#volcanus

[deathlessathanasia]

Are there any versions of myth you know of of Hephaestus explicitly assaulting someone outside the Athena story?

I can't think of any. Generally the sexual unions he engages in aren't described in any detail. Other than the attempted rape of Athena, the only instance I'm aware of is this Roman myth where rape is not explicitly said to have occured but imo the context makes it pretty obvious:

„For the father of Tullius was Vulcan, his mother was the beautiful Ocresia of Corniculum. After performing with her the sacred rites in due form, Tanaquil ordered Ocresia to pour wine on the hearth, which had been adorned. There among the ashes there was, or seemed to be, the shape of the male organ; but rather the shape was really there. Ordered by her mistress, the captive Ocresia sat down at the hearth. She conceived Servius, who thus was begotten of seed from heaven. His begetter gave a token of his paternity when he touched the head of Servius with gleaming fire, and when on the king’s hair there blazed a cap of flame.” (Ovid, Fasti 6.625-634)

[zzthekaiju]

Super Zeroes - Volcanus

And here's our secondary protagonist/arguably my favorite character!

Born Corazon Esperanza, Volcanus, age 35, is the last of the dragons, which were wiped out for being such a threat to humanity. His powers include breathing fire capable of melting steel, bulletproof skin, and deceptively graceful flight. Unlike his kin, little Corazon was raised by a kindly farmer in Mexico after she found his egg. Unfortunately, events out of his control forced him to cross the border and head to Collateral City so that he could pursue his dream of becoming a hero. He was bullied relentlessly by the top student at the local Hero School, the cruel bully who would eventually become Dark Cowl. And while he found a best friend in the similarly mistreated Skull Face, he found he couldn't take the cruelty and prejudice of city life anymore, and he quietly retired to the forests of Bellingham. Many years later, however, Skull Face approaches him to revitalize his own career. Without any other friends or family to turn to, he reluctantly accepts. Volcanus is, in essence, a minion with a big fat F in evil. Unendingly kind and empathetic, he's a gentle giant who seeks nothing more than to help others and be seen as more than just a monster. He’s not oblivious to how awful the world can be nor how everyone seems to hate him for what he is, but does his best to not let it get to him. Unfortunately, this has given him a few repressed anger issues. As it is though, Volcanus is at a crossroads throughout the series. He can either walk away from Skull Face's mad campaign of villainy and lose the only friend he's ever had, or he can stay with the Supervillain and betray his own values. As fate would have it, his inevitable meeting and friendship with Flying Brick could serve as a much-needed push in the right direction for them both…

[poolpvrty]

She spoke. Liber [Dionysos] had long been listening to her words of complaint, as he followed behind her. He embraces her and mops her tears with kisses, and says: ‘Let us seek heaven's heights together. You have shared my bed and you will share my name. You will be named Libera, when transformed. I will create a monument of you and your crown, which Volcanus [Hephaistos] gave Venus [Aphrodite] and she gave you.’ He does what he said, and turns its nine gems to fires, and the golden crown glitters with nine stars.

Dionysus! Sirius and his husband, Ariadne! Remus

[cartographers-office]

The PNF-404 Phylogenetic Tree

A bit of a different post from the usual, as I have been very hyped for Pikmin 4! Here's my speculative phylogenetic tree for most of the creatures in the Pikmin series. It is a bit more cautious than an actual phylogenetic tree, so there are a lot of soft polytomies (ideally every branch split should only have two children), but I digress.

Edit

It seems that Tumblr's compression did some nasty work on my post, so I'm gonna leave here a link to my phylogenetic tree in case anyone would like to see it in its full glory.

Here are also all the notes on the image in case anyone needs those too:

Author's Notes

Updated as of the Pikmin 4 Demo.

Icons taken from the Pikipedia and Pikmin games.

Fonts used are “Pikmin Font” by TheAdorableOshawott and “Dimbo” by Jayvee Enaguas.

Species with multiple scientific names

The Red Bulborb, Empress Bulblax and Bulborb Larvae are all explicitly different forms of the same species, as is the case in their Japanese technical name.

The Spotty Bulbear and Dwarf Bulbear are both explicitly different forms of the same species, as is the case in their Japanese technical name.

The Baldy Long Legs and Hairy Long Legs are explicitly stated to be the same species.

The Centipare and adult Centipare have completely different scientific name and family.

Incorrect scientific name (according to Japanese family name)

Despite being in the Breadbug family, the Fiery Dwarf Bulblax, has the Oculus genus instead of Pansarus. This is corrected here.

Despite not being in the Blowhog family, the Tusked Blowhog shares its Sus genus.

Despite not being in the Mandiblards family, the Shooting Spiner shares its Himeagea genus.

Despite not being in the Flint Beetle family, the Glint Beetle shares its Pilli genus.

The Floaterbie family is supposed to be the same family as the Flutterbie family in the original Japanese.

The Crysanthemum family is considered the same as the Dandelion family in the original Japanese.

Changes due to assumed consistency

All Wollyhop names have been updated to match the Wolpole's European name, which was standardized in Pikmin 4.

Similarly, All mentions of the “frodendum" specific name have been updated to match Wolpole's frondiferorum name in Pikmin 4.

The Red Spectralid has a different genus (Fenestrati) than every other Spectralid. This is likely a mistake is corrected here.

Despite not all Candypop Buds being present in the Pikmin 4 Demo, it is assumed they are all now considered the same species in the Piklopedia.

Scientific name in the wrong order

The Fiery Young Yellow Wollyhop has its “volcanus" subspecies name incorrectly placed in front of its scientific name. This is corrected here.

The Queen Shearwig, Speargrub and Sheargrub all have their genus incorrectly placed as their specific name. This is corrected here.

Incorrect use of real taxonomy terms

The genus Chilopoda of the Centipare is actually the real world class of the centipedes.

The genus Stauromedusae of the Medusal Slurker is actually a real world order of cnidarians.

The specific name phytohabitans of the Leech Hydroe is actually a real world genus of bacteria.

The genus of the Common Glowcap is actually the real world kingdom of fungi.

Inconsistencies within English localizations

The Coppeler has the Scarpanica genus added in the American localization.

The Armurk has different scientific names: Tegoparastacoidea reptantia (US) and Scalobita rotunda (EU).

Other Notes

The Caustic Dweevil was renamed to Hydro Dweevil and its scientific name to Mandarachnia aquadis in the Switch port of Pikmin 2.

Although the Puffstool has no confirmed family, it shares a genus with the Puffstalk, implying they are likely related.

Missing creatures: Mamuta, Smoky Progg, Blubbug, Puffy Blubbug, Electric Cottonade, Red Blubblimp, Seedbagger, Stuffed Bellbloom.

Unplaceable creatures (extradimensional and/or possibly entirely artificial life forms): Waterwraith, Plasm Wraith.

[astoundingbeyondbelief]

Kaiju Week in Review (November 5-11, 2023)

Raven Banner has opened preorders for their impressive Shin Ultraman Blu-ray. I don't which is more surprising—the new subtitle translation for a movie that came out last year or a new audio commentary for a Toho kaiju film. Alex Rushdy and Kevin Derendorf recorded the commentary, so it's sure to be extremely informative. The film itself should look better than the Cleopatra release too, as it's on a 50 GB disc instead of a 25 GB.

ILM's animated Ultraman: Rising film has a teaser. Visuals are striking; dialogue seems generic, though there's not much to go on. I am naturally enthralled by the host playing baseball professionally. His uniform is weirdly logo-free, but he may be on the Yomiuri Giants, the "Yankees of Japan" who currently inhabit the Tokyo Dome. The New Tokyo Dome in the trailer has a powerful force field in place of a roof, though physical shielding can be seen moving into place later. You get the feeling that this city is pretty used to kaiju.

There's a new kaiju manga on the way from Hiro Nakamichi—Kaiju on the Earth: Volcanus. It's based on a 2019 board game where players manage the response to a kaiju attack, and the first chapter will go live on Shogakukan's Sunday Webry website on Christmas Eve. Hopefully an English scanlator or publisher picks it up.

The Ultraman Blazar manga, meanwhile, already has a scanlator on the job. I haven't had a chance to read much of it yet, but the art is quite impressive. And much further down the line, Marvel will be reprinting its 70s Godzilla comic as part of its Marvel Omnibus line next October. Their previous reprint of the series in 2006 was a black-and-white paperback with cheap paper; this promises to be an upgrade in every way. Seeing it with digitally reconstructed color will certainly be interesting too (h/t Maser Patrol).

A VR game called Godzilla Kaiju Wars dropped some screenshots just in time for (shameless plug) Wikizilla to squeeze it into our Megaguirus Kaiju Profile. Manda and some smaller, original enemies are also in it, and it should be showing up in arcades next year. Another Godzilla arcade game dropping in 2024 is the exceedingly silly-looking Godzilla vs. Kong Smasher. And while most everyone sharing them was relentlessly DMCA'd, a video and a few screenshots leaked out from the mobile game Godzilla x Kong: Titan Chasers. You control a team of humans instead of monsters, so that's already strike one. Cool to see a comic-exclusive monster (Death Jackal) in it though.

[whencyclopedia]

Vulcan

Vulcan or Volcanus was the Roman god of fire and forge, the equivalent of Hephaestus from Greek mythology. The son of Jupiter and Juno, he was the special patron of blacksmiths and artisans. As the god of the forge and the devastating fire of both the environment and nature (volcanoes), Vulcan was probably among the most dreaded of all the gods.

Continue reading...

[leshyofalfheim]

Sejanus really wants a blonde baby Okay?

snowjanus fankids list in order of age so I don't forget them

Tiberius S. Plinth (nickname Ty)

Oldest, male alpha, dark eyes, light brown hair, blonde streaks in summer bears an uncanny resemblance to sejanus in terms of features.

Amalthea and Tisiphone are fraternal twin girls.

Amalthea female alpha, has light brown curls and dark eyes with a thinner face shape that resembles the bone structure of coriolanus and tigris.

Tisiphone female alpha, has dark brown curls, with coriolanus' blue eyes and rounder face with prominent dimples

Volcanus male beta, black hair and dark eyes, despite being a boy he reminds his parents of ma plinth because of features and personality

Shale (Sejanus finally got to name one!) Male alpha with brown curls and curiously light brown eyes, like most of his siblings he looks more like his sire.

Malachite male omega, the infamous snow family shade of blonde with sejanus' dark puppy eyes

will add personality notes later

[mask131]

Roman gods are not Greek gods: Jupiter

JUPITER

Ah, Jupiter… Or Jove as he is also known. People tend to forget Jove was the official other name of Jupiter – in fact probably a more ancient name than Jupiter (the same thing with Vulcan and Volcanus). THE big Roman god. And I mean that in a literal way – Jupiter was THE god of Rome, THE god of the Roman Republic then Empire, THE god of the very Roman civilization.

But before jumping too much ahead, let’s take a brief look at who Jove/Jupiter was before the Hellenization.

Well… we don’t have much info, as usual. Jupiter clearly is an inheritance of the Etruscan god Tinia, which in turn was the Etruscan counterpart of Zeus, so there’s a full-cycle going on here. Early Jupiter was very clearly a sky god in charge of the weather. Thunder and lightning were part of his main attributes (which helped the Zeus-confusion), but he also was in control of other celestial phenomenon, such as wind, rain, storms or light. [The “light” part was very important for early-Jove, though experts debate as if this light was supposed to be a solar and lunar light, or just a reference to the light of the lightning). It makes sense that, in the rural and agricultural civilization that was “Rome before Rome”, such a god would become one of the most important and beloved of them. Another one of his early names or aspects was “Diespiter”, a deformation of Dieus-pater, “Day father”/”Sky father”. And while his elemental functions stayed in his numerous epithets and names (Jupiter Fulgur, Fulgurator or Fulgens, meaning Lightning Jupiter ; Jupiter Pluvius, Jupiter sender of rains ; Jupiter Tonans/Tonitrualis, Jupiter the Thunderer ; Jupiter Lucetius, Jupiter of the Light…), his “natural” aspect got side-lined as Jupiter found his true vocation…

A political vocation. Jupiter was the most political of all the Roman gods. In fact, he was the very god of the Roman State, and the embodiment of Roman civilization as a whole. Jupiter was the god of “religious centralization” that kept absorbing smaller gods and aspects of minor deities as the Roman power grew ; it was said he appeared to the second mythical king of Rome, Numa Pompilius, to establish with him the very rules and principles of the Roman religion – and Jupiter was the one who sent forth the auspices and omens on which the Romans relied. Jupiter also ensured and fortified the unity of the Roman state by being the god of all laws, and the patron of all treaties and all oaths – on which the very Roman society and government relied. He embodied the three main virtues of every Roman citizen: justice, good faith and honor. He was the one who gave positions and authority in the highest offices of Rome: when consuls started their job, they prayed to Jupiter to obtain his help and indulgence; and Jupiter always was the patron of whoever was in charge of the Roman society – kings during the monarchy, the patricians during the Republic, and finally the emperor during the Empire. In fact, Roman Emperors took the habit of fusing and confusing their depictions in art with the ones of Jove, putting their faces on statues of Jupiter or having statues of themselves dressed like Jove, even to the point of several of the god’s titles becoming imperial titles: the ruler of humans and the ruler of the gods became one and the same.

When there was the first plebeian secession (aka when the plebeians, lower-citizen of Rome, got fed up with how the rich and powerful treated them and left Rome all together until better live conditions were negotiated), after everything was settled the hill on which the plebeians had taken refuge was consecrated to Jove as a sign of Rome’s newfound unity. Jupiter’s priests, the Flamen Dialis, were the highest-ranking members of the Roman public cult, with specific privileges identifying them as above and “more special” than other priests (or “flamines” as they were called) ; and Jupiter was also served by a second group of religious authority, the “fetials”, religious administrators of the international affairs of the state, whose job was to rely on the complex set of codes and procedures known as the “fetial law” to make sure the gods of Rome were “protected” whenever Rome interacted with foreign powers. Jupiter formed, alongside his wife Juno and daughter Minerva, the “Capitoline Triad”, the trio of gods protecting Rome’s very integrity. He was “Jupiter Terminalus/Terminus”, god of the Roman’s state limits and boundaries. He was the god present in each and every city of the Empire, and that was imported in every foreign culture conquered and absorbed by the Empire – Jupiter Taranis for the Gaul, Jupiter Solutorius for Antique Spain, Jupiter Poeninus in the Alps, Jupiter Parthinus among the Patherni, Jupiter Ladicus in Gallaecia… Jupiter was called “Optimus Maximus”, the best and the greatest, the grandest power of the Empire – bestowing all benefits and good things upon the world, and stronger than all of the other gods.

Of course, Jupiter was also a very important martial god, and the main supporter of Rome during their wars. Several of his “political” aspects doubled as military ones. For example Jupiter Feretrius, “Jupiter who carries away the spoils of war”, was the aspect of the god to which the corpses of enemy leaders were offered – but he also doubled as the political aspect of the god invoked to witness solemn oaths. In a reverse, Jupiter Stator, “Jupiter Standing”, was the aspect of the god as the very principal of founding, as the one who instituted everything in civilization and humanity – but he was also the god as he bestowed resistance, fastness and firmness to people, making simple people into soldiers ; and the god people prayed to in order to be protected from foreign invasions. He was also Jupiter Victor – Jupiter the Victorious, giving the power of “conquering everything”, and thus embodying the very imperialistic ambitions of Rome. It was under the sight of Jupiter Capitolinus, “Jupiter of the Capitole”, that the senators gathered to decide to declare a war, each general had to present themselves to him before battle, and if Rome was victorious, they crowned Jupiter with gold. There is also one aspect of Jupiter tied to the military history of Rome, though you probably wouldn’t know it – “Jupiter Pistor”, Jupiter the Baker. Because you see, as the Gaul army placed Rome under siege, Jupiter apparently appeared to the Roman citizens and told them to throw bread from above the walls of the city – to make the Gaul believe that Rome had so much food in stock they could throw some away without fearing any famine. It worked, and thus Jupiter was thanked as the “Baker”.

As people tend to point out, Jupiter’s Hellenization did not actually “change” the god in term of essence or religious rites – he was too strongly implanted and revered in the Roman world to be modified, plus he had enough common points with the Greek Zeus to be kept “as he was”. Jupiter still inherited the traditional physical depictions of Zeus (except in some local cults where he appeared as a beardless youth instead of a mature, bearded man), and gained most of the legends concerning his Greek counterpart.

In fact… it is in the “mythological” details that we get the most interesting developments of Jupiter. Most notably, we have one trace of pre-Hellenized Jupiter that shows how the Hellenization hit him: his family. Originally, Jupiter was an only son, twin brother of Juno, and born out of Fortuna Primigenia (the original mother of the gods and source of everything in the pre-Hellenized Roman religion). It wasn’t until the “Greek remake” that Jupiter became the son of Saturn and Ops (to fit the Kronos and Rhea myth), the brother of Neptune and Pluto (equivalents of Poseidon and Hades), and that Fortuna went from the ancient mother of the ruler of the gods, to a simple secondary goddess daughter of Jupiter (as Fortuna became remade in the shape of the Greek Tyche).

Another leftover of his original “elemental” incarnation can be found in the fact that each ides (full moon marking the midpoint of each month) were consecrated to him – because on the ides it was believed that there was as much daylight as nightlight, and in this perfect balance Jove was celebrated in his ancient form of “god of light”. This rustic aspect of Jupiter also manifests in how so many viniculture holidays and celebrations of Ancient Rome were tied to Jove – due to the grapes being easily destroyed by bad weather, and so winemakers kept praying Jove to be kind to them.

[gwtoomanyalts]

I think I solved Keri's problem of not having a weapon set that matched her very well! The bad thing is I didn't have Volcanus previously, so, yea, my gold supply is basically gone now lmao.

[siren-darkocean]

I find it ironic the oldest living village on Bara Magna was Vulcanus which was inside a Volcanus crator

Like yeah temperatures on the desert barren wasteland planet are already skyrocketing, let's make the longest surviving village be inside a crator of LAVA!

[augustheart]

four-legged dragon with wings and white scales and horns

Only one dragon in North America fits that bill, the Common Northern Dragon (Eurodraco terribilis borealis). One of two subspecies of the somewhat poorly named Common European Dragon, with the other being the Common American Dragon (E. terribilis americanus), the Northern Dragon has a wide range and is distributed throughout the northern hemisphere. Individual coloration ranges from dark grey to almost entirely white, with many individuals displaying great variation throughout their lives--comparatively southern specimens are typically darker while northern specimens are paler, but there is plenty of overlap.

Fun facts:

Like most dragon species, especially true dragons (family Draconidae), they display minimal sexual dimorphism except in size--with females being up to a third larger than males, similarly to in raptors--and in horn arrangement, with females displaying longer horns after reaching sexual maturity at three years of age. They use them for sparring with other females over territory.

Scientific debate is held over whether the Common Northern Dragon should be considered a subspecies at all! Some argue that given their physical variation from the type species E. terribilis, they should be promoted to their own species. Personally, I think this is... shaky at best. Physical variation in dragon subspecies is nothing new (the best example probably being Pyropedetes cornutus volcanus, the Hawaiian Salamander, which was originally considered its own species until genetic data showed it was a subspecies of American Horned Salamander), and genetically they are very similar to their type species. But if consensus swings the other way and they're deemed to be their own species, I won't be mad or anything.

As is typical for Eurodraco species, especially ones found in colder climates, clutch sizes are very small! No clutch larger than four eggs has ever been observed, and the average amount of eggs per clutch is two.

Juvenile siblings will occasionally stick together after leaving the nest for up to a year in order to cooperatively hunt.

[bmoj-dp]

Book 1: the new generation

Chapter 1: the prophecy

Page 1

Page 2

Page 3

Page 4

Pg5 (W.I.P)

Pg6

Pg7

Pg8

Pg9

Pg10

Pg11

Pg12

Pg13

Pg14

Pg15

Pg16

Pg17

Pg18

Pg19

Pg20

Chapter 2: the meeting

Characters in this comic (old ref will make new refs soon)

Plasma, core, and hole (overall name is Singularity)

Viper

Typhoon

Icicle

Thunder wave

Poizellen

Characters in this comic I haven't made a ref sheet of yet

Magma, rock, lava (overall name is Volcanus)

Naja

Whirlpool

Frostbite

Brontide

Toxicity

Realm

[zzthekaiju]

Super Zeroes - Necrosis

And here's the last of the major villains. One of the few examples of new blood in this world, and perhaps the last person you'd want on any team!

The newest member of the Skull Syndicate, Necrosis is an angsty youth who took demonic cultism too far, and is just looking for a place to crash, slack away, and get rent money. She can also raise an army of the undead for a limited time only. But she only really does this when she’s bored and/or if the circumstances TRULY warrant it. When she’s in battle, her necromancy and knowledge of the Dark Arts make her one of the strongest of the villains, only bested by Volcanus. Her constant emotionless demeaning of all things puts off everyone else on the team. Oddly, Chiton Eye doesn’t seem to mind her, and seems to always be trying to reach out to her, with all the luck one might expect.

[littleeyesofpallas]

VOLCANUS[ボルカルス]

[fiestylittlebeetle]

OKAY HOLD ON

I'm on S4E6 "perfect day" and tell me why the fuck they had Gwen do some fucking Skinamarink ass shit to Volcanus

I know none of its real for them but like why