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if-divinepunishment · 26 days ago

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If a soul is born without resonance, what does it echo instead?

✦ Rating: 18+ (Mature Themes, addiction - substance use, Strong Language, Emotional Abuse, torture, violence, sexual assault, explicit sex)

✦ In Thalwood, the trees don't just whisper, They sing. And when they fall silent, we hold our breath.

It has been many centuries since you made the mistake of stepping out of line. Before this room, and before the horrors inflicted upon your body and soul you were someone – something.

Anger. Rage. Wrath.

Though, those titles were much prettier when first bestowed upon you like an act of love. Now the only acts of love given to you are the cuts of a blade and the painful tugging of a cleaning cloth.

After years, and years of pleading to be forgiven and begging for your sins to be released, you are dismissed from the celestial realm to continue your divine punishment. As if centuries of pain weren’t enough. You find yourself vulnerable in a world you’ve dreamt of exploring before.

Altheria.

Unfortunately, your newfound freedom is fleeting.

Just as you awaken on the moss-covered ground, you’re struck with the bubbling frustration of a man standing no more than ten meters in front of you. His sloppily managed magic shackling you once again. Not by a God this time, but by pale, shaking, mortal hands.

✦ In this interactive fiction you will be able to

‣ Customise your character’s appearance, gender (male, female, non-binary), personality, and sexuality.

‣ Meet and romance (or don’t romance), antagonise, or befriend some interesting human companions. - Please note that being in a romantic relationship does not mean you have to persue sex or physical intimacy.

‣ live as familiar and experience whatever that entails.

‣ Explore the town of Thalwood and learn about the Ethereal Harmonics.

‣ Find about about Thalwood's history and solve some of it's mysteries.

‣ Escape from the chains binding you to your abusive creator and their flock of angels and enact revenge.

✦ Nyneve Minowa (he/him) RO

Age: 25

A 5’11, pale, slender man covered in black clothing. He has silky, black hair that cascades down his back. His blue eyes seem to look past your skin and right into your mind sometimes. Though, you suppose that’s because you’re his familiar.

A scholar in Ethereal harmonics, he holds the ability to gain power from the Angel he worships – rage. Which happens to be you.

Currently, he spends all his time with you. However, he used to primarily spend time studying the Ethereal Harmonics.

Tropes: Worshipper/worshipped, stuck together, forced proximity, secretly pining.

Green flags: smart, protective, observant, dependable, curious, loyal.

Ethereal Harmony - Emotant

Red flags: Possessive, emotionally constipated, prone to anger, cynical, confrontational.

✦ Nami Lovecroft (she/her) RO

Age: 26

A 5’6, chubby girl with deep, cool tone brown skin and a flat nose. She’s covered from head to toe in modest clothing. Her black hair is natural in a small Afro. She carries on her a beautiful rosary and you can help but notice how her dark brown eyes light up when she looks at it, a stark contrast to the uncomfortable grimace she pulls when she speaks to you.

Often seen volunteering in the church, maybe she can give you a mortal perspective on Altheria, your creator and the angels.

Tropes: apprehensive friends to lovers, deconstructing harmful religious beliefs (together), forbidden love.

Green flags: Kind, generous, Passionate, Merciful, gentle.

Red flags: initially hostile, heavily (toxic) religious, very guarded, insecure, Naive,

Ethereal Harmony - Virtuant

✦ Crew Ledger He/him (RO)

Age: 40

A 6’4, stocky man with tanned skin with a roman nose. Usually wearing his ‘comfortable inn-keeping clothes’ for the inn Harmon’s Rest. His curly brown hair reaches just past his ears and his cheeks are flushed. His sleeves are rolled up and his arms are covered with hair. His green eyes seem to almost sparkle as he talks about his seven-year-old daughter Laverne. On his right wrist he has the names Liren and Laverne tattooed in cursive.

He spends most of his time with Laverne or manning Harmon’s Rest.

Ethereal Harmony - Virtuant

Tropes: Single parent, big secret.

Green flags: Eager, nice, affectionate, good parent, animal lover.

Red flags: Cagey about past, stubborn, addiction.

✦ Ahri Magnolia (she/they) RO

Age: 29

A 5’4, plump person with tanned skin and a flat nose. They wear elegant, ‘sharp’ looking clothes that drape her in a cloak of mystery. Black and dark red, straight hair that reaches her shoulder blades tied in a half-up half-down hairstyle, with a sharp jewelled hairpin that dangles when she walks. their hazel eyes are as sharp as their voice and her confidence radiates into any room she walks into.

She spends most of her time solving disputes in Thalwood.

Ethereal Harmony – Desirant

Tropes: Messing around first, shameless flirt, sworn off relationships.

Green flags: Empathetic, charming, observant, strong willed, capable.

Red flags: emotionally unavailable, non-committal (no cheating), closed off, mildly manipulative.

✦ Cazine (they/them) RO

Age: 23

A 5’6, lithe person with brown skin and a hooked nose. They wear androgenous clothes and heavy jewellery. Their wavy hair is black and is short in the morning and long at night, however they aren’t open to explaining why. Their left eye is black, and their right is covered with an eyepatch. They don’t seem to very invested in anyone, however they are uniquely interested in you.

They lead a hunting and foraging squad in Thalwood. It's said they get their keen aim and steady hand from hours of painting.

Ethereal Harmony - Emotant

Tropes: Found family, traumatic past, gender identity issues.

Green flags: resolute, resourceful, independent, flexible, open-minded, preceptive.

Red flags: Avoidant, careless (to self), quick tempered, stubborn, sarcastic, impatient, impulsive.

✦ Aquine (They/She/He/it)

Your creator, and the creator of all things living. Though she was once brimming with ambition, emotion and desires all you’ve seen the last few centuries is their blank excuse soul. You’ve felt her warmth and devotion and now you feel her icy hot bite and the ripping of your wings.

Soon, you will get revenge.

✦ Envy (he/him)

The second angel ever created by Aquine. Always watching and always wanting more of you. He was your dearest friend, but recently you’ve realised he’s nothing but the knife that stabs into your back. Now, you’re sure he would have torn the wings from your back himself, just to see your face as he did so - if Aquine would have allowed it. Yet, he settled on exposing your expedition to Altheria. And in the end, he got what he wanted, he got to drink you up and spit you out for good.

✦ The Angels

Woven from Aquine’s heart are her beloved Angels. As a testament to his love and affection towards the first living beings they’ve ever created, they forfeited their emotions, desires and virtues. Thus, the first Angel dubbed ‘the Prototype Angel’ was given her hatred. A boon for her future creations to share – the gift of never feeling hated.

✦ The Ethereal Harmonies

Not a person, rather a thing given to human-kind. Given to the people to connect divinity and mortals. Through the Ethereal Harmonies humans may request boons for power from an angel through the devotion of desire, emotions, or virtue.

✦ Demo - TBA ✦ Spotify Playlist - Cazine, The Prototype ✦ Pinterest - TBA ✦ Character arts - TBA (when I have some money I want to commission some artists!)

✦ Severe content warnings for the following: Self harm, suicidal ideation, torture,transphobia, child death(mentioned), addictiom, abuse, sexual assault and abuse, flashbacks, recovery from trauma, disordered eating, power imbalances, re-traumatisation, animal death through hunting for food, Sex and suggestive themes, death.

(The sexual abuse, assault, abuse, and torture happen to MC. These scenes will be skippable however they will still happen.)

This list may be subject to change while the interactive fiction novel is in development, please keep a regular eye on the contents warning list on this page as the chapters update.

✦ Additional disclaimers and information

I am a novice writer and am doing this as a passion project for fun. I will try to be as quick as possible but I have zero coding experience. I will give as many updates on this blog as i can though.

(˶˃ ᵕ ˂˶) .ᐟ.ᐟ

Character asks & POV are okay, nsfw is okay, if I don't want to answer something due to being uncomfortable I won't! I appreciate YOU if you have read this far into my little post.. I'm quite nervous but really proud of this idea!

#divine punishment #divine punishment if #interactive fiction #intro post #twine if #twine wip #twine interactive fiction #itch.io #indie dev #if wip #dp

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pangaeaseas · 4 months ago

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Magic Is Masculinity: Or, Lucius Malfoy and How the Wand Makes the Man

One thing I'm always interested in thinking about in HP fic is how to realistically create a society with different mores from our own. If you take the premise that pureblood especially and overall wizarding culture more broadly is different from 1990s Muggle British society seriously, you must consider where social norms differ from 90s muggle norms. I personally am interested in the idea that pureblood families tend to live in multi-generational households with extended families rather than in a nuclear family, for instance, though I don't think this was JKR's intention (but who cares it's interesting). You could claim that LGBTQ+ people are more or less accepted than 90s Britain, depending on what you want to do with your story--and you could also consider that the wizarding world might have completely different definitions of sexuality (like, for example, the Roman use of penetrator vs non-penetrator as the main sexual binary). And we know that what is defined as masculinity and femininity varies massively across time and place.

So I want to think about how gender roles might differ in the wizarding world. There was a post I saw recently that discussed the idea of Sirius feeling affirmed in exploring femininity by being seen as feminine by Muggles while wearing robes, which I thought was a really interesting idea (and one that could apply to any character exploring gender). Of course the essential premise there is that something Muggles read as feminine--robes--are actually an essential aspect of Wizarding masculinity (see that guy who likes a nice healthy breeze round his privates in GoF).

So what else defines Wizarding masculinity? We can go absolutely wild! But I think there's a lot of canonical basis for the idea that one essential part of being a wizard and a man is having access to and control over one's own wand. This raises interesting questions about how characters who can't control their wands might be seen as emasculated (like Ron in CoS and Neville pre-HBP), and is also significant with regards to Voldemort's search for a wand that will allow him to fight Harry, and the period when Harry's wand is broken. So I'd love if people did additional analysis on this topic. But I'm going to specifically discuss the case of Lucius Malfoy, because I think he's a very clear example of how you need to have a wand to be a man.

"The faces around him displayed nothing but shock; he might have announced that he wanted to borrow one of their arms. “No volunteers?” said Voldemort. “Let’s see . . . Lucius, I see no reason for you to have a wand anymore.” Lucius Malfoy looked up. His skin appeared yellowish and waxy in the firelight, and his eyes were sunken and shadowed. When he spoke, his voice was hoarse. “My Lord?” “Your wand, Lucius. I require your wand.” “I . . .” Malfoy glanced sideways at his wife. She was staring straight ahead, quite as pale as he was, her long blonde hair hanging down her back, but beneath the table her slim fingers closed briefly on his wrist. At her touch, Malfoy put his hand into his robes, withdrew a wand, and passed it along to Voldemort, who held it up in front of his red eyes, examining it closely. “What is it?” “Elm, my Lord,” whispered Malfoy. “And the core?” “Dragon — dragon heartstring.” “Good,” said Voldemort. He drew out his own wand and compared the lengths. Lucius Malfoy made an involuntary movement; for a fraction of a second, it seemed he expected to receive Voldemort’s wand in exchange for his own. The gesture was not missed by Voldemort, whose eyes widened maliciously. “Give you my wand, Lucius? My wand?” Some of the throng sniggered. “I have given you your liberty, Lucius, is that not enough for you? But I have noticed that you and your family seem less than happy of late. . . . What is it about my presence in your home that displeases you, Lucius?” “Nothing — nothing, my Lord!” “Such lies, Lucius . . .” (Chapter 1, DH)

Having a wand is compared to having an arm: it's an essential part of a wizard's body. All the Death Eaters are shocked by the request. (Interestingly, we know of only two confirmed female Death Eaters, Bellatrix and Alecto Carrow. Bellatrix says that she would gladly give up any SONS specifically to the Dark Lord's service in HBP. This might imply that the Death Eaters are intended to be a majority male organization (though I personally like to explore the idea of there being more female Death Eaters) and so these are men specifically being affronted).

Before his wand is taken, it is specifically mentioned that Lucius appears ill--pale and waxen and yellow. Control of the body and good health is often seen as a crucial sign of masculinity. Lucius has lost this--he cannot control his own body--and is about to lose an important signal of his masculinity, his wand.

Voldemort is also treating Lucius as a child who's transgressed: there is 'no reason for him to have a wand anymore'--Voldemort doesn't respect Lucius's right to have a wand, like he's a child who isn't in control of his own decisions. A main throughline of Lucius's treatment since OOTP is Voldemort's interest in punishing him. This involves reducing him to a child to be ordered around, who can't be trusted with a wand. He treats Lucius as someone deeply beholden to him: Lucius having a wand and having liberty are dependent on Voldemort, instead of characteristics of an adult man with social authority. Voldemort is the patriarch of the Death Eater family.

Voldemort seems to enjoy humiliating him in front of the other Death Eaters: he could have asked him nicely as an equal in private, but he makes a spectacle of it, asking for volunteers he knows won't be appearing, only to single out Lucius and then mock any pretensions he might have to exchanging wands, then intimidating and terrifying him by questioning his loyalty (and the loyalty of his family, which thus insults Lucius's ability as a patriarch). The wand length comparison also serves no real purpose but to emasculate Lucius.

Immediately after taking the wand, Vodlemort also brings up Tonks's marriage to Remus to insult Lucius, Narcissa, and Bellatrix--another insult to Lucius's abilities as a patriarch as he cannot stop his family members from shaming the family through marriage choices. Again, it is delberate that Voldemort does this so soon after taking Lucius's wand. Now that Lucius is wandless, his masculine authority can be questioned.

Lucius clearly wants later to reclaim this lost authority --and implicitly his sense of his own masculinity.

When the Trio is captured, Lucius is extremely excited. He appears to be motivated by a desire to lessen his punishment (which involved Voldemort taking his wand, and said wand being destroyed by Harry):

"Harry had never heard Lucius Malfoy so excited. “Draco, if we are the ones who hand Potter over to the Dark Lord, everything will be forgiv —” “Now, we won’t be forgetting who actually caught him, I hope, Mr. Malfoy?” said Greyback menacingly." (DH)

Greyback says 'Mr. Malfoy' in a menacing way: it seems to be belittling him, reminding him that he doesn't actually have that much power in this scene compared to Greyback, who actually captured them by his own efforts compared to Lucius passively waiting for something to improve his situation. Greyback may be saying 'Mr. Malfoy' to say: all you have is your social position, compared to me--you might have the title of 'mr' but you don't have a wand and you don't have the power to act, so I am more masculine and can threaten you.

It's also really interesting how Narcissa is directing Lucius and Draco in this scene: she greets Greyback and brings him in, she refers to Draco as her son only, she is the first one to instruct Draco to examine them. Malfoy Manor might be Lucius's home, it has his name, but Narcissa appears to act as patriarch in this scene: it's her home, her son, she is greeting visitors and taking command, and she is the one to say 'we need to be sure and shouldn't immediately summon Voldemort' and the one to identify Hermione. This might be the typical Malfoy family dynamic, it might be because Narcissa is the one who still has a wand.

Then Bellatrix comes in, and she orders both Lucius and Narcissa around. She also asks Narcissa what happened, treating her as the leader of the family. Now Bellatrix has always hated Lucius, they certainly didn't seem to get along well during the DoM battle. But here she's just contemptuous of him, and provides key evidence for my wand-equals-masculinity theory.

"“I was about to call him!” said Lucius, and his hand actually closed upon Bellatrix’s wrist, preventing her from touching the Mark. “I shall summon him, Bella, Potter has been brought to my house, and it is therefore upon my authority —” “Your authority!” she sneered, attempting to wrench her hand from his grasp. “You lost your authority when you lost your wand, Lucius! How dare you! Take your hands off me!” “This is nothing to do with you, you did not capture the boy —” " (DH)

Lucius lost his authority when he lost his wand. He is no longer the patriarch, the master of the house, specifically because he does not have a wand: Bellatrix then goes on to order Draco around, which Narcissa protests because it's 'her house': a striking contrast to Voldemort calling it Lucius's house in the first chapter, before he took the wand, and to Lucius trying to call it his house. While Lucius has a wand it's his house, but when his is taken it become's Narcissa's (though of course she is talking to her sister about herself, so you don't necessarily have to read that much into it). Interestingly, Bellatrix doesn't give orders to Lucius: maybe because she just doesn't like or trust him but maybe because he doesn't have a wand and is thus useless.

The whole concept of authority in HP--and Lucius, owner of Malfoy Manor, husband and father, has specifically patriarchal authority as Head of his family--is linked to having a wand. Lucius seems to have expected to be able to exercise some control over Bellatrix as a fellow Death Eater and as his sister-in-law who appears to be living with him, but she rejects this possibility by saying he can't control her as a male patriarch might because he doesn't have a wand. Thus he is failing to meet the requirements of being a patriarch in wizarding society. Bellatrix can do whatever she wants in his house, and he has no way of stopping her. She seems to have replaced him as patriarch of the Malfoy family.

The linkage of masculinity with authority with having a wand is made extremely clear through Bellatrix's line. By taking Lucius's wand, Voldemort removed the last semblance of authority and masculinity he had, to humiliate and emasculate him for losing the diary and the prophecy (and I think the broader narrative is doing this to Lucius at least a little as well, he becomes more pathetic and pitiable, because in JKR's view of gender pity is for women).

Later, Lucius's role as a Death Eater has clearly been reduced: Voldemort dismisses his suggestions around the Battle of Hogwarts as only being concerned for his son, and assigns him the menial task of fetching Snape. He has been reduced from advisor to fetch-and-carrier. Lucius's last appearance on page is NOT fighting in the Battle of Hogwarts, appearing only concerned with his son (and JKR often associates concern with a child only over any other concerns with maternity and femininity, but that's another post).

In working on this meta I also had a lot of thoughts about warrior masculinity through martial magic in the Wizarding World, and the idea of a Death Eater specific masculine warrior ideal, but that's another post LMAO. I hope this has been helpful in imagining how magic might affect gender roles!

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artifacts-and-arthropods · 11 months ago

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2,000-Year-Old Fayum Portraits from Roman Egypt: also known as "mummy portraits," these funerary paintings were often fastened to the coffins of the people they depicted

Above: Fayum portrait of a woman from Roman-occupied Egypt, c.100-110 CE

Fayum portraiture was a popular funerary practice among the upper-class families of Roman Egypt from about 50 CE to 250 CE. Given the high mortality rates for children during this period, many of these portraits depict children and youths, but adults were often featured, too.

Above: portrait of a youth wearing a golden wreath, c.130-150 CE; the wreath and the background of the portrait are both gilded

The population of the Faiyum Delta, where most of these portraits were found, largely contained individuals with both native Egyptian/North African and Greek heritage. The Greek lineages can be traced back to the Ptolemaic period, when the Greeks gained control of Egypt and began to establish settlements throughout the region, gradually leading to a cultural diffusion between the Greek and Egyptian populations. The Romans eventually took control of Egypt in 31 CE, absorbing it into the Roman Empire and colonizing much of North Africa, but the demographics of the Faiyum Delta remained largely unchanged.

Above: portrait of a man with a mole on his nose, c.130-150 CE

Many of these Fayum portraits reflect the same blend of ethnic and cultural roots, depicting individuals with both Greek and native Egyptian heritage (a claim that is supported by both archaeological and genetic evidence). Some portraits may also depict native Egyptians who did not have any European ancestry, but had been integrated into Greco-Roman society.

Above: portrait of a bearded man, c.170-180 CE

These representations of native Egyptians provide us with unique insights into the actual demographics of Roman-occupied Egypt (and the ancient world at large). Non-European peoples are rarely included in depictions of the classical world; it's also interesting to see the blend of cultural elements that these portraits represent.

Above: portrait of a priest of Serapis, c.140-160 CE; the man in this portrait is shown wearing a fillet/crown that bears the seven-pointed star of the Greco-Egyptian god, Serapis

As this article explains:

In the 1800s and early 1900s, Western art historians didn’t know what to make of these portraits. Scholars of Roman history labeled them Egyptian. Scholars of Egyptian history labeled them Greco-Roman. These binary academic classifications failed to capture the true complexity of the ancient (or, indeed, modern) Mediterranean. In reality, Fayum portraits are a syncretic form, merging Egyptian and Greco-Roman art and funerary practices. They reflect the cosmopolitanism of both Roman and Egyptian history.

Above: portrait of a man, c.80-100 CE (left); portrait of a bearded officer, sometimes referred to as "Perseus," c.130-175 CE (right)

Above: portrait of a young woman in red, c.90-120 CE

Nearly 1,000 of these portraits are currently known to exist.

Above: portrait of a man wearing a gilded ivy wreath, c.100-150 CE

Above: portrait of a bearded man, c.150-170 CE

Sources & More Info:

Curationist: Fayum Portraits

Harvard Art Museums: Giving the Dead their Due: an Exhibition Re-Examines Funerary Portraits from Roman Egypt

Getty Museum: APPEAR Project

Getty Museum: Faces of Roman Egypt

National Geographic: Ancient Egypt's Stunning, Lifelike Mummy Portraits

The Athens Centre: The Myth of Whiteness in Classical Sculpture

Forbes: Whitewashing Ancient Statues: Whiteness, Racism and Color in the Ancient World

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