#no i don't know what they're called in german nor do i care

[cheeseproducts]

typical german tourist

[j0kers-light]

Hello light!✨💚

i have a lot of scars in my body and I'd lie if I told you they aren't my main insecurity, they aren't from sh, I just had really bad luck all my life (and shitty parents, if you get what I'm saying)

I have two scars in both of my knees from operations (Bruno Is Orange hit a little too close home) and they are quite ugly because they got infected, and a massive one that goes all over my back because I almost goy impaled by a traffic signal during a car accident.

AND I like to make up stories about them, bc they are usually funnier and that way I won't have people "I'm so sorry, you didn't deserve that 🥺🥺🥺" stfu lady, laugh at my joke.

SO if J likes the teasing, I would love to see how do you think he reacts to reader using his trick "oh... I see you are tracing my scar with your finger 🤓☝️ you wanna know how I got It, J?"

ALSO, I don't have fingerprints because I burnt my hands while cleaning with hydrofluoric acid at work (They didn't even pay for my medical care), so what I have in mind is a really mysterious reader who J doesn't know anything about and can't find info about her and It just being really frustrating ???

Maybe reader has the same history I do, but like, she is not from the USA (I'm from México, my mama is from Nigeria and my dad is German) and arrived to the States by doing ilegal things so he can't find info in the American database because it does not exist in there ⁉️⁉️⁉️

SORRY, you don't have to do anything if you don't like this or idk, but thank you sm for reading all this 💚

My sweet summer child come here!! 😥🫂

I feel like calling child protective services on your behalf and getting you some restorations or something. You may be entitled to emotional damage compensation because sweet Gaia. 👀

Like. Forget Joker, I personally wanna give you a hug! But we’re all here for him so let’s discuss down below love. I made this into a hc I hope you don't mind🖤✨

Joker has always been cautious of you. He can't help but eye you warily and keep his distance at the beginning of the relationship.

Why? You don't exist. At least not in any national database. Your fingerprints aren't recorded nor is any personal records like birth certificate, etc.. OF COURSE HE'S SKETPICAL! Who are you?!

Poor poor Joker thinks you're a criminal with a dark, mysterious past. Or worse a spy sent to take him out from the inside. Your many scars and lack of credentials back up his theories.

But it'll be a let down to find out that you just have terrible and I do mean, terrible luck.

The first time he saw you naked, his eyes widened. Don't get him wrong, you're stunning! Verryy stunning... he just wasn't prepared for the full scale of your trauma being revealed and its a lot to take in.

He heard the outlandish stories you made up to justify the causes. You paint yourself out to be the female 007 when in reality you had it rough growing up.

Joker doesn't care how you got them, he's more concerned about your obvious insecurities behind them. They are misplaced and he will do everything in his power to erase them from your mind.

He loves the texture of your fingertips on his skin even if he does questions why they're burned and he now understands why you tend to cover up with clothes. He's here to tell you, you don't have to. You are so beautiful inside and out.

Joker admires the massive scar tissue on your back, its a work of art he must pay homage to. He kisses it softly and commemorates the shape to memory in the early hours of dawn.

You are roused awake by light pressure on your back. It's nothing of concern but you do blink away sleep and look over your shoulder, only to find Joker on his knees worshiping your body.

Now that has you wide awake.

Joker's dirty green hair tickles your lower back as he kisses down the curve of your thighs to your legs. Warning signals blare in your head. You hate your body and its many imperfections but the amount of care Joker is bestowing upon it has you second guessing your negative thoughts.

Is it really that ugly? He kisses your skin, causing your whole body to jump. He knows you're awake now. Joker's eyes lock with your e/c in the morning light. His scars look enticing, yours does not. You think.

"Morning doll." He playfully nips at the skin you force yourself to hate.

"Uh.. g-good morning J. What're you.." You tried to roll over but Joker is quick to stop you.

"Aht stop that. Lay back, I'm ah.. wor-ship-ing my Bunny."

If you're able to blush, you probably are. You have no chose but to turn back around and let this madman decorate your body with marks of love not pain. Each love bite is followed by a kiss, no doubt it would bruise later. He wants it to so you have something positive to look at in the mirror. Joker takes his time exploring your body until he gets to the two scars on your knees.

You hate them the most since they became infected before it could heal but Joker doesn't see it that way. He kisses them with the upmost care that it makes your breath catch.

Its too intimate and to mask that feeling bubbling in your chest, you introduce humor. A coping mechanism for your trauma.

"Hehe.. I see you're ah interested in my scars J. Wanna know how I got them?" Your voice is shaking and you hope he doesn't comment on it.

Unfortunately much to your shock, Joker completely ignores you. You used his infamous one liner and he's not phased. Instead he slowly rolls you back over onto your stomach and continues his mission.

He trails kisses down your calves when you twist a bit to stare at him. "J? Did you hear me? You wanna know how I--"

"No."

"B-But.."

Joker sighs and leans up from his current bite mark, "Y/n. I don't uhh careee.. how ya got em' I wanna show ya how much I love them and you. So shuT up and let me work in peace."

and I oop.

[slowdancingtorock]

Ireland - Day 31

Did I overreact yesterday? Probably. Has today confirmed my worries? Kinda. We (the 3 of us) went to the National Museum with a grand total of 4 adult students. At least the museum was somewhat interesting and I had a good time there.

We got back early so as to avoid trouble with public transport and that was a good call seeing as the next 3(!) trains were either canceled or delayed. We also browsed some shops after we brought the students back to find some souvenirs. We didn't find anything we liked but I did find a book. The office walls and the mugs I have to wash and carry around all day have Seamus Heaney quotes on them and when I saw a book with his poetry I couldn't resist. I am not immune to propaganda. At all.

Anyway, I got to chat with the only other German intern who is here (I genuinely didn't know she was here nor that she was German - she literally has the opposite schedule of me). Apparently she not only has to be here for 5 months (good God) but also gets ordered around to do the most stupid shit I have heard of for most of the morning as she doesn't have any breaks to take care of. Like "Go to the shop to buy a new cable" or "Go water the plants" type of tasks. Ridiculous. She seems somewhat fine with it and I really shouldn't do anything on her behalf without her permission but I really wanna help her out :(

Maybe I can get our Dean to let her come with us on the trip tomorrow as we'll going to be Guinness Storehouse (the school will pay the entrance fee for us employees, yay). Looking forward to that, a little at least but since I don't like Guinness there is not that much hype. However, a whole bunch of students signed up for it so maybe it won't feel like a total waste of time going there.

Because we returned to the office so much earlier, I also got to chatting with some of the teachers and they are all quite some characters; one is a 50-something year old dude who talks a lot but uses questions instead of phrases like "You're quite tall, aren't you?" or "I forgot my pen in the classroom, didn't I?". Love him. Also, one is apparently sorta famous on IG but not for teaching but for modeling (slay, Queen) and she showed some really bold outfits, lol. Then there is also that other guy who is prolly in his 30s, who loves cursing in a monotone voice (" Morning, assholes") and expresses his love by insulting you, that's a rough thing to get used to, at least for me. But they're all mostly fine, I think we all just bond through our dislike of some of the people in administration. Healthy office culture here.

My song of the day is Revolution Radio by Green Day. I listened to it on repeat today, 'cause I totally forgot how much I love that song. Also, I feel a little rebellious today what with me being unhappy about my one colleague's situation and also I watched The Order Season 2 and the characters got their fears stolen and did a whole bunch of rebellious and reckless stuff so yeah, it does fit fairly well.

[heniareth]

HI HELLO HEY THERE MY FRIEND 8D 8D 8D *waves like is flagging down air traffic* For the FMK alternatives I would like, if I may, to request number 6 (go clothes shopping with, go to ikea with, go grocery shopping with) with beloveds Astala and Ilanlas, and Zevvo!

Thank you!! Hope you're having a lush day 8)

OH DONE!! This is very good, very good indeed!! Let's say I've lost my worldly belongings and that's why I need to do such an extensive bit of shopping to apice things up, shall we? Oh, the decision is clear as day.

... actually it's not.

clothes shopping with Astala. I'm tempted to take Zevran bc clothes shopping is a Chore(TM) and he'd make it very fun, but I think Astala (my darling girl) would get more out of it and we could go a bit crazy over the clothes. We'd haw and hem over the price together, but at the same time we'd have a blast with beautiful fabrics and patterns and cuts and laugh about the more ridiculous outfits stores try to sell. I will try to buy her something. Maybe a dress. Maybe a warm winter coat so she's comfortable. Maybe both. She'd try to refuse and I would insist for putting her through all the trouble in her story. And then we'd march down the street in our new clothes, proud as can be, and have some coffee. Well, she'd have coffee. I'll have tea. Or maybe we both get hot chocolate. And go to town on some cake. It's a (platonic) date!

Ikea with Ilanlas. He'd try to drag me through the exposition section into the place where they actually store the furniture they sell while I would want to look at all the cute made-up rooms that are totally impractical, but we'd enjoy the trip. He gets a plushie. I think he'd like it. The main good things about having Ilanlas come along is that he's very quick to make decisions where I'm not and he's very solution-oriented. Need a new chair? Here's three options. Which is more comfortable? Does it fit in your room? Is the price acceptable? Yes? Done. Let's go to the check-out. Nor but-what-ifs and i-don't-knows. We could also join forces to put the chair together. He's good at that and I'm also not bad. It'd be what the Germans call an Erfolgserlebnis.

go grocery shopping with Zevran. I really, really want to take Astala along as well because she loves food, but she'd get all shocked at the prices and put her hands to her head when I clean out the chocolate section. She'd get the necessities and make the magic happen by cooking. Zevran though; Zevran would be very good at letting me get stuff I like but also nudging me to try new stuff. A bit of a culinary adventure. Besides, Astala's well acquainted with the old "going to the market with friends to get stuff, browse and talk". For Zevran, I think, being able to go grocery shopping and just relax and have a look around would be more unusual. Don't ask me why. Maybe because he's not had that many friends to do this with (ouch). The Zevvo will also get some... what would he like? What wouldn't he like? Definitely some chocolate, definitely some regional specialty. He'd enjoy that as a specialty (apart from the fact that it's food and tastes good. I think he's quite receptive to the delicate and the special. Specialties are sadly still lost to Astala bc they're overriden by the big old excited squeal of having tasty food). And, you know what? Imma make them all dinner since we're at it. They deserve it for helping me with the shopping. If I'm making meat I'm not accepting criticism, Ilanlas >_>

Thank you very much for the ask!! This was fun to think about and a very welcome distraction (and a lovely chance to spoil these three rotten. Heck yeah!!) XD XD XD I hope you're having a great day yourself!! Take good care ^^

(Ask comes from this ask game)

[alectology-archive]

Dear Aelia, your ask box reads "love letters only." In lieu of that, as I could not find any good templates online (although I was able to find a wonderful apology for stealing a girlfriend, an apology for apparently screaming in shock at a German Shepard named Otis on Monday, and two faux apologies promising that in the future, the sender will plagiarize/shoplift better, among others) and do not know you, I would like to suggest three poems about love by William Shakespeare.

The three poems in question are "Take all my loves, my love, yea, take them all," "Since brass, nor stone, nor earth, nor boundless sea," and "Shall I compare thee to a summer’s day?" I find them all very enjoyable and hopefully you will too! My question is what are your (general) thoughts on Brandon Sanderson (Branderson Sandon)? I have heard a lot of very vague and conflicting information recently, which has left me quite confused. Hopefully you can clear things up for me!

You're the sweetest person to ever drop by my inbox and while the love letters only tag mostly exists to mess with people trying to be rude to me it's always lovely to get love poems in the mailbox - and I enjoyed those sonnets immensely, thank you! I do think it's incredibly romantic to suggest that you'll be a better thief to a prospective lover, though, but I hope Otis and the person who stole the girlfriend are having a very nice day, wherever they are.

I would've ordinarily linked you to the various other posts where I do vent about my feelings towards him, but I think I tend to express very passionate feelings in ways that don't necessarily convey my thoughts very well so this ask was certainly an exercise in attempting to do so. My thoughts on him broadly fall under two categories: the dismal quality of his writing and the questionable ethics of offering him any monetary support, and my thoughts will be accordingly organised.

I'm particularly irked by people dismissing my annoyance with his prose because anybody fairly familiar with a standard body of literature would find his sentences frankly a massive headache to get through (examples can be attached if you like, but I recently deleted all his ebooks from my devices because I thought that attempting to analyse his body of work was affording him more credit and effort than he deserved - it's very much like trying to analyse a seventh grader's creative writing assignment and I just don't have the energy to do that for a 50 year old guy. I don't think his worldbuilding is actually any good either, no). More specifically, I think his characterisations are shallow and that he's incapable of creating people with unique blueprints (I can never quite tell any two people apart) and that his writing of women is frankly misogynistic and designed to convey the more conservative feelings he really harbours in accordance with the faith he keeps. He repeatedly denies his women the opportunity to form sisterhoods while he goes out of his way to set up systems of friendship and support between men, forces them into marriages when they're barely past their teenhood, assigns them so-call "feminine hobbies" if he doesn't force them to undergo arcs of feminisation and has a bad habit of making his male characters insinuate that powerful women should go back to the kitchen whenever they clash in his books. It also particularly... irks me that he was reported as saying that western philosophy is more interesting to work with despite deriving inspiration from several asian cultures for his stories and it doesn't help matters that I don't agree with his politics - I just don't care for authors who can't critically deal with themes of class conflicts and the divine right to rule, who introduce race conflicts with racist undertones that seek to sermonise oppressed peoples to moderate their movement, and ultimately derides revolution and an overturning of oppressive and flawed systems of governance in favour of preserving them (it also certainly doesn't help that he fully chooses to assign moral, righteous, redemptive, religious weight in a positive sense to the side that actually misuses its power). As a whole, I think his books are representative of the kind of talentless white man the industry and reading community at large praises and upholds even if he isn't deserving of any of those commendations.

Coming to the ethical side of things, I think it's kind of ridiculous to say that his stance on queerness has improved (unless you mean like. in the sense that he's gone from being a raging queerphobe who proudly declared it to the internet multiple times in the past to a guy who "only" limits himself to continuing to associate with institutions that discriminate and hurt queer people and women). He's still an active member of the (racist, misogynistic and queerphobic) mormon church which means that he still donates 10% of his income to it, participated in mormon missionaries to seoul in the past, and still works for a college that has an appalling track record for the way it treats victims of sexual abuse and still bans various forms of queerness and advocation for lgbt rights on its campus. So I... actually loathe people who think sanderson's amiable nature makes him more deserving of more respect or kinder treatment - activism just doesn't work that way.

[kitty4nnoys]

it's sad that people think they're protecting / loving their countries by insulting and harassing foreigns and telling them to leave. especially if the foreign people are from a poor country - what a coincidence. i don't think it's protecting though, if you don't separate people who has nothing bad to give your country and the harmful ones from each other.

they'll be mostly only speaking about race, while doing this and not a person specifically. like, from my experience, this is what turkish people do to poor arabs, or like even the rich ones; or what germans basically do to turkish people.

i think the people who do it is not a patriotic, they're just racist, and ugly. and it is so damn common that sometimes even mixed people suffer from the lack of belonging feeling. i am mix too, by the way, but my situation is a bit different because my dad's side has no country? yeah, as i say, it's really very common and people normalised it so much that probably even you all think the blood & race that the family you were born in should give you different rights... and that's bullshit. i did not choose my family nor my race and the difference between people must never make any of them less human.

the world is a disgusting place, and this is on to human beings. a human's appearance or their race are not what they choosed and they still affect their whole life.

you were born in a developed country of Europe as rich? cool. now you can live your life without worrying about how people perceive your humanity, now, even if you're a baby, no one will call you an ignorant or worthless. almost no one will forbid you from traveling their country. if you decide to live in a different country they'll not be angry. but at that time a person from a developing country will be at the line for just a visa, to see their significant ones who lives in a developed country because their country is poor now and they have to prove they will not illegally start to live in the country they want to go.

whatever. people are not innocent, no, mostly not. but i would love a world where we wouldn't be perceived by the things that has given to us randomly. i don't want to be proud what my ancestors did and say that now i deserve it? i don't want to blame someone for what their grand grand grand grand fathers did. i don't want to see comments on internet about how nice to see a baby died because the baby was from that country.

that's not the world i want to live in. to people it's normal. but i did not choose it and i don't care if it's good for me or not.

i know this is how the world is, but this is not what i want to live in.

[a-weird-cryptid]

With more and more of my favorite childhood cartoons ending, I'm starting to notice that the era of them seems to end.

I'm a 2000s/2010s kid, depending on the definition you take. And most of my best and earliest childhood memories are of me watching TV and all of the different shows on it. Most of which were cartoons. Thankfully, I was born in the perfect time to grow up with them, seeing many of the old classics in my very early childhood and the newer ones during the "prime time" of it.

Reaching from the old, almost forgotten cartoons like Fillmore, American Dragon, Johnny Test or Momo, to newer shows like Gravity Falls, Star vs the Forces of Evil, Adventure Time, The Amazing World of Gumball and many, many more.

They, together with Studio Ghibli movies and so called "Family Cartoons", which came every Friday on the German channel SuperRTL, are responsible for me being the person who I am today.

With noone else around to teach me about kindness, forgiveness and similar, with noone else giving me comfort as a child, I always found myself imagining to be in one of those different worlds. Learning about most of the social things I know today from them. Being heard, seen and comforted by their characters...

But this era seems to end for good. Slowly, but surely. 2D animated shows are almost extinct on TV (and otherwise) and most I can find on my beloved kids channels these days (when I decide to check them out again out of curiosity) is 3D animated trash. The "Cocomelons" of TV.

What are kids suppose to take from Miraculous for example? That it's ok to be a creepy stalker when you have a crush on somebody? That you should never care about any consequences because you can just "miraculous ladybug" them?

Now compare that to American Dragon, for example, which teaches how to be a better person. With our main character starting out as an asshole, but slowly learning how to be nicer to others. (As far as I remember. Correct me if I'm wrong)

Or Momo, which teaches to always have an open mind and heart for people.

Or Gravity Falls, Amphibia and The Owl House, all teaching us that it's ok to be different and making it easy to accept that we all grow up at some point.

I'm really sad to see that 3D animation starts to take over everything. Don't get me wrong, it's a wonderful medium and seeing something beautifully 3D animated can really make my day. But they're things that you could never show or express in live action, nor in 3D. And doing so only ruins the magic, especially if it's a remake of an original 2D animation. Think of all of the new Disney remakes for example.

[thorraborinn]

I’ve been wondering, is there anything historical to suggest that ritual cleansing was important in Old Norse religion? I’ve seen many heathens online state that one absolutely must spiritually cleanse oneself before approaching the gods (how?), that the cleanliness of Vikings was evidence of this, that one must be spiritually pure, etc…it sounds a lot like sin to me, and not being worthy? I know sometimes water is sprinkled before a ritual, why? Thank you for your insight.

I'm long-forming this one because I think there's stuff underlying this question that isn't apparent on the surface. The rest behind the cut.

In Eyrbyggja saga, Þórólfr Mostrarskegg declares Helgafell ('Holy-mountain') so sacred that nobody is allowed to even look at it if they're unwashed, nor is anyone or anything allowed to be killed there; and where he sets up the regional þing-stead he declares it so sacred that not only is nobody allowed to fight there, but nobody can even take a poop there, and have to go out to a little island (called "Shit-Skerry") if nature called. All this was only enforceable insofar as people were afraid of pissing Þórólfr off, and eventually when Þórólfr and the first generation of settlers dies and the next generation is left to either uphold this tradition or not, tensions actually escalate to violence, ruining the holiness of the þing-stead by spilling blood there. Afterward, they realize they let things get out of control -- while threatening (succeeding? it isn't clear) to take a shit on the sacred site was deliberately crossing the line, the demands for observing the sacred state of the site were too stringent and an act of arrogance on Þórólfr's part, and everyone can agree that the site is defiled by the very avoidable violence. They meet and discuss what to do. They make a new place to hold the þing further up the peninsula, and determine that they can drop a deuce without completely vacating the whole site. Not only that, but allegedly human sacrifices happened there, meanings violence and bloodshed, even if in a restricted capacity, was allowed there. Yet, they all agreed that this was no less sacred than the place Þórólfr had founded.

All this seems to suggest that the people who settled the area did have a concept of some kind of ritual purity, but that it had more to do with agreed-upon norms and consensus than getting spiritual shmutz on you. A couple more points here. Þórólfr's demand that people be washed if they're going to look at Helgafell means literally, physically washed. He was the hierarchically highest of a party of people in a new land that, unlike the land he'd vacated, had no stories attached to it and its places and his insistence on making a big deal out of a place without any history is a somewhat arbitrary expression of his own power.

Another thing is that the saga uses the term ganga álfrek as a euphemism for shitting. This means something like 'to go driving away elves.' There may have been an element here, not of poop conferring a metaphysical impurity, but an extension of its regular impurity. It seems elves might be repelled by shit, which I don't think demands metaphysical explanation, given that I too am repelled by shit.

Most likely it isn't sin that the "heathens online" that you mention are modeling this on, but rather miasma. That link is to a modern Julian Hellenistic website, and explains it better than I can or care to, so if you're not familiar with the concept I recommend clicking and reading a bit before reading the rest of this post.

There's a contingent of heathens whose heathenry is just Neoplatonic Hellenism with all of the keywords translated into a Germanic language, and they have a tendency to present themselves like representatives of the ancient folkways of the north. It seems to be a way to recuperate some of the fake pan-heathen prescriptivism that was lost by nobody taking the idea of a reconstructable Proto-Germanic religion seriously anymore. They cherry-pick whatever they can from Norse and Old English literature to make their argument stick, rather than read the sagas as having value of their own. I don't think that they think that this is what they're doing, I think they just think that Neoplatonic Hellenism is the correct religion, or that "Polytheism" or "Paganism" is a religion and that the Greek and Roman sources are the best-documented witnesses to it. I think it's really unfortunate that we have these heathens who have such a low opinion of their own predecessors that they think that have nothing unique and useful to contribute to understanding the world. I'm going to write the rest of this on the assumption that that's whose commentary you've been reading.

I don't think it's unlikely that there was some kind of purification that may have been done at certain times or in certain places in Scandinavia, but I have two major objections to importing the entire apparatus of miasma and katharsis into the distant past of northern Europe. One is that, as we saw in the episode from Eyrbyggja saga, there was never any mechanism for enforcing this kind of standardization across the whole sphere of what we call "heathenry." It could have happened within certain areas, or more specific contexts like some types of ritual specialists, but there's no Norse Hesiod, and if there were, he'd have a hard time getting the whole of Scandinavia to care what he says.

The other is that I don't think heathens even had a cosmology that preconditioned it, at least in the sense of an idealistic Hellenic thought-world. I don't know about the world of Hesiod referenced in the page I linked to, or Homer where there is also evidence for this worldview, but by the time of people like Plotinus and Iamblichus who contributed to the Neoplatonic Hellenism that is influential in polytheist circles these days, there was a highly advanced cosmology including the immortal divine human soul; the perfect, transcendent world of forms; and gods who are eternal, unchanging, and incapable of error. In fact, Chrysippus, a stoic (so, not an idealist like the Neoplatonics), thought the whole thing was an irrational separation of humans from animals, which makes me wonder to what degree this push for Hellenistic Heathenry is a reaction to the rise of animistic heathenry.

Further, according to Robert Parker's Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion, the whole thing was critiqued by philosophers who "made it their ideal to 'live in agreement with nature' (326). Evidently Herodotus thought that observing the rules about miasma and katharsis was what distinguished "civilized" people (the Greeks and Egyptians) from the other uncivilized people... which most certainly would have included Germanic people. Admittedly it isn't like Herodotus is the best witness to Germanic peoples' day-to-day, but this kind of firm separation of the "human" or "cultural" spheres of existence from the "animal" or "natural" spheres are not something that can really be upheld for Germanic people, especially if we are to work with the proposal that they were broadly animistic.

Like I said earlier, there isn't really anything terribly unlikely about pre-Christian heathens doing some kind of rituals that could be described as "purifying" in some sense. It's not uncommon worldwide. It's evident that fire was important in some ritual capacities, such as circling land with fire to claim land (numerous examples including Eyrbyggja, also Landnámabók) and bearing the horn of ale about the fire when toasts are made (saga Hákonar goða). We don't know why they did these things exactly, and something something "purification" is a decent guess, but that doesn't require us to import a whole worldview about the descent of spirit from the highest celestial spheres -- this could easily operate on the same level as don't shit where the elves are, that's gross and rude.

We also certainly have reason to believe there were ritual preparations in a very general sense, like the völva in Eiríks saga rauða eating a heart from every animal on the farm, and it isn't far-fetched to imagine a trip to the sauna or bathhouse or hot spring ahead of a ritual or especially as treatment for illness, and that could have been conceived as driving out bad spirits or substances. Yet, again, we can explain all this without deferring to Greece and Rome. We know Norse people believed in parts of the self that are not embodied in flesh, but that doesn't mean they were immaterial or supernatural in the original sense of being "beyond" or "above" nature.

But anyway, going back to the original question, but keeping all of this in mind. No, we have no ancient songs telling us that Zeus Óðinn won't accept sacrifices that were made without us being spiritually purified first. If a heathen wants to argue that, they're going to have to actually argue for it, not just take it for granted. Personally, I don't buy it. It sounds to me like a good way to make sure that contact with the deities is limited to a select group of people performing to a certain standard of respectability. I also don't worship transcendental, unchanging, unerring gods any more than I have a pure, immortal, transcendent soul. I do believe in maintaining good relations with people, including (but not limited to) non-embodied people, and some of them might prefer if I not smell like shit, so that can be a way to show respect but that's a matter of maintaining those relations as in the case of Eyrbyggja saga. If they could negotiate the standards to maintain the holiness of the place then there aren't fixed, eternal, unchanging rules.

I drew on "Purity and Danger in Earliest Iceland" by Kevin Wanner and the aforementioned Miasma: Pollution and Purification in Early Greek Religion by Robert Parker.

[heniareth]

oo ok for astala romanticism asks 13 (Is your character bilingual or multilingual? Which language are they most comfortable in or prefer using? How did they come to learn them?) and/or 14 (Do they have an accent? How do they or others think of it?)

am i just using this as a chance to feel out your own headcanons on language in thedas? maaybe

Language!!! Yes we can do language!!! My only regret in this will be that I don't have nearly the evolved headcanons you have for the languages in Thedas. But I do have something, so let's talk about that!! Long post, and therefore under the cut.

13. Is your character bilingual or multilingual? Which language are they most comfortable in or prefer using? How did they come to learn them?

I don't have a proper city elf language bc I find myself with neither the time nor a sufficiently strong urge to create one. In my story, I'm veering more into dialect territory: slang, pronunciation and expressions. That said, there are some things I do think city elves would be notorious for, linguistically speaking. This is to say: Astala starts out speaking only whatever they speak in Ferelden (which is sad), although she does do her best to learn Antivan later on.

First, compound nouns. Elvhen has this amazing feature where you can stitch together words to make new words. Like telanadas, "nothing is inevitable". It's one word. I love those! The closest feature in a language I know irl is German with its Frankenwörter. I think city elves should be allowed to make their own Frankenwörter. As a treat. A dockcabletier is somebody who ties the ripes that hold the ships at the harbor. Rathunters. Businessfuckers aka tax collectors. Notforgetknots are knots you tie into something you have on your person so they remind you of something. Idk, I think it could be a lot of fun and would be a holdover from times when they had their own language that was much more malleable than poor old English.

Next, I think they'd be fantastic sweares when they're comfortable. Look at Sera. Sure, she didn't spend all her childhood in the Alienage, but she's very liberal and very colorful when it comes to swearing. Elvhen has always seemed very poetic to me (with expressions like "The Dread Wolf guides you" for someone who is wrong, for example). I think the city elves would apply similes, metaphors and other stylistic devices very liberally in their day to day life, to amazing effects. I really do Astala a disservice on this end because I do not swear creatively. I like to think I can maybe do her right in normal conversation however.

And, third, and this is not something from elvhen, but something that both Sera and Zevran do which I would like to apply to elvhen: question particles. I think elvhen should have question particles. Zevran is always ending his questions with "yes?" or "no?", Sera with "innit?" and I think it would be really neat and very in-character for Elvhen, which already sticks words together like they are wooden ice cream sticks repurposed for model building, to have something that indicates uncertainty glued to the end of a phrase and thus turning it into a question.

Fourth, slang. If you live among a lot of people and you don't want one half of the population to understand what's going on in your conversation but don't irritate them by speaking another language, I think slang is the way to go. I like to think that they call shem dogs sometimes. Lapdogs are rich human women, wardogs any human with martial training, etc. A bruise is a violet, it there's blood involved it's a rose, things like that. "The guy hands out violets like they're pennies" sounds much less innocuous than saying "careful, this guy likes to punch and will bruise you."

As for Astala learning Antivan, it's hard for her. Languages aren't her thing. She gets the vocab alright, but her grammar and pronuncuation are very distinctly Fereldan. She is generally much more comfortable when using the King's Tongue, but certain phrases she does prefer in Antivan. Many of them only come out when she and Zevran are alone.

14. Do they have an accent? How do they or others think of it?

In relation to the above: does Astala have an accent? Yeah she does! I do keep her dialogue somewhat USAmerican (I think) because the voice acting in the first game was pretty USAmerican and I like it. She and Sera, however, have many similarities in their way of speaking in my mind. Sera sounds pretty British-from-a-very-specific-area from what I've been able to identify, but they share other things.

Astala also does a lot of code switching. She'll be much less informal in her speech if she's not among her own: swear less, use less contractions and slang, put words into a different order, etc. The companions will get to hear the more informal side of her eventually. Still, when she speaks rapid-fire Denerim Alienage slang with Shianni, they too get lost. Alistair might find it funny, Ilanlas would be very confused and a bit exasperated because he doesn't understand them. Other than that, I don't think they'd mind much.

The code switching does come in handy once she's made a name for herself as The Warden(TM). She separates both ways of speaking so much that even on the battlefield her speech will be different depending on who she's leading, her companions or soldiers. The difference will be less noticeable than in everyday life, but it'll definitely be there. If she spoke before the Landsmeet the way she speaks at home, nobody would take her seriously, and she is very much aware of that (and she hates it. She's very protective of her accent: it's her's and that of the people she loves most, after all).

And this is what I have on languages and accents as of now, my friend. I do hope it was interesting, even if it's not broad or very developed headcanons, but rather details. O love languages and I wish we got more of them in Dragon Age and that I could make my own stuff, but for now the switch in register keeps me occupied nicely. Thanks for sending the ask!!! Have a lovely day!!! XD XD XD