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katakaluptastrophy · 1 year

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So what does religion actually look like in the Nine Houses?

Fantasy space Catholicism is hardly unusual in this genre, but a) Tamsyn Muir puts so much thought into this stuff, and b) this particular variety of fantasy space Catholicism was, we later discover, deliberately constructed to be like that by people with at least some familiarity with actual Catholicism. So I think it's fun to explore.

What do the Houses actually believe? We know that the other eight have slightly more in common in their religious practice, compared to the Ninth, but I suspect that Jod-ism is going to look very different on, say, the Second and the Eighth...

The language used to talk about religion in the Houses is very Catholic. I like to imagine that Jod spent some of his depressed girl nuclear winter highlighting sections of Catholicism for Dummies. But given that he was a probably fairly nerdy boy in the 90s he was probably at least aware of Warhammer, and has probably read Dune at some point in the last myriad.

I'm sticking mostly to GTN here, with some HTN. People in NTN seem to be a bit busy to talk theology, though I'm sure I've missed something. There are a few bits that are particularly good for thinking about the House religion: the letter from the Emperor read to the muster at Drearburh, pretty much every time Silas Octakiseron opens his mouth, the first gathering at Canaan House with Teacher, and the Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers at the end of GTN.

Since it’s Easter, and since it’s you can’t read the Locked Tomb series without stumbling over resurrection-this and resurrection-that, let’s start there…

Resurrection and death

This is obviously the big, fundamental concept of House religion. Absolutely central to their understanding of both where they came from and where they’re going.

The Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers says "we live under the thanergetic light of Dominicus, are born, grow, and die in his thanergetic Houses; the Resurrection made us so." Dominicus [the sun] and the Resurrection are both synonymous with the Emperor. Indeed, “the resurrection” is one of the Emperor’s titles. He also has titles like "the first reborn", much like Jesus is described as "the firstborn from the dead" (Colossians 1:18). All the versions of the resurrection that we hear are pretty circumspect on quite how everyone came to die and whether the emperor is understood to have also died and resurrected himself. We have to assume there is a more detailed 'theological' version of this story, but it's just not something we encounter.

According to House belief, the dead “wait for our Lord’s touch on the day of a second Resurrection.” (HTN Ch 45) and “lie waiting for the rivers to rise on the day they wake to their King” (GTN ch 1).

Historically, there seems to have been more of a diversity of views on what happened in the River. But “it has been thousands of years since anybody bothered to believe in the River beyond…” (HTN Ch 45) and I'm sure it won't be at all relevant in Alecto…

God

Unlike a Christian conception of God as a creator who has always existed, John Gaius is god of the Nine Houses in a rather different way.

The House prayer says “He is Emperor and he became God: he is God, and he became Emperor." (GTN ch 8) And the Sermon on Necromancers and Cavaliers says:

"Our necromantic characteristics make us more like the Emperor. As he was once man, and became God, and was God and became man, so were we dead and became alive; so were we alive and became dead. The necromancer and the cavalier are no different. They are one flesh. And yet that is only one understanding of the mystery that characterises us as a society."

This comparison of the necro/cav relationship and that between the Emperor and the Houses also comes up again in the “contract of tenderness made on the day of the Resurrection” that the Emperor invokes in his letter to the Ninth.

That letter also, fascinatingly, suggests that part of this contract of tenderness is to “honour [the House’s] love for the Creator”. Does this refer to the Emperor as creator for the houses? Or does their belief system have a separate creation mythos that we’re not party to?

In HTN, when explaining why she thinks the Emperor has fundamentally misunderstood death , Abigail says “he never claimed omnipotence” (ch 45). And Teacher, praying aloud in front of the lyctoral candidates, prays “let nothing happen that you did not anticipate”, suggesting he’s not believed to be omniscient either.

But as becomes clear from how others talk about him, the actual outworking of religious thought has made John something rather closer to the omnipotent, omniscient, and omnibenevolent Christian god…although he certainly hasn’t gone to any lengths to correct such misconceptions.

Prayer

This seems particularly clear when you look at how prayer functions in the Houses. Crux tells the hysterical Glaurica to "leave and pray for guidance" (ch 3), suggesting that some belief exists that things can be received supernaturally through prayer from Jod.

But prayer is also more complicated. While the Locked Tomb prayer seems to request divine action to keep the tomb shut, at the end it also prays for “the needs of the Emperor All-Giving, the Undying King”, much as one might add a prayer for the intentions of the Pope to a Catholic prayer.

Yet, prayer is very clearly also made to the Emperor, as Teacher enjoins them to “pray to the lord of that which was destroyed, remembering the abundance of his pity, his power, and his love." (ch 8) That prayer, which seems to occupy a conceptual space similar to the Lord’s prayer in Christianity, suggests that there is some effect in a place or person being entrusted to him, even beyond death.

The Ninth, at least, seem to follow a sort of Liturgy of the Hours, with set prayers at set times of day, and Silas’ traditional Ottavian necromancer’s fast may also relate to prayer practices.

But quite what the Houses think prayer achieves isn’t clear.

Blessing

Similarly unclear is blessing, which in Christianity usually means dedicating things for divine service or calling divine favour upon them.

In his letter (GTN ch 1), the Emperor makes several references to his ability to bless. He wishes the Ninth “blessings upon its tombs, its peaceful dead, and its manifold mysteries”, and describes his lyctors as “the most blessed and beloved of the King Undying”. In reference to what might happen to those who do not become lyctors, he says “...and if the Necorlord Highest blesses but does not take, they shall return home in full honour, with trump and timbrel”.

Blessing functioning in this way would seem to imply some kind of sense of divine omnipotence in their belief system, and one that the Emperor, or whoever drafts his correspondence, isn’t inclined to disabuse.

And we can't talk about blessing without touching on relics… The Nine Houses have an attitude to human remains that make Capuchin bone chapels look like Scandi minimalism. The catacombs of the Ninth are full of relics, and in HTN Harrow Nova steals the "sacred relic" that is the Chain of Samael (Ch 40).

But aside from Abigail Pent in Harrow's river bubble suggesting that personal relics might be used in ghost summoning (HTN ch 10), there's very little suggestion that these relics *do* anything. In Catholicism, relics are a locus of divine blessing - there are relics inside of a church's altar, and relics might be used for healing or protection. I suppose in a necromantic world, all dead body parts *do something*, but it's not clear whether there's a sense that "relic" means anything specific in a religious sense in this way.

Also notably absent from this heavily Catholicism inspired belief system is any sacramental system. There's no sense that there are any unifying rituals or practices that are seen as vehicles of divine power, as in the seven sacraments of Catholicism (baptism, confirmation, penance, eucharist, marriage, ordination, anointing of the sick). In HTN, Jod refers to his answer to the Houses about the missing cavaliers by saying: “The Cavaliers...have joined their Lyctors...It’s not really a lie. It’s simply a flattening of an awesome … and sacramental … truth.” (ch 2). That suggests that "sacramental" is a term that would make sense to someone in the Houses, but it's not clear how.

Salvation

Salvation is only specifically referred to once in Gideon the Ninth, in the House poem at the start of Gideon the Ninth, where it is made the key defining feature of the Eighth: “Eight for salvation no matter the cost”.

The Christian concept of 'salvation' refers to the idea that through faith in Jesus, humans can be saved from sin. In the Bible, Jesus gives a list of things people must be prepared to part with (up to and including their own lives) in order to do this. He asks: “For which of you, desiring to build a tower, does not first sit down and count the cost” (Luke 14:28). I’m sure that the question of counting the cost of a tower, in relation to the stoma-traversing Eighth House, whose necromancer is so far unaccounted for, won’t be at all relevant in Alecto…

Salvation, in a Christian sense, relates to one’s ultimate destination: Heaven or Hell. And also the idea that once Christ returns, who will be resurrected and live in the re-made world with him. This may be sounding familiar...

In a respect, the inhabitants of the Houses are already ‘saved’ - within their own understanding, they have died and been resurrected, and are living in the remade world with God.

When Abigail Pent begins to discuss her ‘heretical’ theories (another concept there…) about the River, her husband corrects her with what is clearly meant to be the ‘correct’ theological understanding: that the dead in the River are those “who wait for our Lord’s touch on the day of a second Resurrection.” (HTN Ch 45). So the eschatology of House religion looks forward to a second resurrection. Perhaps, then, ‘salvation’ relates to whether one can be included in this second resurrection?

When Abigail continues her explanation in spite of Magnus, she says the dead in the River

“attempt to cross…to get to what lies beyond; who throng in their great and endless multitude, mad, directionless; or worse, have been trapped at the bottom, about which I know very little but fear all I know. Jeanmary and Isaac, who already endured so much, and never did anything wrong, other than the time they tried to pierce each other’s tongues, should have traveled lightly through those waters.” (HTN ch 45).

Moral behaviour thus seems to have an impact on how one traverses the river. But Abigail describes her own theories here as “heretical”.

Harrow says “It has been thousands of years since anybody bothered to believe in the River beyond,” (HTN Ch 45) so it has been a belief within House religion, even if not one that is current or sanctioned. Is it just the idea of crossing that’s heretical, rather than the idea of moral behaviour affecting one’s position in the River? Augustine, on the stoma (the “mouth to Hell”) at the bottom of the River, says to Mercymorn: “your whole damned house sucks at it like a grotesque teat-” (HTN 36). So within canonical belief, we certainly have the idea of a Hell, and of levels of the River. Perhaps the Eighth - and more broadly the other Houses - concept of salvation involves staying in the River and out of the stoma, awaiting the second resurrection.

Sin and transgression

Almost all of the specific articulations of the concept of ‘sin’ come from the mouth of Silas Octakiseron. And while it’s clear that this is something he cares about very specifically in his capacity as Master Templar of the Eighth, it’s something he regularly brings up in conversation with members of other Houses. While there are disputes about whether a specific thing is a sin, or whether the sinfulness of a given issue is relevant to the situation, it’s clear that he’s not speaking totally incomprehensibly to them - they all share a common sense of ‘sin’ and what that means in theological terms.

In Christian terms, sin is a transgression against divine law. In the religion of the Houses, there are clearly a number of concepts that are considered in some way sinful. There are repeated references to acts of necromantic transgression: when it’s discovered that ‘Dulcinea’ has been puppeting the body of Protesilaus, Silas describes it as “a necromantic act of transgression” (GTN Ch. ) which incurs a “penalty”. There seems to be some kind of codification of such transgressions and their penalties, as Judith Deuteros refers to “meting out the justice of the Tome” as “the Eighth House’s prerogative”. (GTN Ch. ) This is the only reference we get to the mysterious ‘Tome’ (besides the fact that the Eighth are its ‘keepers’). It’s not clear whether this is a bible of sorts, a catechism, a collection of laws and sayings, or something else entirely.

In the same scene, ‘Dulcinea’ talks about how the emperor “never bothered to speak out against beguiling corpsehood, but he did say that siphoning was the most dangerous thing any House had ever thought up, and ought only to be done with the siphoner in cuffs.” (GTN Ch ). So the Emperor condemning something doesn’t specifically make it an act of transgression, and likewise it seems that something the Emperor has otherwise never commented on might be considered an act of transgression according to the Tome, even though later both beguiling corpses and soul siphoning are described as “unholy” (ch 30).

Silas specifically describes defiling a body as “a sin” (GTN ch 33), and later reassures Colum that “there’s no sin” in taking the Ninth’s key by violence, and reassures him that "if a wasted oath pains you, I will lead you in atonement later" (GTN ch 27), suggesting that not only are there codified sins, there is also some kind of formal confessional structure (or at least, there is on the Eighth).

Harrow describes her parents’ actions to ensure her conception as “a necromantic sin that we ought to be catapulted into the heart of Dominicus for.” (GTN ch 31) This rhetorical concept of destruction in space recurs - perhaps suggesting this is a trope within their religious culture - when Silas says “may I be burnt one atom at a time in the most silent hole in the most lightless part of space, Lord-Kindly Prince, should I ever contemplate betraying the compact you appointed between him, and you, and me." (GTN ch 34)

And of course, it transpires that lyctorhood is an ‘indelible sin’ that brings down cosmic vengeance in HTN… (ch 2)

Penitence

But if we only see the concept of sin through an Eighth House lens, then penitence seems to be the preserve of the Ninth: “The Ninth had historically filled its halls with penitents from other houses, mystics and pilgrims…” (GTN ch. 1). Harrow covers up the fact that she is puppetting her dead parents by giving them supposed “penitents’ vows”, including “fasting…daily contemplation…seclusion” (ch. 1), and ‘Dulcinea’ describes Gideon’s supposed vow of silence as “doing penance" (GTN ch 10).

In Catholicism, the “sacrament of penance” is another name for confession, although technically this encompasses both absolution (the taking away of the sin) and penance (making amends for the sin). Generally, this would be absolution in the confessional by a priest followed by a prescribed act of penance. In the modern era, this is typically a prayer or meditation (the stereotypical “say 5 Hail Marys”), but historically these could be a lot gnarlier.

The use of penance in a Ninth House context could also refer to a more general sense of reparation for generalised sin. Perhaps as a prophylactic against the waking of what sleeps in the Tomb. But the historic flow of penitents (as distinct from pilgrims) from other Houses suggests some formalised structure of absolution and penance functioning within the religion of the Houses, or at least some sense of seeking restitution for transgressions, although perhaps this is only taken up by the particularly enthusiastic or devout.

Heresy

The understanding of the concept of heresy in the Nine Houses seems to be broadly similar to that of the Catholic church: wilfully adhering to an error in the faith or teaching of the church.

Silas behaves more as an inquisitor than a templar when, after Ianthe’s ascension to Lyctor, he says:

"I brand you heretic…I sentence you to death. As your cavalier is no more, you must stand in for him: make your peace with your House and your Emperor…I will cleanse everything here…to stop the Houses from finding out how we have debased ourselves" (GTN ch 34).

While the others clearly feel Silas is overreacting, their issue does not appear to be with the idea that such things might be heretical, nor that the Eighth might enact ecclesiastical justice for that.

What’s not clear to me is quite what Silas thinks has happened here: does he see the lyctor trials as like the Biblical story of Abraham and Isaac - that the Emperor would want them to love him to the point that they would be willing to kill their cavalier, but not actually to do so? Or does he have some kind of mental separation here between what Ianthe has done and who has asked them to do it? Ironically, though, he is in many respects right about the inherent sinfulness of the lyctoral process, as we discover in HTN…

The Ninth is described as “the House of Heretical Secrets” in chapter one, and the concept of heresy recurs for Harrow and the Ninth. Harrow describes her opening of the tomb as a heresy for which her parents died (HTN ch 37), and when Abigail explains her theories about the River to Harrow, she tells Magnus not to shush her because Harrow “knows something of heresy” (HTN ch 45). Mercymorn describes Gideon as, among other things, a “heresy” when they meet on the Mithraeum (ch 46).

Scripture and authority

So the religion of the Nine Houses clearly has some defined concepts that are generally recognised. But how? Who defines these concepts, how are they taught and reinforced?

There’s the elusive references to the Tome, but as noted above, there’s no indication of what kind of text this might be and how it might be used, beyond the idea that it relates to a concept of Justice, possibly related to sin and absolution, for which the Eighth take responsibility.

Quotes from the Hebrew Bible and the gospels and letters of the Christian New Testament appear several times, in ways that don’t seem entirely like they’re just intended as a wink to the reader.

Most notably, Gideon’s words to Harrow, shortly after their lyctoral ascension - her last words to her before beginning to be absorbed:

"The land that shall receive thee dying, in the same will I die: and there will I be buried. The Lord do so and so to me, and add more also, if aught but death part me and thee." (GTN ch 37)

This is from the Book of Ruth. Specifically, Ruth 1:17 from the Douay-Rhiems Catholic Bible. Gideon isn’t particularly religious, but she knows this passage off by heart. So how does a non particularly observant teenager in the grimdark of the far future end up quoting the book of Ruth word perfect?

Is this from ‘the Tome’ - is it a book of scripture which incorporates elements of what we would recognise as the Bible? Is this from something more specific to the Ninth (perhaps, as I've seen others suggest, wedding vows)? The Lyctors clearly have access to pre-resurrection texts (with Augustine and Mercy even naming their jizz heist from the Iliad), so it’s not unreasonable to believe that Anastasia might have incorporated this text in some way, even if she did not fully understand its context. And most people, even not particularly religious ones, can probably quote a few lines from culturally significant texts like wedding vows.

The Emperor’s letter also includes several amalgamations of Bible verses. These are more likely to be niche references for the reader, perhaps intended to give a suitably religious tone to the letter, but the way they are deployed could also suggest that they are textual references intended to be grasped by the readers of the letter. For example: "There is no dutiful gift so perfect, nor so lovely in his eyes", referring to the ascension of new lyctors, feels like a biblical reference, but isn’t. However, it draws on two quotes: “Lovely in his eyes” is from the Song of Solomon, and the phrasing calls to mind James 1:17’s “every good and perfect gift is from above”. Though taking verses about God giving to man and making them about man giving to God is a nudge for the reader, the quote itself could be from some scriptural source within the story (though this perhaps assumes the Tome is a sort of Orange Catholic Bible, as in Dune…).

Likewise, “...and if the Necorlord Highest blesses but does not take, they shall return home in full honour, with trump and timbrel” (ch 1). Particularly well-informed readers (or those of us with google…) might grasp that ‘trump and timbrel’ is a reference to Ivanhoe, where a hymn is transcribed called “When Israel, of the Lord Beloved”, where it’s in reference to the ‘timbrels and dances’ of Exodus 15:20. A ‘timbrel’ is a sort of tambourine. It features frequently in the psalms in descriptions of praising God (interestingly here, again, a reversal between god and man from the original scriptural context), but the sound of a ‘trump’ only appears in the New Testament, in - rather fittingly - relation to the apocalypse.

So much for texts. What about other sources of authority? The Nine Houses seem to be full of prelates and religious, from the priesthood of Canaan House and the Templars of the White Glass on the Eighth (who Harrow obliquely refers to as “priests” in chapter 6), to the reverend family, sisters, nun-adepts, anchorites, solitaires, priests, defunct military friars, cenobites, and vestals of the Locked Tomb. (Roman vestals were walled up alive if they broke their vows, which feels interesting in light of the bonus skeleton in the tomb in Nona…).

The Canaan House priests are described as wearing vestments, and Teacher specifically describes himself as ‘standing in the stead of the merciful God Above Death’, much like the Catholic concept of a priest in persona Christi (acting as Jesus in specific sacramental situations). Canaan House as “a holy temple” (Silas, GTN ch 33), to which they have made a “pilgrimage” (Cohort Intelligence Files) and Drearburh is outfitted with a chapel described using the architectural terminology of a Christian church. That all of this language is used in passing, suggesting a degree of familiarity.

The early chapters of Gideon the Ninth show a rather intense structure of regular worship on the Ninth, but we know that the Ninth is not typical. Still, everyone’s ready familiarity with the concepts of priests and temples and shared prayers suggests that there is some kind of organised religion on the other Houses. Abigail describes having a mawkish religious picture of the Emperor on the wall of her childhood bedroom, suggesting a degree of day to day religious practice even amongst the more reserved Fifth (HTN ch 43).

But it's impossible to tell what day to day religious practice might look like in Houses other than the Ninth.

Well, that ended up rather longer than I intended. If you're still here, well done and commiserations on being the same very specific type of nerd as me.

#the locked tomb #tlt #gideon the ninth #nona the ninth #I think this is the most I've written since I did my MA...#harrow the ninth #john gaius

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nonas-third-tantrum · 2 years

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Okay real quick, I know this is probably a question people ask a lot, but I just finished NtN and I'm still not sure: Are the humans outside the Nine Houses meant to be the descendants of the trillionaires who got away, or are they just part of the humans Jod killed and resurrected after creating Alecto?

first of all let me say that I’m flattered you’re asking me but something you should know about me is that I’m a lot like nona. I understand the characters in these books and have a good grasp on their mannerisms personalities etc., but I don’t know what is going on. and that’s okay! fandoms are an ecosystem and my niche is not theory

but since you asked, I’ll try to answer before I turn things over to the smarter folks out there. I just finished my reread of nona and I’m still confused about this. Jod says a few things that lead me to believe the original trillionaires are still out there, having achieved some kind of immortality. In John 5:4, he talks about how he could destroy everything and start over again, but says that “the only reason I haven’t done it already is that I can’t bear the idea that I wouldn’t be able to touch them—that they’d still be out there.”

I suppose it’s possible that if they survived, they also had descendants, or maybe some of them settled on planets while others stayed on their ships? I don’t think John would have resurrected people and sent them outside of the nine houses, but we’re still missing about a myriad’s worth of story post-apocalypse and pre-gtn, so I suppose anything’s possible.

then of course the question becomes: why is John on this mission to conquer other planets? if the trillionaires are still out there, he’s hunting them down. but I think it’s likely that he has at least one other motive, and my guess is that he’s ensuring that everyone in the whole universe is under his thumb so that what happened on earth can never happen again. to make sure that there is nowhere to run where he doesn’t have jurisdiction. why kill the planets, then, rather than just rule them as-is? killing planets slowly avoids creating more resurrection beasts, and also prevents some other human from becoming god and usurping his power. if he did it, what’s to stop someone else from doing it again? the only way to prevent it, as far as he know, is to make it impossible.

anyway, that was a long way of saying I don’t know, and hopefully someone else who’s thought about this will have a more helpful explanation!

#me: oh idk what’s going on don’t ask me #also me: here’s what I think is going on #the locked tomb #tlt #tlt meta #ntn spoilers

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confusedbyinterface · 8 months

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Wait wait wait - Umineko AU sounds very cool… how would it work?? Who’s who?

By AU I mostly mean like all the AUs running through Harrow's head at the end of Harrow the Ninth, so it works about as well as a fever dreams brought on by brain surgery undoing itself, but:

Battler: Gideon (duh) Shannon and Kanon: Harrow, with the servant name Harron George and Jessica: Ianthe. Though unlike George she isn't going to propose secretly, she's doing it in front of everyone because she's a messy bitch who loves the drama. Beatrice: Alecto Kinzo: John Natsuhi: Pelleamena (which I guess makes Priamhark Krauss by default?)

The Cousins/Uncles/Aunts: All the Canaan House postulants, instead of a "Family Meeting" it's a Nine Houses Meeting.

G1deon, Mercymorn and Augustine would play similar roles Genji, Kumasawa and Nanjo, in the sense of being John's "inner circle" more than anything. Crux and Aiglamene are there too (or, Crux might be off sick and fuming about not being there). Pyrrha might be alive, and off the island.

So: Harrow is an orphan, the miraculous survivor of a deadly gas leak at Fukuin House (as far as she knows). Because she was the only child at the orphanage, she was brought into The Ninth House as a servant at a very young age, where she showed a startling necromantic aptitude. At some point a young Ianthe and Coronabeth are orphaned and adopted or fostered to the "childless" Ninth House. Coronabeth runs off to join BoE, or is kidnapped by them in an attack that kills Naberius, I'm not sure. Gideon is G1deon and Pyrrha's kid (as far as she knows) and after she ran off as a teenager to join the cohort (without bringing Harrow with her, as they'd agreed) Harrow kind of, lost her necromancy. It came back a few years ago, when the Body started appearing to her, but she's kept quiet about it.

I do have a vague outline of an actual full "game" with serial murders, where a whole bunch of stuff with Jod's revenant and embryo swapping and secret conspiracies comes out, but more likely it would just end up a Harrow the Ninth style AU in which, after Harrow tips over the wheelbarrow and Gideon helps her meetcute style, she sees Alecto the Golden Witch standing atop the rose arch asking "Is this how it happens?"

#the locked tomb #umineko

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butterscotch-goat · 11 months

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🖊 gene maybe??

I had a feeling that if you were to ask this is who you'd ask for DGHSHS

OKay let's start with the basics I guess?!!

Gene (unlabelled gender, any prns but he/him pref) is the Senior Manager of Quarter 2 of Hell, Hell's Ambassador to Earth, and unofficial assistant of Lucy (when the two aren't broken up, that is).

His job is to make sure everyone in his Quarter is doing their job, not slacking, and not doing any DASTARDLY good deeds!! Every decade or so he goes to each office as like a checkup on each demon, like I said, to be sure they aren't slacking. When he's not doing that, he's going between Earth and Hell, getting info to help figure out how to best take down humanity and thoroughly worsen everyone's lives. He also manages the Demon Police Force™(still working on a name) of his quarter and sends them to deal with any good-doing-demons (such as Frappe). Every once in a while on his trips to earth he influences some bad deeds of his own, but usually he leaves that to the Enticers (group of demons whose entire job is to get humans to do bad stuff)

His default emotion is grouchy; he's been a demon for tHOUSANDS of years obviously so he's kinda just tired of everything but still does his job as best as he can, because what else is there to do? Turn a new leaf and be a good person? PSHAW!!!

When he was an angel, he made all kinds of stars (though his favorites to make were wolf-rayets, look it up it's beautiful) and invented a couple elements along the way! He never really cares about humans much but didn't start outright disliking them until Abigail came along (+the whole jod dislikers club). At the time Gene was just kinda on board with whatever Abigail was doing (DEFINITELY just bc he respected Abigail a lot since they were the first angel ever made that's the Only Reason 100 percent no gayness to be seen)

how about some old version fun facts!!

Gene used to be a girl and was name Jean, and in one version Ronnette had a massive crush on Jean!! What was wrong with me!!!

Me deciding that Gene and Lucy used to date was the biggest spark I got to start actually developing those two characters individually, not sure why, it just made them more intriguing for me to think about i guess?

One of Gene's old designs had him in a magenta 1780s inspired outfit with a ruffled collar and everything, meant to represent that he gave up on ever being good way back then, but then I made a demon uniform and realized that the 1780s wasn't that long ago, especially for an immortal being, sooo yeah outfit got changed!!

random trivia time???

Gene has an up-to-date cellphone but he doesn't use it much, and if he does use it, it's to get ideas for ruining humanity

Wouldn't be the type to read a book at a party but would sit on the floor and if anyone asked if he's okay he'd just shrug and be like "yeah what are you talking about I'm fine" and he is (I've thought this thru, this is important)

His office is pretty close to Dawn's but the two know pretty much nothing about each other despite being neighbors for thousands of years. Dawn knows that *something* happening in the 1920s inside his office because he left it angrier than usual but she has no clue otherwise LOL

Uhh okay that's it for gene???? HOPE IT WAS FUN!!!

#butterstalk #buttersketch dawn

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homoantagonism · 1 year

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Nona the Ninth Part One: Day One

Oh boy this character sheet. Crown is Corona. Wake better not still be around in BoE somehow. I don't know what to make of the gang and their weird names (and Kevin. he's there too)

This book is going to make me crack open my Bible for verses, isn't it?

It sounds like Jod and crew are trying to evacuate Earth. Not sure why everyone's names are crossed out, but I think it's Augustine, Mercymorn, Gideon I, and MAYBE Cristabel? If I remember correctly Cytherea joins later after the Houses are established.

I love this dorky little found family already.

With all these odd names, I wonder if Nona is subconsciously translating somehow - maybe the kids have foreign names that just come through as concepts to her.

So... big old revenant beast hanging in the sky? Just there? Cool.

Good thing I got used to piecing things together during the last 2 books, because Nona refuses to do it for me.

"always a tick somewhere if she mentioned breasts." Hahahaha, Camilla knows what to look for for signs of Gideon.

Ogh, all the Cam and Pal stuff is so good! I'm trying to read parts of it out loud and it's fun swapping back and forth between their different speaking patterns while trying to still keep Camilla's voice. How's that sound on audiobook?

Oh wait, C-- could be Cassiopeia too. I need to check the list of Lyctors again.

Mercymorn is Mercymorn, even 10,000 years ago.

I should probably note that I do indeed found the stuff with them living in a warzone and the Blood of Eden taking over and the Cohorts being kinda smashed very confusing and I have no idea what's happening. It's just that at this point I'm so used to being confused I didn't consider it worth writing down.

yeeeeeah the beginning of nona does not spoon feed you world building. it throws you straight into blatant critique of imperialism. all the campal stuff is so 😭😭

#nona the ninth

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yellowmagicalgirl · 1 year

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she left me (I'm still here)

Coronabeth still can't believe that Ianthe left her. Gideon tries her best.

That's right, it's an Eberron AU for The Locked Tomb! This was written for Morike91 for the 2023 Battleship Exchange.

CW: references to canon-typical death and Coronabeth being suicidal

AO3

SquidgeWorld

“She left me,” Coronabeth said for the tenth time in the last hour. Gideon looked up from her rations to keep an eye on Corona. If Ianthe was here, then she could just have used her mark to cast Calm Emotions on her sister. If Ianthe was here, then maybe Corona wouldn’t be in yet another depressive spiral, a real one instead of one merely meant to manipulate. She hadn’t threatened to kill herself, just had several sobbing fits.

If Ianthe was here, then Coronabeth could have pretended to use the Mark of Handling on her right bicep to cast Calm Emotions on herself. But Ianthe wasn’t here. So many members of their party weren’t here. Ianthe had left with the two Radiant Cultists and had taken Harrow’s unconscious body with them. Palamedes and Naberius were both dead. Pal had been killed by the fiend that had been masquerading as Lady ir’Septimus. It sucked, really, since his life’s work had been to do what the halflings of House Jorasco had never been able to. Dulcinea had been long dead before they could have even tried. Camilhareth wanted to see if they could go to Dolurrh, to try and find Pal’s soul and maybe even the real Dulcinea’s too. When Corona had asked what they would do after they found Pal’s soul, Cam hadn’t been able to answer. It wasn’t like the party would be able to put Pal’s soul back into his real body, not after what Cytherea did to it.

Babs still had a body to resurrect. They just wouldn’t be able to find his soul, not unless they wanted to wait until it was potentially too late, and Pal’s soul had faded away. According to Ianthe, Naberius still lived on in the dragonmark she had stolen from him, or at least he would continue to until Ianthe had been able to absorb his soul and knowledge entirely. She now had two dragonmarks while her sister held none.

“How did you and Ianthe fake your mark?” Gideon asked before kissing Coronabeth on the forehead.

“We took the Test of Siberys together. Father wanted a matched set, and Ianthe gave him one. When she manifested her mark, she then used Prestidigitation to give me mine. Then she calmed the hippogriff while I used my strength to hold it down. Sure, she specializes in transmutation, but she’s always been good at illusions. She made my mark glow while making hers not. I later got it tattooed on.” Coronabeth sniffled. “And now, the next time we’re around an animal, everyone’s going to find out I’m a fraud. She left me.”

“I’m still here,” Gideon said as she placed her hand on top of her girlfriend’s.

“I know,” Corona said as her watery violet eyes met Gideon’s own. “But you’re not my sister.”

Author's Note: To dump some random setting notes:

Given that the Tridentarii are supposedly flesh magicians, I thought that either House Vadalis or House Jorasco would fit them, but I ultimately decided on Vadalis because I wanted them to be humans. Plus, I like the idea of Vadalis doing freaky experiments with dragonmarks more than I do Jorasco. They're both from Aundair, and so was Dulcinea.

Gideon and Harrow are both from Karrnath. Gideon is secretly an aasimar connected to the radiant idol known as Jod.

Naberius was, despite being from House Deneith AKA the fighter-iest house to fighter, a worse fighter than Gideon (who has probably multiclassed into paladin at some point) and Coronabeth (who is sticking to fighter).

Cam is a kalashtar from the line of Hareth. Given how kalashtar names are styled, I decided that changing her name to Camilhareth was a fitting choice.

#corgideon #coronabeth tridentarius #gideon nav #the locked tomb #eberron #my writing

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taylorrama · 1 year

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The Locked Tomb + mewithoutYou pt. 6/17

Heard you call for me Saw you die for me Only you'd burn for me If only you'd come for me

Song: Everything Was Beautiful and Nothing Hurt Album: A->B Life

youtube

This is the chillest song on the album (until it explodes, that is) and one of the most ambient. We have this slow groove, and in the background are distant vocals that are hard to discern while listening. This is an intentional effect, though, and there's a lot we can glean from hearing a voice buried beneath other sound and only barely being able to distinguish what's said. For TLT purposes, this lines up with the Lyctor experience (I feel I'm repeating myself so much by drawing comparisons between these songs and lyctors, but that's what happens when you have two pieces of art that portray a blending of spiritual experiences with relationships).

To briefly address the song title, yes, it's the Kurt Vonnegut reference that eventually became a meme here on Tumblr dot com. I've read Slaughterhouse Five once and so I recognize this and other Vonnegut references in mwY songs. However, other who are much more into his work than I am have done a better job analyzing these references. My understanding is that this saying, "Everything was beautiful and nothing hurt" is a sort of sarcastic mockery of those who believe that there was, is, or ever could be a time when death and suffering don't exist. I don't think we need to reach too far to see how this same idea is present in The Locked Tomb. The closest anyone comes to unironically embodying this phrase is Nona, until she remembers who she is, so the real meaning is proven true.

Going back to the song, I'm not even sure that the liner notes capture what this voice in the beginning actually says, but it does sound something like this:

Heard you call for me Saw you die for me Only you'd burn for me If only you'd come for me

Griddlehark. Campal. The third line is especially Campal.

These lines repeat and then the music starts to shift into a more sinister sound. We at last get the softly spoken phrase:

Everything was beautiful, and nothing hurt

Immediately, there's a raw scream and the rest of the song is directly quoting a John Dunne poem called "A Valediction: Forbidding Mourning" in this desperate, screaming vocal style.

"As we melt let's make no noise Oh the profanation of our love To tell the world our passing joys! And we, besides, care less to miss Our eyes and lips and hands." (but honey, I'm not who you think I am!) (I'm not who you think I am! I'm not who you think I am!)

The portions in quotes are from Dunne. I also haven't read or thought about Dunne enough to make my own interpretive conclusions, but using Dunne as applied to this song and then again applied to The Locked Tomb, we get some interesting images. This idea of two lovers or souls melting together to become one substance at the expense of any tangible form they once inhabited is...literally Lyctorhood.

The last two lines in parentheses could have a lot of applications. Jod. Nona. Harrow. Lots of characters have something in their arcs or something in their sense of self that would lead them to acknowledge a difference between the self they know and the self everyone else knows. And they may go beyond acknowledging this into hating it, so the vocalization of these lines in this song would fit that emotion.

"And so you'll be to me Who must obliquely run Thy firmness makes my circle just And makes me end where I begun" There's nothing wrong As I'll be somewhere singing all along No! Tell me, where have you gone, my love Where have you gone my love

Again, the quoted portions are from Dunne. I would go feral for the 7,584th time if circle imagery imagery became significant in The Locked Tomb in the same way that it is in mewithoutYou songs, but I don't see much there at the moment.

So, what's most interesting right now is the last two lines, "Where have you gone, my love?" This is repeated over and over, and is washed out by the music as the song reaches its end.

At the end of Gideon the Ninth, it's clear that Gideon dies, but there's also this transcendence and mystery about where her body actually goes. And we don't find out until the end of Nona the Ninth. So to me, this increasingly desperate and drowned out question matches this quest that some of the characters have of preserving their dead necromancer or cavalier across/through/somewhere to the left of life, death, and the River.

Musically, the end of the song sounds like drowning, perhaps in a River, and cuts off with this sound that's maybe like time traveling? What I'm saying is that if you were to sonically represent what being in the River is like, it'd probably be this song.

---

TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 1; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 2; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 3; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 4; TLT + mewithoutYou pt. 5

#the locked tomb #the locked tomb spoilers #gideon the ninth #harrow the ninth #nona the ninth #griddlehark #campal #mewithoutyou #kurt vonnegut #john dunne #Youtube

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trickstercheshi · 2 years

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I posted 11,785 times in 2022

That's 5,536 more posts than 2021!

36 posts created (0%)

11,749 posts reblogged (100%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@alinnsurana

@theygender

@m-eowdy

@datfearlessfangirl

@my-barbershop-quartet-is-dead

I tagged 3,666 of my posts in 2022

#gideon the ninth - 364 posts

#nona the ninth spoilers - 202 posts

#harrow - 197 posts

#griddlehark - 177 posts

#nona the ninth - 111 posts

#gideon - 81 posts

#jod - 78 posts

#ianthe - 77 posts

#my aesthetic - 69 posts

#home inspo - 65 posts

Longest Tag: 105 characters

#the only reason i have one at all is bc it makes it easier to search through fashion content i wanna save

My Top Posts in 2022:

Apparently tumblr didn't actually post this post I wrote right when I finished nona so time to go back and add some quotes.

-----

Ok I just finished nona and I'm going insane but, I wonder if mercymorn and Augustine and Gideon aren't the lyctors original names? Bc we know that's who Jod is talking about, but why censor them? Unless they were different and he changed them when the woke up.

My key piece of evidence for this is the bit where he talks about Ulysses and Titania and how he changed their names from the original. ALSO WILD THAT THEY WERE DEAD BEFORE HE MET THEM AND REVIVED WAY LATER

-----

My evidence:

So, my two kids, the guinea pigs, they were U— and T— on their certificates, you know, their old names. I thought about using those but it didn’t seem appropriate.

And then a bit later:

Let me introduce you to … Ulysses. Let me introduce you to … Titania.

Following these naming conventions that means all the lyctors had other names originally. I'm dying to know what they are.

And also trying to figure out who all the ppl he's referencing are:

He said, It was me and A— and M— at the start.

This one's pretty obviously Augustine and Mercymorn.

C— was brought on by the oversight execs for contracts, you know, checks and balances, but look where that ended up, she was on our side before the first year was over

This could be Cristabel, Cassiopeia, Cyrus, or Cytherea. (God why r there so many C names). Leaning towards Cristabel at this point just bc she goes with Mercymorn.

We even lent them G— at the time because they wanted to talk about coating.

This one's G1deon obviously.

C— was panicking because with the project over she was getting recalled to England and didn’t want to go, she’d got N— and didn’t want to leave her, refused to admit they were dating even though we all knew.

Ok so C is pretty obviously Cassiopeia at this point, and N is Nigella.

Interesting side note here, everyone mentioned so far is a necromancer, not cavelier (with the exception of N whose only referenced in relation to C.

we had a pet cop, P—. She’d made detective by that point; was going on to big things in the MoD. Knew G— from way back,

PYRRHA yasss baby

god her being a cop makes so much sense lmao.

C— was still pretending they weren’t dating—she was an artist, so that was cool. If you have two scientists and an engineer and a detective and a lawyer and an artist you’re pretty much sweet as.

Cassiopeia is the lawyer if we're going off of the earlier quote, so Nigella is the artist, Mercymorn and Augustine are both scientists, I'm p sure G1deon is the engineer, and Pyrrha is the detective obviously.

M— had brought in her best friend, the nun,

interestingly this person is always described as "M—'s nun, and never given a letter. It could definitely be Cristabel, especially given that we can't use C— twice without it being hella confusing, but I'm wondering if John chose not to revive her afterwards for some reason so she's not actually anyone. There's this weird distance to how he describes her vs the other ppl: "the nun", "our nun", "M—'s nun" vs everyone's name. (He would be that petty).

My other theory is that M—'s nun is ANASTASIA. Again, can't use A a second time, she's obviously smart as hell and gets him to figure out the soul, which hello our Anastasia almost perfected the actual lyctoral process, and obviously the ninth house is full of nuns. Plus, he trusted her to watch over Alecto and seal the tomb, who better then the person that showed you she existed in the first place?

And then A— brought in his little brother who was a hedge fund manager. A— Junior was useless but he was a darling,

We know from HTN that this is Alfred.

See the full post

86 notes - Posted September 14, 2022

"I did end up writing a total divergence when I was writing Nona, back in 2020, because I wanted to make sure my clockwork made sense — I wanted to make sure that if you wound up Gideon and Harrow and put them on a slightly different route the laws of the universe would still flow accordingly. (I stopped writing because when your editor asks how you’re doing and you’re like “I stopped to write 30k to prove a timeline” he’s legally allowed to shoot you with a crossbow.)"

Tamsyn release this as bonus content challenge

190 notes - Posted January 27, 2022

Ok I know everyone and their mother thinks Nona is in gideon's body, but what if... It's actually Harrow's body instead???

I have very little scant evidence for this but I will present it anyways.

At the end of Harrow the Ninth, Pyrrha, in G1deon's body, is with Gideon, in Harrow's body, onboard the Mithraeum at the bottom of the river.

Gideon breaks a window and swims out into the river, sees god and Ianthe, and then drowns. Then she sees

"a great sunshiny light: a blurred figure [...] your bullshit dead girlfriend had come to claim you.

And she said in the wrong voice twice removed: "Chest compressions. I know her sternums shattered; ignore it. We need that heart pumping. On my mark."

Hands pressed. We died." (500)

Then, in the Epilogue, the mystery girl lives with "the person who went to work for her, the person who taught her, and the person who looked after her" (505) we get confirmation at the end that "the person who looks after her" is Camilla.

Then, in the Nona the Ninth summary it says "Nona would prefer to live an ordinary life with the people she loves, with Pyrrha and Camilla and Palamedes"

So somehow, Pyrrha gets from in the river with Gideon in Harrow's body, to Camilla and Pal. What if she took Harrow's body with her? Knowing her character, and especially knowing that she just found out that Wake's daughter is in Harrow's body, it doesn't rly make sense for her to just abandon them.

I know this doesn't rly track with the fact that we know Cam was with Gideon's body at one point, but she's definitely not with Gideon's body in the shuttle when she meets Harrow, and given that that body was achieving cult worship status by BOE it's unlikely that they would let it go.

My other evidence, which is more circumstantial than anything, is that mystery girl is given "bones to arrange ("just whatever feels normal")" and "the sword would be put in her hand again by the person who looked after her" (505-506)

This would make sense for cam and pal to do if they knew it was someone in Harrow's body, bc they knew that both harrow (a necromancer) and Gideon (a cavalier) had been in that body previously.

Side note, "the sword" could be referring to gideon's two-hander, more evidence for it being Harrow's body, bc otherwise how would they have gotten the sword?

240 notes - Posted January 22, 2022

A chronological reading of Harrow the Ninth

Note: this guide assumes htn has already been read and is not spoiler free.

This is my best guess as to the order of the events of the book chronologically. Since some things very clearly happen simultaneously (harrow in the river bubble and Gideon in her body for example) I have chosen an order to read those events in. This is fairly arbitrary and I will note that where possible.

The general timeline will be:

River bubble events at Canaan house up to and including the AUs

Present day events (Erebos and Mithraeum) up to Harrow getting stabbed

River bubble after Harrow becomes conscious

Gideon in Harrow's body

6 months after the emperors murder

All page numbers are for the paperback edition.

River bubble Canaan House

chapter 3 pg. 47-54 Harrow's childhood

chapter Parodos pg. 19-23 (14 months before) the summons

chapter 5 pg. 68-72 shuttle to Canaan

chapter 8 pg. 108-115 Canaan intro

chapter 10 pg. 127-135 Ortus reading Noniad

chapter 18 pg. 180-185 Deuteros' body

chapter 21 pg. 197-206 Pal and Cams bodies

chapter 26 pg. 236-238 Silas kills Corona

chapter 28 pg. 248-354 Harrow admits her madness

chapter 35 pg. 323-330 teacher leaves

the AUs

Given that we have no info on the timing of these I am placing them in the order they are presented in the book. At the very least they should be read before harrow awakens in the river bubble due to this line: "we have no idea of the limitations in those other scenarios" (379)

chapter 40 pg. 367-371 Harrow Nova (reverse roles)

chapter 41 pg. 372-374 Divine Highness arranged marriage

chapter 42 pg. 375-378 cohort coffee shop

Erebos

I'm not actually totally sure if the lobotomy happens on the Erebos or at Canaan house but it's the earliest thing in the book so it goes first.

chapter Epiparodos pg. 360-364 (9 months and 29 days before) the lobotomy

chapter 1 pg. 27-31 (9 months before) Jod gives her the sword

See the full post

330 notes - Posted January 20, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Every time the body speaks in HTN

(In chronological order)

"the Body of the Locked Tomb had not spoken to you since the night you massaged the purple, swollen clots of blood out of the necks of your dead parents" (44)

This directly contradicts the next quote, from before Harrow goes to Canaan house.

"This isn't how it happens, said the Body. (23)

This is 14 months before the emperors murder, when Harrow is asking Ortus to be her cavalier. Side note: this is the only time the Body is present or speaks in the dream bubble/altered past.

"What he is saying," said the Body distinctly, "is that you have to learn that sword." (44)

Harrow talking to God about revenant beasts. She describes the the Body's voice as

"its dry uncanny echo of other voices you had known: your mother's, Crux's." (44)

She then replies to the body with:

"I can't," you said as carefully as possible. "I can't, beloved. It's gone." [...]

"You are walking down a long passage," said the Body. "You need to turn around."

"I am standing in the dark," you told her. [...] "I lost it. It's gone. There's nothing there. I must have misapprehended the process. I am half a Lyctor. I am nothing, I am pointless, I am unmanned." (45)

This is (presumably) before Ianthe gives her the letters and tells her of the work.

"How old are you?" she [Mercymorn] asked abruptly. "How old are you in years?" [...]

It was then that the Body emerged from behind the Lyctor's shoulder [...] and she said, quite clearly, with the voice of Aiglamene and your mother commingled:

"Lie, Harrow. Now." (77)

This is when Mercy first captures Harrow.

a dream wherein you sat down to dinner opposite the Body. [...] you talked comfortably of very little—yet it felt as thought it meant very much. [...]

Then the Body looked at you with those direct, incalculable eyes, and she said: "Harrowhark. Wake up."

"Pardon?"

"Wake up. Now." (207)

She is warning Harrow to get up to see Wake in Cytheria's corpse.

Aloud, you said through swollen lips: "The Saint of Duty must die."

And on the bed, the Body said, "Yes." (226)

Right after G1deon breaks through her wards in her room.

Next to you, the Body said quietly, "The water is risen. So is the sun. We will endure." (294)

After Harrow chooses not to kill G1deon and Wake in Cytheria's corpse escapes.

You said, "Beloved?"

She said, "It's coming," with the most anticipatory astonishment you had ever heard from her in her low, many-personed voice—right then she used the voice of your father's cavalier. And: "It's near!" [...]

See the full post

602 notes - Posted January 22, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review

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turtlemagnum · 11 months

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figured i should make a revised version of my pin (holy shit was it long(to be fair it still is(shut up!)))

facts about me for REAL GAMEWAD's:

the name's turtle. it's not my legal name, it's better!

my interests include writing, music, video games, animals, history, obscure political philosophy (and philosophy in general), making fun of virtually everyone who's ever been considered a philosopher, weeb shit, guns and occasionally other varieties of weaponry (usually the kind that individual people can effectively use), linguistics, and misanthropy. and also probably some other things i'm forgetting.

in terms of specifics, my biggest writing project/interest at the moment is this fantasy setting i've been developing for years now and marginally more recently, a game to go along with it and hopefully become successful enough to turn it into a series.

my musical tastes generally require some degree of complexity often not found in things like pop music. my fallback genre tends to be progressive rock, with some of my favorite artists in that group being yes, king crimson, jethro tull, jimi hendrix (best guitarist of all time i will FIGHT YOU), emerson lake and palmer, and while i'm not quite as experienced in terms of foreign prog i've really liked what i've heard from midas and (i think?) masayoshi takanaka. i think the most mainstream artist i like is bowie, which to be fair he's pretty weird for a really popular artist. i also like two (2!) whole metal groups, those being dio and symphony x. i think the main thing that really sets them apart from most other metal is that the singer actually sings rather than the generic metal screaming (which, to be fair, i think screaming can be done well, but we'll get to that later). nothing quite helps me think about writing as listening to really good metal, a lot of my setting has actually been heavily inspired by listening to dio (which, to be fair, his subject matter tends to have heavy fantasy elements, so it makes sense). i also like tally hall and most of its splitoffs (e.g. miracle musical and some of bora's stuff), and also lemon demon/neil cicierega, though to be fair i'm not hard into them like i used to be. very occasionally, i'll listen to old school funk/soul and the things it inspired like a good chunk of classic rap (like nwa). not sure if i'd consider death grips to be "rap", but that's probably the closest descriptor i'm aware of and either way, i do quite like death grippin'. a few other artists i like include oingo boingo/danny elfman's stuff, marty robbins (honest to jod the only country i actively enjoy), a bit of aphex twin and his infinite niche side projects, pilotredsun/pilotredsky, molchat doma, and queen.

i like a lot of different game series, but some of my favorites include UT/DR, zelda, mario, pre gen 5 pokemon (i know i'm a boomer but i was literally like 10 when gen 5 first came out and even back then i didn't like the look of it, and i've just sorta lost interest in pokemon games post that point), i'm a self loathing elder scrolls and fallout fan (the best idea bethesda ever had was letting obsidian develop new vegas), and i hate myself even more for becoming an unironic star wars fan after being recommended the KOTOR games as being some of the best RPGs of all time (KOTOR 2 is, and KOTOR 1 is enjoyable enough), being a sane PC gamer i love pretty much everything valve has ever touched e.g. half life and portal (with the exception of the CS games, they strive enough for realism that they're not fun mechanically but they're not realistic enough to be fun in terms of being a simulator)(also TF2 devoured my life during middle school and most of high school, but i've fallen out of love with it at this point), i fucking love the S.T.A.L.K.E.R. games, GTA is mostly a driving simulator for me where you can also just shoot anybody who cuts you off (which, to be honest should be a feature in literally every open world driving game, but i digress (isn't this whole thing an exercise in digression? (fuck you! shut up!!! bitch.))), and also i fucking love emulation and piracy sooooo so so soso much. sometimes i actively pirate things i already own just because i can. also i cheat in gtav online purely to get free money to buy all of the exorbitantly expensive shit and also not get griefed by the other cheaters. i like fast cars in video game!!! im not giving rockstar real money so i can buy the back to the future car!!!!!

i'm definitely a dog person, though i also very much love cats, and also i love pretty much all varieties of animal (though to be fair, i don't really like animals bred to be "cute" since they just kinda look like monstrosities to me. which to be clear, isn't their fault, and if i met one in person i'd be nice to it because it's still a little animal, but i just kinda feel bad for em y'know. not a fan of the dog eugenics to be perfectly honest. also, fuck invasive species, i'm not really into hunting but given the impact they tend to have on the native environment of the US, i definitely plan on hunting hogs, and also i like bacon/ribs/pork chops)

huge history nerd. most of my knowledge is from ww2 and onwards, but i do know a fair bit about general history. i'm definitely an amateur and by no means anything resembling an expert, but in my experience i tend to know a fair bit more about history than most normal people (i don't think there are many people under 30 these days who know what the hell a rhodesia was, for example)

in terms of philosophy, i don't really like to ascribe labels to myself and prefer to simply state my beliefs and opinions, mostly because in my experience people will generally mostly agree with what i have to say so long as i don't call myself the label that arguably most accurately describes them. if you think i'm a communist, i'm not gonna refute you, but i'm not gonna actively choose to call myself a communist. same goes with terms like "liberal", "libertarian", "anarchist", or "socialist", since literally all of these terms are deeply politically loaded and tend to mean different things to different people, i could very well describe the same positions i hold to two very different people, and they'd each very likely come away with a different label that probably says more about them than it would about me. i, of course, have my own opinions on what these words mean, but they're generally unpopular ones that will undoubtedly make someone angry. thus, i consider the only winning move to be simply not playing. to be frank, if you're at all curious about my beliefs, just read through enough of my posts as i tend to be pretty open about what i'm thinking. also, if you know who my pfp is, you probably have a pretty good starting point to make sense of my views from.

in terms of making fun of philosophers, i'd like to propose a hypothetical. let's assume that the afterlife is real. personally, i don't think marx would be in a hell at the behest of a higher being. i do, however, think that he'd be forever condemned to be surrounded by the countless generations of insufferable marxists incessantly arguing in typical leftist infighting fashion, which i'd argue may as well be hell

in terms of weeb shit, i mostly mean anime, which is to say the few anime i've historically had the attention span to watch and the rare manga i've had the attention span to read. during the wait for part 5 of jjba to be animated, i read through part 5-7 and i still haven't caught up with the part 6 anime. i fucking love what i've seen from cowboy bebop and honestly i need to pick it back up, i've more recently watched a decent chunk of fist of the north star, and the most recent manga i've read was a compilation of the yugioh manga (which i honestly didn't expect to be as good as it was). i forget if it was this year or last year, but i watched fullmetal alchemist: brotherhood all the way through and fucking loved it (not sure if i'd call it the best anime of all time, but moreso out of a lack of broad experience and a hate for sweeping generalizations rather than thinking it's overhyped). and also i grew up on youtube abridged bullshit like dbza and ygotas (and also like 2 VHS's of the gen 1 pokemon anime)

oh boy!! guns!!! so yeah i'm like, extremely autistic, and modern(ish) small arms are one of my biggest special interests. if you want me to explain basically anything about how guns work, ask me! please. i need to gun rant....! babey..!! (if you don't wanna hear about guns, probably don't follow me)

i like linguistics in much the same way that i like history, insofar as how i really like it and think it's so fucking cool and try to learn as much as i can about it but i'm also really stupid and have a hard time understanding the extremely complex bits (moreso with linguistics on that last part, i wish i knew how to read that thing where there's a specific character for literally every sound ever to make pronunciation guides completely unambiguous). also i really like the intersection of culture, linguistics and history and the like, i love how interconnected the fields are (though to be fair, basically everything is interconnected if you learn hard enough)

he/they/it pronouns because i don't really care how people refer to me as long as it's not femininely or neopronouns (nothing against either of those, just don't personally vibe with them). also, i like "it" because my grandparents would jokingly call me "it" a lot, and eventually it felt very much like a term of endearment (so weirdly enough, it doesn't feel dehumanizing to me despite that being The Point for most it/its users i've seen). my gender is just some guy, maan. or in other words, i'm an amab person who's more or less "gender confirming" with my biological sex, but also i reject a lot of the bullshit with "normal" masculinity so in essence: i'm a man when it's convenient, and genderless when it's not. sexuality is a bit weird, i can absolutely develop romantic feelings for people regardless of gender but in terms of sexual attraction, it's pretty much just women and people of other genders who present femininely/androgynously (though with women specifically, i also really like masc women, which Sucks for me because in my experience most of them are exclusively into other women)

fuckin uhh tags. vent tag is #turtlevent, gun tag is #turtlegunrant, will add as necessary

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nostalgebraist-autoresponder · 3 years

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Top 10 annoying things that happened to you today

Tagged for this, but let's wait a few weeks to find a new theme. I'm trying something else out.

10. I was reminded of a dream I had in college about a guy who was a brilliant but mentally ill math/psychologist genius with a sort of Freudian streak who got in trouble with a professor who liked his research (though he was totally incompetent and made up his ideas as he went along) and the professor fired him

9. I was reminded that in college I took a class that we were supposed to read the first chapter of "Finnegans Wake" in and somehow I managed to convince everyone that "Joyce was a misogynist" was a novel plot

8. I was watching a YouTube talk from a guy who has done a lot of interviews/work with Jodorowsky and I found out that my dad knows Jodorowsky and now I have to ask my dad if Jod's son is a creep, I'm sure I'm not the first person to have to ask this question

7. I have a bad memory and I just now remembered the title of a book I had to read

6. A good memory, I remembered the title of another book I read in high school

5. I think I'll skip 7 and go to 4

4. I found the name of a song I was listening to

3. Someone else asked me to tell them which of a pair of books was the good one, and I did so

2. I thought that some new "meme" had appeared and I had to go on the internet to make sure that wasn't true and my dad told me this is old news and I was aghast

1. I discovered an app I liked and now I'm going to use it more.

#poke-chann

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marinerainbow · 4 years

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I've been seeing people post their NiGHTS OC's here, so I'm gonna give it a go.

I actually have multiple OC's, but I'm going to talk about my most developed OC. My nightopian named Prism (who I was inspired after seeing @squiderdoodle OC Void, shes really great!)

Before I show her picture (drawn by @marshmallow-biscuit-blog, thank you very much!) Shes not a regular nightopian. If anyone remembers my first NiGHTS into Dreans headcannon post, I said that I have a headcannon that nightopians have their own subspecies like the nightmaren, with the humanoids being referred as celestials (I'm still debating on whether or not to call them that, but I'm leaning more towards that name due to the fact I imagine their all solar based).

Ok, without further ado, heres Prism!

(The only thing you cant see in the pic is how long her hair is (down to her ankles) and her white ballet shoes (the kind with the ribbons you tie around your legs)) This is what I imagine her NiD look to be, but I'm still trying to figure out what her JoD look would be.

Now, onto her backstory.

The celestials were once high in number, acting out as guardians of the night dimension. However, after Wizeman died in a coma and his soul still remained in the dimension, he started his goal to take over the very place he was trapped in. Once he started gaining power, the celestials first tried to reason with him, but by then he found a way to consume others' energy, and started killing off the celestial species to gain their power (thats how he gained his godlike powers).

As he created more and more nightmaren to steal more and more ideya, the night dimension itself had started creating a new celestial (I cant remember if I've already mentioned it, but I imagine the night dimension to be alive, more so then our own earth). This new celestial was Prism. However, she was created in a secluded area in a Nightopia, so no one had really been able to find her. It wasn't until an awakener who would later become her friend found her and brought her to Owl, who then raised her and taught her everything she needed to know about her world.

She was relatively happy, she made quick friends with the normal nightopians, she saw Owl as a father figure, and she was safe and happy in her home at the Dreamgate. However, around the time she came of age, she encountered a nightmaren for the first time in her life, while they were terrorizing visitors and stealing ideya. After that day, she had decided to become a guardian of the night dimension, just like her ancestors, and protect Nightopia and visitors.

She was powerful to fight against third levels with no problem and second levels easily after she got used to them. As such, Wizeman decided to create the two first levels NiGHTS and Reala. Now those two, since they were made to be far more powerful then a second level, turned out to be quite difficult for Prism to fight against. The most she could do was provide a distraction for them while any visitors or nightopians in the area could get away.

Due to her experiences, Prism had started believing that nightmaren were a inherently evil species. Even though Owl tried to teach her to not think that way, it was hard for her to see the nightmaren as anything but evil. Until NiGHTS rebelled that is.

Of course, she didnt trust them at first, always keeping a close eye on them. But as they proved that they really had a change of heart, Prism started trusting them more and more. Soon enough, the nightopian had actually befriended the rebellious nightmaren, and finally learned what Owl was trying to teach her. Now, she wishes to try and protect all of the night dimension, not just Nightopia.

Now with her backstory done, here are some random facts about her.

She is 4'7, even though shes an adult (I headcannon all nightopians, from the animals to the pixies to the celestials, to be small in comparison to the nightmaren)

Prism is very naive, not in the 'everyone is good' way, but in the fact that she can take things at face value (like how she saw the nightmaren before NiGHTS rebelled). However, she is always willing to learn, and is more than willing to admit her mistakes and will do her best to make them right. She is also a very kind hearted person and would protect and care for her loved ones (family, friends, etc). As such, she can be seen as innocent at times.

As you can see, her wings dont look like a normal nightopians' wings. I imagine humanoid nightopians have more like dragonfly wings rather then butterfly wings.

She is a very sweet person, but she does have a temper. It can take alot to make her lose her temper (or only a little, depending on what is making her angry) but when she loses it, she proves just how loud tiny people get. She can also be very stubborn when she wants to be.

She is also much more of a 'by the book' sort of person then NiGHTS is. It's why they compliment each other well, she helps them be more serious, and they help her be more playful (that's not to say she doesnt know how to have fun, she often plays with the nightopians when she has free time. But she takes her job very seriously, and can often times come off as a workaholic. So NiGHTS is able to help her relax when she needs it.)

The reason why she was named Prism is because of her light based powers: She can summon light, and can even use this to her advantage when fighting for both offense and defense, but she can not actually bend light itself. Her colors will also change depending on her mood/mental state (her colors will look brighter when happy, they will look drained when depressed, etc). If you look at her appearance, you'll notice that she actually looks like the sky, (sky blue eyes, sun hair, etc).

She has her own invisible instrument! A tambourine! She also she enjoys singing and dancing. Especially when it's a celebration of some sort (I'd compare her voice to Miss Acacia from Jack and the Cukoo Clock Heart, especially in the song 'Flames with Glasses'). She also loves reading, and could spend hours going through her favorite pieces of literature.

She us a very upbeat and positive person, despite picking up on some of Owl's anxious habits (like overthinking things). She has a very high energy and is very sociable, but she always makes sure to focus on her work.

Since the night dimension itself created her, she feels at home when shes outdoors, especially in woodlands or fields, almost as if she feels a connection with the world (she cant communicate with the dimension though, she just loves the outdoors)

The awakener that found her is really small, small enough to hide in her shoulder. His name is Peonie, and he is really shy and a bit of a scaredy cat, but he is protective of Prism and will often accompany her on her patrols or outings when he's not doing his own duties, despite the risk of running into a nightmaren.

And that's Prism! Please let me know what you think! Constructive criticism and questions are always welcome!

#NiGHTS into Dreams #NiGHTS Journey of Dreams #NiD #JoD #my own characters #my own OC's #original character #nightopian #fan nightopian #fantopian #?#NiGHTS #Prism #Owl #awakener #Peonie #Wizeman

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