#incorrect slavic mythology

[mythos-soup]

Chernobog, planning a group disguise: You cannot be Blake Bortles. 

Hermes: Fine! Then I’ll be Jake- 

Loki, under their breath: say Jortles. 

Hermes: Jortles! And I work at the molotov cocktail department.

[godsofhumanity]

Chernobog: Now, boys, I have a plan. Loki: of course you do. Chernobog: And you're all going to help me with it. Set: Hm. What's in it for us? Chernobog: A night of fabulousness, and mayhem, and possible death. Typhon: Check, check, not quite sure about the "death" though... Chernobog: It won't be you. The tricksters, collectively: We'll get our cloaks.

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Vasant: Nothing feels better than winning Monopoly. Not love, not sex, not free pizza, nothing!

Vesna: I’m sorry, have you tried pizza?

Vasant: Yes, and it doesn’t compare to owning half the board and watching the light die from your friend’s eyes as you take their money and feel your friendship slowly deteriorate.

Yarilo: I like you.

[15pantheons]

Veles: Why is it so hard for you to believe me?!  Perun: ...  Veles: Oh, right. The lying.

[marybeatriceofmodena]

I came across your anti-Grishaverse posts and I like to add some of own analyses about the worldbuilding (if you're willing to go through the series again after 2021, ofc). My knowledge on Russian history and folklore is very surface level but even then I still was absolutely baffled at how bad the worldbuilding is. Especially with "Grisha" which is literally Russian for Greg???? Lol, let's just call in the Pasha Army too because why not. I've already relentlessly made fun of the name "Grishaverse" being a multiverse of Gregs so here are my favorites: Gregor-Man: Into the Greg-verse. Gregory-thing Gregory-where All At Greg, Doctor Greg and the Multiverse of Greg-ness. And it's even worse with the show when they clumsily tried to explore racism with a more diverse cast of people of Asian descent which would've been an incredible story considering Russia's rich history with the Mongols and the Turks but then they had to add in the term "rice-eater". When like, Russian cuisine includes rice. Like salmon coulibiac. So it just makes no sense at all, it's kinda the equivalent of calling an American "burger-eater". And the absence of patronymic names just because the author thought it sounded better without them (Alina Starkov is grammatically incorrect and it drove me insane, it literally takes 5 minutes to look up how to do it). I think it's great how the author wanted to do a fantasy story with some vaguely Slavic traditions but the result reminds me of Raya and the Last Dragon from Disney which, as a South East Asian person, I really dislike because it literally does the same thing of cherry picking stuff from SEAsian countries and using words from real languages that don't make sense at all, even if it's a fantasy story (I really hate the "dep la" line from the movie). It's like the author doesn't really care about the nuances of Russian society or Slavic societies in general and really only cared about the aesthetics of it (which the show didn't even do right, what the fuck are those costumes, I hate fantasy costumes that look like they were on a haute couture fashion line). Which could lead into some really awful pitfalls bordering on stereotyping and exoticization. I think it's great how she wanted to do a fantasy story with some vaguely Slavic traditions since they're pretty underappreciated but the result reminds me of Raya and the Last Dragon from Disney which, as a South East Asian person, I really dislike because it literally does the same thing of cherry picking stuff from SEAsian countries and using words from real languages that don't make sense at all (I really hate the "dep la" line from the movie). I'm just tired of authors cherry picking stuff from other cultures for the aesthetics and don't bother to really delve into said cultures and build an interesting story inspired by their folklore or history. Not to mention, it feels like the lack of research shows a reluctance to genuinely learn and fall in love with Slavic cultures, like Westerners still think they're backwards and barbaric. I certainly felt the same way with Raya.

So, I'll start with the disclaimer that I haven't seen Raya as of now so I can't really speak for it, BUT I think the one nuance I would bring to this is that I do think it's fine to use artistic licence when you're taking inspiration for a certain culture, WITH THE VERY IMPORTANT CAVEAT that you need to understand what you're taking inspiration from in the first place.

Take me, for instance. My original fiction takes inspiration (among other things) of Breton tales and mythology, since it's the region where it's believed Nimue trapped Merlin, and there is a personnifcation of Death figure that is a bit of a nod to the Ankou (who in Breton mythology is considered to be Death's henchman), a plot point that will be a callback to the Midnight Washerwomen, and so on and so forth, but none of these are a 1:1 comparison with the Ankou and the Midnight Washerwomen, simply because... well, I felt like doing something different. But you know, I acknowledge it's a nod, I'm not going to say "Lord Death in my story is like the Ankou", because that simply wouldn't be true nor accurate.

All that to say, "inspiration" doesn't save you from having to do research, and learning "why" certain things tick a certain way. Orthodoxy tends to be very oriented towards mysticism and spirituality, and we kind of get that with the cult of the Saints in the Grishaverse, but if you stop and think about religion for more than 5 minutes in that setting, it falls apart. You could get away with saying naming conventions are different in your story compared to Russian conventions (if only for the sake of being gender-neutral and more inclusive), but it becomes a problem when there are several other mistakes that native speakers can easily point out.

And then, of course, you have to take into account that LB's forte is not writing fantasy that involves politics, sociology, wars, and so on. If we're talking about something that's more "in isolation" like the SoC duology, you can get away with that. Seriously, 19th Russia was a mess - it produced absolutely amazing art that endures to this day and still inspires a lot of people (not that we see any hint of that lmao), but it was also a pretty shitty place to live if you were a peasant or a serf. The problem is, the PoV characters we have for both the Grisha trilogy and the KoS duology are essentially 21st century characters, who apply 21st century logic and solutions to a 19th century setting, and instead of that causing a certain set of consequences, it works out for them when it really shouldn't, all the while they're ignoring HUGE PROBLEMS that are right there.

If you're going to write high fantasy with big stakes, I cannot recommend enough reading and learning about history. You're writing about a female freedom fighter in an oppressive regime? Read about real life folk heroines - Boudica, the Trung sisters, Joan of Arc, Emilia Plater, Rani Lakshmibai. You're writing about a rags (or close enough) to ruler protagonist? Read about Catherine I of Russia, Wei Zifu, Basil I, Fredegund, Theodora, Honwu Emperor. What made them tick? How did they get all the way to the top? Was it charm? Guile? Brute force? Knowledge? Sheer luck? Divine intervention (don't look at me like that, go ask Joan)? How did royal courts work? What were the conflicts at the time? Why were there conflicts at the time?

"But Irina, why should I do that research? It's all magic and dragons and monsters!"

Unless we're talking about a post-apocalyptic or primitive society, you're still going to have a certain level of societal organization. How is magic viewed in your fantasy world? Is it allowed? Glorified? Despised? Where does it come from? What's your inspiration? How does this inspiration view magic? What are you going to do differently and why? Are your dragons friendly or not? Are they gods? Pets? Prey? Are we talking about dragons in Persian mythology where they represent vices? If you're going to make them benevolent, why? Are they Chinese dragons, where they're considered benevolent and wise (on that note, that's why China had a more negative reaction to Mushu when Disney's animated version of Mulan came out)? If they're just going to be mindless beasts who just think about violence, why? Why not even pick another monster if you're going to make them the big bad when they're anything but? And the list goes on.

[dieplz]

Okay but what if gods from mythologies existed together and decided to just share the world

God: Okay guys, there are people. And people need to believe in things, right. So, how about everyone takes a part of Earth?

Ra: Me and my gang are taking Egypt. There's a lot of sun there. I like sun.

Odin: We are taking Scandinavia. There's a lot of mighty warriors there.

Huitzilopochtli: We are taking Mexico because yes.

Perun: We like Slavic people. It's obvious where we're going.

Zeus: We're taking Greece. So many pretty girls. And wine. And girls.

God: Okay, and that leaves us...

Jupiter and his gang: Yo.

God: Right, the Evil Twins Gang can go to Rome or something. You'll fit there.

Ra: Okay, but what about you, God?

God:

God: You'll see.

[n-kingsleigh]

Ah yes, the Anglo-Prussian alliance... My favorite slavic mythological being

[purplehoodiesimon]

okay i know i promised more butterflies and i'm very sorry but i went down another rabbit hole again and hopefully it's another thing you'll be interested in (if you know this already i'm sorry i promise i'll be back with another butterfly for you soon). once again i tried my best but some of it might be incorrect.

on to today's topic: in 2000, there was a somewhat controversial article written about the linguistics of the word "butterfly" across different languages (the elusive butterfly), written by william o. beeman, an anthropologist, who claimed that, contrary to most words, "butterfly" shares few/no roots from language to language. he's controversial mostly in that his focus isn't actually historical linguistics - it's anthropology. and within the article, he cites other, also controversial, researchers. in any case, some people agree with him, some people disagree with him, but at least on a surface level, many of the words for "butterfly" do appear unique. the gist of his research (i did not read his article i read a bunch of articles about his article) is that "butterfly" does not follow the typical cognate rules - i think within the romance languages (?) - because they should all be similar to the Latin word, papilio, and most of them, with the exception of French, aren't. even a lot of the other related languages have entirely different words.

this really isn't about beeman's research at all, although that's what got me onto the topic originally. mostly this is just about the etymology of the different words for butterfly. English: butterfly

comes from old English buttorfleoge, literally just butter and fly. this could be because butterflies were thought to have liked butter, because their poop is the color of butter, or because of the common butter-yellow color of some butterflies in England. in middle English it becomes buterflie, which evolved into the word we use today.

French: papillon

again, this is the one with a clear root word - papilio, in Latin becomes the French papillon.

Italian: farfalla

apparently, this comes from the Lombardic parpaja, which originated in northern Italy/southern Germany. (i don't know how accurate this actually is - every website seems to have a different answer, this one just made the most sense to me. alternatively, it comes from the Old Italian parpaglione, which does come from the Latin papilio.)

Maltese: farfetta

the other possibility i saw for farfalla is that it came from this word, but i don't know which came first. i can't (easily) find an origin for this word.

Spanish: mariposa

this comes from the phrase (?) "María pósate, descansa en el suelo," shortened to "María pósate," meaning "Mary, alight."

Portuguese: borboleta

in Latin, bellus means beautiful. with Vulgar Latin, it becomes belbellita, which becomes (now Portuguese) belbeleta, then berbeleta, then borboleta.

German: schmetterling

this one is simple. it comes from schmetten, meaning cream, because it was believed that witches transformed into butterflies to steal cream (sorry i missed that in the mythology ask), and the diminutive suffix -ling.

Dutch: vlinder

unfortunately this one is also unclear. the best i could find is that it is possibly related to the Proto-Germanic fî-faldrôn and/or fifaldǭ.

Swedish: fjäril

definitely related to the Proto-Germanic words above. those turn into fífrildi (Old Norse) and then into fiädhal (Old Swedish), before you get the current fjäril.

Danish: sommerfugl

literally "summer bird"

Russian: babochka

a diminutive of "old woman" or "grandmother." this also gets me a different result on the mythology front - it says that the Russians believed women/people turned into butterflies after they died.

Polish: motyl

from the Proto-Slavic motyljь‎.

Finnish: perhonen

perho is a fishing lure, supposedly. with the diminutive suffix -nen it makes the word for butterfly. other sources show liippo as an alternate word as well.

Hungarian: lepke, pillangó

from the Proto-Uralic lëppᴈ. it is a cognate of the Finnish liippo listed above.

from the word pillog, meaning 'to blink or flicker'. it uses the pillang variant with the -ó suffix.

Greek: petaloúda (πεταλούδα)

likely either from petilís, meaning 'locust', or petánnumi, meaning 'spread out'. i would guess the second over the first, but i really don't know.

Hebrew: parpar

originally, the word tziporet or tziporet kramim (meaning bird/vineyard bird) was used in place of an actual word for butterfly. in a poem written in 1904, tziporet was used alongside the word for flutter - pirper. deciding that a word solely for butterfly was necessary, someone in the Ben-Yehuda family (not sure who) took inspiration from pirper along with the Pharpar River and the French papillon to create the word parpar, first appearing in a 1910 poem and eventually becoming popularized.

Albanian: flutur

possibly from the Proto-Albanian flugtur, or the Latin fluctuare (to the Vulgar Latin fluctulāre, to the Albanian fluturoj - meaning 'to fly')

Romanian: fluture

borrowed from the Albanian flutur

Irish: féileacán

most likely from the Old Irish etelachán, which comes from the word etelach, meaning 'flying'.

Turkish: kelebek

from the Proto-Turkic kepelek.

and a few words that i couldn't find etymology for but still liked anyway: kipepeo (Swahili), fithrildi (Icelandic), peperuda/пеперуда (Bulgarian), and liblikas (Estonian).

(obviously this is not every language that exists - most of the articles i looked at had lists of languages and their word for butterfly, so that's where i got all these from, give or take a couple.)

sign languages do not reflect this difference - the vast majority use the same sign, although some have a different movement (ASL flutters the hands in place, BSL flutters upwards and left, LSF flutters upwards and right - those are the main variations). the other most common version of the sign for butterfly is the one used by Estonian, Italian, Spanish (Argentina), and Japanese sign languages: (please forgive my descriptions from here out) palms facing outward, thumbs overlapping at the nail, both hands form an open-b, with a repeated movement from open-b to flat-b. some of these signs include a secondary movement like BSL and LSF do, but some are stationary like ASL. of all the sign languages available for this word on spreadthesign, only Belarusian and Croatian have a distinctly different sign. Belarusian crosses the arms at the wrist and flaps the whole hand (palms down), and Croatian holds both hands shoulder-height (palms out, hands tilted so the fingers point off to the left and right but not entirely horizontal) and flutters the fingers.

this ask is a whole ass essay, i'm sorry. i put it into google docs to make sure i wouldn't lose it and it came out to ~1100 words. my apologies to everyone who has to see this and/or scroll past it.

💜🦋

Okay I just read that paper and your ask and that is fascinating. The way that so many of those words were completely different from each other, even among languages with similar origins like, everyone really did look at the butterfly and decide on a different word for it. I've always known that "butterfly" and "mariposa" were very different sounding but figured it was just one of those ones where English ended up with a Germanic based word for it instead of a Latin based word that would be similar to the Spanish. Did NOT expect it to be a weird one across lots of languages like that though. That is such an interesting phenomenon though like why did so many languages end up with such different words for butterfly, even when a lot of them share words/roots? I do have to say, after reading that entire list, I think mariposa is still my favorite word for the little creatures. It just sounds so elegant, like them.

As for the sign thing, that does make to sense to me. A lot sign languages had some mixing and matching during their establishments, like people often learned from other people in other countries that already had a sign language and so on and on. And it makes sense like, visually? Like you know, a lot of animal signs have to do with the appearance/movement of the animal (think like spider, turtle, snake in ASL) so it makes sense to me that an animal that generally just flies around flapping its wings and looking pretty would be shown with a hand flapping movement across the world in sign. THEN AGAIN, you'd also think etymologically similar spoken languages would have similar words for it so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

I'm gonna be up for the rest of my entire fucking life thinking about this. I have so many thoughts. So many. So many questions. A million, honestly.

Also every little nugget of information you give me about butterflies I am putting in a notes folder and figuring out how to work into butterfly Wille so keep them coming. I swear it's coming along. Slowly, but it is. These are amazing.

Please note: I am not an actual linguist or historian, just a languages nerd taking a lot of language classes, and if there's terminology or information in here that's inaccurate, I'm sorry, just let me know and I'll make the corrections.

[sir-adamus]

RWBY Name Meanings

gonna just give a quick run down of the name meanings for most of the major cast - this isn’t gonna be comprehensive or in-depth because i’m just looking up the names and words. i may have put an incorrect origin on some of these so i apologise in advance if i have and please let me know so i can correct it

Ruby Rose

Ruby - a precious stone that is a red corundum

Rose - a prickly bush or shrub that typically bears red, pink, yellow, or white fragrant flowers 

Weiss Schnee

Weiss - German for ‘white’

Schnee - German for ‘snow’

Blake Belladonna

Blake - a surname or a given name which originated from Old English. Its derivation is uncertain; it could come from "blac", a nickname for someone who had dark hair or skin, or from "blaac", a nickname for someone with pale hair or skin

Belladonna - deadly nightshade; from Italian bella donna ‘fair lady’

Yang Xiao Long

Yang - from Chinese, "sun” or “daylight”

Xiao Long - from Chinese, “little dragon”

Jaune Arc

Jaune - French for ‘yellow’

Arc - From Middle English, borrowed from Old French arc, from Latin arcus (“a bow, arc, arch”).

Nora Valkyrie

Nora - originates as a short form of Honora (also Honoria), a common Anglo-Norman name, ultimately derived from the Latin word Honor

Valkyrie - a host of female figures who choose those who may die in battle and those who may live. Selecting among half of those who die in battle (the other half go to the goddess Freyja's afterlife field Fólkvangr), the valkyries bring their chosen to the afterlife hall of the slain, Valhalla

Pyrrha Nikos

Pyrrha - In Latin the word pyrrhus means red from the Greek adjective πυρρός, purrhos, i.e. "flame coloured", "the colour of fire" or simply "red" or "reddish"

Nikos - a Greek common given name. It originates from Greek Nikolaos, which means "victory of the people"

Lie Ren

Lie - Chinese for "ardent"

Ren - Japanese kanji for "lotus"

Penny Polendina

Penny - diminutive of Penelope, which is possibly derived from Greek πηνελοψ (penelops), a type of duck. Alternatively it could be from πηνη (pene) "threads, weft" and ωψ (ops) "face, eye"

Polendina - a type of cornmeal mush

Ilia Amitola

Ilia - a Slavic form of the Hebrew name "Elijah"

Amitola - the Sioux word for “rainbow”

Ozpin

Ozpin - taken from the initials of the full name of the Wizard of Oz, Oscar Zoroaster Phadrig Isaac Norman Henkle Emmannuel Ambroise Diggs (OZPINHEAD)

Salem

Salem - a name of Arabic origin meaning “peaceful” or “complete”

Qrow Branwen

Qrow - a variant on ‘Crow’, a large perching bird with mostly glossy black plumage, a heavy bill, and a raucous voice

Branwen - From Welsh bran "raven" and gwen "fair, white, blessed", means something like “beautiful raven”

Oscar Pine

Oscar - of either Irish or Proto-Germanic origin, it means “Friend of Deer” or “Spear of God” respectively

Pine - an evergreen coniferous tree

Zwei

Zwei - German for ‘two’

Sun Wukong

Sun - from the mythological figure Sūn Wùkōng - The surname Sūn was given as an in-joke about the monkey, as monkeys are also called húsūn (猢猻), and can mean either a literal or a figurative "monkey" (or "macaque"). The surname sūn (孫) and the "monkey" sūn (猻) only differ in that the latter carries an extra "dog" (quǎn) radical to highlight that 猻 refers to an animal.

Wukong - from the mythological figure Sūn Wùkōng - The given name Wùkōng means "awakened to emptiness", sometimes translated as Aware of Vacuity.

[moonlightacademy]

Moonlight Academy’s Witchcraft Book PDF Links

Note: I have not been able to read through all of these yet, I am slowly making my way down the list. If there is a book that is offensive or incorrect please send me a message and I will review it and remove it from the list if necessary. 

Modern Magick Second Edition; Eleven Lessons in the High Magickal Arts by Donald Michael Kraig 

The Witch’s Magical Handbook by Gavin Frost and Yvonne Frost

The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft, and Wicca by Rosemary Ellen Guiley 

Nocturnal Witchcraft; Witchcraft After Dark By Konstantinos 

Call of the Horned Piper by Nigel Aldcroft Jackson 

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs by Scott Cunningham

Encyclopedia of Spells by Michael Johnstone 

The Mystical World of Ancient Witchcraft; An easy Insider Guide To the life changing Power of your Magick Energy by Rose Ariadne 

Old World Witchcraft; Ancient Ways for Modern Days by Raven Grimassi  

The Study of Witchcraft; A Guidebook to Advanced Wicca by Deborah Lipp

Buckland’s Complete Book of Witchcraft by Raymond Buckland 

The Witch’s Master Grimoire; An Encyclopedia of Charms, Spells, Formulas, and Magical Rites by Lady Sabrina

Witchcraft in Tudor and Stuart England; A regional and comparative study guide by Alan Macfarlane 

The Pagan Federation; Witchcraft Information Package

Herbal Magick; A Witch’s Guide to Herbal Enchantments, Folklore, and Divination by Gerina Dunwich

The basics of Magick by K.Amber

The Book of Night Magick by Phillip D. Williams

The Encyclopedia of Celtic Mythology and Folklore By Patricia Monaghan 

Celtic Mythology A-Z By Gienna Matson & Jeremy Roberts

Storytelling; An Encyclopedia of Mythology and Folklore 

Norse Mythology; Legends of Gods and Heroes by Peter Andreas Munch

Constellation Legends By Norm McCarter

Encyclopedia of Greek and Roman Mythology By Luke Roman and Monica Roman

Mysteries, Legends, and Unexplained Phenomena; Mythical Creatures By Linda S. Godfrey

A Guide to Astrology By Fredrick White

How to Use Astrology; How and Why it Works By Michael Erlewine 

A Manual of Astrology

Astrology for Dummies by Rae Orion

The Astrology Book; The Encyclopedia of Heavenly Influences By James R. Lewis

Astrology Course

The Cyber Spellbook; Magick in the Virtual World By Sirona Knight and Patricia Telesco 

Herbs in Magick and Alchemy; Techniques from  Ancient Herbal Lore By C.L. Zalewski

Cunningham's Encyclopedia of Magical Herbs By Scott Cunningham 

The Magical Household; Spells & Rituals for the Home By Scott Cunningham & David Harrington 

Herbs Magickal and Otherwise 

The Complete Book of Incense, Oils, & Brews By Scott Cunningham 

Plant Powers, Poisons, and Herb Craft By Dale Pendell **

**This book contains information on Poisons and is for informational purposes only, read at your own risk. 

The Magical and Ritual Use of Herbs By Richard Alan Miller

Cunnigham’s Encyclopedia of Crystal, Gem, and Metal Magic By Scott Cunningham

The Illustrated Encyclopedia of Herbs; Their Medicinal and Culinary Uses

Spiritual Alchemy; The Inner Path

Practical Handbook of Plant Alchemy By Manfred M.Junius 

Real Alchemy; A Primer of Practical Alchemy By Robert Allen Bartlett

An Illustrated History of Alchemy and Early Chemistry 

Alchemy Unveiled By Johannes Helmond 

Medicinal Plants in Folk Tradition; An Ethnobotany of Britain & Ireland By David E. Allen & Gabrielle Hatfield

Slavic Pagan World

Cunningham’s Encyclopedia of Wicca in the Kitchen By Scott Cunningham

Cunningham’s Book of Shadows By Scott Cunningham

Learning Tarot

The Pictorial Key to the Tarot By A.E Waite

Tarot Symbolism & Divination 

Tarot; Mirror of the Soul By Gerd Ziegler 

Tarot Keys By Andrea Green 

The Symbolism of the Tarot by P. D. Ouspensky

Healing Crystals; The A-Z Guide to 430 gemstones By Michael Geinger 

Dooney’s Crystal Database

An Introduction Guide to Crystals and Healing Stones By Ron & Sue Windred

The Healing Crystal First Aid Manuel By Michael Geinger

Practical Crystal Healing By Nicole Lanning 

Divination Systems by Nicole Yalsovac

How Divination Systems Work

The Path of the witch

The Weiser Field Guide to Witches

Practicing the Witch’s Craft By Douglas Ezzy

Grimoire for the Apprentice Wizard by Oberon Zell-Ravenheart

Hope you enjoy! Please feel free to add to the list!

Moonlight Academy

[mythos-soup]

I made more

[godsofhumanity]

Perun: I wish I had a super-tight knit group of friends I could fight crime with! Freyja: I wish I had a super-tight knit group of friends that I could commit crime with! Huitzilopochtli: I wish I had a super-tight knit group of friends. Ares: I wish I had friends. Horus: I wish I could knit.

[h0bg0blin-meat]

Vasanta, to Yarilo: We had a date! Vasanta: aggressively points to Hello Kitty Coloring Book

[15pantheons]

Perun, handing out popsicles: Which flavor do you want?  Jarilo: Blue flavor!  Perun: Uh, you mean Blue Raspberry?  Jarilo: Blue flavor! Blue flavor!  Perun: Blue is not a flavor!  Jarilo: BLUE FLAVOR! 

[orbitcd]

stonework // @queensconquest​ Fluorite Bearings & Citrine Focus for Dan

Fluorite Bearings: How strongly do they listen to their intuition? Is their intuition usually correct or incorrect?

ngl i’ve made a whole headcanon about this i think last week maybe?? but like dan is a very intuitive person. he pays very close attention to others, from the very beginning he knew something wasn’t right with uriel, he wasn’t who he said he was. he knew when william gained his memories back, he was very quick to pick up on lucifer and samael’s plans, and even heaven’s own falling apart due to metatron. he is just very GOOD?? at playing stupid. he drops little crumbs for people to give him a little glance, but then allows himself to be ignored in the greater picture. 

idk if it’s just bc he’s an old bastard, his past lives were typically him being complex and/or villainous characters in mythology (loki we most know from norse, svetovid in slavic mythology who was...looked up and worshiped far more heavily but he was still considered a rather tricky god despite being worth of his throne), but he does know how to play games and he often knows how to come out on top.

Citrine Focus: Are they able to multi-task or do they prefer to keep at one thing at a time?

dan is very much capable of multitasking. he can honestly be reading multiple scrolls, books, reports . . . anything?? that requires reading, all at once and if you ask him to recite something from what he’d read, he has no problem doing it for you. it exhausts him, but he can also keep up with multiple conversations, even ones he’s not particularly part of. he here’s something of interest with those damn ears of him and he’s honed in on that as well, while still listening to you talking to him. 

and idk if you’d call it multitasking, but he does like talking to someone if he’s ever in the rare mood to paint. it’s just nice having company, and you can do your own thing while he’s painting as well so you’re not just sitting there if chatting ever dies down.

[rukkilill]

Yeah, there is nothing in myths besides their conflict (and some off myths I read where Vesna is one Jarilo cheats with on Morana) but they seem really interesting when put together (and messed up but then again they are gods forces of nature in humanoid shape, thats given). For contrast I really like how both contain aspects that at first seem paradoxical to their natures-Morana winter goddess is driven by her emotions and gentle Vesna is also formidable warrior. I am especially glad I came

[Continued] Across it as Vesna was very popular in my people’s cultural past but theres not much out there about Slavic mythology especially in English. Also I read your Morana/Jarilo story on Dreamwidth and it is really beautiful and enthralling and both original and hitting core of myth.

“Interesting and messed up” is a great way to describe them! :D It’s part of what draws me to the idea so much - there is friction, they do not fit together easily… And so much of a possibility for a story about them to take a very dark turn, since they aren’t human, so their conflict/relationship wouldn’t necessarily unfold in a human way. I’m glad that you mentioned the story where Vesna was the one that Jarilo was unfaithful with - I like that one. So often I come across versions of the Marzanna-Jarilo story where the third person is not named, but I find it more interesting when it is someone specific, someone that Marzanna might have a very complicated relationship with - Vesna in this case.

The lack of reliable sources for information on the mythology is frustrating, isn’t it? Especially in English… I would have better luck with the research if I spoke a Slavic language, but unfortunately I do not, so I have to piece together what little I can find. xD (And sometimes when I’m reading about the mythology I come across things that make me wonder, “Okay, this information does not fit with what I know, so is it incorrect, or is it a regional variation where the source-region is unspecified, or do I just not have the context to understand what it’s saying?” Very challenging.)

Also I REALLY appreciate what you said about that story, I’m so glad that you enjoyed it.