#conscripting

[daybreaksys]

the Aurebesh isn't very great from a conscripting perspective. not only because it's a fucking cipher (a mere font to write in English, with English nonsensical spelling rules) but also because all letters are blocky squares.

Which us fine because this isn't the focus of Star Wars, it's purpose isn't to work well linguistically or practically, it is to set an atmosphere and pretend it's not English

Chinese, Japanese and other syllabic scripts work that way because each symbol stands for a while syllable, not an individual sound. and English has syllables with massive consonant clusters like scratch

an alphabet needs many tall, thin letters like l i r q r t p d f h j k l b

if all letters are fat and wide like ლ then any text occupies far too much space and is overly long. and larger chunks of text consume exponentially more space, paper, ink, digital pages, stablishment titles, etc, not to mention being annoying to read

the simplest solution is to create thinner versions of each letter, making them thinner and thinner until it's a totally different alphabet

a different solution that preserves the blocky feel is to combine letters together into ligatures, like in Hindi, specially for common words and consonant combinations, so, fusing E and R into a single ER letter, for example.

to illustrate, this is "Republic" in canon Aurebesh:

and this is "Republic" after combining some letters:

we could go more aggressive and combine more than two letters, but speakers would have to know all ligatures, but that's fine, Hindi speakers learn hundreds or millions of letter combinations and they're not random, they are intuitive

now with Skywalker:

of course, i'd still prefer to make an alphabet which actually makes sense

real life example: Korean

if we wrote English with the Hangul, Republic would be 러풉맄

[ㄹ=r][ㅓ=e][ㅍ=p][ㅜ=u][ㅂ=b][ㄹ=l][ㅣ=i][ㅋ=k]

ㄹ+ㅓ=러

ㅍ+ㅜ+ㅂ=풉

ㄹ+ㅣ+ㅋ=맄

canon Aurebesh would spell it ㄹㅓㅍㅜㅂㄹㅣㅋ

Hindi:

र=e रे=re फ=p फु=pu

ब=b ल=l ब्ल=bl ब्लि=bli ख=c

रेफुब्लिख = Republic

canon Aurebesh would spell it रएफउबलइख

[seratlantisite]

Nice try Bioware, but I know the state of Southern Thedas better than you do.

First off, it matters if the Hero of Ferelden is alive or not. When the First Warden recalled all wardens, our hero knew that was a bad call and refused, finally splitting off from Weisshaupt after years of mismanagement and taking scores of wardens with them. Their presence and leadership makes all the difference, rallying southern Thedas once more against the blight. If you have only an Orlesian Warden Commander in Amaranthine they’re less inspiring, but as long as you’ve done Awakening they are a boon nonetheless. There is someone to lead the fight against the darkspawn while other focus on the Venatori.

If you 100% completed Awakenings and also Soldier’s Peak, the Ferelden wardens have never been so prepared. They’re organized, they’re outfitted and they’ve been ready for this for years. Also, if you allied with the Architect then you have scores of strange research to give you an edge.

If Merrill completed her Eluvian then she moves south once again and joins the effort. She’s managed to cleanse the blight before and she’s ready to try it again. And her knowledge of the crossroads gives the south an edge on their movement and supply lines. If Hawke’s sibling is a Warden they accompanied her.

If the Inquisitor let Briala have power in any way, the Dales become the leaders in the war against the Venatori, forming a formidable alliance with Ferelden, Orzammar and the Marches, the likes of which have never been seen. And if you completed Jaws of Hakkon then their alliances with the Avvar and Chasind are stronger than ever.

Of course, if the Inquisitor kept the Wardens around after Here Lies the Abyss then their numbers are bolstered. It may cost Wiesshaupt later, but that’s Rooks problem. And if you completed the Descent, then the Inquisitor and Warden had a much better idea of what was coming and spent ten years getting ready.

They will not be broken.

They will weather this storm.

[70sscifiart]

Here's a roundup of artist depictions of Jupiter's moon Europa, in honor of the Europan ice war.

Artists are credited in the alt text. Thanks to @retroscifiart for some of these!

[buriedknight]

Something to protect

the inquisitor is ours with @starrythroat special thanks to @/daitranscripts for the Emprise du Lion Cassandra dialogues

[kiivg]

.Rook.

[weirdlookindog]

Henry Glintenkamp (1887–1946) - “Conscription”, 1917

source

[soup-mother]

I'm not gonna say "it makes you privileged" (or maybe i will) but frankly some people don't even know how fucking good they have it living in countries where being trans or gay *actually for real* exempt/bars you from military service/conscription and doesn't just mean abuse.

In plenty of places they'll make you "prove" that you're gay in horrible humiliating ways or they'll just conscript you anyway and treat you horrifically (see one of the several horrible ways trans women get treated in wartime).

Whinging that you can't voluntarily join the fucking US military of all things because you're trans is so unbelievably entitled

[glyptolite]

[dedalvs]

I was looking at your Valyrian glyphs for animals (I especially love the ones for spider, squid, turtle and frog) and was wondering if you have made a lion glyph? I'm designing some royal seals for Tyrion and Cersei, and wanted to add a lion glyph. I've searched through your wikis and there is a glyph for cat, and one for gold, so perhaps I'll add those together if there's no lion glyph. Thanks, I love your work on this series so much!

A good question! The word for "lion" is built off the word for "cat", so there isn't a separate glyph. Kēli is "cat" and kēlio is "lion", so to spell the latter you use the "cat" glyph with a -io determinative. Generally that's the "gate" glyph, but given the nature of lions, you can also use the "tooth" glyph. Here are both spellings. First, the "gate" version:

Next, the "tooth" version:

But yeah, since it's derived, no individual "lion" glyph. ("Dragon" is also derived, but they're a bit more central to Valyrian culture, so it makes sense they'd have a separate glyph for it.)

[rookanisstuff]

I laugh everytime Rook says that “oh Lucanis I’m so sorry Caterina died, I know there’s that crazy double blight coming but if you would rather stay here in Treviso….” line because I can hear my Cousland actively implode somewhere in Fereldan

[vivvision]

"Anybody remotely interesting is mad in some way or another" - the 7th Doctor

Support/commission me on Ko-fi!

[levunalangs]

Sdefa Sdaturday #21

My first youtube video is now live!

This is a video all about my musical conlang Sdefa! You’ll hear some music, learn the basics of how the language works, and go through a few examples in detail!

I couldn’t get into too much detail in a short(ish) video, so I didn’t cover Sdefa writing, but I plan to in a future video. The main example in the video is what I showed in last week’s post, but here it is again in both writing systems:

That means “You’re hearing Sdefa, a musical language that I made.” Now you get to actually hear it!

[sillysiluriforme]

I WILL draw the top 3 ways to kill bob Roth so go vote on it here

[see-arcane]

Jonathan: "Sir, as much fun as these months of Vampire Hell Staycation have been, I'd really appreciate not getting undeaded and bound for all eternity as another bloodthirsty addition to the castle. The love of my life is waiting for me and I would literally rather be dead than be part of your Polycule (Evil Edition (tm)). Can you please not drink me?"

Dracula, fangs already out: 👀💦

Lucy: "Any chance you could quit abusing my medical condition and siphoning my blood so I can stop waking in tears and maybe not be conscripted as your first conquest on English soil like a cadaverous trophy bride? I'm about to get married to the man I love and begin my life in earnest. So, like. Stop? Please?"

Dracula, bat-flapping to her window: 👀💦

Renfield: "Hello! Hi! I'm right here, ready and willing to get exsanguinated into life-chugging immortality! You won't find a more willing set of arteries in the country! Throat's right here! Drink up!"

Dracula:

[kiivg]

.ngl Davrin came out of nowhere and just hehehehehehhehe 👉👈😳💕.