cure after all: rebuilding that genome that reins in the symbiote. Because why in the name of the Void would they repeat the same mistakes that gave them Rot in the first place, and potentially make it worse?

[urbigfatdog]

The alter is in its final form (for now) ☀️🏹

I got white and yellow candles so he isn’t mad at me lmao

[circethefirstwitch]

My alter to Lady Artemis 💚🏹🦌

[anonymous-ace72]

Reading a little bit about the actual Colossus of Nero that stood in Rome for awhile. It stood long enough to have its face altered and changed a few times, and one of those alterations was to replace the head with the head of Commodus.

I’m just- I can’t really be sure within the ToA universe if Nero knew what happened with his statue after he died, as well as its ultimate fate in the end (likely melted down and reused for something else. Which is why we have so few bronze statues from ancient Rome) but I find the idea of him learning that Commodus defaced his colossal statue and replaced it with his own likeness hilarious.

[bearbench-img]

カメレキング

古代怪獣カメレキングは、特撮テレビドラマ『ウルトラマンティガ』に登場する怪獣です。古代から地球に生息していたとされるこの怪獣は、カメレオンを思わせる姿を持ち、周囲の環境に溶け込む保護色能力を持っています。また、舌を伸ばして敵を攻撃するほか、背中の帆から光線を放つこともできます。ティガとの戦いでは、その能力を活かして苦戦させましたが、最終的に倒されました。

手抜きイラスト集

[stuck-in-jelly]

Marcille scolding Senshi for replanting and messing with the golems without permission since it’s illegal in hindsight is so funny

Girl you’re gonna violate so many laws your degree is literally in the ancient art of illegal magic

[farsidejr]

some recent doodles i've done :} left is my sweetheart's Cashier AU teehee, right is my Roblox NPC OC, Punk, all grown up. atm Punk is 16, but this was kinda a peek at what he'd look like in his 20's

[hercrusadesheep]

The amazing, beautiful, gentle and loving goddess of fine oils,beauty,sexuality,cats, protecter of women and more Bastet my soul mother. I ask of you to bless my friends and family health form illnesses roar through the night to scare away demons of all kinds protect me form predators of the night and evil spirits shield me with your presence and I thank you for being there for me always

dua Bastet.

[nitroish]

ive resorted to taking photos of my screen so i can share stuff. anyway, this is my legend of zelda heart's hypothetical creation because the rp mentioned wings and ooc also was talking about wings but prosthetics... and loz heart could hypothetically Make wings himself, so. now im attached to the idea.

[starlight-eclipsed]

Hi! For Wild’s chapter in Like a Rag Doll, is it possible to get a translation for the old English sentence at the beginning? I think I got most of it but I am not sure about the “warden hi onyenes” part is supposed to be.

Thank you!

Hello! Just to be entirely honest before I share it--I absolutely based it off the stone tablets in totk. There are some other words that I researched before adding, but for the most part it was me squinting at the text and trying to figure out how the words worked XD

You did get most of it:

'Ond so the goddesse seyde tha a champion bith from the skie comen, to warden hi onyenes the wroth god of derknesse.’

"And so the goddess said that a champion born from the sky will come, to ward it against the wrathful god of darkness."

It's definitely not perfect, but I'm choosing to make it the consequence of time on poorly kept oral tradition.

But yeah, it's referencing how Sky had to hold back Demise, specifically the seals he would use. Hylia was 'speaking' in this part, as her plan to defeat Demise was explained to the audience ^-^

[blueiscoool]

2,000-Year-Old Greek Alter Discovered in Sicily

Buried under a mere few inches of dirt and shrubbery on an island in Italy, a sacred family treasure went unnoticed for centuries — until some workers came along.

The workers were clearing bushes in a little-explored section of the Segesta Archaeological Park in Sicily, the Sicily Regional Government said in a June 30 news release. Pulling up the plants, the workers stumbled on two ancient artifacts.

The pair of intricately carved stone sculptures were identified as a family altar used for worship during the Hellenistic period, officials said.

The Hellenistic period was an era when ancient Greek culture spread across the Mediterranean, according to Britannica. The era lasted from 323 B.C. to about 30 B.C. when the ancient Roman empire began to grow.

The altar was likely used “at the height of Sicily’s Hellenic period,” officials said.

One of the artifacts is taller, skinnier and carved with a detailed design. At the top, it has a bordered design that almost appears to mimic the pillars of a temple. A line of overflowing cornucopias and elaborate wreaths runs across the center, photos show.

The other sculpture is shorter and looks more like a block. It has a textured pattern across its front and sides, photos show. A medallion-like piece seems to be broken off the top.

This smaller artifact was probably used as a support for the more detailed main altarpiece. Officials said the artifacts were “perfectly preserved,” the outlet reported.

Archaeologists will continue studying the sculptures, the release said.

The Segesta Archaeological Park is on the northwestern edge of Sicily, an island off the southern tip of mainland Italy, and about 390 miles south of Rome.

[themostancientdreams]

LOGOS ACQUIRED!

Of course we have to E2 not for his skills but because of his cool splash art

And I decided to spoil myself with the new live2d silverash skin

And then, wis'adel wanted to be part of it so she came home in my single <3333