#east of india gifts

[astrobiscuits]

Astro obs part 9

🐌 The planets in your 12th house indicate your sleeping style:

Sun in 12th house - their sleep schedule is extremely messed up; for them, daylight hours = nighttime hours and vice versa, so they have trouble being themselves during the day; their true self comes out at night

Moon in 12th house - goes to sleep very late; full moons have a special effect on these people; their intuition is more clear at night; as kids, they probably slept a lot with their mother

Mercury in 12th house - loves texting/calling people late at night; they might journal their thoughts before sleep because they overthink a lot and it helps to clear their mind or maybe they just like to relax by reading a book at night

Venus in 12th house - cares a lot about getting their "beauty sleep"; sleeps with sleep masks on, buys expensive bed lingerie, skincare night routine might be very important; loves sleeping in general lmao

Mars in 12th house - enjoys working out before going to sleep, can go to sleep angry because they tend to get into conflict more at night than during the day

I have Uranus in 12th house and i can be both a light sleeper or a heavy sleeper, depending on where i am. For example, when i'm traveling, during the first night i wake up several times, but from the second night on i sleep like a baby lmao. Another thing would be that i can't sleep in a quiet car but i don't have any problem sleeping during a thunderstorm

🐌 Mars in fire signs (Aries, Leo, Sag) and Mars in 3rd house individuals love riding motorbikess

🐌 While Mars in 9th house peeps would probably love to go on a world tour on their motorbike. The sign ruling their 9th house represents the countries they would love to visit (i'm aware that some of these can only be visited by plane, take it with a grain of salt): 

♈ in 9th house: Ireland, Poland, Japan, Zimbabwe

♉ in 9th house: Cuba, Paraguay, South Africa, East Timor

♊ in 9th house: Denmark, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, Montenegro

♋ in 9th house: Canada, USA, Bahamas, Argentina, Slovenia, Madagascar

♌ in 9th house: Hawaii, France, Italy, The Netherlands, India, South Korea, Peru, Bolivia

♍ in 9th house: Switzerland, Mexico, Brazil, Chile, Vietnam

♎ in 9th house: Belgium, Portugal, China, Equatorial Guinea, Lesotho

♏ in 9th house: Panama, Spain, Turkey, Arab countries (Saudi Arabia, UAE), Palestine, Lebanon

♐ in 9th house: Finland, Lithuania, Romania, Tanzania, Thailand

♑ in 9th house: UK, Germany, Czech Republic, Australia, Camerun

♒ in 9th house: Greece, New Zealand, Philippines, Singapore, Sri Lanka

♓ in 9th house: Morocco, Tunisia, Egypt, Mauritius, Saint Lucia

🐌 I have a feeling Pisces Suns like to spend their time in a garage lmao. Mostly because their opposing sign, Virgo, would hate to spend time in a garage due to how dirty it can get.

🐌As a 7th house Sun who's been in love for almost a year now (haha, are we surprised, ofcours not; i'm not even in a relationship with him but ugh we're so perfect for each other), i realised that Sun in 7th house people tend to behave differently with their partner when they're in a healthy relationship vs when they're in a toxic one

Sun in 7th house in:

♈ Aries in a healthy relationship: empowers their partner, knows how to balance me time vs us time in a healthy manner, encourages their partner to take safe risks

♈ Aries in an unhealthy relationship: impulsive, impatient, selfish, dismisses their partner's feelings, often controlled by rage, prone to abusing their partner

♉ Taurus in a healthy relationship: veryyy generous (their love language is gift giving), accommodating to their partner's wants and needs, cooks for their partner

♉ Taurus in an unhealthy relationship: stubborn af, hard to please, focused more on the material gain from their partner rather than the love they share

♊ Gemini in a healthy relationship: curious, always lightens the mood of their partner by cracking up tons of jokes or telling them funny stories, knows that communication is key to everything so they're not afraid to discuss serious topics, teaches their partner a lot of random stuff

♊ Gemini in an unhealthy relationship: superficial, doesn't have a problem moving on from their partner to another person in a matter of seconds, if they're still in school/college, then they prioritize studying over their partner

♋ Cancer in a healthy relationship: nurturing, knows how to balance babying their partner vs being babied by their partner, emotionally vulnerable, feels safe enough to present their partner to their family early on in the relationship

♋ Cancer in a unhealthy relationship: if they don't trust their partner, they tend to become emotionally closed off to hide their deep sadness; defensive, but if their partner attackes them, then they'll hide, worries excessively, avoids presenting their partner to their family

♌ Leo in a healthy relationship: treats their partner like the king/queen they are, keeps their ego in check so it doesn't interfere with the relationship, if they've got artistic talents (music, acting, art etc.), they'll show their love for their partner by performing in front of them

♌ Leo in an unhealthy relationship: egocentric, shows off their partner/relationship too much out of pride, often feels entitled in the relationship and wants to be put on a pedestal by their partner

♍ Virgo in a healthy relationship: selfless to a healthy degree, remembers every lil detail from every casual conversations with their partner just to please them, remembers every important date and plans ahead for it, takes care of their partner when they're sick

♍ Virgo in a unhealthy relationship: critical, overfixates on past hurts and mistakes that their partner made in the relationship (often times their partner doesn't even remember those things because they're usually not that serious), loves their pets more than their partner

♎ Libra in a healthy relationship: romantic, charismatic, truly values their partner and the relationship with them, acts fair in the relationship, teaches their partner lovingly about the importance of honesty, truth and a healthy give and take dynamic in a relationship

♎ Libra in an unhealthy relationship: doesn't prioritize the relationship; instead, they flirt with others despite being in a relationship, emotionally detached, cold and calculated in their current relationship

♏ Scorpio in a healthy relationship: loyal, loves their partner deeply and intensely, but without suffocating them, keeps their partner's secrets like they're a locked safe box with no public access

♏ Scorpio in an unhealthy relationship: obsessive, manipulative, seeks to dominate their partner, displays stalkish behaviour in the relationship, liar

♐ Sagittarius in a healthy relationship: exposes their partner to various cultures, belief systems and philosophies to expand their mind and form their own opinion on certain topics, loves freely but is still able to maintain a long-term relationship, improves their partner's mood, usually brings an element of surprise and excitement to the relationship

♐ Sagittarius in an unhealthy relationship: travels in order to avoid dealing with their partner, parties a bit too much, doesn't take the relationship seriously

♑ Capricorn in a healthy relationship: loves their partner in a mature, serious and secure manner, doesn't shy away from improving their partner's social status and/or career if they can, discusses plans for the future (getting married, having kids, adopting pets, buying a house) with their partner early on in the relationship, they make time for their partner, despite the fact that they're busy most of the time

♑ Capricorn in an unhealthy relationship: displays no emotions or physical affection in the relationship, has a hard time communicating their thoughts with their partner, settles in a relationship for the wrong reasons (money/kids/safety/"i'm getting old and i need to have my life established"), prioritizes work/career over their partner

♒ Aquarius in a healthy relationship: flexible, makes their partner's dreams and aspirations come true (whether they're related to the relationship or not), has got a very open-minded attitude towards their partner's opinions, lifestyle and identity, takes the time to become friends firsts with their future partner because they value a relationship built on solid foundation (often times their partner is also their best friend), knows how to balance couple time vs time with friends

♒ Aquarius in an unhealthy relationship: displays wishy-washy behaviour, emotionally detached, prioritizes their friends over their partner, seeks online validation from strangers and acquaintances to fulfill their needs

♓ Pisces in a healthy relationship: sensitive to their partner's emotions, knows how to balance wearing their heart on their sleeve vs hiding their emotions in unfavourable circumstances, always honest with their partner

♓ Pisces in an unhealthy relationship: prone to drown their relationship problems and sorrows in alcohol, drugs and meds for mental health issues, runs away from problems instead of dealing with them with their partner, displays dishonesty to a fault, prone to self-sabotage

[worldhistoryfacts]

During the early Ming Dynasty, about 75 years before Christopher Columbus sailed the Atlantic, China set out to explore the Indian Ocean, putting an admiral named Zheng He in command of a massive fleet of ships much bigger than Columbus’ to visit southeast Asia, India, Arabia, and east Africa. He brought back lavish tribute from the kingdoms he visited, some of which were living, breathing creatures.

The animal that seemed to fascinate Chinese people the most during this period was the giraffe. This is probably because it resembled a mythical creature, the qilin, that was supposed to be a good omen for China and its rulers.

The Yongle Emperor, who ruled from 1402–1424, ended up in possession of two giraffes. The first was a gift from the ruler of Bengal, whose giraffe had attracted the notice of Chinese visitors. This poor giraffe was been shipped across the ocean twice, once from East Africa, and then again from Bengal to Beijing. The second giraffe was a direct gift to Zheng He from the ruler of Malindi in East Africa.

Here are some images of one of the giraffes -- these were widely copied, often with variations in the patterns on the animals' fur.

{WHF} {Ko-Fi} {Medium}

[princesssarisa]

In Cinderella Tales From Around the World, I've now reached the versions from the Middle East, Africa, and South Asia: Iran, Palestine, Nigeria, Angola, Sri Lanka, India, and Kashmir.

*The Iranian variant, The Story of Little Fatima, starts out much like the Italian La Gatta Cenerentola, but then turns into a "mother as animal helper" variant, with a middle section like the Portuguese The Hearth Cat. At the beginning, Little Fatima's female teacher tricks her into murdering her mother (!!!) so she can marry her father, then abuses her. But the mother's spirit comes back as a cow and shows her daughter unconditional love by magically aiding her chores. One day the cotton she's supposed to spin falls down a well, and the cow-mother advises her to go down after it, where she'll meet a div who will urge her to do bad deeds, but to only do good deeds instead. She obeys, and the div gives her a glowing moon on her forehead and star on her chin. The stepmother wants the same for her own daughter, so she sends her into the well, but Little Fatima lies to her stepsister that she should do all the bad deeds the div orders. As a result, the div gives the stepsister donkey ears and a tail. From then on, the story becomes a standard Cinderella, with the cow providing Little Fatima's finery, except instead of a ball, festival, or religious service, the special event is the wedding of a princess, the sister of the prince who falls in love with Little Fatima.

*The Palestinian variant, Thaljiyeh ("Snow-Maiden"), starts out like Snow White, with the heroine named for her skin white as snow, and her mother dying in childbirth. As Thaljiyeh is abused by her stepmother, a kindly jinniyah (female jinn) in a well takes pity on her and fills her bucket with jewelry, but when her two stepsisters draw water from the same well, the jinniyah fills their buckets with mud, stones, and insects. So they take Thaljiyeh's jewels and finally throw her out of the house. Fortunately, she comes to the home of a poor old woman who turns out to be her maternal grandmother and who takes her in; but unfortunately (so it seems), on the way she loses a red leather shoe that was a gift from her dead father. But of course a prince finds the shoe, and we all know what happens.

*The Tender-Hearted Maiden and the Fish from Nigeria is much like the Portuguese Maiden and the Fish – the heroine gets her finery from a fish that was meant to be cooked but which she set free. But in this version, unlike the Portuguese version, there is a wicked stepmother, and the fish really is a fish, not an enchanted prince. The heroine's love interest is a king, and the festival where he falls for her is a celebration of Eid al-Fitr. After her marriage, the stepmother and stepsister sneak into the heroine's bedroom at night and cut off her hands (!), but the fishes magically restore then. When the stepmother and stepsister try to publicly mock the new queen for having no hands, they only make fools of themselves.

*The Angolan variant, Fenda Maria and Her Elder Brother Nga Nzua, is very unusual. The heroine is an orphan who lives with her older brother, but when he marries the Lord Governor's daughter, his wife turns her into a slave. But in a forest she meets an old woman with leprosy and nurses her, and as reward, the old woman gives her boxes full of riches and dresses. The ending is unusual too: the heroine doesn't marry. Instead, when the Lord Governor discovers that the elegant lady who came to church is his son-in-law's sister, he punishes the couple (at the heroine's request) by dissolving their marriage and giving his cruel daughter to another man. From then on, the heroine and her repentant brother live together in prosperity, thanks to her magically-given wealth.

*As for the Indian versions, they vary widely:

**One is basically Finette Cendron without the ogres – a poor man abandons his daughters, they find a deserted wealthy house and take up residence there, and the oppressed youngest finds finery to wear to church in the house – but with a post-marriage ending. The sisters' steal the heroines babies and make her husband think she gave birth to inanimate objects, which drives him to lock her in a dungeon, but years later her children come back as beggars, and milk miraculously flies from their mother's breasts to their mouths, revealing the truth and leading to a happy ending.

**In another, the heroine is a princess who lives happily with her father and younger brother, until a seemingly-kind widow neighbor persuades her to persuade her father to marry her. The king resists a long time, but finally gives in, yet he warns his daughter that if her stepmother mistreats her, he'll do nothing about it. Sure enough, the new stepmother sends the prince away to boarding school and treats the princess like a slave. But the princess is helped both by a cow, who secretly feeds her, and by her dead godmother's spirit, who brings her finery for a dance at another king's palace. After the princess marries and gives birth to a son, her stepsister drowns her in a well and takes her place, but as in the Grimms' Brother and Sister, the princess's spirit comes back every night to nurse her baby, and when her husband finally sees her and catches her by the hands, she comes back to life. The stepsister is brutally executed and the stepmother driven away.

**The Kashmir variant follows the "mother turns into an animal" formula, but with a few differences from the norm. The mother turns into a goat when she thoughtlessly breaks a magical taboo against eating when her husband isn't home, the Cinderella character is just one of several siblings who are all mistreated by their stepmother, and instead of losing a shoe at a special event, she loses a nose ring while washing herself in a river. The ring is swallowed by a fish, which is caught and cut open by the king's cook. The king searches for the ring's owner and marries the girl, which lets her support her siblings and free them from the stepmother.

*@faintingheroine – I think Nihal would like some of these variants. Especially the Indian one where the heroine is neglected by her father and her little brother is sent away to school, since it parallels her own situation, and the Angolan one where the heroine doesn't marry in the end but gets her brother all to herself again.

*It seems strange that this book includes so few Cinderella stories from Africa. There must be more that exist!

Coming up next: tales from East Asia, beginning with what may be the very first complete Cinderella story, Ye Xian.

@ariel-seagull-wings, @adarkrainbow, @themousefromfantasyland

[strawberry-soot]

✧･ﾟ: *✧･ﾟ:* 🦁LEONA BIRTHDAY SSR FLOWER ANALYSIS* 🦁*:･ﾟ✧*:･ﾟ✧

*Mandatory reminder that I’m no flower specialist, which means these are all very subjective opinions. Take everything with a grain of salt!

Before I can talk about Leona’s flowers I quickly want to give a bit of a deeper look into the colors of his bouquet and how they affect its meaning – with the reading of yellow flowers ranging from friendship, joy, and hope in Europe and America to honoring the dead in Mexico and Egypt to sacredness in China to representing royalty in and around India. Generally speaking, in Asia the meaning of wealth, royalty, hope and disappointment, abundance, and jealousy, are most likely what the cards’ artist was going for so keep that in mind while reading this!

In the Victorian Language of Flowers yellow roses were symbols of jealousy and greed – which is also true for their Japanese and Korean meaning, though in traditional Mexican culture they more commonly symbolize remembrance. By gifting someone yellow roses one would show a decrease in love, or subtly tell the recipient to “try to care more”, though nowadays they stand for friendship, happiness, joy, innocence, and appreciation, and are typically sent during birthdays, promotions and graduations. However, they could also be an apology for previous wrongdoings.

The more orange flower I believe to be a gaillardia or blanket flowers, which on one hand are associated with charm, abundance, aristocracy, and modesty, or on the other hand, with joy, optimism, and happiness. Because of their ability to thrive in all conditions, they stand for resilience and strength, courage, fearlessness, and even were a symbol of bravery and hope in the Victorian Language of Flowers.

While hibiscus flowers are associated with positivity and joy thanks to their vibrant colors, they’re also symbols of wealth, generosity, hospitality, and the upper class. They’re reminders to live in the moment and to seize opportunities as they come. In Chinese culture they’re gifted to represent how short lived the beauty of glory or fame is since they have a relatively short vase life.

Gerbera Daisies, or African Daisies, typically represent either beauty, or a happy life. They symbolize friendship and happiness, but mostly are gifted to someone recovering from an illness, or to cheer someone up. In Japan they stand for ultimate beauty, hope, and a way forward (often with a romantic connotation). Notably, in ancient Egypt they stood for a closeness to nature and devotion to the sun.

Zinnias are associated with endurance, remembrance, and thoughts of absent friends/friends you haven’t seen in a while. They bloom even in draughts or when plagued by bugs so they’re the perfect gift for someone with a strong mind.

Since crocuses are early blooming flowers they symbolize new beginnings and rebirth, though they’re also linked to wealth, power, and divinity. In Asia and the Middle East they stand for hope and a prosperous future.

The yellow flower with the thin leaves is a pincushion flower or protea which represents transformation, diversity, and courage. In the Victorian Language of Flowers they stand for unfortunate love, and in hanakotoba (the Japanese Language of Flowers) they mean “I have lost all.”

Finally, the dark purple/red flower in his bouquet is a cymbidium orchid. It stands for morality and virtue, as well as beauty, strength and opulence. Being gifted such a flower is an honor since they’re difficult to grow and care for. They hold a reputation of being luxurious, and are a symbol of power, respect, and admiration – in the Victorian Language of Flowers one of supreme luxury and wealth. They also convey a feeling of strength, absolute power, or authority.

Naturally, these are only my un-educated guesses considering I’m by no means a flower specialist so take everything with a grain of salt, and feel free to let me know if I got anything wrong/what flowers I might’ve missed.

[mariacallous]

It no longer makes sense to speak of free speech in traditional terms. The internet has so transformed the nature of the speaker that the definition of speech itself has changed.

The new speech is governed by the allocation of virality. People cannot simply speak for themselves, for there is always a mysterious algorithm in the room that has independently set the volume of the speaker’s voice. If one is to be heard, one must speak in part to one’s human audience, in part to the algorithm. It is as if the US Constitution had required citizens to speak through actors or lawyers who answered to the Dutch East India Company, or some other large remote entity. What power should these intermediaries have? When the very logic of speech must shift in order for people to be heard, is that still free speech? This was not a problem foreseen in the law.

The time may be right for a legal and policy reset. US lawmakers on both sides of the aisle are questioning Section 230, the liability shield that enshrined the ad-driven internet. The self-reinforcing ramifications of a mere 26 words—“no provider or user of an interactive computer service shall be treated as the publisher or speaker of any information provided by another information content provider”—has produced a social media ecosystem that is widely held to have had deleterious effects on both democracy and mental health.

Abraham Lincoln is credited with the famous quip about how you cannot fool all the people all the time. Perhaps you cannot, but perhaps the internet can. Imperfect speech has always existed, but the means and scale of amplification have not. The old situation cannot be the guide for the new.

Section 230 was created during a period when policy was being designed to unleash internet innovation, thereby maintaining America’s competitive edge in cyberspace. The early internet was supported by a variety of friendly policies, not just Section 230. For instance, sales arranged over the internet were often not taxed in early years. Furthermore, the internet was knowingly inaugurated in an incomplete state, lacking personal accounts, authentication mechanisms, commercial transaction standards, and many other needed elements. The thinking was not only that it was easier to get a minimal design started when computing power was still nascent, but also that the missing elements would be addressed by entrepreneurs. In effect, we were giving trillion-dollar gifts to parties unknown who would be the inevitable network-effect winners.

Section 230 was enacted as part of the 1996 Communications Decency Act, a larger legislative effort within the umbrella 1996 Telecommunications Act. Section 230(c)(1) provides immunity for online services regarding user-generated content, ensuring the companies hosting content are not treated as publishers of this information. Section 230(c)(2) offers Good Samaritan protection from civil liability when the companies—or platforms, as we call them today—in good faith remove or moderate objectionable content.

After President Bill Clinton signed the 1996 Telecommunications Act into law, it was unclear how the courts might interpret it. When the dust cleared, Section 230 emerged as something of a double-edged sword. It could be used to justify censorship, and at the same time be deployed as a corporate liability shield. Most importantly, it provided the runway for the takeoff of Google, Twitter, and Facebook. (And now TikTok—which, being a Chinese company, proves that Section 230 no longer serves American interests.)

The impact on the public sphere has been, to say the least, substantial. In removing so much liability, Section 230 forced a certain sort of business plan into prominence, one based not on uniquely available information from a given service, but on the paid arbitration of access and influence. Thus, we ended up with the deceptively named “advertising” business model—and a whole society thrust into a 24/7 competition for attention. A polarized social media ecosystem. Recommender algorithms that mediate content and optimize for engagement. We have learned that humans are most engaged, at least from an algorithm’s point of view, by rapid-fire emotions related to fight-or-flight responses and other high-stakes interactions. In enabling the privatization of the public square, Section 230 has inadvertently rendered impossible deliberation between citizens who are supposed to be equal before the law. Perverse incentives promote cranky speech, which effectively suppresses thoughtful speech.

And then there is the economic imbalance. Internet platforms that rely on Section 230 tend to harvest personal data for their business goals without appropriate compensation. Even when data ought to be protected or prohibited by copyright or some other method, Section 230 often effectively places the onus on the violated party through the requirement of takedown notices. That switch in the order of events related to liability is comparable to the difference between opt-in and opt-out in privacy. It might seem like a technicality, but it is actually a massive difference that produces substantial harms. For example, workers in information-related industries such as local news have seen stark declines in economic success and prestige. Section 230 makes a world of data dignity functionally impossible.

To date, content moderation has too often been beholden to the quest for attention and engagement, regularly disregarding the stated corporate terms of service. Rules are often bent to maximize engagement through inflammation, which can mean doing harm to personal and societal well-being. The excuse is that this is not censorship, but is it really not? Arbitrary rules, doxing practices, and cancel culture have led to something hard to distinguish from censorship for the sober and well-meaning. At the same time, the amplification of incendiary free speech for bad actors encourages mob rule. All of this takes place under Section 230’s liability shield, which effectively gives tech companies carte blanche for a short-sighted version of self-serving behavior. Disdain for these companies—which found a way to be more than carriers, and yet not publishers—is the only thing everyone in America seems to agree on now.

Trading a known for an unknown is always terrifying, especially for those with the most to lose. Since at least some of Section 230’s network effects were anticipated at its inception, it should have had a sunset clause. It did not. Rather than focusing exclusively on the disruption that axing 26 words would spawn, it is useful to consider potential positive effects. When we imagine a post-230 world, we discover something surprising: a world of hope and renewal worth inhabiting.

In one sense, it’s already happening. Certain companies are taking steps on their own, right now, toward a post-230 future. YouTube, for instance, is diligently building alternative income streams to advertising, and top creators are getting more options for earning. Together, these voluntary moves suggest a different, more publisher-like self-concept. YouTube is ready for the post-230 era, it would seem. (On the other hand, a company like X, which leans hard into 230, has been destroying its value with astonishing velocity.) Plus, there have always been exceptions to Section 230. For instance, if someone enters private information, there are laws to protect it in some cases. That means dating websites, say, have the option of charging fees instead of relying on a 230-style business model. The existence of these exceptions suggests that more examples would appear in a post-230 world.

Let’s return to speech. One difference between speech before and after the internet was that the scale of the internet “weaponized” some instances of speech that would not have been as significant before. An individual yelling threats at someone in passing, for instance, is quite different from a million people yelling threats. This type of amplified, stochastic harassment has become a constant feature of our times—chilling speech—and it is possible that in a post-230 world, platforms would be compelled to prevent it. It is sometimes imagined that there are only two choices: a world of viral harassment or a world of top-down smothering of speech. But there is a third option: a world of speech in which viral harassment is tamped down but ideas are not. Defining this middle option will require some time to sort out, but it is doable without 230, just as it is possible to define the limits of viral financial transactions to make Ponzi schemes illegal.

With this accomplished, content moderation for companies would be a vastly simpler proposition. Companies need only uphold the First Amendment, and the courts would finally develop the precedents and tests to help them do that, rather than the onus of moderation being entirely on companies alone. The United States has more than 200 years of First Amendment jurisprudence that establishes categories of less protected speech—obscenity, defamation, incitement, fighting words—to build upon, and Section 230 has effectively impeded its development for online expression. The perverse result has been the elevation of algorithms over constitutional law, effectively ceding judicial power.

When the jurisprudential dust has cleared, the United States would be exporting the democracy-promoting First Amendment to other countries rather than Section 230’s authoritarian-friendly liability shield and the sewer of least-common-denominator content that holds human attention but does not bring out the best in us. In a functional democracy, after all, the virtual public square should belong to everyone, so it is important that its conversations are those in which all voices can be heard. This can only happen with dignity for all, not in a brawl.

Section 230 perpetuates an illusion that today’s social media companies are common carriers like the phone companies that preceded them, but they are not. Unlike Ma Bell, they curate the content they transmit to users. We need a robust public conversation about what we, the people, want this space to look like, and what practices and guardrails are likely to strengthen the ties that bind us in common purpose as a democracy. Virality might come to be understood as an enemy of reason and human values. We can have culture and conversations without a mad race for total attention.

While Section 230 might have been considered more a target for reform rather than repeal prior to the advent of generative AI, it can no longer be so. Social media could be a business success even if its content was nonsense. AI cannot.

There have been suggestions that AI needs Section 230 because large language models train on data and will be better if that data is freely usable with no liabilities or encumbrances. This notion is incorrect. People want more from AI than entertainment. It is widely considered an important tool for productivity and scientific progress. An AI model is only as good as the data it is trained on; indeed, general data improves specialist results. The best AI will come out of a society that prioritizes quality communication. By quality communication, we do not mean deepfakes. We mean open and honest dialog that fosters understanding rather than vitriol, collaboration rather than polarization, and the pursuit of knowledge and human excellence rather than a race to the bottom of the brain stem.

The attention-grooming model fostered by Section 230 leads to stupendous quantities of poor-quality data. While an AI model can tolerate a significant amount of poor-quality data, there is a limit. It is unrealistic to imagine a society mediated by mostly terrible communication where that same society enjoys unmolested, high-quality AI. A society must seek quality as a whole, as a shared cultural value, in order to maximize the benefits of AI. Now is the best time for the tech business to mature and develop business models based on quality.

All of this might sound daunting, but we’ve been here before. When the US government said the American public owned the airwaves so that television broadcasting could be regulated, it put in place regulations that supported the common good. The internet affects everyone, so we must devise measures to ensure that our digital-age public discourse is of high quality and includes everyone. In the television era, the fairness doctrine laid that groundwork. A similar lens needs to be developed for the internet age.

Without Section 230, recommender algorithms and the virality they spark would be less likely to distort speech. It is sadly ironic that the very statute that delivered unfathomable success is today serving the interests of our enemies by compromising America’s superpower: our multinational, immigrant-powered constitutional democracy. The time has come to unleash the power of the First Amendment to promote human free speech by giving Section 230 the respectful burial it deserves.

[fatehbaz]

Madras [...] [was] the English East India Company (EIC)’s most important settlement on India’s Coromandel Coast [...]. [T]he town’s survival as an EIC colony often depended on the deployment of medical and natural historical knowledge in regional diplomacy during a critical period of its existence. [...]

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Established in 1639, the English East India Company’s settlement at Madras (also known as Madraspatam or Chinapatam, now Chennai) had quickly become the focal point of EIC operations on the Coromandel Coast. By 1695, Samuel Baron described it as ‘the most considerable to the English nation of all their settlements in India whether ... in reference to the trade to and from Europe, or the Commerce from one part of India to the other’. The later attempts to establish trades to China and Japan, to resettle the Indonesian archipelago, and to gain a foothold in Bengal, were all directed from Fort St George. [...]

Browne [an English surgeon] used his patrons in the Mughal establishment and the Company hierarchy to build up a lucrative business supplying drugs to the camps of the Mughal generals. Browne’s contacts in the Mughal army were also useful for the Company [...].[D]uring the late seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries, Madras was in a difficult position. [...] Again, Company officials turned to the network of surgeons with access to the Mughal hierarchy [...]. In 1707, the year of the Emperor Aurangzeb’s death and a time of political unrest in the Mughal Empire, Bulkley was sent to Arcot on a mission that combined medical and diplomatic aims. While there, he also collected several volumes of plants and information about their medicinal virtues. [...] The network of contacts that could be built up between physicians, who had the advantage of close personal access to those at the centre of power, was an important way to exchange information and gifts. [...] Knowledge of plants and the means of employing them was thus crucial to establishing the East India Company’s position in India [...].

---

The Company’s gardens [...] also revealed, in their beds and borders, the networks that Madras was embedded within, as ships brought seeds and plants from other Company settlements, the territories of the rival European powers, and places of regional trade [...]. The surgeons used their space in the Company gardens to experiment with local plants and to introduce crops from around the world. [...] Both Browne and Bulkley also raised plants they received from their networks of correspondents overseas: Browne describes growing China root, a popular medicinal substance normally identified with Smilax China, rhubarb, cinnamon trees from Ceylon (Sri Lanka), and wild agallo, benjamin and camphor from Manilla. [...]

[T]he scramble for the manuscripts or [plant] collections [...] [demonstrates] that the acquisition of natural knowledge was a crucial part of the competition between European trading companies to acquire and exploit the wealth of the Indies. Each of the two surgeons [Browne and Bulkley] [...] also sent a huge amount of plant materials to various correspondents in Europe [...]. Among the contacts that the surgeons maintained in England were several London apothecaries including his brother-in-law, who ran a shop in Bread Street, and Mr Porter, a drug-gist in Cornhill Street. The circle of botanists who received collections from the East Indies formed a close, though not always friendly, group of experimenters and gardeners who constituted the overlapping membership of the East India Company, the Royal Society, and the Society of Apothecaries.

The web of contacts that the two surgeons maintain within the colonial world of the Indian Ocean were invaluable because they provided them with the materials necessary to make Madras a ‘centre of calculation’ by supplying them with materials on which comparisons and connections to their own collections could be drawn. [...] Bulkley wrote at a time of transition in both England and India. [...] However, it is clear at least that by the time Bulkley died in 1713, being buried at the end of his garden, the United Company was more securely established at Madras, as expressed in its now immaculate gardens.

---

The networks of doctors had been crucial diplomatic actors in a critical period during which many believed that Madras was fated to be eclipsed altogether. [...] It was the new relationship with the rulers of Arcot established by these doctors that eventually enabled the Company to consolidate its base at Calcutta.

The surgeons’ collections reflect the hybrid environment of early modern Madras and the networks – maritime, military and diplomatic – that the doctors were embedded in [...]. Many details are missing from this reconstruction of the practice of medicine and botany in the early colonial city. Unlike the contributors to the Hortus Malabaricus, we never learn so much as the names of the Tamil and Telugu-speaking doctors who were so crucial in collecting and revealing the medicinal uses of the specimens the surgeons sent to London. Nevertheless, the role of these collaborators was clearly crucial. [...]

The collections of these two surgeons, who were key players in the transformation of politics and botany in the region, straddling local and international concerns, in many ways provide the perfect portal through which to view Madras as it was transformed from a trading post subservient to the interests of regional powers to a major player in British colonial expansion.

---

All text above by: Anna Winterbottom. “Medicine and Botany in the Making of Madras, 1680-1720.” In: The East India Company and the Natural World, edited by Vinita Damodaran, Anna Winterbottom, and Alan Lester. 2014. [Bold emphasis and some paragraph breaks/contractions added by me.]

[scotianostra]

On July 12th 1698 a small fleet of five ships set out for the Isthmus of Darien in Panama carrying Scotland's hopes of founding a new empire on board.

Some have said: 'The Darien venture was the most ambitious colonial scheme attempted in the 17th century…The Scots were the first to realise the strategic importance of the area..." Whilst others claimed: "They were plain daft to try… It was disaster. They never had a chance." T'is for you to decide!

William Paterson, a Scot who's other major claim to fame was the foundation of the Bank of England, was born in Tinwald in Dumfriesshire in 1658. He made his first fortune through international trade, travelling extensively throughout the America's and West Indies. Upon his return to his native Scotland, Paterson sought to make his second fortune with a scheme of epic proportion.

His plan was to create a link between east and west, which could command the trade of the two great oceans of the world, the Pacific and Atlantic. In 1693, he helped to set up the Company of Scotland Trading to Africa and the Indies in Edinburgh to establish an transshipment port on the Isthmus of Darien (the narrow neck of land separating North and South America now known as Panama). It was claimed that the company would prosper through foreign trade and promoted Darien as a remote spot where Scots could settle.

The original directors of the Company of Scotland were Scottish and English in equal numbers, with the risk investment capital being shared half from the English and Dutch, and the other half from the Scots. However, under pressure from the East India Company, afraid of losing their trade monopoly, the English Parliament withdrew its support for the scheme at the last minute, forcing the English and Dutch to withdraw and leaving the Scots as sole investors.

There were no shortage of takers though, as thousands of many Scots invested money in the expedition, to the tune of approximately £500,000 - about half of the national capital available. Almost every Scot who had £5 to spare invested in the Darien scheme. Thousands more volunteered to travel on board the five ships that had been chartered to carry the pioneers to their new home where Scots could settle, including famine driven Highlanders and soldiers discharged following the Glencoe Massacre.

But, who had actually been out to see this Promised Land, this remote spot where Scots could settle? Well not Paterson apparently! The pioneers had wrongly believed, on the basis of sightings by sailors and pirates, that Darien offered them a colony where entrepreneurs could establish trading links with the world and bring prestige and prosperity to their country. And so it was with much fanfare and excitement that the ships sailed from Leith harbour on 12 July 1698 with 1,200 people on board.

It was however, a depleted and less excited group of pioneers that arrived on the mosquito-infested scrap of land known as Darien on 30th October 1698. Many were already sick and others were quarrelling as power struggles arose among the elected councillors.

They struggled ashore and renamed the land Caledonia, with its capital New Edinburgh. The first task was to dig graves for the dead pioneers, which included Paterson's wife. The situation grew worse because of a lack of food and attacks from hostile Spaniards.

The natives in the area took pity on the Scots, bringing them gifts of fruit and fish. Seven months after arriving, 400 Scots were dead. The rest were emaciated and yellow with fever. They decided to abandon the scheme.

Sadly, news did not travel quickly in the 17th century. Six more ships set sail from Leith in November 1699 loaded with a further 1,300 excited pioneers, all blissfully ignorant about the fate of the earlier settlers. Whoever said that bad news travels fast was obviously not a Scot as a third fleet of five ships left Leith shortly after.

Only one ship returned out of the total of sixteen that had originally sailed. Only a handful survived the return journey. Scotland had paid a terrible price with more than two thousand lives lost. Together with the loss of the £500,000 investment the Scottish economy was all but bankrupted.

I found out about a proposed film a few years ago that was going to tell the full story of the debacle, sadly it does not seen to be any further forward, and like the Darien Scheme itself, looks doomed, the last post on their web page reflected that he/ they were having trouble coming up with a name for the film!

[maltacus]

Velonara-tossing tauren's lore

Pirates of the Caribbean AU

Cast:

Elizabeth Swann: Jaina.

Governor Swann: Daelin.

Will Turner: Sylvanas.

Jack Sparrow: Alleria.

James Norrington: Arthas.

Gibbs: Muradin.

Barbosa: Ner'Zhul

Cursed coins: Frostmourne (in spirirt), maybe silver anchors like Jaina's?

Compass: Mana-activated, meaning Jaina and a few others can use it but not ordinary people?

Davy Jones: Illidan?

Dutchman and Crew: The Naga.

Calypso: Azshara. When she and Illidan fell out it was know as...the sundering :)

East India Company: Burning Legion?

Beckett: Kil'Jaeden? Holds some sway over Illidan like Beckett holds some sway over Davy Jones but the respective minions are not so content.

Kraken: N'zoth?

Format:

3 stories would cover movie trilogy, 20k words each but one at a time.

1k chapters? Would be pleasant to write short chapters and be able to post often but perhaps it is too short to be exciting.

Curse of Black Pearl AU.

Follows most of movie script but with Azerothian twists and details? Like the vengeful Alleria (also suits her character) keeps a single arrow instead of bullet for Ner'Zhul.

Plan:

.1 Prologue with crossing from Quel'thalas. Backstory of them knowing each other in Kul Tiras when growing up. Making excuses to see each other.

.2 Arthas promotion and Jaina faints

.3 Allerias arrival and saving Jaina. Alleria has a single arrow for her bow instead of single bullet.

.4 Alleria duels Sylvanas and is captured. Insults Sylvanas saying she is unable to please a partner, counterpart to eunuch jabs. Lacking stamina is perhaps the reason she trains all the time with her blades instead?

.5 Pirates attack and Jaina is captured by dark rangers acting as Ragetti and Pintel and rest.

.6 Jaina and Nerzhul have dinner and undeath is revealed

.7 Sylvanas springs Alleria out and steal ship

.8 Sail for Tortuga - Booty Bay.

.9 Recruit Muradin and mad crew

.10 Sail for Isla de Muerta - Broken Isles.

.11 Steal back Jaina. She and Sylvanas kiss.

.12 Nerzhul attacks and sinks them

.13 Alleria and Jaina on the rum isle

.14 Arthas arrives and Jaina persuades him get Nerzhul

.15 Alleria negotiate with Nerzhul who then storms Dauntless

.16 Nerzhul turns captured Arthas to undead by chest

.17 Battle Nerzhul

.18 Defeat Nerzhul

.19 Save Alleria in Port Royal

.20 Aftermath. Arthas complements Sylvanas on Frostmournes quality and expect the same care showed for all aspects in her life. Pointedly says the gift went right to his heart, as its an estoc rapier made for piercing.

lright, so in the first part, the Curse of the Black Pearl, we have an established one-sided pining from baby-not-yet-pirate Sylv, and a Jaina that goes from "wtf pirates??? I wanna go home???" to "huh pirates" to proving that she's actually a capable figher -and pirate-; would be neat if she first considers Sylv as merely a friend, then they grow closer but she's still on the fence about it, and while at sea and adventuring and running from Nee'zhul she goes "wait I actually have feelings???"

Perhaps Alleria being stupid in rum isle makes her realize her feelings for Sylvanas? In a "she may have pirate blood but she's honorable and honest and would never hurt me and- oh no, feelings"

And of course that final scene in which Jainabeth goes "surprise I'm not marrying Arthas I'm marrying Sylvanas" while Alleria does her famous disaster exit

VITAL QUESTION #1: What is the female equivalent of the recurring implications that Will Turner is a eunuch???

[inspofromancientworld]

Oldest recorded creation myths in the world: 1500 BCE - Hindu creation myth India Created by Brahma, who emerged from the formless chaos and darkness that existed before the beginning. Brahma separated the five elements (earth, water, fire, are, ether) then created living beings, gods, and demons. There was a battle between the gods and demons, which the gods won. The gods then asked Brahma to create humans to worship them as their boon. Humans lacked knowledge when they were created, so Brahma gave them the Vedas so they'd know what rituals to perform. Called the Purusha Sukta Found in the Rigveda

1600 BCE - Eridu Genesis Mesopotamia (incomplete) Created by An, Enlil, Enki, Ninhursag. Enki, the god of wisdom, water, knowledge, crafts, and creation, creates a home for the gods on Earth. Enki sculpts humans from clay and tasks them with serving the gods. Humans multiply and get noisy, annoying the gods. Enki warns Ziusurda to build a boat to save his family, after which, he was gifted eternal life. https://study.com/academy/lesson/eridu-genesis-overview-summary-sumerian-flood-story.html

1300 BCE - Enūma Eliš Mesopotamia Created by Marduk. Tiamat, who embodies chaos and the primordial sea, gives rise to Apsu, the god of groundwater, and Tiamat's consort. They create Lahmu and Lahamu, then they give rise to Anshar and Kishar. Anshar gave rise to Anu (the sky), then Nudimmud (also known as Enki [same as Eridu Genisis] and Ea). They're loud, so Apsu complained to Tiamat and Mummu. Mummu proposed destroying the gods, Tiamat was reluctant. Apsu embraced Mummu. Upon learning about this, Ea created a sleeping spell for Apsu, taking his divinity, then killed him. Apsu's body became the home of the gods. Then Ea and his consort Damkina used Apsu's heart to create Marduk. The other gods complained to Tiamat, and she gathered her forces to attack Ea. Ea heard of Tiamat's plan, though, and sought counsel from Anshar, who advised him to allow Marduk to fight. Marduk defeats Tiamat with a net he was given by Anu, as well as using the seven winds (north, south, east, west, a whirlwind, a cyclone, and Imhullu [the evil wind]), and an arrow. Marduk split Tiamat in two, creating the earth and the sky. Marduk placed the likeness of the gods in the constellations and created a home for Anu, Enlil (the god of wind, air, earth, and storms), and Ea.

3000-1100 BCE - Greek creation myth (from Minoan, Mycenean, and Greek sources) Created by Gaia and Uranus. In the beginning, there was only Nyx, a black-winged bird. She laid an egg that hatched into Eros. Half the shell rose to become the sky and Eros named it Uranus. The other half became the earth, which Eros named Gaia. Eros caused them to fall in love and they had many children, who gave them grandchildren. One child, Kronus, became fearful of the power of the grandchildren, so he swallowed his children, until his wife, Rhea, gave him a rock instead of their last born, Zeus. Zeus killed his father, releasing his siblings, and starting a great war in heaven. The younger generation won, sealing up the older. Zeus's generation set the constellations in Uranus and life on Gaia. Zeus saw that animals and men were missing and told Prometheus and Epimetheus, his sons, to create these creatures, giving each a gift. Prometheus made men and Epimetheus made animals. Epimetheus used all the gifts, so Prometheus gave men fire, angering Zeus. Zeus had Hephaestus create Pandora, who was given a gift from each god, including a jar containing all evils. She is given to Epimetheus, who ignores Prometheus' warnings. Pandora then scatters the evils in her jar, except hope, which is held in by the will of Zeus. https://www.cs.williams.edu/~lindsey/myths/myths_16.html

3100-2686 BCE - Egyptian Creation Myth (Early Dynastic Period) Nu, an infinite, lifeless expanse of water, was all that existed in the beginning. Gradually, a mound of earth called benben emerged and the god Atum appeared on the mound, creating himself by speaking his name. Atum created Shu (air) and Tefnut (moisture). They gave birth to Geb (earth) and Nut (sky). Geb and Nut were lovers, but were separated by Shu, creating space between earth and sky after they gave birth to Osiris (fertility), Isis (motherhood), Set (chaos), and Nephthys (protection). Isis and Osiris gave birth to Horus (the sun). (Exact details vary by location.)

65,000 years ago - Dreamtime Australia The world was created by powerful spiritual beings created the land, sea, and sky. They made mountains, rivers, water holes, rocks, plants, and animals. People were created, given huting tools, land, and totems in their Dreaming, thus the Spirits are the Ancestors from the beginning of time. The Ancestors showed people which places were to be sacred and what rituals to perform and what songs to sing to please the Ancestors. The exact nature of the Ancestors varies from huge snakes to the Wanadjina (cloud and rain spirits).

[witchyfashion]

deluxe volume of 15 Japanese folk tales that is sure to impress any fan of cultural and mythological literature with impactful and stunning illustrations by contemporary Japanese artist Kotaro Chiba. A goblin with no body and a monster with no face. A resourceful samurai and a faithful daughter. A spirit of the moon and a dragon king. This collection of 15 traditional Japanese folk tales transports readers to a time of adventure and enchantment. Drawn from the works of folklorists Lafcadio Hearn and Yei Theodora Ozaki, these tales are by turns terrifying, exhilarating, and poetic. POPULAR SERIES: Designed for diehard fairy tale and folklore lovers, the Tales series gives new life to traditional stories. In addition to Tales of Japan, discover Ghostly Tales, Nordic Tales, Celtic Tales, Tales of India, Tales of East Africa, and more. BEAUTIFUL GIFT: With its bold hardcover design, a satin ribbon page marker, and a striking full-page illustration for each story, Tales of Japan makes an impressive gift. Perfect for fans of fairy tales, ghost stories, Greek mythology, Roman mythology, Chinese mythology, Celtic mythology, and folklore and cultural studies from around the globe.   READERS LOVE IT: With hundreds of 5-star ratings, reviewers rave that this "absolutely delightful collection of traditional Japanese folktales" is "a must-have for folklore fans."

https://amzn.to/3tLTapp

[rockyjulesxx]

the correct marauders head cannons

Sirius Black

GAY AND TRANS ASS MOTHER FUCKER!! #endthecisaficationofsiriusblack idc if it’s genderfluid, non-binary or ftm this bitch is trans and loves men.

he’s like 5”6-5”9 in height.

obvi has black hair that is up to his shoulders/ collarbone and is also very layered.

he’s tattooed and pierced. some tattoos are of the moon cycle, his and regs stars, dog foot prints and something prongs and wormtail related. he also has multiple ear piercings with a side nose stud, a navel and a bottom labret piercing.

he loves dressing hyper feminine but also masculine. he doesn’t have a set style, he just dresses to serve cunt and have clothes that match his docs and chunky rings and leather jackets.

he has borderline personality disorder that he is very ashamed about because the characteristics of his mental illness remind him of his mother. he also has ptsd that affects him the most through nightmares. he also gets a lot of gender envy that fouls his dysphoria from his friends, but refuses to tell them about it because he doesn’t want to make any of them feel bad.

he’s pale and has silver eyes that can be kind of intimidating.

he’s half french and east asian ( him and james first bonded at hogwarts over being the only asian kids in their year) .

EYELINER!!

Remus John Lupin

bicon. no other acceptable answers.

sweaters. knitted sweaters. lots and lots of knitted grandpa sweaters. (many gifted to him by lily).

his style is very cottagecore, but also mixed in with some street style. he loves his beat ass crusty ass converse that are breaking at the seams, but he also wears docs when he wants to feel superior. he is either spotted in heavy knitted sweaters or old band tees. and a book bag. he cannot go anywhere without his fucking book bag.

he has tattoos. idk what tattoos, but definitely tattoos. and maybe a few ear piercings.

he’s 6”- 6”4 in height.

loves david bowie and sometimes wears makeup inspired by him.

wears fishnets under his jeans that are visible on his waist when he wears crop tops. this is slutty remus.

he has honey brown curly hair. it’s soft and bouncy and sometimes falls into his eyes that are obviously hazel.

freckles scattered between scars <3

has a physical disability that requires him to use crutches or a wheelchair from time to time. he also suffers from severe migraines that leaves him unable to leave his room.

he has ptsd and severe anxiety that went years without being medicated because of his “i can handle myself” mentality.

he’s welsh and/or jewish or maybe even latino anyone of those work tbh. he has soft tan skin that very glowy.

long eyelashes. like incredibly long eyelashes that are light brown and always curl towards the sun.

James Fleamont Potter

a pansexual himbo at his finest.

he’s from south asia, more specifically india.

he’s super sporty but not overly buff. he has the body type of a football player (or soccer player, whatever you call it).

his style is very relaxed in a man whore kind of way. he loves his red converse- they’re his staple piece.

he has one ear piercing he got with sirius. he thinks it looks stupid but sometimes puts it in when he wants a different look.

first started wearing skirts with sirius so that he felt more confident, but actually really liked how they looked on himself. he has slutty skirts he wears when he goes to the gay bar.

he has adhd and maybe anxiety that somehow went years without being diagnosed.

he has deep brown hair that’s messy and could possibly curl but always remains more fluffy than curly. it’s short cut but falls into his eyes that are a dark brown but look burgundy in the light.

he’s 5”9-5”11 in height. (sometimes he purposely tells people he’s shorter so that he makes guys who said they’re 6” feel stupid).

obviously wears glasses (he’s technically legally blind and has a lot of anxiety of loosing his vision. he got eye sugary once and had to wear an eye patch for a week. he still wears it sometimes for halloween or just for fun).

has a beauty mark under his left eye (lily likes to kiss it).

Peter Pettigrew

he’s asexual.

has a baby face and is often mistaken for remus’s little cousin.

he gets rosey cheeks very easily.

he doesn’t have tattoos but he has a few piercings.

he has a unibrow (it’s very pretty and has a beauty mark in between closer to his right eye).

short king! 5”4-5”6 in height.

his style is cardigans with jeans that are cuffed (half because of his height and half because of fashion).

he has dirty blonde hair that’s straight and cut short.

he has bright blue eyes.

he has body dysmorphia and social anxiety.

he has a very small gap between his teeth that he hates and tried to get braces for but couldn’t afford. everyone tells him it suits him though because the gap adds to his charm.

he’s a brit through and through, a full englishman

i’ll make a part two of this with all the other marauder icons.

[theoi-crow]

hiya nathan! i was wondering if you had any opinions on how we visualize the gods? i've seen a lot of pagans nowadays say that the gods appear to them looking different than say, their greek statues (for example one of my irl friends says that aphrodite appears to her as a chinese woman, and she reflects my friend's inner beauty and self love as a chinese person).

however there are also a lot people who insist that if this is so, it must be an imposter spirit or a different deity. if they see art that reflects deities drawn differently than greek, for example, they don't like it. and of course don't get me started on transphobic worshipers and such but that's another thing.

i'm not sure what to think, because on the one hand these are greek gods, but gods appear in many different forms to all sorts of different people. they have also been syncretized with many other gods too. what do you think?

(i hope this ask didn't come at a difficult time! take care of yourself and have a great day, your blog is truly a gift from the gods and has been so helpful to me in my journey :))

Hi!

It makes me really happy to know that my blog is helping you because my goal is to help anyone who needs it connect with their gods as effortlessly and cost-free as possible because I believe everyone deserves access to their gods regardless of their financial, physical or spiritual state☺️

I'd like to begin the reply to this ask by paraphrasing a quote from the pre-Socratic philosopher Xenophanes (570 - 478 BCE) which states:

If cattle, horses and lions had hands and could paint, they'd depict the gods in their own image by making the gods look like cattle, horses and lions. Here's the complete quote: (LINK)

In other words:

It's very common for people to perceive the gods in a way that makes it easier for the worshippers to identify with the gods by imagining them in their own likeness.

I believe the gods can and do take the features of their own devotees because according to Xenophanes, they've been doing this for a really, really long time.

Here's a bit of history to explain what I mean when I say they have been doing this for a long time:

When people talk about Ancient Greece, most people imagine modern Greece and parts of Turkey (because those are the parts of Greece that were mostly affected by the famous Persian and Peloponnesian wars and the ones that housed the iconic Classical Greek period which is where we get most of our writing from or about) but I'd like to show you a map of how massive and diverse the Ancient Greek world actually was during the Classical Period:

As you can see here, the Greek world covered more than modern Greece and parts of Turkey.

It covered:

- Turkey: all of it's edges facing the sea

— Bulgaria: (just the southern parts which used to be a part of the ancient Greek city of Thrace)

- Italy: most of the southern part.

- Sicily: almost all of it, in fact Sicily was so culturally Greek that it took the Sicilians until the 14th CE century to stop speaking Greek: (LINK),

- Africa: The Northern parts close to Egypt

- parts of Spain among others (You're welcome to use this as a side by side comparison to find the modern countries they correspond to.

During the Hellenistic Period, Alexander the Great (who was from the Greek kingdom of Macedonia which was part of the ancient Greek world since it sat between the Greek mainland and Thrace: (LINK) spread Greek culture and colonies towards the East by taking over the entire Persian Empire (including Egypt) and went far enough to reach parts of India:

This merging of cultures caused the birth of Greco-Buddhism (LINK) And the Hellenistic influence on Indian art: (LINK) After Alexander's death his empires broke up but the colonies remained Greek including Egypt with the Macedonian Greek Ptolemaic Dynasty: (LINK)

The influence Greece had on the Ancient Roman world will also be covered in this post because at its peak, The Roman Empire covered most of Europe, the edges of North Africa, and a massive part of the Middle East:

I'm adding the Roman world here because the cultural impact Greece had on Rome caused such an intertwining mix between the two cultures to the point that it can make it very hard for non-scholars to distinguish between what is Greek vs. what is Roman without doing their own research on both cultures to have a clearer separation of both cultures.

For example: not many people realize that Psyche is a purely Roman goddess and was never Greek or apart of the Greek Pantheon even though most people refer to her as being the wife of Eros when she's actually just the wife of The Roman god Cupid. This is one of the best examples of Roman and Greek culture mixing together to the point where it is indistinguishable to non-scholars.

Rome had also indirectly interacted with China through the silk road or common trade partners like India. Although they never interacted directly they were very much aware of each others empires and naturally influenced one another so by extension china was exposed to Greek culture via Rome: (LINK)

All of these empires were incredibly DIVERSE to the point where they would look no different than a modern diverse city would look to us today.

This post is also only talking about people of different ethnicities who lived in the ancient world and worshiped the Greek gods specifically, not people who worked with gods from other pantheons that were referred to by their Greek counterpart by people like Herodotus who would use the Greek pantheon to refer to the Egyptian pantheon: (LINK)

So to reiterate what I wrote at the beginning of this post:

The gods have been looking like their very diverse devotees for thousands upon thousands of years, I personally believe this is because the gods like relating to their devotees and thus will often look like they are related to their devotees in order to share a close bond.

Especially Aphrodite who may want her devotees to see their own beauty which can be more compelling than following modern white beauty standards in order to protect them from hating themselves because of societies racist propaganda and warped beauty standards.

The Christianization of Europe has effectively cut off the ancient Greek religion completely and what we now call Hellenic Polytheism comes from a religion pieced together by archaeological research and guessing work without being completely sure about how it works which effectively makes this an Open Religion, but beware of people who will try to use the same logic against religions and spiritualities that are very much closed because they don't understand what makes an open religion, open.

Disclaimer:

While I believe anyone can imagine the Greek gods to have diverse features because of how diverse the ancient Greek world was and thus their ancient devotees would have imagined them that way, I believe ancient Greek people who once lived in what is now modern Greece like Socrates, Plato and Sappho should only be portrayed as GREEK. This includes specific Greek heroes and mythological characters tied to the modern Greek places like Achilles and Agamemnon because they came from those specific areas.

We, as worshipers, should show respect to the modern Greek culture by refraining from taking away the Greek image of the people who once lived there or the heroes who were tied to their specific regions.

For me, the humans in ancient Greek myths have a Greek ethnicity that is non-negotiable because Greece is a living, breathing country with it's own own history beyond the ancient world and respecting their boundaries as a country and NOT emulating the countries who have robbed them of their culture and identity by stripping the country's temples and taking their statues!

This has left the country suffering a lot of financial problems with the theft of it's artifacts by countries like England, Germany and France (including the US among others) who refuse to give them back their artifacts: (LINK)

So I hope you understand what I mean when I say:

The heroes and ancient Greek people that once lived in modern Greece should have their ethnicities as Greeks unchanged.

The gods, however, have been worshipped in so many places with so many different devotees of various backgrounds so they are not bound to one modern place in the same way because they come from the ancient world which connected them to various countries and continents, because, again, the ancient Greek world was a lot more diverse than racist Classicists and white supremacists would like for you to know.

As for people who claim seeing a god with features they don't agree with is the sign of someone working with a trickster spirit:

These people are not only underestimating the power of the gods but are also using Christian rhetoric to scare you into controlling the way you work with the gods.

Claiming the gods are trickster spirits is no different than when early Christians claimed pagans were being tricked by demons.

Do I believe trickster spirits can pretend to be gods? No, because I know the gods are more powerful than whatever poor spirit decides to try to be them.

Do you need to protect yourself before contacting a god? No, because even ancient toddlers and children did not fear the gods or protect themselves against the gods.

Also, why would you want to work with a god you don't even trust?

Needing to protect yourself against a god might be your subconscious mind telling you that you'll be interacting with a demon (Christian propaganda) so I recommend you try your best to deconstruct from your previous beliefs and religion, before interacting with a Greek god if you're afraid they might be a trickster spirit.

Can something parade as a god and abuse you? Your very own mind because it is influenced by your own history and perception.

Your perception will combine with your inner shadow self, guilt and religious trauma to make the gods seem a lot scarier than they actually are.

Your mind will make it feel like the gods are mad at you especially when you haven't fully deconstructed your previous religion or grew up with abusive authority figures like narcissistic parents because you might accidentally superimpose those beliefs and expectations onto the gods.

The mind is a lot more complicated than we realize so it's important to educate ourselves with psychology to not fall for its psychological pitfalls.

If you're new to working with the Greek gods and grew up Christian, you'll probably experience massive headaches, bouts of guilt, night terrors and a lot of things that make it seem like the gods don't like you but your mind doesn't like change and the pagan gods and pagan traditions are so different than your previous religion that it's not uncommon for your subconscious to reject your own practice and make you believe you're not worthy to work with them or trick you into thinking the gods hate you. It just takes time, research, and a lot of patience.

The gods mimicking your features or looking like they could be a family member is just one of the many ways they're trying to combat your own subconscious psychology rejecting them because:

As much as you really want to connect with your gods, your gods also want to connect with you.

I hope this helps!

[ben-the-hyena]

Fifth Day of Christmas : the Three Magi

In the Gospel of Matthew, magi coming right from the East guided by the Morning star after years of searches concluding in the imminent coming into this world of a messiah, carrying with them offerings for the Divine Christ Child, that is incense, gold and myrrh, are mentionned for the first time. They are then anonymous, on undertermined number and are just scholars. It is only from the 3rd century that tradition made kings out of them and with time they end up to be established in number three, a sacred and symbolical number. Their names and origins change depending of Christianity branches and parts of the world, but for us Western people, we know them as Caspar ( the youngest and beardless one, king of India, represents Asia), Melchior (the oldest and white-bearded and haired one, king of Persia, represents Europe) and Balthazar (dark-faced and bearded, king of Arabia or Ethiopia depending of versions, represents Africa). In some regions of the world, they're the ones who bring presents instead of Santa Claus. But in every case, we celebrate their arrival during the twelvth day of Christmas, the Epiphany. In France we eat the galette des rois ("kings cake"), but in some places such as Puerto Rico they say they bring gifts like a second Christmas. In any case for arriving that late they sure must have gotten lost

[helianskies]

They called him the Son of the Devil. 'They', however, did not know what the Devil truly was...

a gift for @needcake! this is just a lil' something hehe, but feliz aniversário e espero que você se divirta! 🌊

[ read the full fic on ao3 or down below! ]

They called him the Son of the Devil. 

‘They’ were the Portuguese, God-fearing, almost as much as they were Devil-fearing, evidently. From those unfortunate enough to meet him by land, to those even more unfortunate to meet him at sea, they were his adversaries, his victims, his entertainment.

The Portuguese ships—whether merchant or naval—who clung too close to his territory for too long were taught fast what it really meant to fear. Cannonfire was child’s play. Never did he miss, nor did his men ever hesitate when he made the call. That had bought him his name—a personal ferryman for Davy Jones, delivering souls to their watery graves like the swift turning of the tide.

Meanwhile, those who resided in the areas navigated by his ship did not venture too close whenever they docked. While some were sympathetic to the attacks against the Portuguese, and were kind enough to keep his crew stocked up and sustained with both food and leisure, others were sure to keep their distance when they could. Perhaps that was wise of them. Even the too-curious were at risk. And perhaps being feared like that, too, brought only a greater thrill.

A force to be reckoned with, was what he was. Fierce as the pacific seas he had come to claim as his own. So many ships had been sunken, so many men slain—and it had made Abel a man wealthy not only in riches, but equally in reputation. 

At present, Abel and his men were venturing the Coromandel Coast of India. The growing spice trade was teeming with opportunity, markets, clients, and the easterlies made it an easy route to take before swooping back around towards the East Indies. It suited them well. Here, they had been welcomed more openly than they were used to.

To make the most of a final night in their current host town, Abel had been generous and granted the crew an evening to explore and enjoy themselves. For the majority, that had meant a night wandering from tavern to tavern, tankard to tankard, and Abel had gladly joined them.

At least, for most of the evening.

As the moon was approaching its highest point in the sky, however, and as the stars came to shine their brightest, Abel found himself alone at the beginning of a beach. He couldn’t remember how he got there. He couldn’t tell if he had just arrived, or if he had been standing there for an hour. But the sea was calming, the breeze light, and the ‘how’, ‘when’ and ‘why’ were so suddenly, incredibly unimportant.

Abel wandered forth and welcomed the feeling of sand beneath his boots, sturdy yet not, gentle yet not. There was a bottle in his hand, he soon discovered, from which he took a healthy sip of spiced liquor. Life felt perfect.

The sea before him was illuminated by the moon and the stars and the ghosts of his victories. It was his—all his. It was an immense feeling, a sobering tidal wave (well, figuratively sobering, that was).

A younger Abel, who used to quietly watch from the window as his father went out to sea to catch fish before the sun even rose, would not have imagined this future for himself. He used to hate the sea. He used to hate how it stole from him. The day his father had gone out for work and not returned—not that evening, nor the day after, nor even within the next year—he had sworn vengeance.

But now, he was the one who stole, and the sea no longer laughed at him but respected him. It was no longer the enemy, but a friend. If his father had gone out to sea and drowned, then all Abel knew was that his father had simply not been strong enough a man to live…

…he took another swig from the bottle.

What made him do it, he lacked an answer (or at least, answer he was willing to admit, even to himself) but with a mere blink he was sitting down, and with another, sand cradled his body and he stared up at the dark blanketing sky.

Serenity was generally a foreign concept to Abel—otherworldly, even. But there it was, all-encompassing, all-consuming. How… freeing. He closed his eyes and breathed it in and felt that internal reminder why this life was all he needed. 

Abel lay there for a while, basking in the swelling night and sea. He could have fallen asleep right then and there—perhaps he even did—but just as all of his senses ebbed and flowed and threatened to leave him in the arms of Morpheus, something distant drifted through the haze. A voice. A chorus. 

It was angelic, if he had to try and describe it. A madman would have thought that they were dying and being greeted from on high. But Abel, far from losing his wits, had no other explanation for it.

Sitting up, it was clear that no one else was around on the beach. Even his own footsteps now had been sifted by the wind and cast away. So his head turned back to the sea—could there be a boat? sailors?—but no vessel was there, either, and his confusion remained. 

The voice was impossible to pinpoint. It truly seemed to surround him. The more he listened, the more he felt a pull, and the more he listened again, he began to make sense of the words filling the air—words that, at first, had not sounded like words, but which now sung of riches, home, and the sea in a language he knew—a language that was his own.

And then he heard a splash. It had been small, but noticeable, and it drew Abel's gaze towards the South, where rocks trailed from the edge of the coastline and dipped down into the waters.

At first, he wondered if he was, in fact, out of his mind. But he blinked, and peered harder through the night, and found his eyes still did not betray him: there upon the rocks was a figure—the source of the melody, and the object of Abel's fixation. Surely not. But surely, yes.

He was on his feet. He was not sure when or how he had moved, nor why he then proceeded to venture across the sand towards the outcrops, but he did, and he did not fight it. As he neared, the music grew stronger yet softer, more delicate and whimsical, but no less powerful. It called to him. He couldn't fathom why he felt that way, but he did—it was as though the performance was all for him, and he so desperately sought a closer audience.

Before he knew it, the distance that had separated them had shrunk to span only metres. Being so close, he could see the figure somewhat easier—a figure with long hair that they carefully groomed with their own fingers, and legs that appeared to vanish into the water. A midnight swimmer, perhaps? A woman who, like him, had maybe had one drink too many?

Nevertheless, as he stepped onto the rocks themselves in order to get closer still, the beautiful singing, so gentle and smooth, suddenly subsided.

Abel blinked. He stared. Hands dropped away from flowing locks, and a head turned so that two eyes could gaze upon him, and he could gaze upon them in turn.

“I thought it was considered rude to stare.”

The lump in his throat took a few attempts to swallow. “What are you doing out here?” he deflected, gesturing with his bottle (he was amazed he was still holding it) towards the sea. “‘S a bit cold for a swim…”

The other hummed. “Maybe I like the cold,” they—he—could they be a man, with such a frame, and such mystical hair…?—replied. And, just like that, he slipped himself right into the water.

It felt like the other was trying to put distance between them again (Abel did not like that). It also felt like he was trying to prove a point, based on how he did not seem perturbed by the chilly depths. The sailor felt himself shiver just at the thought of the water, but, just as he found himself growing wary of the swimming stranger, he became, once more, the only thing Abel could focus on.

“You seem lost,” the other said, bringing himself to the edge of the rocks, whereupon he rested his arms and held himself against the ledge. “You are not from these lands, are you?”

“No, I am not,” Abel slowly returned as he crouched down, and once more bridged the gap between them. “Though, you hardly seem to be a local yourself. You… barely seem to be of this world, in fact.”

An invisible smile seemed to appear on the other’s face. “Is that a compliment, or an insult?”

“A compliment,” the blonde assured him. 

He tried to read the other as he spoke, just as he would read any other person, but all he could think about was how curious this stranger was—how the moon almost seemed to make him glow. And surely it was not his imagination: the other was not only in the sea, but naked, a man who must have had more drink than Abel several times over!

“Do you have a name?” he then asked, hoping to put some pieces of this pretty puzzle together. 

To that, the other gave a soft hum. “Everyone has a name,” he replied. “Do you have one?”

“I have a few.”

“Greedy.”

Abel cracked a small smile of his own. “Tell me yours first, and then I will tell you mine.”

The proposal was considered for a moment. A lot of thought seemed to take place—eyes watched closely and the other had to fix his posture—before he finally said, “João.”

His smile suddenly tensed along with several other muscles in his body. “João,” Abel repeated, giving it a taste, letting it dance on his tongue. “Sounds quite… Portuguese.”

“Well,” João responded, “maybe that has something to do with the fact that that is where I come from, no? Now, no distracting yourself,” he went on with ease, “you owe me your name.”

Remaining somewhat wary, but equally as tenacious, the sailor provided what had been requested: “I’m Abel. Though, I must admit, your people tend to use a different name for me…”

It almost felt weird to say so out loud. Perhaps that was the effect of facing someone like João, clouded in mystery, seemingly carefree, Portuguese. What if he already knew of Abel? What if underneath the water was concealed a weapon? What if—?

“'My people', huh? And what name might that be, sailor boy?”

And like that—the very second Abel looked at the other, looked him in the eyes, and was met by a sort of wonder—the care was washed away by the ebbing sea.

“They call me ‘the Son of the Devil’,” he said, “when they are not busy trying to run away.”

The revelation did not quite inspire the fear or wariness he had expected it to, however.

“Seriously?” João reacted instead, as though unimpressed, or unconvinced. “You hardly seem like a demon to me.”

“How would you know?” Abel asked somewhat pointedly, and just as fast as he had spoken before, the other lost his voice.

Abel wondered if he had come across too harsh. Conversely, had that not been the idea? To prove himself? But then, had it been deserved, he had to ask himself. João was one of few people to have ever engaged in a conversation longer than thirty seconds with him. Where others kept their distance, João almost seemed to want to close it between them again.

"Tell me," the sailor said, wanting desperately to amend his prior cruelty, "what has driven you into the water? Not me, I hope."

At that, the other's amusement grew. "Why?" he questioned. "Should I have reason to run from you, too?"

"Or swim away, in your case."

He received a tut. "Well?" the stranger prompted. "Do I?"

"You might," Abel answered in earnest, lowering himself even further by taking a firm seat upon the rocks. "I'm not liked by many people. They prefer to avoid me, if they can."

That, however, only seemed to draw the other in. The gap narrowed even more.

"Does that mean you're dangerous?" he asked. 

The word brought Abel, in turn, a small burst of excitement. So much for wanting to make a better impression.

"They have not given me my nickname for no reason."

"Mmm,” João grinned, “that's good. I like danger."

"Oh?"

"Danger can be fun," the other mused. And then, after a short pause—a moment to think—he added, "I can be dangerous, too, you know."

To Abel, it was a laughable notion on the one hand, but equally quite cute that the man in the water did not seem to grasp what danger truly was. Abel had killed, and sometimes just because he could. But this person before him, with their wondrous hair and heavenly voice and gentle eyes (and very naked body), hardly looked capable of anything more sinister than ordinary wit.

Still, he found himself humouring this fantasy. Something about the other made him want to talk more, and enjoy his company.

"How scared should I be of you, then?" Abel asked, to which he received a sort of proud smile. 

"No, no. Not scared," João warned him. "Danger is fun, remember."

"Not my kind of danger."

"Only a coward thinks danger is dangerous," however. "So are you dangerous, or scared?"

He couldn't quite work out how they had arrived at such a statement, inflammatory and unnerving. It threatened Abel in so many ways. It was a challenge to his very name, the thing he had spent years of his life carefully constructing . He was hardly going to sit there, and take it.

"I," he said as clearly as possible, "am not scared."

"No?"

"No."

"Are you sure?"

"Very."

"Then get in."

The Dutchman stopped. He blinked. He blinked again. And then, he considered in brief the dark but tranquil sea. 

"Come on," the other insisted all the while, gently pushing away from the rock in order to fully embrace the waters around him. "Come in for a dip," he pressed, "and prove to me that you are not scared, sailor boy.”

It was an ask that felt like— No, no— It wasn’t too much—Abel was perfectly capable of getting into the water and going for a swim and had done so many a time—but the bottle in his hand felt heavier than before, and he wondered if perhaps this was all a falla—

A cold hand found his face, held his cheek, and offered a solace that Abel had not requested, but one that… he liked. 

“Come,” the other’s voice delicately urged again, “I promise it will be worth it. A quick dip, to prove to me that the Son of the Devil really is as bold and fearsome as he claims…”

Something about the way that João looked at him was utterly magical. He felt awe, he felt hunger, he felt desire. He had not often seen a man and had thoughts of such a nature, but he would allow himself to make an exception. 

He got lost in that world for a moment. He could still see and feel João there, reeling him in, but at the same time all Abel could think about was how it would feel to kiss him, to hold him, to have him in bed, to drown in him entirely. Abel wanted it. He wanted him. There was something so suddenly carnal about it—something so imperative, for the sake of his survival.

He was just so… so enchanting. It was impossible to look away, or think of anything—anyone—else. And the nearer João pulled him, the deeper Abel felt ready to—

The water was freezing. It smacked him in the face, merciless and harsh. The moment his body fell into the sea, Abel’s instincts screamed for him to swim, to get back out, to seek warmth and dry land—but as he tried to bob and find air and something to hold onto, all he found was João amongst the bubbles and commotion. 

João, who had pulled him right under the surface. João, who smiled at him and held onto him. João, who… did not stop pulling, or holding, or smiling.

It was only when Abel could no longer reach his hands above the water or remember the last few minutes in detail or feel enough air in his lungs that reality, at last, made itself known to him. Too little, too late. 

Abel was about to learn what it was like to be condemned to a watery grave of his own.

[endlessly-cursed]

MA- Shreya Battersea-Parsons

"𝙄 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙗𝙚 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙛𝙞𝙧𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙢𝙖𝙣𝙮 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙞𝙣 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙨𝙮𝙨𝙩𝙚𝙢, 𝙟𝙪𝙨𝙩 𝙖𝙨 𝙄 𝙥𝙡𝙖𝙣 𝙩𝙤 𝙢𝙖𝙠𝙚 𝙨𝙪𝙧𝙚 𝙄 𝙖𝙢 𝙣𝙤𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙡𝙖𝙨𝙩 𝙤𝙣𝙚 𝙩𝙤 𝙖𝙘𝙝𝙞𝙚𝙫𝙚 𝙜𝙧𝙖𝙣𝙙 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙜𝙨 𝙝𝙚𝙧𝙚."

Name: Shreya Hümasha Battersea-Parsons 

Nicknames: TBD 

Birthdate: 6th of May, 1997 

Zodiac Sign: Taurus 

Personality Type (MBTI): TBD 

Blood Status: Half-blood 

Nationality: Turkish, Indian and Irish 

Physical Appearance

Hair: Black, thick and long 

Eyes: Black 

Height: 1.65m 

Weight: 63kg 

Body Type: Average 

Skin Tone: Dark brown 

Distinguishing Marks (scars, birthmarks, etc.): TBD 

Background

Hometown

Shreya grew up travelling between Antakya (Turkiye), Dublin (Northern Ireland) and Kolkata (India), living a comfortable life and in the public eye since she descended from the former House of Osman through her paternal three-times great grandmother Nilufer Sultan, later known as Battersea. Her mother Esmanur was her direct descendant and her father was a famed businessman who travelled often. She grew up with everything she ever wanted, and even took in her sort of cousin Luke Battersea. 

Family

Mother: Esmanur Zeynep Battersea 

The only daughter of Bayezid Battersea, she was a proud and entitled woman who was used to have the princess treatment. She planned to marry highly, given that her heraldic blood was on her side. She married Mahmud Parsons, a wealthy Indian businessman. Despite him being away and Esmanur flauntering her own wealth, they had a daughter together, Shreya, and doted on her like nobody else. They raised her so that she’d know who she was and carry on their legacies. 

Father: Mahmud Ismail Parsons 

A wealthy businessman in Mumbai, he was introduced to Esmanur during one of his annual visits to Istanbul and was quickly charmed by her. The two of them hit it off and decided to get married that summer of 1996, and soon after the wedding, their daughter Shreya. They’d try for more, but it ended up in miscarriage. After the third try, they desisted. He instead devoted his limited time to Shreya, though he was never truly around, making up with expensive gifts and bringing Luke to make her company. 

Distant cousin: Luke Battersea ( @unfortunate-arrow​ ) 

Though they weren’t exactly close or talked much, after he was taken in by the family, Shreya was the one to genuinely care for him and always watched Star Wars with him and listened when he talked, despite not understanding him much, but she truly tried her best, and she knew that Luke knew. 

Hogwarts

House: Slytherin 

Best Class: History of Magic, Transfiguration and Potions 

Worst Class: Flying and Herbology 

Boggart: Something awful happening to John, later Kevin  

Riddikulus: John starts singing in a bad Irish accent, later Kevin

Patronus: TBD 

Patronus Memory: Playing hide and seek with her parents 

Mirror of Erised: Becoming the next Minister of Magic, opening the way to women of colour to own power positions 

Amortentia (what she smells like): Powder, strawberries, Turkish delight, spices, lavender and hot coffee 

Amortentia (what she smells): TBD 

Career

11-18: Hogwarts student 

20-38: Diplomat for the British ministry in the East 

39-48: Chief Warlock 

50-62: Minister of Magic 

65+: Retiree 

Personality & Attitude

Priorities: Her career, herself, her family’s safety and her goals 

Strengths: Strong-minded, confident, kind and funny 

Weaknesses: Proud, perfeccionist and tends to romantise everything 

Stressed: During the time where they tried to murder her for her family jewels 

Calm/Comforted: In her room, hearing John laugh, later reading in comfortable silence with Kevin

Favorites

Colors: Black, grey, green, red and orange 

Weather: Sunny 

Hobbies: Reading, studying, fashion and beauty products 

Fashion: Shreya dresses to the latest Turkish fashion (her favourite kind of fashion) and is always aware of the latest trends in Istambul 

Relationships

Significant Other/Love Interest: John Arthur ( @potionboy3​ ) 

Shreya has always had a crush on John Arthur, but who wouldn’t? He was handsome, charismatic, athletic, sweet and such an incredible young man. Shreya never made her move, noticing his heart was elsewhere. 

After graduation, they found one another again. She noticed how lost he seemed and Shreya felt that way too, and both of them started dating while they helped one another find their path. He was her first everything: first serious relationship, first intimate time, first boy to bring home, first time she ever fell in love... and they shared two beautiful years together, him almost becoming family. When they started inquiring about him popping the question, many aspects in their lives had changed. 

An old love of John had returned and, after much deliberating, decided to end the relationship. It ended amicably and, after healing from the heartbreak (she had been used to him being there) they became good friends and, though Shreya never knew Theo’s secret, came to like him and understand why John loved him. 

Kevin Farrel (husband) 

Shreya and Kevin went to the same year and had similar ambitions, making them good friends. They had a special connection, though Shreya was caught up in her crush with John, thus never saw Kevin, but from time to time, she’d have heart flutters when he smiled at her. Kevin, however, always had a crush on the brilliant, cultured, intelligent and incredibly beautiful Shreya, and seeing that she did not feel the same, decided to bury himself on his studies. 

They met years later after their graduation, and reconnected when she went to see Robyn on the Quidditch World Cup. Kevin, more confident, asked Shreya out and started seeing one another. Shreya had gotten out of a long relationship with John and had just come back from vacationing in her hometowns- Kolkata (formerly known as Calcutta) and Antakya, which are located in India and Turkey respectively. They fell in love and, after a year and a half of dating, Kevin proposed to Shreya, and they were married when they were 28. 

The Green Gals: Bryony Rose ( @cursedlegacies​ ) 

Shreya and Bryony met when they were assigned their dorms together, and though they butted heads over Bree’s feelings for Cassandra Vole, she ended up supporting her, not wanting to waste years of friendship over her. 

Jupiter Durand ( @cursed-herbalist​ ) 

Shreya and Jupiter have similar personalities and soon clicked. Shreya introduced Jupe to Arabic and Indian poetry, as well as Turkish dizis and Bollybood films. She also learned from her how to draw and French and Italian poetry and literature

Nymeria Lee ( @gcldensnitch​ ) 

(Lore TBD) 

Rosa Yaxley ( @potionboy3​ ) 

(lore tbd) 

Other friends: Sophie Pembroke 

(lore tba) 

Rivals: Cassandra Vole 

She and Cassandra butted heads, mostly because she made life impossible to her dear friends and duelled many times, in which Shreya always beat her. When she started dating Bree, she offered an olive branch and promised to crush her if she broke her friend’s heart 

Colby and Fischer Frey 

To say that the Fischer twins made Shreya’s life a pain was to say the least. They always butted heads and had a bigger rivalry of pranks and sabotage. After graduation, she didn’t talk much to them and avoided them. 

Trivia

Despite appearing in Turkish and Indian headlines, Shreya enjoyed much better the indoors and peace of home, a homemade food and tea on her desk while she studied politics 

To further her process as minister, she studied a double degree of law and political science in King’s College. 

Her favourite singer is Taylor Swift and Madonna

She also likes to dance to Turkish and Indian songs when she’s alone 

She loves to travel and read the newspaper to see what’s going on in the world 

She has triple citizenship in Turkiye, India and Northern Ireland, a rare thing indeed 

Apart from Turkish, Indian and English, she also speaks several Balkan languages, Greek, German and French, and has tried several times to learn Japanese 

She loves to bake and eat Turkish delights and drags everyone she knows to try them 

She also loves spicy food, very spicy food 

She knows how to cook several dishes in case they have to prescind from their cook 

[mariacallous]

There is no substitute for eating a dish in its place of origin, preferably made in a home kitchen by hands that hold the muscle memory of thousands of meals. For me, a close second is stumbling across a recipe, trying it out, and feeling transported to a new place by its flavors. The vastness of the Jewish diaspora has gifted us with a wealth of interesting types of culinary mergers, and I particularly love exploring the Jewish food of India, where Jewish communities date back thousands of years.

There are three distinctive Jewish Indian groups that happened to be largely isolated from each other: the Cochin Jews of Kerala in South India, the Bene Israel Jews of India’s West Coast and Mumbai, and the Jews of Kolkata in East India (formerly known as Calcutta). In “The Book of Jewish Food,” Claudia Roden recounts how Shalom Cohen from Aleppo was the first known Jew to settle in Kolkata in 1798. Soon after, Syrian and Iraqi Jews followed and developed a strong community there, where they worked as merchants and traders and lived in harmony with their neighbors. Things changed in 1947 when India gained independence, and again in 1948 with the creation of the State of Israel; anti-Semitism grew as the Jews became associated with the colonial British power. During that time, most of the Jews from Kolkata immigrated to Israel, the U.S., U.K. and Australia. This once vibrant Jewish Indian community is now all but gone from Kolkata.

While only a handful of Jews still live in Kolkata, the food from this community has traveled with its people. Their style of cooking involves a combination of ingredients and preparations from the Middle East, with the spices and techniques of Indian cuisine. There are several cookbooks and articles devoted to Sephardic foods and Indian Jewish cookery that have documented some of the dishes of the Jews from Kolkata. I was first struck by a recipe I found in both Copeland Marks’ book “Sephardic Cooking,” as well as in “Indian Jewish Cooking” by Mavis Hyman. Mukmura (or mahmoora) is a dish of chicken and almonds in a slightly sweetened tangy lemon sauce. I like any recipe that looks like it is simple to prepare but still offers big flavors, and this was clearly that. This chicken dish calls for easy to find bold ingredients like ginger, garlic, ground turmeric, lemon juice and fresh mint. The chicken is braised, which means the meat won’t get dry, and it can easily be made in advance for entertaining, Shabbat and holidays. By slowly simmering all of the ingredients together you develop a slightly sweet and sour sauce with all those warm spices and aromatics.  This dish is simultaneously comforting and exciting.

Note: This can be made a day in advance and reheats well.