#and none of them are relevant

[flowersforthemachines]

also re: podcast. did you guys know it features a moment where Lucanis sticks his finger inside someone's wound (to check if their vitals have been damaged. but that's irrelevant details)

[slutforpringles]

"Since Daniel Ricciardo left Red Bull, I don't think they've had a teammate to Max Verstappen that has had the potential, ability, whatever you want to call it, to get as close to Max as Daniel Ricciardo ever got."

David Croft during FP3 Commentary, Bahrain GP 2025 | via

[fictionadventurer]

Maybe the problem with Christian fiction is that it's non-denominational. People are just "Christian", with no effort put into showing what practicing that religion looks like for them specifically. No indication that there are other Christians who could have different beliefs. No wrestling with differing ideas and the struggle of how one should live out their Christian faith. And that makes it unrealistic and unrelatable.

[altschmerzes]

hey aro gang? can we collectively make more of an effort to like. advocate for ourselves and our communities and specific identities in ways that aren’t just. actively and openly hostile to other aros or implying or outright stating that they’re harming us or that they have societal and community support they don’t have? like i get it - im non-sam aro, and i relate heavily to a lot of aroallo experiences and it’s really frustrating and hurtful to feel overlooked or erased or anything else, but like. aroaces are not doing anything wrong by talking about their experiences or relating to posts or posting in the aro tag or anything else and it’s getting to a point where im personally getting really uncomfortable seeing people verging on or outright stating that this is the case or that aroaces are some kind of oppressive community force or responsible for the bad experiences of non-ace aros. can we all just cool it a bit please. it’s frustrating and hurtful to feel like you’re being mistreated specifically for not being someone else but that is not that other person’s fault or their identity group’s fault, nor is it always necessarily true. none of us are doing great out here and society at large does not want aroaces to exist or be talked about any more than any of the rest of us i promise.

[randomnameless]

Why do the FEH devs insist on ignoring Nabatean lore so much?

I recently had a surprisingly cordial discussion on redshit with someone about the "nabateans = colonisers" take, and one of the main points raised was that the game was purposedly foggy around Nabateans/Sothis/their story because it would obviously favor a certain narrative (and thus make another narrative look, uh, not that marketable anymore).

To be honest, we still ended up with a product that had a lead go "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and yet that lead is still marketable enough to have raunchy cipher cards and 5 FEH alts, so I actually wonder if, while pissing on that lore had that purpose, it was ultimately pointless since Supreme Leader can still sell goodies despite her incarnation in FE16.

And not only Supreme Leader - but the entirety of WC where we basically have 70% of the cast crying/complaining about their "mixed blood" or lack of and basically adding their 10 cents to the "this race and its blood is the reason why the world sucks".

I mean, can you imagine Sylvain selling any goodies and alts if Flayn replied to his "wah wah people only are kind to me and want to fuck me because I have Nabatean blood :(" by some uncharacteristic "good for you, I have to hide my ears, had to dye my hair, have to lie about my family because if the truth is found out about my identity, I will be hunted and vivisected like an animal and harvested for parts by people who call my kin abominations - just like what happens in the game where the same people who call my kin "abominations" ally with a classmate who calls me a creature and pretends I am incapable of human feelings based on my race".

FE Fodlan's main selling point is its cast of students, for various reasons, but even if I tried to kid myself, Nopes and FEH made it clears : students are the main selling point.

If you spare more time and attention to the Nabatean plot/lore, the students either grow from "likeable" to "despicable" or worse, you won't gaf about them because yeah sure, Hilda might be upset because people expect things from her due to her crust, but it would feel like a "peanut" compared to Seteth's irrational (granted, it's not so irrational since GW exists) fear that Flayn's newest friends would dissect her if they learnt she was a Nabatean, and being conflicted by finally letting her have human friends and form bonds she crave, or protect her due to the trauma from the genocide of their species.

Don't get me wrong, I love peanuts, I mean, not everyone can have a tragik of loaded backstory!

And yet, given how this verse's DNA is "can you fight against the red emperor who uwus about you", they had to add copious amounts of Earl Grey to their games so there's no clear-cut factions :

The "Your alien blood and its influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command" vs "I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

is turned to :

"Your alien blood Crests and its your church's influence on the world corrupted it, so I want to reform it under my command"

"I don't want to die and you oppose me due to my race and side with the people who genocided my kin"

Sprinkle with the cast's hammering here and there that the "reforms" might be needed - but never develop on what they are - and add a few baseless and groundless takes as a toping (basically everything Claude says about tolerance and the general "isolationism/foreign policy" stuff) and you get FE Fodlan where the Red Emperor's war isn't seen as the catastrophe it is in the other entries from the series!

Now, for FEH...

FWIW, the F!F!Billy's trailer had them try to explain that Sothis was a bit pissed about her slaughtered/massacred children when Nopes never gave any reason about why she was pissed - maybe on Billy's behalf bcs Jerry's dead, but come on, she would indeed deserve the medal of the worst parent in the franchise if that was the case, since Billy can murder her daughter without Sothis taking over ! - but given that they cannot write/go against the source game those characters are from.

They tried a bit, with B!Supreme Leader and Hegemongard's FB, but then it stopped (because she had no "new unit" released since then lol) and I can understand why : Hegemongard came out before the Supreme Emblem, and Hegemongard hates dragons who are seen/perceived as gods by some of their human followers. Come FE17, and now Supreme Emblem accepts Alear because they are "one of the good ones". We can come up with HCs and details and talk about what are emblems or if Hegemongard's views were only hers at the end of AM all day long... But imo, Doylist wise, it still feels it's a retcon because the devs from the main games tried to scrap and remove the most "controversial" traits she had.

For the other characters... Well, you see what Marianne is in FEH (but even in her base games), she's one of the few characters who reacts - in a way - to the partial history about relics and demonic beasts and all... only to give sad uwus to Maurice.

FE16 (and Nopes) refused to have any "student" character react to the Nabatean lore/reveal, about what are relics and all. There are no lines, Claude shared some knowledge in the explore section of VW's last chapter, but we don't have anyone muse or think or even talk about what are relics, what are crests, and what kind of fuckery their ancestors or the ancient humans of Fodlan did.

With that in mind, FEH can't do much : either they write Marianne in a retcon-y way like what happened for Hegemongard (and they're not afraid to piss on characterisation, look at Lyon!), or they flanderise her "character" and develop her around 3 lines she had in the game in her paralogue, and continue to give sad uwus about Momo when he was at best a guy who slaughtered and murdered so much that he abused the Nabatean turned into a relic to the point where he turned in a demonic beast even if he had a matching crest, or at worst, had been part of Nemesis's piñata party in Zanado and was something of a genocider.

Tldr :

Why FE Fodlan never gaf about Nabateans : earl grey + the marketable cast has to stay marketable and you can't sell peanuts at the same price you'd sell swordfish

Why FEH dgaf about Nabatean lore : they can't afford to retcon characters + they have to sell peanut alts with the same seasoning they had in their base game.

For what it's worth though, I think FEH is more daring than the base game(s) given how they gave more lines and screentime to Rhea - through her different alts - than GW. And they even designed her Halloween!alt's lines to piss on some of Claude's assertions, while the various FB involving members of the church also - indirectly - reply to some accusations thrown their way in FE16 when, FE16, never gave them an opportunity or lines to explain that those takes were full of dung.

*"but random, maybe she doesn't know that the crests she often decries is "dragon blood"!"

It's highly debatable, especially given what she and Hubert throw to Billy in CF - but even if she doesn't, Doylist wise we still have a character who, knowingly or not, says "this race and its blood* is the reason why the world sucks" and who is never called out on her prejudice. That's more of an issue regarding the general writing though, she has to be a red emperor and took pages from Ashnard's book, and yet, the player must still feel bad and want to romance her, so her mindest/goal cannot be looked at too closely, because, I guess, even the devs thought it would be difficult to romance her (thus sell goodies!) if more light was shed on the "blood from this race corrupts our people" schtick -> which in turn would also make characters whose backstory and gimmick rely on "crying about crests" be way less likeable, thus marketable and able to sell goodies.

[wintershades]

Yes, I’m highly invested in learning how the Coast Kids are faring during the Scary Moon Times, but I'm also eager to know:

Did Fjord and Jester ever acquire sufficient pasturage to support a herd of domesticated unicorns?

What is the current proportion of "homicides solved" versus "homicides committed" by Veth and Jester's detective agency?

Has Fjord managed to sweet-talk his way into the Mother’s Lighthouse, thus enabling Jester to learn what’s kept in said lighthouse’s boob?

To what extent has Jester leveraged her studio’s success to foster a broader public arts initiative on the Menagerie Coast, encouraging artistic expression both phallic and non-phallic in nature?

[cherrycoloredphoenix]

Day 4: Reunion - Two lifetimes of Qiaohua and Ai Chang

-

2000 years ago a girl and a fox become dear friends.

2000 years later, the fox welcomes the girl back once again.

[serpentface]

Two questions regarding the Wardi religion:

In addition to the bull and the lioness, what are the seven faces of god/sacrificial animals?

Given that white animals seem to be sacred, does that influence how albino humans/other sophents are treated by society?

The seven faces of God are as follows:

-the lunar, horned, or 'wild ox' face of God, which presides over the moons, and the fertility of the land, animals, and people. In pre-imperial times, this was functionally the most central face of God (replaced by the lion face/odomache). The most ideal sacrifice is a wild ox (especially white or albino) that has never been bred. -the ‘ox’ face of God, presides over agriculture and labor, as well as the domestic sphere. The most ideal sacrifice is a healthy plow oxen or khait who has never been yoked or bred (if the sacrifice is towards Ox-Face as the domestic sphere, this should be a heifer). -the lion face of God, presides over sovereignty, statehood, military might, and is most associated with the health and continuing existence of the imperial entity. The most ideal sacrifice is a maned lioness (functionally white, though this is a trait of the captive population). -the ocean or skimmer face of God, presides over the seas, winds, as well as fortune and mercantilism. The ideal sacrifice is the skimmer gull or an albatross, especially one taken from one of the sacred rocks in the 'mouth' of the Viper sea. -the serpent face of God, presides over the cosmos and divine Mysteries, associated with funerary rites and death. Also has a wildly disparate association with royalty (which is derived from entirely separate traditions and has not yet fully been reconciled into the faith). The ideal sacrifice is a two headed or melanistic snake, especially a venomous one (both would be MOST ideal, but this is rare beyond any practicality) -The solar face of God, presides over the sun, stars, and fire, also heavily associated with khait and mounted warriors. (this is a VERY direct import from the chief solar god in the Burri pantheon (who rides and/or is a khait with the sun between its horns), hence the seemingly random khait association). The ideal sacrifice is a healthy riding khait (especially with a white spotted coat), or alternatively a golden eagle. -The river face of God, presides over fresh water, seasonal flooding, and the rains. The ideal sacrifice is the migratory reed duck (which arrives at the onset of the wet season) or a freshwater hesperornis (ideally taken from one of the sacred waters). An-Nechoi are also occasionally given.

Though the core religion is monotheistic, each face of God is functionally a syncretic fusion of older ethnic Wardi beliefs, the Burri pantheon, and other regionally native traditions, which have not all been fully reconciled (the process of fusion is more or less still ongoing). Each face in of itself has dozens or more epithets with distinct features. For example, the river face has a specific epithet for each major riverway, each venerated as a distinct aspect of the Godhead. Functionally, common practice of the Wardi faith is pretty indistinguishable from polytheism, and most of the religious authority does not care as long as required orthopraxy is maintained (the central dogma of the religion does not care How you believe, but that the correct practices are enacted).

Also for reference, these are the specific animals taken on the pilgrimage in the story (transporting seven rare animals cross country can be fraught, so each had at least a few backups):

A pure white aurochs calf, found naturally born in a wild herd.

A massive, unbred and unyoked bull draft khait (dies en route, replaced by a less physically impressive backup with the same qualities)

A lioness with a full mane, from the white captive stock

A skimmer gull taken from a nest on the sacred rock in the waters of Od-Koto.

A baby two headed cobra (which dies en-route and is replaced with its backup, a melanistic viper)

A beautiful speckled riding khait mare whose horns form a near perfect circle (which is stolen en-route and replaced with its sister)

A rare wild hesperornis (haven't come up with an in-universe name yet) taken from the reeds of the Brilla river delta.

Anyway the sacrifices listed above are considered the absolute IDEALS when working with a specific face, but a great variety of animals will be sacrificed to various ends. There’s some very specific cultural/religious components to which animals are most valued, but in practice the value of a sacrifice is pretty close to 1:1 with the animal’s monetary value, at an intersection of utility and rarity.

So a young, healthy bull plow oxen who has never been bred or yoked is a more valued sacrifice than an old, experienced plow ox who has already sired offspring. You are giving up an extremely valuable animal and all its unused potential in a very practical sense, which makes the sacrifice more potent and valued. The 'virginal' status of the animal is key when the rite is SPECIFICALLY related to fertility, in the sense that the animal itself is sacrificing its unused fertility, allowing for the sacrifice-rebirth cycle to perpetuate. (Animals which Have been bred may be preferred in certain cases and rituals).

An animal with a rare coloration is usually going to be more valuable than one with more common genetics. This is the core root of why albino animals are of high value. It's less that white animals themselves are valued, just that rare genetics such as albinism = valuable sacrifice.

There are some specific exceptions where the color itself is significant (rather than just an extension of its rarity). God is specifically supposed to have taken the form of a white aurochs (itself emerged from the foam of the sea) during creation, so white oxen and wild oxen SPECIFICALLY have especially high value. Melanism or black scales are valued to the serpent face of God, which is associated with the cosmos and void behind the stars. (this stems from much, MUCH older beliefs in a cosmic serpent god in the region).

Animal sacrifice is a very significant part of the religious framework and involved in most rituals and prayers intended to affect significant change and transformation. (This is due in part to a deeply ingrained belief in the world being perpetually sustained in a cycle of sacrifice and rebirth, and in God Itself being the physical mechanism of rebirth and requiring sacrifice to be sustained). While blood itself is seen as potent, the nature of sacrifice isn't just 'spill blood and make thing happen', it's got a self contained value system and is very calculated and intentional in nature. You aren’t going to just grab a random rat and bleed it and pray, there needs to be a perceived ‘loss’. Sacrifice via killing is also not the only form, the most common day to day sacrifice is in (very minor) bloodletting and offerings of food and drink- the key is allowing a personal loss to sustain a greater cycle.

That being said, there is a HUGE trade system built up around the breeding and selling of animals solely for sacrifice. The industry revolves mostly around birds (doves are the cheapest, but also poultry, waterfowl, some birds of prey, a few select songbirds and ornamental birds), goats, sheep, and horses (the small, premodern kind). Cattle and camelids are a higher tier, and khait are among the highest of common sacrifices due to their great value.

Other animals that have no direct utility but are sacred are also bred or captured for sacrifice (hesperornis, lacetor, gulls and albatrosses, several kinds of snake, a bunch of wild ungulates, nechoi, etc). Some '''‘exotic’''' animals are imported specifically for this purpose, mostly as a means of displaying the wealth and reach of the state, with their sacrificial value rooted in the difficulty of acquisition. Animals taken from sacred sites are also prime candidates (ie cattle bred and grazed on the foothills of the Sons of Creation are VERY valuable).

---

So all that being said the importance of albino animals has come off a little overstated on my part, and doesn't have any particular impact on how albinism in people is regarded. It’s valued mainly for its rarity in the context of animal sacrifice, which would not have direct translations to how it’s perceived in people.

Albinism in people doesn’t have a super well defined significance in broader Imperial Wardi culture, but perspectives mostly skew negative and towards seeing it as a sign of ill fortune (physical differences in people tend to be seen as a result of being cursed in the womb). Imperial Wardin is culturally diverse (united mostly by a identity based in shared religion), so exact nuances would vary and this statement should not be taken as a universal.

Imperial Wardi population is mostly human (with its citizen population being MAYBE 5% elowey, 2% qilik, and a decimal point of caelin). Overall sentiment towards other sophonts by the human majority is not outright hostile, but is human-centric and tinged with xenophobia (as most qilik and elowey in the region are immigrants, with the only elowey ethnic group historically inhabiting the region (the Jazait) being regarded as 'heathens'). Albino elowey or qilik might be similarly seen as products of a curse, or may be given a 'wow how beautiful' treatment (in a heavily patronizing capacity) and seen as a curiosity, or otherwise just subject to varying perspectives on albinism in the region.

The one other thing I have established in this vein is that the semi-mythological hero Janise (sworn brother of other semi-mythological founder hero Erub) is said to have been albino. While he is positively regarded, he is supposed to have died young of a snakebite (assumed to be the product of a curse from his enemies) and this would not improve perceptions of albinism being related to ill fortune.

[silveredcircuitry]

after all, betrayal is an action, and actions would require you to get up off the floor.

alt versions because it's so hard to decide

[aroaessidhe]

2025 reads / storygraph

This Gilded Abyss

fantasy/thriller/romance, start of a series

gilded-age fantasy world where a rare magical substance is mined deep undersea

a sergeant struggling with grief and trauma of her best friend dying in a mine collapse, is asked by a young royal (…her ex girlfriend) to help her investigate a strange murder - on the luxury submersible heading exactly where she never wants to return to

when there’s another massacre, confirming their suspicions that it’s caused by an illness inducing a violence craze, they have to find a way to survive, trapped on the ship until it arrives at the undersea city

[kelin-is-writing]

Girl, you're an immature aspiring writer (key word: aspiring) who is shitting on Horikoshi's work even though your entire fucking blog is literally dedicated to Hori's work. How pathetic and hypocritical must you be. There is a reason why people rather talk to you anonymously rather than directly because frankly you're an embarrassment and a loser. Your misandry needs to be dealt with. Stop blaming all real life men for you unhappiness with the MHA ending. That the fault of one man, not billions of other men. Just because you're pissed and throwing tantrums doesn't mean you have to blame all men. That's extremely childish though not surprising since you're blog itself looks childish. Why are you even watching MHA, its clearly not for misandrists like you. In case you forgot MHA is a Shonen manga/anime so you're clearly not wanted. You're not the type of audience that Hori wants in the first place. You rather talk about useless characters like Rei Todoroki or squeal about a man's attractiveness rather than the watch and assess the actual fights/battles. Seriously. Stop watching MHA and go watch sailor moon or some shojo shit.

Yo I know, I’m childish and immature that reeeeeeally sucks man. Doesn’t change the fact that you still are a misogynist, abuser and rapist defender, childish, immature, rude, mannerless, ignorant and a gaslighter who came on their own in my childish blog, to ask for my childish opinion though. You did, and are still doing all this on your own accord, so guess who’s the real hypocrite here honey 🤭

[hergrandplan]

.

[cissa-calls]

Countdown to Agatha: Darkhold Diaries: Day 711

Agatha: “Look what I found in the pages of one of my old tomes! It’s a drawing from when I was still in my coven taking spell theory from my mother! Those were the days…”

Y/N: *grabs the drawing* “This is pretty good” *points* “is that Evanora?”

Agatha: “Yes, you can tell because I drew stink lines around her-“

Y/N: “-And wrote “shriveled wench” in all capital’s underneath her”

Agatha: “Believe it or not, this was one of my nicer drawings!”

Wanda: “Considering not long after this you betrayed her, then stole and sucked her very magical soul and life force? Don’t worry…I believe you”

Agatha: “Ah, good times!”

[afrophunk]

"Bulma's Blasian!" I don't recall claiming her racist White ass

Yamcha on the other hand-

[riiviir]

I WOULD LIKE TO HEAR ABOUT YOUR OC'S

OK so I mostly made that post in reference to Warden but I have now realized that saying too much about her would spoil that comic I'm trying to make so instead let me give details about one of the protagonists from that same comic. except I currently have no way of mentioning these details within the comic and even if I did they wouldn't really be a plot twist like Warden's backstory would be so. Okispe's whole entire backstory infodump time!!

tw for medical trauma and also people die

so basically. he's an anthropomorphic moth. and his home universe is full of anthropomorphic bugs and insects but most important details I can give rn are about moths bc that's what's relevant to him but anyways. the moths still get to be caterpillars when they're young, and instead of puberty they basically just go into a cocoon for a year and then come out with wings and an exoskeleton and such. and when Okispe was a caterpillar, he was, just like most caterpillars, very excited about getting wings, both bc he wanted to fly on his own without having to be carried around by his parents and bc he thought that wings were very pretty and he was looking forward to being just as beautiful as his mom and dad

the bad news is that there is a very rare disease called Post-Chrysalis Necrosis (PCN), in which the wings start rotting away a few days after emerging from the cocoon. so when Okispe was just barely starting to learn how to fly, before he could really do anything at all he started experiencing intense pain, went to the doctor, and found out that he will most likely never be able to fly, and also might die since PCN is deadly if it isn't eradicated before it can spread to the rest of the body.

So holes begin rotting into his wings. The treatment for PCN is to cauterize the infection, so the already-painful rotting cells are then made even more painful by being burned over and over until the infection is cured.

So he was in the hospital from age 13 all the way to when he was 20. To make matters worse, at some point while visiting Okispe, his parents caught a different deadly disease from another patient and both of them died.

Even after Okispe is eventually cured, he has a multitude of other issues to deal with. He's severely lacking in social skills, has an incredibly low self-esteem due to thinking that his hole-filled wings are ugly, has to deal with chronic pain from the burn scars, has to worry about the PCN potentially coming back, and cannot fly. And although stairs are an accessibility requirement in most of the city he lives in, the maintenance and everything is severely lacking, and some places aren't accessible at all. He also has to make up for all the school he missed and graduate late, and struggles to find a job that will actually hire him. He does manage to get a job lighting lanterns (this is a very important job with the worldbuilding I have for his home universe but that's an inforump for another time) but is paid less than those who can fly, and the job is pretty dangerous due to how close he has to get to enemy territory while put in the woods (there's a war going on).

So ableism and medical trauma and dead parents. Idk why I made his backstory so incredibly sad when it didn't need to be but uhhh. I am nothing if not sadistic towards my blorbos.

He does eventually leave his home universe to join Human and Sunrise in a life of multiversal crime but that part if his backstory actually IS spoilers. but anyways yeah that's my moth boi

[spotaus]

Late Night quick thing (New Age Sillies)

Bad news: That joke post about including Reset + Orchid is definitely not canon. (I legit got sad thinking about Reset being in a universe where Orchid isn't- because their stories are so so intertwined- but Nightmare 100% would NOT risk the whole twins exploding Error's soul thing.)

Good news: This means I COULD include Kane (Reset's older brother who usually dies in timelines where Reset is born) and use it to develope his character a bit more! Also! Perhaps a Blue × Dream kiddo is finally in the stars for me to design?