#minus using creative as a noun

[milksockets]

goals

[bookoformon]

The Book of Mosiah Chapter 8. "The Seer."

Ammon teaches the people of Limhi—He learns of the twenty-four Jaredite plates—Ancient records can be translated by seers—No gift is greater than seership. About 121 B.C.

Jared= "the descendant."

Limhi= "To be as a stream".

The Gematria for "24 Plates" is "How to wake a man up from a total nightmare."

1 And it came to pass that after king Limhi had made an end of aspeaking to his people, for he spake many things unto them and only a few of them have I written in this book, he told his people all the things concerning their brethren who were in the land of Zarahemla.

The Book of Mormon is, as we have discovered a kind of Jewish religious analysis called a Midrash. It says we are learning how the people of Zarahemla, "The Place of Enlightenment" behave.

In the last chapter we learned of the existence of a man named Zeniff, "the balancer":

2 And he caused that Ammon should stand up before the multitude, and rehearse unto them all that had happened unto their brethren from the time that Zeniff went up out of the land even until the time that he himself came up out of the land.

3 And he also rehearsed unto them the last words which king Benjamin "the Right Hand", "The most realized" had taught them, and explained them to the people of king Limhi "the Voice of God", so that they might understand all the words which he spake.

4 And it came to pass that after he had done all this, that king Limhi dismissed the multitude, and caused that they should return every one unto his own house.

5 And it came to pass that he caused that the plates which contained the record of his people from the time that they left the land of Zarahemla, should be brought before Ammon, that he might read them.

Ammon= the multittudes, the nation.

עמם

The verb עמם ('mm) probably expressed to be inclusive or comprehensive. Its rare uses in the Bible relate to making secrets or making info available to an in-crowd. Preposition עם ('im) means 'with', מעם (me'im) means 'from', and עמה ('umma) means 'beside'. Noun עם ('am) means a people, ranging from all of mankind to the in-crowd of a small village. Noun עם ('am) refers to one's (paternal) kinsman.

6 Now, as soon as Ammon had read the record, the king inquired of him to know if he could interpret languages, and Ammon told him that he could not.

7 And the king said unto him: Being grieved for the afflictions of my people, I caused that forty and three of my people should take a journey into the wilderness, that thereby they might find the land of Zarahemla, that we might appeal unto our brethren to deliver us out of bondage.

Why can't the people understand what is written in the language of the Voice of God by the most learned? What is up with that?

The dispersal of 43 lifetimes into the wildernness means there must be maximum comphrehension of the Torah and related documents plus three lifetimes spent in an era of non-violence to demonstrate complete enlightenment after the immersion. This is also what is meant by the term Zeniff:

If we look in the Torah, we find many other things that are associated specifically with the number 40:

In the episode of Noah and the Flood, we learn that it rained for 40 days and 40 nights.

A mikvah needs to have 40 se’ah (a measurement) of water in order to be able to purify someone. In fact, this is one of the explanations as to why, during the Flood, it rained for 40 days, corresponding to the 40 se’ah of a mikvah.

Regarding the maximum amount of lashes one could get, the Torah describes the amount as 40 (albeit in practice, one could get a maximum of 39).

According to the Talmud, it took “40 minus one”5 types of creative work to build the Mishkan (Tabernacle).

What is the common thread here? What is the symbolism of the number 40?

The mystics explain that any preparation for a transformative change is associated with the number 40. Thus, whether it is the flood water of Noah, which cleansed and purified the world, going to the mikvah, which purifies the person, lashes, which atone for one’s sins, or receiving the Torah, each is essentially a catalyst for transformation6 and is therefore associated with the number 40.7

Why is that?

10 x 4

Kabbalah explains that all of reality can be divided into four worlds: Atzilut (Emanation), Beriah (Creation), Yetzirah (Formation), and Asiyah (Action.) These four worlds, in turn, emanate from and are rooted in the four letters of the holiest name of G‑d.

8 And they were lost in the wilderness for the space of many days, yet they were diligent, and found not the land of Zarahemla but returned to this land, having traveled in a land among many waters, having discovered a land which was covered with bones of men, and of beasts, and was also covered with ruins of buildings of every kind, having discovered a land which had been peopled with a people who were as numerous as the hosts of Israel.

9 And for a testimony that the things that they had said are true they have brought twenty-four plates which are filled with engravings, and they are of pure gold.

10 And behold, also, they have brought breastplates, which are large, and they are of brass and of copper, and are perfectly sound.

=the Ephod.

11 And again, they have brought swords, the hilts thereof have perished, and the blades thereof were cankered with rust; and there is no one in the land that is able to interpret the language or the engravings that are on the plates. Therefore I said unto thee: Canst thou translate?

12 And I say unto thee again: Knowest thou of any one that can translate? For I am desirous that these records should be translated into our language; for, perhaps, they will give us a knowledge of a remnant of the people who have been destroyed, from whence these records came; or, perhaps, they will give us a knowledge of this very people who have been destroyed; and I am desirous to know the cause of their destruction.

13 Now Ammon said unto him: I can assuredly tell thee, O king, of a man that can translate the records; for he has wherewith that he can look, and translate all records that are of ancient date; and it is a gift from God. And the things are called interpreters, and no man can look in them except he be commanded, lest he should look for that he ought not and he should perish. And whosoever is commanded to look in them, the same is called seer.

14 And behold, the king of the people who are in the land of Zarahemla is the man that is commanded to do these things, and who has this high gift from God.

15 And the king said that a seer is greater than a prophet.

16 And Ammon said that a seer is a revelator and a prophet also; and a gift which is greater can no man have, except he should possess the power of God, which no man can; yet a man may have great power given him from God.

17 But a seer can know of things which are past, and also of things which are to come, and by them shall all things be revealed, or, rather, shall secret things be made manifest, and hidden things shall come to light, and things which are not known shall be made known by them, and also things shall be made known by them which otherwise could not be known.

18 Thus God has provided a means that man, through faith, might work mighty miracles; therefore he becometh a great benefit to his fellow beings.

19 And now, when Ammon had made an end of speaking these words the king rejoiced exceedingly, and gave thanks to God, saying: Doubtless a great mystery is contained within these plates, and these interpreters were doubtless prepared for the purpose of unfolding all such mysteries to the children of men.

20 O how marvelous are the works of the Lord, and how long doth he suffer with his people; yea, and how blind and impenetrable are the understandings of the children of men; for they will not seek wisdom, neither do they desire that she should rule over them!

21 Yea, they are as a wild flock which fleeth from the shepherd, and scattereth, and are driven, and are devoured by the beasts of the forest.

We should not need swords. A seer that knows how things have gone, has a grasp of what is going on should know what is going to happen next.

All of you pay attention to me- this behavior we have, the one that demonstrates we think we are helpless and that nothing can be done is ridiculous. Everyone needs to grow up and take charge, act like adults and do what has to be done. One does not need a prophet, a king, or a seer to be present, awake, and live competently.

Without the apparence of propriety in everything we do as members of this civilization, there is no proof the Instructions and the Gospels are valid. To provie they are correct is the bottom line of the Ark of the Covenant all baptized persons and Mitzvahs have made with God.

Just as we will see after Year Zero, God materialized and was made man to prove He is not of a devolved character. It has always been our turn to prove the same in return.

When the differences in the Testimony between the two are reduced to nil, then the Seer is made.

[oldtumblhurgoyf]

You Compleat Me(ld)

So I am one of the folks who loves meld. Brisela is the big angel horror I’ve always dreamed of. Hanweir is my favorite legendary ooze that can’t actually be a commander. Chittering Host is... the easiest pair to get a lot of copies of and actually play a deck that gets to meld things consistently.

And personally I’ve felt Phyrexia could make great use of meld tech and just really make some creepy stuff. But I’d want it to be Phyrexia’s main schtick in this take and meld as is just doesn’t work as anything more than a creepy sprinkle on top of a set.

The solution is to make cards that can meld with more than just one specific counterpart, but how do you accomplish that?

(Image of two handmade cards, one basically Vampire Nighthawk and the other a sort of Sabertooth Outrider)

Here we have your normal ole creatures. A cute vampyr and a mean looking kitty cat. You might recognize them, save for a few bits of text down there at the bottom, Phyrexianize and Test Subject.

Phyrexianize would read something like:

Phyrexianize COST (COST, sacrifice this creature and a creature with test subject: Return them from your graveyard to the battlefield melded.)

The specific rules text, cost and stuff could all be tweaked. The important bit is that you have the action of phyresis here being to meld the card with Phyrexianize with a card that has Test Subject.

Test Subject just serves as indicator text for Phyrexianize to care about. That gives it something to look at other than the specific name like the current meld cards (it might work better in this case as a supertype or maybe a subtype). It also insures that you have a specific subset of cards that can ever be combined with the Phyrexianize cards--a bigger subset than our current meld cards, which name one other specific card (the smallest subset you could have really), but still a specific couple of cards, which is important because you get this...

(Image of the backs of the two handmade cards pushed right next to each other with a blank art box that combines over two cards, along with name and type lines that run across both cards)

You’ll notice a few things here that are all very intentional.

1. The name and type lines run the length of the first card so that it’s very obvious that the last bit overhanging onto the second card is a part of each of those. The name is hyphenated with the last word and would conceivably fit any noun there quite easily. It could be a Phyrexian Vampyr-Cat, -Dog, -Phelddagrif, you name it. Also I know I’m spelling Vampyr incorrectly and also that Phyrexian is not and likely never will be a creature type, but it really helps fill out the type line on the first card so it looks natural. It needs the room on the second card to fit the rest of the type.

2. The power and toughness are displayed on the left and right of each card, pushed together so each card contributes half and when melded the P/T is now displayed in the “center” of the melded card. What I did here is make the backside double the power and toughness of the respective creature contributing that part. That’s just an easy take on it, there are different options here though.

3. Each backside features all the rules text abilities from the front sides (minus Test Subject and Phyrexianize since those are no longer relevant). So combining the Flying, Deathtouch, Likelink with the First strike, Trample get you a creature with all those abilities.

Challenges:

I see the main challenge as the art. How do you make multiple pieces of art that can be convey a semblance of what the creature used to be, look different enough to be recognizable across the table, and yet also combine in an aesthetically pleasing manner with the other half which could be any one of a number of other pieces of art? I mean the two concepts I’ve brainstormed so far basically boil down to this:

A.

(image from a children’s mix and match dinosaur book)

B.

(image of Two Face from Batman)

Which to be fair I bet Magic artists could do some good work with, but I’ve only ever seen these very cartoony examples of this sort of thing and this would absolutely not fit Magic’s creative tone.

Actually, I think the art is the biggest challenge. There are likely some rules hurdles to figure out (I don’t know if meld supports this sort of use) and I imagine the development of these would be difficult. Otherwise my biggest concern would be complexity but I also think it’s so damn cool as to be worth that cost.

I’m also really attached to the particular flavoring of this as Phyrexians trying to perfect themselves. Take an essentially hopeless subject (Test Subject, that term probably isn’t the best but it fits for now) and use it’s best parts to make a better specimen even better.