#tribal lore

[spacey-llama]

they r,,, lesbians to me

they r giving “oh no u turned my hot rockstar bf into a lobster… oh no… do u wanna like makeout?”

[artsofmetamoor]

Lately I've been researching Viking-era ice skates made from bone and leather, and now I'm inspired to use that concept as reference for the idea of Ballard crafting a pair of ice skates to gift Cornelia, for her to use on the frozen lakes and rivers near their village during winter ❤️

I can imagine him making something beautiful and elegant for her with adorned leathers and furs ❤️ I'm not sure if he would make the blade from carved bone or actual metal (as I discussed with @katerinaaqu ) since Ballard is a skilled blacksmith as well, but either way I can imagine him engraving it with beautiful patterns for her!

Cornelia performing a dance on ice for a village celebration is definitely an image I wanna draw! I also love the idea of her playing on the ice with her children and the other kids from the village.😍

Drawings are coming ❤️

[graylinesspam]

An excerpt from a story I've been writing about Ahsoka exploring togruta lore in order to connect with her heritage. And also acting as a jedi delegate speaking with a lost traditionalist togruta tribe.

when their ships landed at the edge of the village they were met with a line of armed men. Their lekku were all warm shades ranging from a deep magenta to a bright yellow. Their weapons were traditional. The repurposed tools and hunting knives and spear were held in tight but lowered grips. Though they wanted to show strength to the invaders they did not want to show aggression. Not a curled lip or an exposed fang could be found on their faces. 

In the center of the delegation was an elder not as old as the ones she'd befriended from the green lek tribe, but his montrals were tall and his lekku were wide. His skin showed the wear of sun and labor. 

"Will they attack?" Mundi asked after she'd taken the time to assess their welcome party. 

"I don't think so," Ahsoka said. "But why don't you let me go first?"

Mundi nodded to the front of the ship and the gunship doors slid open. Ahsoka stepped off the ship first; her choice to go barefoot had raised several eyebrows but she was glad for the opportunity to ground herself. Her beaded ankle bracelets flashed for a moment as she stepped down into the tougher, reedier grass. 

As she took two tentative steps forward Rex and Echo exit the gunship behind her. Their boots made loud crunching noises as they trampled the grass. Master Mundi and one of the three delegates from Cerea filled out the right side of the ship. 

The men in a line before her studied the group carefully, apprehensive looks were cast to the clone troopers and, with cautious recognition, to the Cereans. But it was the sight of Ahsoka that caught all of their attention. 

She was the shortest among them but she stood in the lead. Every man there shot quick glances at her murmurs growing across the line. 

The Elder had eyes only for her. He separated from the line, his palms open in front of him. He and Ahsoka approach each other drawn across the no man's land like magnets. 

They met in the middle palms laid flat against each other and heads turned until they lay cheek to cheek. "Welcome sister," his voice hummed richly through his chest. There was a warm sort of familial feeling that overtook her in response. 

"I am honored to see you elder," she replied In the people's language. Hoping beyond hope that her pronunciation wasn't mangled.

"You bring many with you today. Those that resemble the troublemakers. And men in much armor. Do you bring conflict to us?" He asked with much patience in both the speed and tone of his words. Speaking slowly the way Ahsoka had to accommodate her.

"No. I have brought peace with me. Those that have trouble with you have called to me to speak. So that there will be no conflict. They come with great respect but also urgency."

The elder holds her hands in a loose grip between them as he pears around Ahsoka's shoulders, suspicion in his eyes. But it isn't Mundi or the Cereans he is looking at. It is Rex and Echo.

"You bring peace, but you bring soldiers in much armor with great weapons?"

Ahsoka is somehow blindsided by the accusation. It simply hadn't occurred to her that the sight of blasters or clone armor would seem aggressive to the lost tribe here. 

Ahsoka scrambled for a reason that would make sense to these people without a twenty minute backstory about Mandalorians and the galactic war.

She glanced back at Rex and the excuse came to mind easily. Something that she'd pondered idly in a childish bid to have more connection with her culture in a religion that didn't foster much; and in an environment where she didn't even need a full hand to count the amount of people that looked like her. 

She raised an open palm over her shoulder and quickly flashed a mandalorian hand signal she'd used a hundred times to direct her troops. With practiced efficiency Rex and Echo strode either of her flanks and stood once more at rest. Both visors trained stoically forward.

"Revered elder, this is Rex, my hunting partner. And his brother Echo. It is the way of their people to remain armed but they follow my lead. My orders. They're loyalty brings me great honor."

The elder looked shocked. He inspected Rex closely peering into the black of his visor to try to see into his heart.

"Rex, take off your helmet, lower your head to the elder." It was the first time she'd spoken in basic since exiting the ship but Rex didn't need any context to follow her order.

He removed his helmet and ducked his shoulders so the shorter man could peer into his eyes.

The elder searched him trying to weigh his gaze against the unfamiliar danger of the weapons on his hips. Trying to determine what sort of man she was bonded to.

Ahsoka knew both men were confused by the interaction. The title she'd given Rex, hunting partner, bhat sa'behm, was sacred and it had no equivalent outside of Togruta society.

A hunting partner was a life bonded friend. Usually someone you grew up with, someone you'd learned to read better than anyone else. Someone who could get lost in the grass and shadows of Shili but remain by your side. With no words between you and no wasted breath. Some said hunting with another for a long time bonded your souls in the next life. Ensured you would be reborn in the same body. Two halves made whole.

She supposed her and Rex were close enough to that. Though what they hunted were droids. And she wasn't convinced reincarnation was real. They still had an unmatched read on each other. She'd rather have him at her back than anyone.

Finally satisfied with peering into Rex's soul the elder turned back to her. "He is wise in this life. But his soul is young." he determined. "You are not. An old spirit in a young body." he said with a chuckle. "perfectly suited."

[black-suns-rim]

Tundra region Loreirrans

I can’t sleep and I’m too impatient to wait for the poll to end, so I’m just gonna jump right in and talk about my OG alien species, the Loreirrans. Let’s start off with one of the regional appearances.

This group of loreirrans live in the cold and harsh environments of Icera-5. They have adapted to the cold weather with thick fur and the ability to breath in the dry, cold air without discomfort. The babies are hatched without fur but they quickly develop a thick coat only hours after hatching. The tundra Loreirrans prefer to live in homes that aren’t filled with technology, being more connected with their spiritual side. They have a more tribal way of living and regional government compared to other regional Loreirrans. Their homes are traditionally built out of the materials available to them in their area, such as wood, snow, moss, animals pelts and so on. Since there aren’t that many cold places on Icera-5 besides the small polar caps, this species of loreirran isn’t as plentiful as the others.

[museincarnate]

New Muses Inbound: East Quadrant of Sol-Lago!

Meet Paragu: Paragu is the Chief of his sect of Saiyans, who are more tribal in their culture. Like the rest of his sect of Saiyans in the East Quadrant of Sol-Lago, Paragu has a darker complexion, compared to the other primary Saiyan kingdoms / planets. Paragu is a traditionalist, and holds firm to the belief of seldom meddling in affairs off-planet, unless it's to attend a council with the other Saiyan rulers, or anyone else within the East Quadrant. Given his culture and nature, Paragu is calm and wise, even in the most tense situations, but he's also capable of being lighthearted, when he can be afforded the time to focus less on his duties as a leader.

Meet Aba: Aba is the Elder of the Fishermen planet of Namekians. Like the rest of the Namekians that inhabit the planet, Aba has a tealish hue to her skin, while Aba was born with a fin-like appendage on her head. She's stern and prideful, considering Namekians need only drink water to survive, and being a fisherman feels like an extension of something natural for them. Despite her pride, however, Aba tends to remain rather peaceful, and rarely ever fights, unless she absolutely has to.

Meet Taphie: Taphie is the ruler of the Candy-centric Majins, who eat candy, and nothing else. As ruler of the Candy Majins, Taphie is just as sweet, if not sweeter, than the sweetest candy there is; often radiating joy and enthusiasm, wherever she goes. Playful as can be, even in the most serious and dire situations, she seldom, if ever, takes anything too seriously. In fact, she has the tendency to agree to things that her attendant, Ringu, has to deny on her behalf, so she doesn't optimistically agree to anything that wouldn't be beneficial to the Candy Majins.

Meet Flurri: Flurri is the Leader / Ruler of the sect of Arcosians that follow a more positive belief, about the Deity called Celcios; believing that Celcios is an all-loving type of god, that loves all Arcosians as they are, without judgment. Similar to the First Form of the Arcosian race, Flurri is shorter than the other Arcosian Rulers, and doesn't seem as strong as her peers. In spite of that, Flurri is a positive, endearing, and encouraging presence, who preaches positivity and good tidings to those who choose to follow a similar belief as her. Still, she's just as guilty as the other two Arcosian rulers, who try to pressure Frigid of the North Quadrant, into reconsidering his own atheist views.

[immobiliter]

paimon: what if he'd actually cut your arm off? dehya: then i'd just have to hold my claymore with my left arm

i don't think dehya's demo is all that great ( like her character kit really, rip ), but this scene is my absolute favourite from sumeru honestly, i love this girl sm

[liroyalty]

Everything about the new Outworld/Edenia(i'm not really sure which to call it yet) in MK1 remake is top tier Plumeria vibes.

Look at this ya'll.

[minami-mad-fish]

Arroyo village

Im not good enough to make a decent piece of art of Arroyo so i doodled it

[gainercrimsonartblog]

Beastseeker but she eats every beast she sees

Hate to break it to you, but there’s a reason she’s named Beastseeker.

Not everyone is brave enough to track down a Titan-sized beast that washed up on the shores of her island home. She is the finder of great beasts, and she now helps this one to hunt down the “smaller” ones that threaten her people. If anyone’s eating beasts, it’s this big guy here.

For reference, the tiny human is Beastseeker and she’s exactly five feet tall. She calls the big guy Kai, another name for him is Crimsonpelt.

[unbreakable-oaths]

Ibakha and the namazu took a tour of the Azim Steppe today. No one had a good time.

[ulk-archuvosdelultimomar]

Reinos lavamar- Toa

Si bien el sistema de castas relega a la casta guerrera al piso de la pirámide existen miembros los cuales son criados y entrenados personalmente para pertenecer a las llamadas órdenes guerreras, sirvientes directos de la casta Sacerdotal y las noblezas locales.

Estos son las fuerzas de élite, cuerpos armados que son presididos por los Guerreros Rituales o también llamados Toa, soldados que sirven personalmente a la casta de los sacerdotes y son considerados el escalafón más alto al que un miembro de la casta guerrera puede ascender solo por debajo de los Maestres de las órdenes mismas y los Paladines.

[primaljort]

With few exceptions, human warriors follow roughly the same path. Starting as unproven, they become Young Hunters once they pass whatever their city or tribe's rite of passage is, and grow into Halfdrivers from there.

It takes remarkable strength, skill, and a psyche that is broken in just the right way to ascend into a true Blood Driver; those who fail to make the cut grow into Sarissa, resigned to a life of unremarkable competence.

[hopegained]

and what if the ancient ysanna people spoke space welsh and the modern native population still speak it?

[the-hittite]

I never actually sat down and talked to Benny before. My first run through the game he bamboozled me good and every run after that I'd just kill him. This time around I'm making an effort to engage with the lore and characters closer so I made sure to hear him out completely.

I'm actually really surprised at how, well, sane he makes it all sound. I always just assumed he was a power hungry despot and there's definitely some of that in there. But his main motivation for overthrowing House is that he genuinely believes he'd make a better leader. Not because he thinks he's smarter or anything but because he actually knows how to lead. House leads Vegas the same way he ran his corporation. Invest capital, broker favorable deals, appoint competent subordinates, and then sit back and collect the profits. Problem is that his "employees" were tribals less than a decade ago and weren't raised in a corporate hierarchy. To them, this hands off approach looks at best like carelessness and at worst like an intentional insult. I'm finally starting to understand why the Omertas call him "Not-At-Home."

And the irony of the situation is that thanks to all of his scheming, Benny himself is disappearing for days or even weeks at a time and it's weakening his peoples' confidence in him. To the point that any brain damaged yahoo with a Speech of 45 can convince them to sell him out. Benny and House are more alike than either wants to admit.

But what really gets me is that the little shit bamboozled me again. He actually had me going with all that talk about working with him to take down House. I've been playing this game and engaging with the fandom for at least a decade. I should have known for an absolute fact that there was absolutely no way to side with him but the smooth talking son of a bitch actually had me doubting myself right up until the moment the guards came in. Absolutely fucking incredible. Babygirl of all time. I might actually let him live.

[dailyadventureprompts]

Heavy Topics: A Child's Vision of Evil

One of the first big “aha!” moments in my journey to retrofit d&d’s laughably bad lore was the realization that the way the game treated evil didn’t make much sense.  As a dungeonmaster I was asked to create dramatic stakes for my players but the out-of-the-box antagonists supplied to me were as laughably one note as the pollution loving villains in Captain Planet. Who would ever worship the demon god of killing everything that lives? Of torturing you for all eternity? Of being unpleasantly covered in slime? 

None of it really made sense until I started to understand the world and recent history through a political lens, at which point several things became clear: 

Despite how large a bogyman it played in the satan scare of the late 80s, the people who laid the foundations for the lore of d&d came from a background of conservative american christianity, and baked a lot of that ethos into the game. 

The conservative christian imagination can only see things in black and white. People who disagree with them can’t just have a different opinion, even if that opinion is objectively good, they need to be wilfully evil . In fact they must be trying as hard to be evil as the christian is trying to be good, because they’re a backwards person, a monster, a demon. 

This idea of the “Backwards Person” is the exact process that gave rise to the bloodlibel, to the witchpanics, to the redscare, and yes, the 80s fear that satanists lurk around every corner sacrificing babies and putting poison in candy because they love evil that much.  It’s the same thought that’s given rise to Q-anon and the groomer panic. “People who disagree with just can’t just have a different opinion, they must be demons.”

D&D’s classic enemies are similarly all “backwards people”, hardwired to do evil so that players always have an excuse to kill them.  While on the surface it seems harmless or even childish it leads to the default d&d world being one where peace is impossible and genocidal violence is the only correct answer.  

We can do better in our writing than a bunch of shut-ins who wanted nothing more than to play cowboys and indians while ripping off Tolkien. Whether you want to write a sweeping epic or a mindless dungeon crawler, there’s a way to reconfigure d&d lore. 

Join me below the cut for a discussion of different ways to use evil in your games.

Children cannot control their emotions nor their fear, they lack the life experience necessary to contextualize things beyond a surface level reading. If you ask a child to "imagine something bad" they're going to take something that scared them, something gross or unpleasant or threatening and imagine it blown up to cartoonish proportion. Tolkien got bit by a spider as a kid and the entire fantasy genre has never lived it down.

D&D is weird because it keeps these childish ideas about evil and drags them forward into an adult context. Those three demon gods I mentioned in the intro make a sort of sense when you realize they're fears of dying, pain, and uncleanliness made manifest. That said most of us having outgrown our childish simplicity understand that those things are neutral, Spiders might personally gross you out but we all understand that doesn't make them bad on a spiritual level. In the base d&d lore however that personal distaste is ALWAYS true: Evilness is synonymous with ugliness and monstrousness, drawing a thick crayon line between the good people and the bad things.

That's where we get our particular flavor of backwards people, because one of those fundamental (pun intended) fears d&d inherited from it's creators was xenophobia, fear of the strange, but also fear of the stranger. When the white, suburban, middle class, christian creators of d&d imagined the other they took all the bad things they had been told in their youth about people who were not them and made them into monsters: That's why the default thinking enemies of d&d are tribal primitives who squat in the ruins of greater civilizations worshipping demons while coveting the beauty and wealth of cultured people. It sounds hyperbolic, but there's a one for one parallel between between the weird sexual anxieties conservatives have about black men and orcs raiding human lands to kidnap women as breeding stock. Same fears about emasculation and race mixing and ethnic replacement, only d&d gives the good ol' boys a narrative vehicle where they can revenge themselves upon their imagined foe.

Most modern d&d is not like this, and I chalk that up to the demographic shift that's happened both because of time passing and the influx of new voices that came along with the 5e renaissance. We're all media literate enough to avoid the obvious racial pantomime... except in cases like the Hardozee when the devs port something almost word for word from an older edition and we get a thanksgiving uncle/facebook aunt screed about how the silly monkey people are really SO happy to work for the refined and civilized and white elves.

What's left behind however is that pervasive childlike worldview: Where perfectly natural things that creep us out (like rot) or frighten us (like pregnancy) are made universally villainous regardless of any themes that are going on in that specific story. Ask yourself why the creators of a piece of media made their badguys look and act like they did, rather than just accepting that it's that way because "the lore says so".

Anyway, that's my rant over, and I promised you guys some different versions of how to use Evil:

Classic demons or lovecraftian horrors make for good bossfights but are thin on character, one of the basic building blocks of story. To remedy this, pair your unremitting force of darkness and destruction with a troubled and nuanced mortal agent, someone who is trying their general best but has been forced down this low road by circumstances beyond their control. This gives your roleplaying focused players something to play off against while your combat focused ones battle a building sized monstrosity. Raw evil isn't interesting, it becomes interesting when we see what it makes morally grey people, even good people, do in reaction to it.

Extremity is one of the best ways to turn normal people into villains, a looming disaster or recent crisis that's putting the pressure on everyone and preventing anyone from thinking beyond protecting themselves and their own. Beyond the people acting rashly, you're also going to have a legion of opportunists offering to fix the problem as your higher rank of antagonists to overcome.

Similarly, if you're going to have your villain backed up by legions of faceless mooks you're going to need a reason for their loyalty. Your villain is offering them something worth dying for, which gives your heroes an alternate win condition for overcoming their numbers beyond genocide.

If you're willing to take a step into a more fanciful, cartoony universe, feel free to play with the idea of good and evil as arbitrary teams: It's the badguy's job to cause chaos and it's the goodguy's job to stop em, they're all working professionals and the dungeon is the workplace comedy. This is fun, but then lets you escalate the tension when someone doesn't play by the rules. What happens when a zealot starts executing evildoers who'd already surrendered? what happens when the villain summons something that is more interested in devastation than wacky hijinx?

Think of morality like a punnett square: There's the party, and then there's the villain who wants the opposite of what they want. THEN there's the villain who wants what the party wants, and the ally who wants the opposite of party wants. Suddenly rather than a simple binary, the party is forced to balance the interest of varying groups as well as their better judgment. This can be made even MORE complex by creating different categories of "what the party wants", which is generally how you get complex political dramas like game of thrones.

[legoliomanikas]

Brief Thoughts About Aventurine, Religion, and Colonialism

This isn't a comprehensive summary, just things I started thinking about. It's kinda funny how things just completely fly past you when you don't think about them regularly, cuz I'm a very not-religious person so it took reading someone offhandedly refer to aspects of Aventurine's backstory as his "religious beliefs" for me to realize how important those actually are.

(2.1 Story Spoilers + reading the Sigonia relic set description will help for some context)

Despite his employment in the IPC calling for Aventurine to help amass capital in the name of Qlipoth the Preservation, we don't really hear him talk about Qlipoth often and his backstory basically omits mention of his relationship to THEM; the focus is entirely about his relationship with Gaiathra Triclops and HER blessing of luck.

The present Aventurine has changed a lot from his young self due to the influence of the IPC, in direct ways such as his newfound wealth and ruthless business practices, and in indirect manners such as how the IPCs involvement in the inter-tribal relationships of Sigonia resulted in higher tensions between the Avgins, Katicans, and other tribes.

However, his belief in Gaiathra Triclops has remained intact into his adulthood. It has soured as he begun to view HER blessing of good luck to be more akin to a curse, but it feels like a very deliberate writing decision to have him still hold onto the belief system of the Avgin. It would have been reasonable if he had later turned to the protection of Qlipoth, as joining the IPC had resulted in the wealth and status he has now, but he doesn't really do this.

Even if the colonialism took much away from him, he still wishes to retain his culture. (The value he places in the items his parents left for him and sister: the charm, the necklace, and the shirt, is further testament to this, as examples outside of his religious beliefs.)

Prayer is also something that we rarely see depicted often in Star Rail, which makes the segments of Aventurine praying with his younger self and sister stand out a lot more. The only character I can recall off the top of my head with an extended prayer sequence is Sunday at the end of 2.0, which is also notable.

One thing that I was wishing the Penacony plot would at least lampshade is the irony of sending Aventurine, a slave working for the IPC, to retake a planet that had led a slave rebellion to escape the IPC's control. While I'm now uncertain if they will address that directly, I do wonder that as we learn more about Sunday, if his relationship with Xipe the Harmony will end up being used as a way to foil him to Aventurine and/or serve as indirect commentary on the situation between the IPC and Penacony. (This is pure speculation)

But yea anyways, it's pretty interesting seeing mihoyo try to incorporate other aspects of racism and colonialism that extend beyond displays of outright hatred, such as how Aventurine's retainment of his culture's religious practices is depicted in a positive light. (Another thing that stuck out to me is how they depicted the fetishization of racial traits negatively, with the way some characters remark on his eyes, how the Avgin's untrustworthy reputation partially lies within their physical attractiveness, and how his relationship with his own appearance has changed as a result, as this is something I rarely see fictionalized but I won't elaborate on this here bc its off-topic.)

Obviously, mihoyo doesn't have the best track record when writing minorities and there's still a fucktonnnnn to be criticized about their decisions in Aventurine's lore as well (the most egregious of which being deriving the name for his planet from an actual slur), but it does seem like they are at least trying to add more depth to their depictions.