#which is another Nordic wind

[mareenavee]

WIP Whenever~

Oh Hello it's ON TIME AGAIN!?

Hey. Anyway time tag ya'll! Are we writing like the wind this week? @paraparadigm, @changelingsandothernonsense, @thequeenofthewinter, @thana-topsy, @kookaburra1701, @oblivions-dawn, @throughtrialbyfire, @polypolymorph, @archangelsunited, @miraakulous-cloud-district, @dirty-bosmer, @gilgamish, @elfinismsarts, @saltymaplesyrup, @inquisition-dragonborn, @snippetsrus, @expended-sleeper, @wildhexe, @rainpebble3, @nuwanders, @sylvienerevarine, @demonablack83, @viss-and-pinegar, @late-nite-scholar, @greyborn2, @skyrim-forever, @rhiannon1199 and YOU yes you if I've forgotten your tag, it's actually HERE, you just can't see it. Tag me back :> Do the thing. Write the words!

So for this week, we have finished the Raven Rock arc and moved on to chapter 31 (of The World on Our Shoulders) and our favorite bean is back getting into a Situation~

More fresh-from-the-braincells content below the cut! Some overlap with Arc things, but some new words, too :>

6th of Sun’s Dawn 4E 202

Athis dodged out of the way as a glass greatsword came crashing down from out of the darkness. He jumped forward and stabbed into the weak spot between plates of glass armor. The Thalmor shrieked and pulled a Heal spell into his hands, greatsword clattering to the ground. Both sounds echoed down the stone passageways. In the distance, Avulstein was shouting something incomprehensible, answered by the shrill death throes of yet another Altmer. He had to move. There was no time to faff around with theatrics. The rest of these n’waah would be converging on them like draugr any second from now.

With a sickening crunch, Athis withdrew his sword. The Thalmor scrambled to press the magic into the wound, to no avail. Blood bubbled up out of his mouth as the light left his eyes, guts pooling inside his armor. Athis frowned and flicked the blood off of his sword as the man slumped forward into the mess of his own viscera. A terrible, inhuman howl answered Thalmor screams, which sent a shiver down his spine. Such was the way it had to be, apparently. So much for sneaking.

If Thorald was still alive, he’d be in the dungeons. That would be below ground, the best Athis could wager. Northwatch keep seemed to spiral in a purposefully confusing pattern, not unlike a Nordic tomb, built backwards and lopsided, prone to collapse. He wondered if that was on purpose, perhaps to keep the doomed from ever finding a way out again. With a quick glance around at the cells, it seemed that was the case here, at least. So many corpses, shattered limbs dangling at odd angles, stored in cells. For what, he didn’t want to know. The Thalmor liked to look proper on the outside, but all he’d ever known of them was darkness.

They’d driven his wife away, after all. Even if that wasn’t the full truth, it was enough for him to focus his fury at them. He’d said it before. He’d strangle the life out of every single one of these bastards with his bare hands if it meant making Skyrim safe for her again. He glanced up at the ceiling once the flash of anger passed, the sound of dragon wings still haunting his waking thoughts. As safe as it could ever be, anyway.

He adjusted his cloak, annoyed at the stains blooming over the fabric. He checked his armor — none of the blood was his, thankfully. He was too fast for them on their best days. He tightened his grip on the Skyforged sword, knit his brow and marched on. The roars and and shrieks above him hinted at exactly the kind of fate these Thalmor had brought down upon themselves when they decided to take Thorald.

Athis would have preferred to get in here and get out without drawing so much attention to themselves, or without bringing the ire of the entire faction onto their shoulders before Thorald was safe. The fights could have come later when they were more prepared and not as outnumbered. But Farkas, being who he was, had shifted with the Moons and the low-burning rage he’d been holding inside for weeks. Aela and Fralia had told him to wait before trying to figure out exactly what had happened — in the end, it was more Civil War stupidity.

The increase in Thalmor activity lately had troubled Athis incessantly. He thought about how odd their encounter on the road home had been before Nyenna had run off. Jarl Balgruuf did his best to keep the roads of Whiterun Hold clear of them, but they crawled now like insects, swarming where they shouldn’t. All this after Tullius had made a point of encroaching on some fort or another. Athis hadn’t paid that much attention. After that, the chaos had started to get more and more uncanny, like inroads were being paved for these bastards.

[sylvienerevarine]

Sophrine Aulette's Skyrim Encyclopedia (Part 1)

Ok, an explanation: my brother bought me Philomena Cunk's hilarious reference book for Christmas, and it inspired me to write this goofy semi-fic. It's now Sylvieverse canon that Soph writes a humorous guide to Skyrim and it's a bestseller for years.

--

Atmora

Atmora is sometimes called the “old country,” largely because everyone from there had beards, which made them look quite a bit older. It’s also called that because the original Nords came from there thousands of years ago in search of better weather. Why they stopped at Skyrim is anyone’s guess. One of the most famous people from Atmora was Ysgramor, who was fond of killing elves and living in an upturned boat.

No one’s heard anything from the Atmorans in a while, which means they all either froze to death or their postal service is terrible.

Automatons

Dwemer Automatons are creatures made of metal that run on magic and steam. You can find them lurking around old Dwarven ruins waiting for treasure hunters to show up, and then slicing them to ribbons. This is the only game they seem to know.

There are four main types of automatons: spiders, spheres, ballistas, and centurions. Actually they’re all called centurions, but that’s confusing, so here we are. Spiders are the ones that look like spiders and are sort of cute. Spheres are the ones that look almost human on top, but roll around on a big metal ball, in which they possibly store lightning. Ballistas resemble an angry fish with legs and are horrible. Centurions look like metal giants and use a huge amount of energy, which is why they sleep in big magic arches that don’t look very comfortable.

Dwemer automatons don’t seem to work outside their ruins, which is a relief, because can you imagine running into one at the market? On the other hand, it would be very funny to have a mechanical butler.

Cheese

Cheese is basically milk, but solid. It’s also the best food to ever be invented, and features in all the best dishes: cheesecakes, cheese souffles, cheese straws, cheese omelets, and fondue. My aunt Sacha, who lives in the Shivering Isles, once taught me how to make a kind of cheese that turns all colors inside-out, but I don’t usually attempt that one.

Most cheese in Skyrim comes from goats or cows. Giants have been known to make mammoth cheese, but they’re not very good about sharing it. I swiped some once and it was remarkably chewy, but very good.

Dragonborn

A Dragonborn is a person who, through no fault of their own, was born with the wrong type of soul. Generally speaking, humans have human souls, elves have elf souls, Nords have alcohol, and so on. A Dragonborn, on the other hand, has a normal person-type body with a dragon’s soul stuffed inside.

The main job of a Dragonborn is to slay evil dragons and boss around the less evil ones. For a long time, though, there were very few dragons around, so Dragonborns had to occupy their time by becoming emperors. This lasted right up until the time Martin Septim exploded.

I am currently the only living Dragonborn, which is a very fun position to be in. There was another one hiding out in Oblivion named Miraak, but he tragically perished for reasons that were only partially my fault.

Things Dragonborns Can Do:

Absorb dragon souls

Use aforementioned souls to quickly learn Words of Power

Scream at things

Read dragon language without taking lessons

Get free garlic bread at the Frostfruit Inn in Rorikstead

Kyne

Kyne is the Nordic goddess of wind, sky, the outdoors, and probably camping. You might know her as Kynareth, Khenarthi, Tava, or Kenny (though I’ve only met one person who called her that, and he was very drunk). 

In Nord tradition, Kyne was married to Shor (aka Lorkhan) and rain is the result of her crying because her husband tragically died from having his heart stuck under a volcano. It follows that the best way to get rain for your crops is to shout things like: “Missus Kyne, remember how much you loved your husband? Wasn’t it tragic how badly he was murdered?” That usually does the trick.

Kyne is also supposedly the one who taught the Dragon Voice to humans, to which I would like to respond “thank you” and also “why.”

Mead

Mead is the primary beverage, export, and religion in Skyrim. It’s made out of honey, and is therefore sweet enough that you don’t realize for a while just how strong it is, and then you’re in a bar fight with a racist old man in Windhelm. Not that that’s ever happened to me.

My husband is something of an expert on mead, and it’s his most cherished belief that happy bees make the drink taste better. I’m not quite sure how you can tell a bee’s emotional state, but I’m sure there’s a knack to it.

[sunny-mercya]

The Cruel King

02. Rewind of Past

Nordic 5 x Male Reader

Fandom -> Hetalia

Masterlist | Previous / Next

-> Warning; Mention of toxic relationship, Attempted Suicide, Abuse, Neglect and Sexual assault

»Älskling.«

Berwald whispered one word of encouragement reassurances and endearment after another. Doing his best to calm you down, to stop your heart wrenching sobbing as you tried to free yourself from Berwalds strong hold.

You wanted so desperately to scratch your neck, which felt so suffocating tight—like your chest whenever you took a breath—and wired together, bloody and bone deep raw. Freeing yourself from this sensation of gnawing pain. From the drowning choking.

You couldn't. Berwalds hold around you too strong—he did promise when Tino, him and you vowed the traditional vows of marriage and love to one another, that he would be strong when one of you two is at their deepest point.

»Älskling.«

Berwald tried again, shushing you ever so gently, every now and then, when a pained gaps ripped over your lips.

Three days now since you had collapsed into a feverish state of nightmares and reality loss—saying words in old tongues and pleading, begging even, for something you didn't need—forgiveness.

Your breathing had even out, eyes—once wide with absolute fear in them—shutting close now. You had worn yourself out, body going sluggish in Berwalds arms as sleep overtook you.

A peaceful sleep you won't have, would only last for a few hours, before another round of panicking screams erupt from you.

~~~

December. 1150 - Kopenhagen, Denmark

The icy hands of winter—the actual one which would last till mid-april—spiked with frost, completely in full swing covered the lands with a whiteness of something so graceful and yet so terrific.

Cold winds swept harshly across. Slapping the bare skins, which are left in the open and hadn't the favouritism of being covered in the thick fur, into a biting redness till skin was numb of feeling.

You shuddered out a breath—the warm puff visible in the cold—rubbing your hands together in hope of giving them a bit of warmth.

A warmth you wouldn't get no matter how much you tried. Only being dressed in a slight thicker nightgown—no real difference to the normal ones, as the one you wear had only a bit more wool in it—brings only so much.

»[Name]? Why are you sitting out here in the cold?«

You looked up from your spot, having yourself huddled up against a corner of the building. Legs drawn together as close as possible—the nightgown rising up, not long enough to cover your bare bottom and everything below the knees.

Snow had begun to fall, looking owlish up at Lukas—who you hadn't notice walking towards you.

»I–I I'm here–« you shuddered a breath, body suddenly twitching into a tremendous trembling.

Lukas crouched down to you, putting the extra fur-coat—he had brought along—over you. Taking your hands in his.

»[Name], how long have you been out here?« Lukas asked another question, narrowing his eyes at you. He knows you were probably hours of hours out here in the coldness, he just wanted your clarification.

»I heb gemocht a schlocht sach. Mei Kön'g is wüntend un' entäucht. Mei strefa i mu moch.«

Lukas raised a brow, needing a moment to translate Schurlisch—your native language—into his own. Hadn't it heard in a long while.

Your eyes going wide, realisation hitting you of what you just had spoke. Ripping your hands away from Lukas you gripped your hair—sinking your head down, curling more into your self—rocking forth and back and muttering, in a chanting repeat, apologies after another—all of them in pure old danish.

Aah, so that was the problem here. Lukas thought, pursuing his lips into a frown. Matthias had never liked it when you spoke in your own language—voiced his strong dislike and disgust about it and forbid you to ever speak such barbaric, inhuman words in his household ever again.

He pickes you up and saw, with the last remaining rays of the today's sinking sun, how blue your body had begun to colour itself.

Lukas brought you back inside, going into your private room—not the one you shared with Matthias—and laying you down on the bed. Covering you with much blankets as he could found, ordering one of your servants to bring some hot water and herbal tea.

Lukas had half a mind to go to Matthias and telling him off—wanting to know what right he had to punish you for something so trivial.

He didn't. Rather staying with you and ebbing your panic away.

July. 1545 - Kopenhagen, Denmark

How long has it been since you had been imprisoned down here? Chained to the walls with a steady change of cold water coming and going for a few hours—engulfing your body all the way towards your neck—and the warmth humid air which settles afterwards and leaving you in a mix of sweaty goosebumps and shivers.

Too long it seems as you have lost count of the hours and days. Without the sun, no chance of guessing.

You hummed an old tune, syllables hushing over your lips with ease, staining your hoarse voice even more—it was your only enjoyment.

It was entirely your fault and so you deserved to be in punishment—deserved this harsh treatment. A reminder not stand up against the higher ups—to bow and kneel obediently down at your King.

You shouldn't have disagreed with Matthias, your Husband—your only true King to serve—shouldn't have voiced an opinion of unnecessarily in matters at hands—insulting him with your humble, naively manner.

You—the destined husband to the great King—was a sole disappointment in existence.

Berwald and Tino stepping down the stairs to the cellar of imprisonment. They were worried about you, they all are, so they both decided to check up on you.

They know how cruel Matthias has been towards you over the past decades of centuries. Having been witness to such abuse more than often than they liked, though they—even if they wanted to—could never do something about it. Though Berwald coiled more than once with Matthias about the way he treats you—which ended mostly in a violent confrontation of fist- and sword fights.

»You think he will come with us?«

»The chance is slim, but perhaps he does.«

They both had decided to leave Matthias, had enough of his tyranny and wanting to get away. Be free.

Tino opened the heavy wooden door. A disturbing smell of everything unpleasant waved through their nose.

»[Name]«

Upon hearing Tino's soft voice, which sounded like a whisper in your blood rushed ears, you glanced at him and Berwald.

Visitors? At such......late hours? Why are your friends here? Had your punishment been lessened? No, no, that couldn't been.

»You shouldn't......shouldn't be here....« your voice cracked hoarsely with every word you attempted to say, haven't spoken in so long your voice was a mere rust now.

»Berwald and I talked, with Lukas and Emil too and we came to the decision that it's time for us to go. Away from here, from Matthias. We wanting to ask you if you want to join us,«

Tino, while explaining their idea of decision and conclusion, hoped that you would agree.

»The offer you gave I appreciate to its core Tino, but I humbly have to decline your offer. As I can not come with you.«

Tino visible deflated at your answer, nodding anyways and whispering; Why?

»Weil I ihn lieb, Tino. Er is mei ehemaa un' i bi seins. Mei Kön'g er is un i ewi'e loyalität hab schwor.«

»Still, if you ever feel like wanting to go away, into freedom, don't fret to come to us. We're always gonna welcome you with open arms.«

»Danke.«

10th of May. 1885 - Berlin, Prussia

Gilbert had become a great friend and alley of yours. You always enjoyed his company. He made you laugh with his jokes and silly faces. Tea time with him was pleasant to do, a tranquility and peace you haven't felt in so long.

You looked forward with delight to every diplomatic visit you had to do in Schurland—because that also means a visit to Berlin, where Gilbert is.

Schurland—its personification you are—was your country; an astray island of nation, located near Prussia—in between the sea of Stralsund and Sjælland—you originally had belonged to the Germans and Prussians, though with the conquer Denmark had done to you, you officially—for all its remaining history—you belong now to the Dane's.

The works in Schurland you would always finish eagerly in two days. Rest of the week you would spend with Gilbert.

Gilbert who treats you with respect and kindness, a contrast to how Matthias treats you. Gilbert you tells you with full encouragement and confidence, that he should reconquers you—freeing you from the evil clutches of Denmark—as you after all belonged to him or more like, you fit much better to Prussian Kingdom.

And you, who listen to Gilberts sincere honey coated words of hope, agreed to what he said. Deciding to make a decision on your own, for once.

Even when the thoughts—you so shamefully started to have, about a seeking freedom you never believed you so desperately wanted to feel—brought a jolt of jitter to your knees, bringing them down into a buckling—making your head dizzy—you did a mental grip onto your heart and will tell Matthias, with a confidence you begun to build up—thanks to Gilberts help—that you no longer wished to stay with him.

A divorce of independence or a sign over to Prussia is what you wanted.

But every hope comes with a price.

Today, your second last day of your visit—before you had to wait another whole month to visit again—was gonna be beautiful. Filling you with a thrilling joy.

With a full swing of happiness you waltzed through your room, singing Heinrich Heine's Lorelei with all your heart.

Gilbert was taking you out for dinner, a walk in the park before, then he would take you to the Opera—where a new releasing will be performed—Roderich will join the two of you.

Still waltzing through the room in slow steps, dressed in the nightgown—which still felt so astonishing soft, what did Gilbert said it was made out of? Wollseide? Yes, Wollseide. Prussians had such nice and pretty things, it makes you jealous.

Holding the suit, which Gilbert had brought you for this occasion, against your body—you dreamily looked at yourself in the mirror, ignoring for a moment your scarred skin and imperfections, to simply bask in this short bliss of endearing love you felt.

You had only closed your eyes for a moment of silence and in the next spinning seconds, someone grabbed your arm and spun you around in a flash.

[blazescompendium]

Blaze's Compendium entry #1: Dormarth- The Celtic hound

In most of sources, Dormarth is described as some kind of ''Cerberus'' of Celtic Folklore, being described as a guard dog of the gates of underworld on those cultures. And also in most sources, Dormarth's name is referred as meaning ''Death's Door''. This was also replicated in her Shin Megami Tensei appearance.

However, a superficial research into this creature always reveals that it is also called by another names such as ''Dormach'' and ''Dormarch'', and it's more often than not, treated as a hunting dog of sorts.

Speaking into the context of Welsh mythology and folk tales, it's said that the underworld has a king, called Gwynn Ap Nudd. He supposed owns a beast called Dormarch/Dormarth, that follows him during hunts. Specifically, his hunts for lost souls. (See Below the connection to the concept of Wild Hunt).

Gwynn is a very important figure when talking about Dormarth, since this mythical being is closely associated with the later. The so called ''King of Underworld'' is also associated to the concept of Wild Hunt, which is a common sight in European cultures. Famous examples include the Nordic Wild Hunt, with Odin presiding over it. In most of the depictions of the phenomena, hunting dogs are with it. Gwynn's Wild Hunt was no exception.

*It's also worthy to note that, i have focused my efforts on researching Dormarth, and have not gone deep into Gwynn's lore. I will probably do it later as another entry in my compendium series.

It's said in the Black Book of Camarthen, that Gwynn obtained Dormarth from the legendary King Maelgwn Gwynedd. The later really existed, but gained a mythic status in Celtic history. The figure lies buried in Puffin Island, UK.

The Black Book of Camarthen describes Dormarth as a beast with two front legs, only one head, and a tail that has 3 ends. There's no mention of lower legs, or other heads like a Cerberus would have.

To better understand Dormarth's discription and meaning, we have to go back to the first apparition of this creature, in the said Book of Camarthen. It's a 13th century Welsh book, that details poems, legends and folk tales from Wales. It was re released in 1906, and the original was scanned in 2002 and archived online for public view.

Read online

To my knowledge, that's Dormarth oldest written account. The book by itself contains a lot of contents from the time, and i was very interested to keep going with it, but for the topic at hand its already a very satisfactory base. In case you are curious, the 1906 version from J. Evans is available to buy and read online as well!

With the 1906 version as a base, Dormarth the modern author inserts some of his interpretations, and describes Dormarth less as a dog, and more as a sea creature, like a whale. Some authors associate that to the Christianity becoming more and more popular in the region at the time. Although, i could not find any credible sources or reasons to link the facts. Some say that Dormarth was associated to the biblical tale of Jonah and the Whale, which... I don´t really know why. The biggest theory is because, in this newer version, Dormarth is drawn like a whale of sorts (?). That would, in theory, suggest the old 13th century tale was being now interpreted by 20th century Christians. Evans was a christian by a matter of fact, so i can see why this theory exists, but for me its a kinda of stretch. Probably has more to do with his own interpretation of the creature. (Even thought Dormarth is clearly a dog...)

But what about our Fantastical Hound? What does the old texts says about it?

Surprisingly... Not much!

According to the Black Book of Camarthen, Dormarth supposedly inhabits the ''Ar Wybir'' which literally means ''mounting in the clouds.'' -Specifically the ones surrounding mountains. We can presume that's their ''natural habitat''. This also could mean Dormarth manipulates winds, and can fly.

In the book, Gwynn meets the king Gwyddno from Cantre'r Gwaelod (which, by the way has a really interesting tale) an old mythical land that supposedly sank in the ocean just like Atlantis.

At this meeting, there's a dialogue where Gwynn presents his hound, Dormarth. The owner of such creature praises its features, and talks about its role in the Wild Hunt. At the later, Gwynn collected the soul of his fallen soldiers with the help of his hunting dogs, such as Dormarth, which he praised as his best dog. (Good boy, or girl!)

Here's a small part of that poem:

"Handsome my dog, and round bodied, And truly the best of dogs; Dormath was he, which belonged to Maelgwyn. Dormath with the ruddy nose! what a gazer Thou art upon me because I notice Thy wanderings on Gwibir Vynyd."

-Black Book of Camarthen, 13th century

To better understand this fantastical Welsh creatures, we need to be presented to the concept of the Cwn Annwn, this translates itself to simply ''Hounds of Annwn. This said Annwn is another type of netherworld, another dimension, or plane. It's been seen in other traditional Welsh works, such as Maginobion which is a collection of folk tales and texts. This plane is also associated strongly with Gwynn Ap Nudd, since he is the king of the netherworld, mytical beings, fantastical creatures and this kind of stuff.

I need to bring the Cwn Annwn to the topic, because they were strongly associated with the Hild Hunt themselve, being the literal dogs that hunt down souls at this phenomena. We can thereby, conclude that Dormarth is indeed one of the Cwn Annwn, but a notorious one.

The Cwn Annwn also had other duties, such as carry the souls of the dead on their journeys to the after life. (Its often interesting to me how many cultures regards dogs as companions to lost souls, trying to reach heaven, or just guarding heaven. I can think about the Aztec dog of Xolotl, Cerberus, and many other instances.) At the Wild Hunt, they also had the duty to pursue criminals, until they could not run anymore. This is the modern depiction of the Wild Hunt hunting criminals, where before the Christians came, they would hunt anyone! The Christians probably were not satisfied by the idea of the righteous average christian running the risk of being hunt down by a demonic dog, so they nerfed it.

The author John Rhys comments also on the idea that Christianity changed the way Gwyn's Wild Hunt worked, where before Gwynn would hunt any dead soul, now the Wild Hunt was believed to hunt only criminals.

''What Gwynn hunts, is the soul of the dead. But Christianity has narrowed his field a lot, now he only hunts criminals.''

-Rhys on the Christian influency on this old Celtic myth, around page 156 of Studies in Arthurian Legends, 1891.

Note: The British Islands had a lot of Wild Hunt folklore. Actually, Europe had it in general, it was a trope. And hounds were also a common theme. There's cases you can read about from the entirety of the continent, and maybe one day i can bring the Wild Hunt to our compendium, there's a lot of material!

Coming back to Dormarth, since she's not going anywhere here. She's described specifically as a hunter dog helping Gwynn, in what one can only suppose it's the Wild Hunt. Still, at the 1906 version of the Black Book of Camarthen, page 97, there's a drawing of Dormarth. The creature is present in the pages 13 and 14 of the original manuscript, which can also be read online.

That's... Nothing like what Kaneko drew...

The interesting part about Dormarth it's not their features, nor their powers, as with some mythical creatures, but the etymology of its name...

You see, the real origins and meanings of the name Dormarth are uncertain. If you research by your own, you see some people call it Dormarth, while others call it Dormarch, as said earlier. This is because the original work had a bit of paint in the last letters, or it just eroded with time. If you read it as Dormarth, it means something like ''Death's door''. However there's evidence the name was actually written as Dormarch.

I will talk more about the creature's name in a bit. You just need to know now, that over the internet, books, and many sources, usually this being is named either Dormarch or Dormarth. For the scholars of the Breton language, you can notice that Dor= Door, and March = ...horse. Yeah, i will address that eventually, keep reading.

Evidently, if you look deep down into books and overall sources, there's no legend of Dormarth as a guard dog. It's never told for us that Dormarth is one, but still many modern media portray Dormarth as such. Even at her mentions in the Shin Megami Tensei franchise, most of its compendium entries describes her like that.

There's also a lot of online articles connecting Dormarth to the Irish Goddess Callieach. Where most of the times being also depicted as a guard dog, but being side by side with said goddess. This also has no backing from anywhere, there's no citation -as far as i know and had researched- that put those two together.

Talking about it's academics sources, Dormarth is only born and mostly portrayed in Welsh mythology and folkloric literature. But Callieach as mentioned it's an Irish goddess (Albeit sometimes appearing in Welsh and Manx mythology as well) ,and was never present in the works where Dormarth was. Again, as far as my research has gone.

Callieach is a goddess of the winter, also associated with landscape and nature. There's few and almost no room to put a Guard dog of the underworld near her, but i don't eliminate the idea of word of mouth doing this, and being less recorded. Just a theory of mine thought, because i could not find any sources on where this association with this goddess has begun for Dormarth.

It's widely known that Celtic mythology spreads itself by all the Britanic islands, and their ages vary a lot. I could locate Callieach being recorded mentioned at a 8th century poem, but as far as i researched there was again, no mention of Dormarth. It's clear now, that this association has no backing, and it's mostly a misinterpretation of Celtic culture.

*I got curious on where Atlus and most of modern depictions of Dormarth took this idea of it being sided with Callieach, and after an extensive search, i found a 2004 post at Deviantart that make this exact association, and it was the oldest i could get. Since Dormarth first appearance at SMT was from the Raidou novel, in 2007-8, maybe Kaneko got his idea from here? I dont know...

In the book ''Celtic Folklore, Welsh, and Manx'' by Jhon Rhys written in 1901, at page 216 Dormarth is cited by the author, who is pondering if the creature is indeed a Cwn Annwn. Rhys was a very interesting author, because he actually went to research personally, and collected local testimonies and tales from ordinary people. Here it's no diferent, and he tells about a local tale of a business man, that had the unlucky fate of being a town attacked by the so called Cwn Annwn. In this report, Dormarth is not cited directly, but the creature itself is at the glossary in the last pages of the book as well.

At this point deep in the study of this creature, i was a bit walking around in circles, because everything went to dead ends, and my lack of knowledge in Celtic languages certainly did not help me. I've found that some people online really theorized that the interpretation of Welsh myths could really trip over to Ireland, for example and be slightly different, and not very well recorded. This could in theory explain the discrepancies in the descriptions of the creature.

Dormarth is also present in the 1905 book: ''Celtic Myth and Legend'' by Charles Squire. Squire is a very known author from the 20th century, and wrote this very huge and detailed collection of Celtic Mythology. Some things in the book did not aged well, but in the most part is a very usefull book.

Squire cites the poem from the Black Book of Camarthen, which i exhaustively read and talked about here. But, in the bibliography section of the book, you can see where Squire found Dormarth in the first place. It was in a book called ''Studies in Arthurian Legends'', Written in 1891 by John Rhys (You again!).

Time to raise an eyebrow and ask yourself what in the world is Dormarth doing in an academic study of the King Arthur legends? Well, around the page 150ish, Rhys is lecturing us about a poem about Lancelott and Elayne. (The book its available online in its entirety, go check it out if you want to.) In this poem, we are told about the time Lancelott goes to a tournament with the other knights of the Round Table, where a young woman falls in love with him, only to be rejected and later committing suicide. The tale by itself it's interesting, but there's the part that really interests our text, that is the woman's mysterious father.

Rhys explains that her father was a weird man, that was always by a well, described himself as ''King of the Islands'', and devoted himself so much to this title, that according to Rhys reflection, he could not save his own daughter from suicide.

However, what concerns us the most here is that the man was described being always accompanied by some ''beast''. The man stated that this beast belonged to him, and only him and his descendants. The creature was only described this way, as a ''beast''. And supposedly had a powerful roar.

The poem in question was written by Thomas Malory (1405-1475). Malory is important for this research, because of many things, but specifically because of its place on time and space.

He was an English romanticist, living during the 15th century and wrote mainly about King Arthur. His works were based on Gaulish books from the 13th century. He knew much about the folklore and myths of that age.

Back to the poem of Lancelott, the father of the young woman had his own history with King Arthur. The man was keen on fighting Arthur, and had the habit to take away the horses of the knights he defeated. He waited Arthur at his well, with his beast, in hopes to duel with him.

Here, Rhys does his connection with Dormarth:

Malory tells that the beast roared with the strength of 30 hounds. Rhys reflects that maybe Malory was referencing some kind of guard dog with 3 heads, just like Cerberus. It's also cited during this reflection, other mythical dogs from around Europe -page 156-, but ultimately he traces a parallel with the nearest culture, the Welsh.

Rhys interpreted that the figure being the father of Ellayne, is actually a Breton version of Gwyn App Nudd (!!!)

As said before, in his other book from 1901, Rhys tells us more about this modern depiction of Gwynn's Wild Hunt. He even writes about hearing it personally from townsfolk in Cardiganshare.

Gwynn then take us back to the 13th century Black Book of Camarthen. (Notice that Malory was notorious for consuming 13th century works!) Here, back to the original welsh depiction of Dormarth, Rhys explains the problem with the name Dormarth. There's something erased from it in the original book, where it's written Dormach, instead.

Rhys theory on why Dormarth is written with march, and also erased, it's because the original scribe must have been instructed to write it as Dormarth, but ended up writing it as Dormarch. As said before, Dor= door, but March means horse. This probably confused anyone in charge of finishing the book, which made the decision to erase the ''R''. This creates a name with no meaning, thus solving the typo. Still, Rhys assure us it must have been instructed to write it as Dormarth. And he is probably the first author that does that.

But again, if you know the Breton language, you know that ''marth'' is not death. It instead is ''marv''. But Rhys explains that as well: In the also from the 13th century ''Book of Taliessin'' (not to confuse with the Deep Purple album), there's a poem about death, where it's mentioned as ''Marth'', not marv. The academics of the time deduced that Marth is death personified, a way to name Death itself. Rhys supports this idea by the etymology of the word, for example, starting from Latin:

-Mors > mortis > morte>marv>marth

By this idea, Dormarth is had as the personified death at the door of Annwn. To support even more this claim, Rhys describes old sayings from south Cardiganshare, where death was often described as a dog's mouth.

Going even further, Rhys proposes that maybe even English modern expressions like ''in the maws of death''. Or the german expression ''Rachen des Toden'' originated from here.

Rhys concludes:

''Its by this way, that one seeks to understand and the meaning of Dormarth.''

Here is where Dormarth as a guard dog originated. But as a guard dog of Gwynn App Nudd and his domain, not Callieach. At the same book from John Rhys, he also tells us that the Welsh believe that Gynn's hounds are led by a way bigger and fearsome one.

''He's bigger, louder, hunts at night, floating sometimes silently, sometimes devouring a victim that screams.''- Page 158.

So... Let's finish with Dormarth's resume:

Dormarth is one of the hounds of Anwnn, and Gwynn App Nudd in Welsh mythology. Due a gramatical error, its true name its hard to decipher, but it's clearly depicted as the hound that leads Gwynn's wild hunt and probably guards the gates of Annwn. It is the death at Annwn's door for anyone who shall approach.

Sources:

-Black Book of Camarthen (reprint and 13th century version)

-Celtic Folklore, Welsh and Manx - John Rhys

-Celtic Myth and Legend - Squire, Studies in Arthurian Legends - John Rhys.

[erikatsu]

The Abyss, Celestia, & Khaenri'ah's Truth

the khaenri'ah enthusiast is back with another theory! this one is definitely my favorite and honestly i'll be disappointed if im wrong :,) but anyway.

cw: in game lore, speculation, building off other theories as well. all sources will be linked or shown through pictures so i can paraphrase. pls take this with a grain of salt

The Abyss came first, then Celestia (who has kept this secret buried and struck down others who knew), and Khaenri'ah reached this truth. They waged war against those beyond the sky, not the "gods" of Celestia themselves.

And before you say, "but Celestia was confirmed to be first", it was hypothesized by Nahida, but never confirmed.

To start off this theory, we have to go back to the ancient civilization, Sal Vindagnyr.

Sal Vindagnyr was formerly Dragonspine before it was covered in snow, and they lived in harmony with Celestia and "the White Tree" (which we can infer is/was a branch of Irminsul). The princess of this civilization had been blessed with the power to forsee the future, and saw that one day a great black dragon would come and that he would fill their land with a scarlet poison. But this vision would not come to light until thousands of years later during the Cataclysm that destroyed Khaenri'ah.

This dragon was Durin, who's bones are still on the mountain– hence the name "Dragonspine".

Through the Wings of Concealing Snow, we learn that the people challenged Celestia, and in return they dropped a nail and shrouded the city in snow and darkness. The nail then split into pieces, and one of them destroyed the tree. But the nail splitting didn't just destroy, it cause the tree and the ley lines to wither. The kingdom's scribe, and the outsider who vowed to help the kingdom both have some interesting things to say in the items they have left behind.

With the knowledge we can get from Dragonspine and Dainsleif, it's to be speculated that Khaenri'ah used to be Sal Vindagnyr.

Imunlaukr, the outsider says: "You who dwell in the Heavens, you must wish for naught but to watch our ashen suffering here below. In that case, let me help you pass the time with a song of iron and blood" (Snow-Tombed Starsliver Greatsword)

Dainsleif about the Field Tillers:

Ukko, the scribe, notes: "I've heard of people who are building a new nation without gods. Perhaps they will have the power to stand against this world" (Scribe Box). Ukko also cursed the gods, which you can find in the lore as well.

Sal or Salr means "hall" or "room", Vindr means "wind" + agnir means "husk/shell" in Old Norse, (Khaenri'ah is inspired by Nordic/Gaelic cultures).

Khaenri'ah is also Arabic for "Wind betrayers/Traitor of the Wind"

But how did they end up underground, and how could they betray Barbatos if he had yet to come into being? The answer is simple, really. And it can be found in the Byakuyakoku Collection. Enkanomiya, Sal Vindagnyr, The Chasm Ruins, and Remuria (Fontaine) were all once apart of the same ancient civilization– led by the Primordial One and it's Four Shining Shades– that was forced underground during the war with the Second Who Came. The nail splitting on Sal Vindagnyr and destroying the tree could have been the start of that war.

The people underground did not know who emerged victorious in the war, but believed it was the Primordial One and three of the four Shades, who left them behind. They claim only one Shade did not forsake them, and her name is Istaroth, the Goddess of Wind and Time.

We also know Istaroth used to be worshipped in Mondstadt thanks to the statues at the nameless island and at the Thousand Winds Temple.

The Byakuyakoku Collection was forbidden. Orobashi paid a price for its knowledge so his people would not have to. The truth it holds had been lost. The people were not allowed to return to the surface but why, if the Primordial One loved them and humanity, wouldn't they allow them to come back? Surely, since they knew it was in the world's creation, they were okay with knowing this truth...

Why would the Heavens want to conceal this war and the truth that Celestia is not of this world when it had once been common knowledge? Why was only Istaroth left? Why were they abandoned by their God? Perhaps, the Primordial One did not win the war.

The Primordial One was once described as having "wings and a crown" along with "hatching from an egg".

Believed to be Phanes. In Egyptian Mythology, Phanes was in fact described this way + also having serpent features, and their name means "Bringer of Light"

The people of Byakuyakoku worshiped the "imaginary" Ouroboros (the serpent eating its own tail) and then an actual serpent, Orobashi. Dainsleif's constellation is also Ouroboros, and Khaenri'ah's knights were the Black Serpents.

Serpents, Wind, and Egyptian ties link both Enka and Khaenri'ah. This reddit thread points out a very good connection to the Sumerian name for Khaenri'ah and to Wind.

Zurvan is a Persian God of Time, who was associated with the Axis Mundi (the center of the world). The Legend of the Shattered Halberd talks about Irmin, a divine halberd who pierced the Axis Mundi and connected the worlds. Irmin is also the name of Khaenri'ah's king.

Interesting to think about since we know that even though Khaenri'ah is not in Teyvat, they had easy access to assist Sumeru when monsters of the Abyss began to flood them thanks to their research facility in the desert (which was said to have connected realms).

So, what about The Abyss? How does it fit in? Just like the Heavenly Principles, The Abyss is described as an entity. And this entity is heavily reflects Christianity/Catholicism. And what is the Primordial one, of not the Progenitor God?

Just as God had four powerful archangels, the Primordial One had four Shining Shades. Raphel is said to represent air (Istaroth), Michael -> Fire, Gabriel -> Water, Uriel -> Earth.

Tack that onto the fact the "truth" and knowledge from the Abyss is toxic in Teyvat (i.e. eleazar, withering, driving others to madness) and that Celestia refused to let Byakuyakoku come back to the surface? The truth is: Celestia is the Second Who Came, and The Abyss was the Primordial One, and I think Khaenri'ah was very much aware of this fact, or at the very least, on the right path.

Their fight was not with Celestia, and they knew to search Enkanomiya for the Sun and Moon Book before Orobashi brought them back to the surface. Because their ancestors, like Enkanomiya/Byakuyakoku's were part of the same unified Primordial Civilization.

I believe Khaenri'ah went after this information to wage war with "the forces beyond the sky", and even though they tried to keep their fighting within their own walls, the monsters of the Abyss still broke free. The ruin golems were manned by people who were helping Sumeru battle the monsters, and most of them died. They allowed refugees into their land. The Pari speak highly of the Dahri and the "masked blonde swordsman" who helped fight the abyssal breach in the sky. Several have claimed Khaenri'ah's reputation was smeared.

So why, would all of Khaenri'ah be cursed? Perhaps because they knew the truth, because they stepped into a war between two entities that they had no part of, or because of their experiments with Khemia and Abyss power?

To be fair, Rhinedottir created several beings with Abyssal ties through Khemia, and while Durin and Elynas (<- speculation on her) seemed to be pure-hearted, they were destructive and unaware of that until later on. And we know successful creations like Durin and Albedo took time. Meaning she had gotten away with this for quite some time. Why not strike them down sooner, like when she first created the rift hounds? Why let it progress?

EDIT: i do also think it's plausible that these creations of Rhinedottir's were not dangerous until leaving Khaenri'ah, seeing as abyssal power is toxic to Teyvat + Durin and Elynas were both very childlike and not aware of their own destructive actions until after they died.

This is merely speculation on my behalf, but what if Khaenri'ah has always been fighting off monsters of the Abyss and these creations of Rhine's were her way of fighting fire with fire? Until war was waged and eventually reached Teyvat's surface. The more Rhine experimented, the more she learned -> the worse her creations got. With her role to play in the Hexenzirkel as well, which focuses heavily on exploring Irminsul, she could have found the truth of the world and shared it with others in Khaenri'ah.

The true Khaenri'ahn's were cursed with immortality— possibly with the sole purpose of them eventually eroding and prevent their memory from returning to the leylines. Perhaps being afflicted with immortality also triggers erosion quicker, as they're simply humans without any divine attachment. Speaking of leylines, they're all connected to Irminsul which grows upside down and underground (as stated by Tighnari). Its very possible that it grows from the Abyss.

The scribe from Sal Vindagnyr wished for "The frosty skies to burn till there's no living soul left in the world". The war with the Second did start the world anew. They have known the harshness of the gods. They wished the nation with no god would have the power to stand against them.

If the sky is fake, why not Celestia or everything we thought we knew about them? If the best running theory right now is that Teyvat is an inverted world, could that not also apply to how the world works?

After all, the Archons and Gods are named after Ars Goetia demons (which there are seven princes in lore, but their names come from knights and dukes as well– minus the tsaritsa but that's leak territory). And the history of the princes starts with this:

"In ancient times, the Seven Princes were once believed to be the Gods that once created humanity, and as a result were worshiped by them. When Judeo-Christian Regime began those "Gods" had been demonized, by genocide committing Judeo/Christians who were attempting to cut the world of from spiritual knowledge. In actuality, these demons were fallen angels that rebelled alongside Lucifer, the angel that defied God which caused the War in Heaven. After their fall from grace, each of the beings were twisted and transformed into hideous abominations. After the War of Heaven, the imprisoned fallen angels decided they needed a form of ruling government in their new plane of existence. Some vied for power, but undoubtedly, the ruler of Hell at the time was the leader of the fallen angels, the charismatic Morning Star, Lucifer. Courageous and strong, he made others bow before him through persuasion, bribery, or intimidation."

[ask-the-achs]

*The computer flicked on.*

TRYIEN SIGFRIED VS MINATO NAMIKAZE

THE FATHER OF THE APOCALYPSE VS THE FATHER OF THE PROPHECY

Minato Namikaze

Age:24

Bio:Minato Namikaze was the Fourth Hokage of Konohagakure. He was famous in life for his speed, leading to the moniker of Konoha's Yellow Flash. He died during the Nine-Tails' attack on Konoha, sacrificing his life to seal a part of the Nine-Tails into his newborn son, Naruto Uzumaki. He is a skilled fighter and hokage.

Weapons:unique kunai

Superhuman strength(is strong enough to several the tentacles of the 8 tails and easily defeats ment twice his size of his strength. Both of whom could break apart mountains and mountain ranges with their tails.) Superhuman durability(Minato could take hits from 2 tailed cloak Kushina and take hits from others like her. Kushina's body was strong enough to decay super powered snakes and burn and break down all things near it.) Superhuman speed (is faster then A and Bee both of whom are capable of attacking and dodging faster then light.) Thanks to his half of the 9 tails he's got fire and wind he naturally has lighting manipulation. He's skilled in sealing arts as he's one of the few people who knows how to preform the Eight Trigrams seal which can hold back the nine tails and has the Contract seal which allows him to sever people's control over another's controlled creatures. He also knows the ultimate seal being the Reaper death seal, but this seal can only be used once as this seal WILL take his soul. He also needs to be strong enough to seal the soul away. High skilled sensor(putting a finger on the ground allows him to sense everything around him.) Has sage mode(this mode allows him to add natural energy into his own abilities to increase in power and be neigh undetectable unless you have similar power. Also, he can't be absorbed by the rinnegan. He can use his body flicker and flying thunder god to teleport and increase his stats. The Rasagen can hold back and push back a tailed beast bomb from the nine tails who can destroy countries with the same attack and can make it bigger and stronger. He can use half of the Nine-Tails to make his attacks stronger or even make 9 extra arms or use tail beast bombs. Can summon Toads.

Weaknesses:using all his Chakra will kill him. He claims he's not good at using sage mode. The Reaper death seal will seal his soul in the stomach of the Reaper and kill him.

Tyrien Sigfrid

Age:Unknown but double Paradox's age.

Weapon:runes his Hammer and anything in his sack (Magni's sword Maui's hook Hou-yi's bow and various bottles)

Bio:long ago the Nordic realms Muspelheim and Niflheim started leaking into the void and created Ymir the first gaint and so he wandered creating realms with the his magic. Soon the sons of Bor (Odin and his brothers.) Soon came and killed Yimr which then carved his body up to make Midgard the realm of mortals while his blood flooded the realms. From the blood came Gaints mad at Odin. Meanwhile somewhere else one day Gaia gets hurt and mad at Zues for sealing away her monstrous children collects her magic and the sky's blood to make gaints to kills the gods as both gaint groups get slaughtered they meet each other and leave the realms unknownly leaving a small bottle of blood from both Gaia and Yimr. Years later the bottle smashes into the ground from the sky in the middle of a ground that was shared by Drawves and elves. They saw the blood become a baby gaint and making a truce raising the child and growing closer as a people. Being raised by the groups and finding out of his heritage he wanders the realms on one goal which strengthened among his Son's death. KILL ALL WHO THREATEN THE PEOPLE HE WAS RAISED BY.

Godly strength(stated by his wife to be the strongest of his family. Paradox has suplexed Dragons the size of mountains. His father in Law Gim once Punched a shark God so hard it shook all of Hawaii and was felt across the seas. His brother in laws which are all much weaker then him have spoken mountain ranges in rages. His wife has slapped around Titans and his daughter calls country destroying vampires 'Wimps') Godly durability (has been attacked by Valkires Fruies and even gods. He's survived everytime. [Mimir stated that Magi and Modi [Thor's sons can't hurt him and these two as children were strong enough to move building size monsters.] He once Drop kicked Baulder across Midgard. [Mimir says he wole up in the river kingdom. HE KICKED A GOD FROM SCOTLAND ALL THE WAY TO EGYPT] Ares Athena and Artemis tell others to never fight him.) Godly speed(despite his size he's capable of dodging attacks from Baulder who being a god of light can go light speed but he's also Fought Helios as an equal Helios was the titan of the sun. Once threw his hammer so fast his son who can react to garou and deku just barely dodged.) Rune magic allows him to cast enchantments on weapons or cast spells by spelling out what he wants to happen. Eleven magic let's him control plants and animals Drawven magic let's him quote 'hold any thing coproal or not.' Brok another drawf used his magic to seal the sound of a storm to use for later. Being both a Gaia and a Yimr gaint gives more powers. Yimr gaints have fire and ice powers along with the powers of prophecy Gaia gaints regenerate as long as they touch the ground are strong enough to throw mountains and islands. Both can change size. [He's stated to be big for a mortal and can grow bigger then Typhon who's according to Paradox 'Fucking gaint to the damn Gaints.' His size drawfed The cyclops who can forge lighting bolts the same way one does swords.] His hammer is covered in his magic and also his family's magic he can tap into the magic (Thronendressa can seal things into anything Raven can manipulate blood flesh and bone Paradox can copy any magic he can see and remember.) His bow can shoot gods out of the sky and he once shot a moon god out of the sky with it. Maui's hook can grant any who hold it shape-shifting its said one can drag islands across the seas. Magi's sword can control the weather and has the power of a raging asgard storm sealed into it.

Weaknesses:only skilled in using his hammer. His hammer is a blacksmithing hammer it's not a weapon. Despite his power he's a trickster. His magic is VERY LITERAL (Plants burst forth means explosion of flowers. Plants thrust forward makes vines shoot forward Etc etc.)

[mariacallous]

Sweden’s suddenly cleared path to NATO membership casts the Baltic Sea region in a new strategic light. For the first time in modern history, every state in the region except Russia will be part of a single, close-knit military alliance, which has led some to giddily declare the Baltic Sea a NATO lake. Other than the fate of Ukraine itself, the creation of a powerful northeastern bloc in NATO is the most strategically significant fallout for Europe from Russian President Vladimir Putin’s decision to go to war.

The Baltic region is also a crucible from which the answers to many of NATO’s most pressing questions could emerge. What does a coherent strategy for deterring Russia look like? How can the Baltic states best be defended? What capabilities are needed, and how will they be integrated across the alliance? The contributions of NATO’s newly unified Baltic bloc—the Nordics, the three Baltic states, Poland, and Germany—to European defense will be vital to the resilience of the alliance.

With NATO focused on supporting Ukraine and better securing the bloc’s eastern frontier, another vital effect of northeastern security cooperation is only now beginning to receive the attention it deserves. The region must urgently address two overlapping challenges: maritime infrastructure protection and energy security. Indeed, in addressing these vulnerabilities, the countries of the region could collectively strengthen security, become a laboratory for how to protect maritime infrastructure, and serve as a model for other regions to follow.

The Baltic Sea, just like the North Sea farther west, hosts a dense web of critical infrastructure links: ports and terminals, undersea pipelines, electricity transmission cables, and telecommunication cables. And their number is expected to grow: As the region completes a massive swing away from Russian energy, governments are expanding their liquefied natural gas (LNG) import infrastructure, building out offshore wind parks, and investing in new undersea power transmission lines. As the Baltic states accelerate their departure from the Russian power grid—a legacy from when they were annexed by the Soviet Union—they are making significant investments in power links with Europe. These and other investments will create an even denser network of critical infrastructure, particularly in an already crowded Baltic Sea.

Of course, Russia still maintains power projection capability, mainly through its naval, air, and missile bases in Kaliningrad—and unlike Russian land forces, these have not been gutted by the Kremlin’s war in Ukraine. The Russian Navy may be underfunded, but its underwater capabilities are growing in strength. Although the perpetrators have not been definitively determined, the underwater bombings of two Nord Stream pipelines near the Danish island of Bornholm in September 2022—as well as ongoing Russian threats and operations in the Baltic Sea and North Sea—have forced European governments to pay more attention to their highly vulnerable offshore energy and other infrastructure.

Accurately assessing threats to maritime energy and undersea communication infrastructure can be difficult. Adversaries could use submarines to deploy crewed or uncrewed submersibles, but attacks could also be launched from research vessels or even passing commercial ships. Also vulnerable to approach by sea are shoreline installations, such as LNG terminals. Landing stations for fiber-optic telecommunication cables are another possible target. What’s more, an adversary could easily employ civilian saboteurs to damage coastal infrastructure.

An attack need not be catastrophic—infrastructure networks usually have redundancies and extra capacity built in to compensate. Below the threshold of a blackout strike, however, infrastructure sabotage can be used by an adversary as a relatively easy and affordable way of sending a message or undermining a population’s sense of security. Sabotage could also prepare the ground for a broader attack. What makes sabotage attractive for an adversary is that attribution can be difficult, compounding the sense of insecurity and confusion. In January 2022, for instance, an undersea fiber-optic cable connecting a satellite ground station on the Norwegian island of Svalbard to the country’s mainland was severed, causing much speculation over Russian involvement. No conclusive evidence ever emerged. Meanwhile, NATO is certain that Russian spy ships have increased their efforts to map Europe’s critical maritime infrastructure.

Some of the larger countries in Europe are looking to step up their capacity to monitor, protect, and repair their undersea infrastructure. France has launched a new seabed warfare strategy and is investing in unmanned underwater vehicles, while Britain is creating a new Centre for Seabed Mapping and dedicating a multirole ocean surveillance ship to safeguarding infrastructure. Britain and Norway have also entered a security partnership to jointly protect their undersea infrastructure, a sign of London’s ambition to be a security provider in the region, including with regard to maritime energy and other infrastructure. (The two nations are major natural gas producers and have a network of pipelines crisscrossing the North Sea.) In the Baltic Sea, the Polish government is contemplating legislation that would permit the military to target ships attacking a key gas pipeline and establish a permanent coast guard base at the LNG terminal in the port of Swinoujscie. NATO already has a standing Maritime Group monitoring the North and Baltic seas and is conducting military exercises there. The Swedish submarine fleet will in future contribute greatly to NATO’s capabilities in the Baltic.

Most smaller European countries have only limited capacity to monitor and repair maritime infrastructure, even in their own waters. For all states, coordination remains a big challenge: Commercial owners and operators, militaries, coast guards, and other security services all have some responsibility in this field, as do policymakers and public administrators at various levels. While industry actors are often more aware of the immediate consequences of damaged energy or communication links, they rarely have access to comprehensive threat assessments compiled, if at all, by national governments. Then there is the issue of coordination across international borders. With so many actors involved, assembling a fully integrated operational picture of activity below and above water and developing contingency plans for responses to threats can be challenging, to say the least.

The Baltic Sea, with its shallow waters, low salinity, and many islands and archipelagoes, comes with some terrain-specific security challenges. Nevertheless, it is a useful testbed for how best to coordinate European responses to threats against critical maritime infrastructure. Both NATO and the European Union have turned their attention to shaping these responses and announced a new joint flagship initiative: the Task Force on Resilience of Critical Infrastructure. NATO-EU collaboration is a no-brainer here, since protecting critical maritime infrastructure requires merging military and civilian security measures. But both NATO and the EU will likely encounter obstacles working with so many different private actors and with sharing sensitive information about national infrastructure even among allies.

NATO can take the military lead. In recent months, it has ramped up patrols and naval exercises in the North Sea and Baltic Sea and established a new Maritime Centre for the Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure within NATO’s Maritime Command. The bloc also wants to bring together national civilian, military, and industry stakeholders, doubling down on NATO’s role as a hub for sharing information and best practices. The alliance also plans to support members in identifying innovative technologies that can help secure critical undersea infrastructure. To underline the importance of all this, NATO leaders meeting in Vilnius, Lithuania, this week dedicated a whole paragraph of their official communique to the “real and … developing” threat to critical undersea infrastructure.

The EU updated its maritime strategy this year, stating its intention to ensure the resilience and protection of critical maritime infrastructure. A traditional starting point for the EU is to launch blocwide regulation, including a directive on critical infrastructure that entered into force this year. But the effectiveness of these measures depends on national capitals’ willingness to implement them effectively and quickly. The EU might get further if it is able to complement its regulatory stick with financial carrots, especially for smaller member states. Some of these states have asked for a dedicated section of the EU budget for public investments to protect critical infrastructure. The EU could also use its newly expanded tools on defense industrial funding to support member state investment in securing infrastructure.

Both organizations should also prepare for future threats to maritime infrastructure that may come not only from Russia. China, for instance, poses a different kind of security challenge as it buys and develops critical maritime infrastructure in Europe, from undersea communication cables to stakes in European ports. European governments have grown more alert to the potential risks of these investments in recent years, even as countries such as Germany continue to sign over infrastructure to Beijing. But officials tasked with tightening the investment review process complain that they do not yet have access to a clear map of who owns what in undersea and shoreline infrastructure.

In the years to come, the countries of the Baltic Sea region will be able to stress-test European responses to these challenges. Their efforts will likely yield valuable lessons for other operational theaters. These could include the Arctic, where melting ice could open up new sea routes for digital infrastructure. Partners of the West in the Indo-Pacific, facing similar hybrid threats to their critical maritime infrastructure, could learn from the European experience as well. Lessons from the region could also inform the EU’s plan to invest in a new undersea internet cable in the Black Sea designed to improve digital connections to Georgia, a candidate for EU membership, while reducing the country’s dependence on cables running through Russia.

The efforts to develop and implement a robust, shared approach to maritime infrastructure and energy security should include all countries in the Baltic Sea region, with the obvious exception of Russia. That may take some work, as these countries have not always seen eye to eye on security, especially in their assessment of Russia. Security in the northeastern bloc needs the buy-in of powerful Western European countries such as Germany. But the relationship between Berlin and Warsaw is increasingly deadlocked, preventing these two major countries from providing leadership in the region. Germany’s announcement that it will permanently station a military brigade in Lithuania, if it can be implemented quickly, could go some way to rebuild the trust lost by Berlin through its many years of Russia-friendly policies. The Polish elections in the fall, if they bring a change in government, might relax Warsaw’s relationship with the rest of Europe. A more strategic approach to regional security, however, will rely in large part on the military experience and innovation capacity of the smaller, nimbler Nordic and Baltic countries.

If NATO’s Baltic Sea members can build on Finnish and Swedish accession to the alliance, use all the tools at their disposal, and pursue a more coordinated, pragmatic approach to critical infrastructure security, they will reduce one of Europe’s greatest vulnerabilities exposed by Putin’s war on Ukraine. If NATO’s new northeastern bloc fails to achieve this despite a clear common threat and interest, there is little hope that the alliance can succeed elsewhere.

[pvffinsdaisies]

sunor hc

Let’s see… I feel like I’ve already posted most of my SuNor headcanons before 🤔 if there’s any repeats, don’t mind me!

A headcanon that I have that applies to any ship would be that Norway keeps his partner’s flag next to his home work desk next to a case of heathers, so in this case it would be the Swedish flag

Something I found out when I first started to learn about nordic culture, which has recently been mentioned yet again on my fyp, is that swedes find the Norwegian language to be like a cute (and silly) version of Swedish, which can pretty easily be taken in a romantic sense. I feel like Sweden could listen to Norway talk all day and never get sick of hearing his language and his voice (not that Norway actually would talk alll day, but hypothetically!)

I personally headcanon Norway really enjoys figure skating, and whilst Sweden isn’t actually in a team for ice hockey he enjoys having fun small 1v1 matches against Finland. Both sports are known for ruining the ice for one another, but I feel like Norway will send videos playing around on his toe pick just to tease and infuriate Sweden in a playful way.

They’re both huge knitters who probably knit things for one another all the time

Calming nights in assembling furniture together. If either of them (Norway) winds up frustrated at some point it’s the other’s duty to get up and hand them a hot chocolate and it’s break time with cuddles 🥰 makes the process a LOT longer but also much more enjoyable and it’s what works for them.

Nor can and will steal all of Sweden’s wardrobe despite everything in it being too big for him.

Sweden’s Norway’s biggest comfort regardless of if their dating, which definitely benefits their relationship a lot! I have a headcanon that Norway has an intense case of philophobia and an even worse fear of commitment, so he often times will want to run away from relationships the moment his feelings actually get serious. I totally see nor attempting to break up numerous times bc he’s gotten scared, and each and everytime Sweden has sat down with him and said “no” or agreed they can break up but only if Norway can without a shadow of a doubt say he’s not just running away because he’s scared.

No they have never broken up once

[motownfiction]

nordic

Sadie likes to close her eyes and spin the globe with her index finger.

Her own parents don’t have a globe, but you better believe Lucy’s parents do. They have a really nice one in their home office, which Lucy says is to remind guests (and themselves) that they’re still the smartest people around here. But Sadie doesn’t really care about any of that. She’s fourteen years old, and all she wants is adventure.

The globe is a start.

Sometimes, when she spends the night at the Callaghans’ house, she sneaks into the study at night, after Lucy’s finally fallen asleep. She quietly walks up to the globe, takes a deep breath, and lets it spin.

“OK,” she’ll always whisper to herself. “Where am I going to live?”

The globe has landed her in some pretty funny places. Last time she spun it, she wound up living in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean. There was another time when she wound up somewhere between Texas and Oklahoma, which sounded equal parts hilarious and horrifying. She’s not sure where she’s going to end up this time, but she hopes it’s one of the Nordic countries. She hears people are really happy there.

And all Sadie ever really wants is to be happy.

It shouldn’t be this hard to be happy. She’s fourteen, not even in high school yet, not even obligated to work a part-time job after school or on the weekends. All she does is her homework and hang out with her friends. It keeps her busy, but she’s not really sure about happy.

Happy’s hard. It slips through your fingers like a lightning bug, and by the time you realize how beautiful it is, it’s dark again. Happy is even harder when your friends think you’re the happy one – the one who can calm them all down when all they know how to do is wind up. It’s hard to be happy for yourself when you have to use it all up on everyone else.

Not like Sadie regrets being that person or anything. She doesn’t.

She can’t. She wouldn’t even know how.

She spins the globe and sticks out her finger, waiting for her next surprise. When she feels the revolutions come to a stop, she opens her eyes to see where she lands.

Sweden.

Feels like an omen to her.

(part of @nosebleedclub july challenge -- day iii!)

[mareenavee]

WIP WHENEVER! (Wednesday?!)

Hi, today is a bit of a write off day because it's spooky season and NY weather is telling me it's mid-July somehow.

I did manage a little writing :> And I'll be happy to share about ~300 words from two WIPS! But first, tags!

Tagging the amazing and wonderful: @paraparadigm, @changelingsandothernonsense, @thequeenofthewinter, @thana-topsy, @gilgamish, @archangelsunited, @wildhexe, @elfinismsarts, @throughtrialbyfire, @saltymaplesyrup, @snippetsrus, @rainpebble3, @kookaburra1701, @polypolymorph, @inquisition-dragonborn, @orfeoarte, @tallmatcha, @rhiannon1199, @expended-sleeper, @dirty-bosmer, @miraakulous-cloud-district, @nuwanders, @ladytanithia, @viss-and-pinegar, and @late-nite-scholar! Below the cut for shenanigans! WIP 1 has CW for creepy spooky season stuff and WIP 2 has CW for Neloth (yes) and his canon-typical racism (circa Nerevarine times in Morrowind.)

1) Spooky Collab pending a title with @thequeenofthewinter and @thana-topsy! Uldwin is his OC, and this is the downfall timeline. (: Writing is mine.

The ramp that led up to the mushroom tower was itself rotting through, stringy, toxic orange webs of slime mold eating away at the fungus. Lydia balanced precariously on the wooden support beams, cursing the weight of the daedric armor Uldwin had gifted her. Its enchantment sang to her, too—a whisper of some Bosmeri prayer. Like his voice, scratchy from use of the Thu’um. She swallowed hard against another wave of grief. This, perhaps, had been the last of his efforts to spare her whatever fate he’d willingly walked into.

The door to the tower swung open of its own accord, iron hinges rusted and knob caked with mud and grime. Then… Whatever it was had become aware of her presence. This did not bode well at all. She stepped through into the darkness, unable even to cast Candlelight to guide her way forward.

Lydia’s senses were assaulted by the stench of death—mildew and rot, must, pine, the uncomfortable sweetness of fermentation—not at all unlike the smell of Nordic tombs, long undisturbed. She brushed cobwebs away as she crept through the shadows. Dawnbreaker glowed, though its light seemed stifled in this place. Dread settled over her shoulders like a mantle. One step after another. It was all she could do, despite the fear. Despite how very much she wanted to turn and run. She knew she couldn’t. Uldwin didn’t. And now it fell to her to end this nightmare…and to bring him home.As Lydia took another step, something crunched audibly under her boot. A bone. No. She held back a scream as something screeched above her, the noise traveling through her skull like a jolt of Shock magic.

2) Light the Way which is pre-World. Backstory for Neloth and Teldryn, the Nerevarine (: And how they both ended up in the Twin Lamps.

“If I have your attention,” Im-Kilaya said after a particularly grating and reptilian-sounding throat-clearing, “we’ll need you both to help an injured once-shackled individual. His name is Tul, a fellow Saxhleel. Our Eyes have noted his injuries are beyond the help of what potions we have available.” He paused and turned to Sero, handing him a letter. “This, and he will need to be defended until you reach Sterdecan.”

“Do you expect trouble?” Sero asked, scanning the letter. Neloth glanced over his shoulder. It was written in some kind of cipher—it had to have been. Otherwise, it was an egregious misuse of parchment, describing in detail a few fictitious landmarks of Azura’s Coast. He watched as Sero folded up the letter again and tucked it behind the dark chitin plate of his armor.

“Yes, unfortunately. The farmhouse is becoming more visible than we’d like. It’s why this falls to you, Nerevarine. Protect Tul. I don’t know what waits out there in the dark, but the news brings me great discomfort.”

“Orvas has wind of us, doesn’t he?” Teldryn said after a moment. 

Im-Kilaya said nothing, and opted instead to grimace, hands tucked once again into the sleeves of his robes. Teldryn nodded; whatever silent conversation had just occurred between them seemed satisfactory enough.

Neloth knew that name. Duke Vedam’s younger brother, and, at least at one point, the more powerful of the two. There had been rumors about nefarious dealings, and a more recent loss of his position within House Hlaalu. Something Fyr had rattled on about, as he was wont to do, but Neloth hadn’t bothered to listen. He cursed himself for his lack of foresight. Not that Neloth was afraid per se, but what should have been a fairly simple task now seemed infinitely more complex than what he’d at first believed.

[jyenvs3000w23]

Unit 07: Music and Nature

Music is a medium commonly used to interpret music. It is used across history, countries and cultures. Music and nature are often interconnected, as both implement elements from each other. In nature, music can be found everywhere. The most obvious would be animal noises (singing birds), sounds of the water, and wind blowing through the trees. Nature sounds are often viewed as healing, meditative and grounding; they serve a purpose for humans and other animals. Many animals communicate vocally, and their sounds' different melodies and tones can deliver signals across a certain distance that is often linked to survival.

Furthermore, we humans have also been using music to communicate with animals. One example I've come across is "Kulning." It is an ancient Swedish herding call from the medieval Nordic period. Kulning sounds like singing, but the sound travels incredibly far from its unique technique, allowing the singer to communicate with the animals from a long distance. Below is a video of Kulning by Jonna Jinton; the melodies are lovely and magical.

               From a different perspective, elements of nature are also wildly used in music. From classical to modern pop music, elements such as fire, water and earth are commonly incorporated into songwriting. In classical music, the resemblance of nature sounds is more direct, like mimicking water flowing using instruments. Many instruments, such as string and wind instruments (violin, flute), and even drums, can mimic certain nature noises like water dripping sounds and birds singing. In addition, some instruments are purposely made to mimic nature's sound, such as the rain stick, thunder drum and ocean drum.

In addition, instruments were made to use natural elements to play. For example, a hydraulophone is an instrument that utilizes small streams of water flowing from a tube-like structure, and by manipulating the water flowage, one can create unique melodies (Click this link to watch a video on it! https://youtu.be/deyHTDSg5BQ ). Another example would be the wind chime, which we see everywhere, yet we often forget how it functions on the power of nature. On the other hand, although nature sounds are not often featured in modern music genres, elements like fire and rain are still trendy. Often it does not have to be direct sounds of nature, but songwriters would make music to produce a similar "feeling" or "vibe" as an element, such as metal or rock, which is often related to fire and thunder. In sequence, music with lyrical purposes about nature is also used across history. From nurseries to pop songs, music with the message of protecting nature and voicing environmental issues has been proven to be an effective educational tool. I'm sure most of you know the song "Earth Song" by Michael Jackson, where he sings about humankind's destruction of our environment and mother nature. He addresses issues like deforestation and unethical animal killing in his music video. From such as influential figure, his song delivered his message globally in a way that is easy for the public to understand and accept (compared to government campaigns that are often neglected). Attached is the Youtube video link to the song.

[barfok]

blah blah

nord warfare is centred around the presence of a thu’um-wielder-- or multiple thu’um-wielders-- in an army. military strategy as such the proper use of this Tongue and the army in supporting them.

ysmir is the archetype of a Tongue’s role in an army: as a percussive instrument. he could generate huge amounts of force, which were mainly used to break enemy lines and demolish defensive structures. in this classic case the tongue is aid to the army, not vice-versa-- while the Tongue is a strategical advantage, the army is what rushes through the gaps formed by his thu’um, ultimately deciding the battle. for this reason tongues who wield such thu’ums must also be charismatic and capable of inspiring the loyalty of their men. the strongest thu’um is nothing without a well-organized army to take advantage of the gains it creates. olaf one-eye and kjoric the white are other examples of such percussive instruments.

the need to inspire loyalty is also felt by wind-callers such as jurgen, whose weather-controlling thu’um make them ideal as navel captains. while the thu’um can be used to summon the ideal measure of wind, a crew is still needed to man the boats which would benefit from this. all nordic navies are headed by such wind-callers.

the need for a loyal army (or indeed, any army) is subverted by the likes of hoag. raised in morrowind where necromancy is common and culturally accepted. hoag mer-killer’s military strategy is straightforwards: to lead a quickly-mustered and poorly-trained army into a larger, better organized force, to wait for his army to be massacred, and then to raise their corpses from beneath the better-organized army, immediately breaking their ranks and usually slaughtering them.

it is unclear whether barfok requires an army to operate, though much is unclear about barfok’s thu’um in general. while she usually operates with a retinue, destroying her entire army has historically done nothing to defeat her. new tactics will likely evolve around barfok’s thu’um and similar over time, but nobody really understands it enough yet.

there are also, more rarely, thu’um-wielders who do not function in a military context at all, but who are skilled in subterfuge; when these are used alongside an army, the army’s purpose is to create enough distraction that the thu’um-wielder can enter his area of target and subsequently wreak havoc. these thu’um wielders seem also prolific in morrowind, where honour is meaningless. chemua’s thu’um, for example, has been used to devastating success in the destruction of agricultural regions, dealing a logistical blow to even well-organized campaigns. bhag’s thu’um is more subtle, based on some form of subterfuge that involves sowing confusion and turning generals against one another. both frequently appear alongside armies, but these armies are merely a distraction and not required for the Tongue to achieve his ultimate goal, marking a departure from classical nordic warfare. these lone agent Tongues are more dangerous than even the strongest blunt-force Tongue as they are difficult targets, can easily escape evasion, are not bound by the logistical stresses of leading an army, and have little deterrent from becoming rogue agents. the proliferation of such Tongues may be taken to forbode a collapse in societal organization.

[mars-langblr]

Nine People I Want to Know Better!

thank you @burgeoning-ambition for tagging me :)

Last Song: Interesting enough, it appears that my last song was 夜に駆ける by YOASOBI. I do this thing sometimes where I cruise around town while playing Japanese music in my car and trying to follow the words (even if I don’t understand all of them). It’s also nice when I’m listening to a song and I suddenly realize that I understood what they sang at a certain part. It’s just another fun way I like to fit Japanese into my life!

Last Show: It’s been almost a month I last got into a TV show. I was attempting to begin Bungo Stray Dogs a few weeks ago but haven’t found the time to continue it. The last show I finished must have been The Morning Show earlier this month. It’s addicting and Billy Crudup is just really hot in the show. And before that, it might have been Banana Fish (which was so incredibly good, I highly recommend).

Currently Watching: I’m trying to push through the Evangelion rebuilds right now. I’ve already seen the first three and half of the final one before, but I never finished the last one because I wanted to savor it (apparently it’s a really satisfying ending). So right now I’m rewatching them all. As a mega-fan of Neon Genesis Evangelion, I have quite some polarizing thoughts about the rebuilds of Evangelion, but I digress. Once I’m done, I’ll probably rewatch NGE because I think I’m just back in my Evangelion hyper-fixation phase.

Currently Reading: The Wind-Up Bird Chronicle by Haruki Murakami. I am kind of a mega-fan of Murakami books, if you could even call me one. I’ve told myself that I want to read all of his books before I’m thirty (that gives me a lot of time). This is apparently considered to be one of his very best, and I’m quite enjoying it. I’d say I’m probably 3/4ths of the way through it. Maybe I’ll finish it on my red-eye flight tomorrow.

It feels quite funny to look back on all of my answers and see Japanese influences popping up into all of them. This is just the way I keep myself engaged and motivated to continue my studies. If I had no Japanese influence outside of my language studies, I’d probably lose interest really quickly. So it’s good that Japan’s culture and media is endlessly engaging for me.

Tagging:

@kohi-kumo @jpn-langblr @maicamochichan @amistudyblr @onigiriwithambitions @maimae @soph-jpn @nordic-language-love @makichanjapan

[sassymiraclebouquet]

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[justadaddybear]

HOW THE VIKINGS GAVE US CHRISTMAS

Primarily marked on the 25th of December to commemorate the birth of Jesus Christ, Christmas is a time of year celebrated by billions of people around the world. The festival is accompanied by several traditions that, unbeknownst to many, have pagan origins.

Long before Christianity had come to the Nordic regions, the pagan Vikings and other ancient Germanic peoples would celebrate the winter solstice each December, the time of year when the days were the shortest and the night's the longest. Friends and relatives would get together and enjoy food and drink in a festival known as Yule.

As Christianity swept across Germanic Europe centuries ago, many Yuletide traditions were adopted and absorbed into the Christian faith, mixing together to create the modern Christmas we celebrate today.

Here are some of the most common Christmas traditions we have the Vikings to thank for:

FATHER CHRISTMAS The Norse god Odin was said to be 'the father of all gods'. Described as a bearded old man wearing a hat and a cloak, Odin would often ride his eight-legged horse Sleipnir across the midwinter night's sky, delivering gifts to those down below. Sound familiar?

Although it can be argued that our modern Father Christmas is a fusion of ancient myths, legends and folklore, the resemblance and connection to the Norse god Odin has many historians believing he was the original Santa.

THE CHRISTMAS ELF Once again we have Norse mythology to thank for another of our well-known Christmas stalwarts, the elf. Referred to as the álfar (where our word 'elf' comes from) or 'hidden people', these supernatural humanlike beings were often described as tall, pale and beautiful and equipped with magical powers.

So how did we go from the álfar to the short, pointy hat wearing elves we imagine in Santa's workshop today? Again, we have another myth from Nordic folklore to thank, that of the 'nisse'. The nisse is a mythological creature associated with the winter solstice and Christmas season, best described as looking like your typical garden gnome - short and equipped with a red pointy hat.

The little creatures are said to live in the stables and barns of a homestead, guarding the property and those dwelling within. Treat it well and it'll be helpful to you, treat it badly and be prepared for some mischief around your house, perhaps explaining why today's Christmas elves are often represented as cheeky.

CHRISTMAS TREES The Vikings worshipped trees, especially the evergreens of the Scandinavian forests, which they believed were the special plant of Balder, the sun god. Since they remained green throughout the winter, the trees came to represent the promise of new life, a reminder that spring was just around the corner.

In ancient Germanic and Norse tradition, the evergreens were often decorated with small carvings of the gods and food, in the hope of encouraging the tree spirits to return to bring about the new spring.

FESTIVE WREATH Whilst the Romans originally created wreaths to be displayed as a symbol of victory, they became connected to our festive celebrations by way of Yule. Like the evergreen trees, wreaths created using an evergreen plant such as Holly, would be brought into people's dwellings during Yuletide to remind them of the warmer days to come, a reassuring symbol during the long cold winters of the Scandinavian north.

MISTLETOE According to Norse legend, Odin's son Balder had been prophesied to die so his mother Frigg visited every entity in the cosmos to secure an oath from them that they wouldn't harm her son. She neglected to consult the mistletoe believing it too small and harmless to threaten the life of her son. The mischievous god Loki got wind of this oversight and carved an arrow out of the mistletoe. Balder would eventually be slain by Loki's creation, mistletoe proving to be his only weakness.

In one version of the story, Frigg's tears of sorrow fell onto the red mistletoe turning them white, which resurrected her son. Mistletoe came to represent renewal, love and peace with Frigg promising to kiss anyone who passed beneath it.

THE 12 DAYS OF CHRISTMAS Before we were all singing about turtle doves and a partridge in a pear tree, the ancient Norse were enjoying their midwinter festival of Yule for exactly twelve days. Beginning on the day of the winter solstice (the longest day and night), the feasting festivities would carry on for 12 days, creating the origins of the 12 days of Christmas we celebrate today.

CHRISTMAS HAM It's a dish that's featured on most Christmas tables at some point during the festive season and once again, we have the Norse to thank for our Christmas ham.

Feasting played a central role in the way the Vikings and other ancient Germanic people honoured the gods. One such ritual saw the sacrificing of a Wild Boar to the Norse god Freyr in the hope of a fruitful harvest during the next season.

The boar would be the centrepiece of the feasting, very much like the Christmas ham that adorns our modern-day tables.

YULE LOG In Nordic tradition, the Yule log was a carefully selected log that was ceremonially brought into the house and burnt on a hearth (brick or stone-lined fireplace) during the time of Yule. Part of it would be saved and kept until the following year to not only protect the home but also act as kindling for next year's Yule log.

Whilst the tradition continues to this day across the world, it has also transformed into a culinary one with many people choosing to furnish their Christmas tables with a chocolate Yule log.

[ambyandony]

>> Hello everyone its atreyu here!

>>to share with you my jojos bizarre adventure OC and the stand I made since people were interested! please excuse any typos, I’m a little unsteady, i tried to double-check in the big paragraphs :-)

Name: Anastas Maxwell P. (nicknamed "Stace")

Pronouns: he/him

Age: about 22

>> his eyes are dark blue or maybe grey I'm not sure

>> has had many romantic partners but currently single

>> bipolar sufferer (type I i think)

>> has tattoos but tries to hide them

>> bird and angel imagery enjoyer, scared of roosters

>> goes to the club with his lesbian best friend (who is also his wingman) and sometimes cries at the bar

>> he feels like shes the only one who hasn't legt him or gotten sick of him so he kind of acts like... i guess the word is 'simp', for her

>> people often think he has a romantic interest in her because of it and some have even attacked him for it because shews a lesbian and doesn't date men but shss really not ven his type

>> kind of hates the nickname stace/stacy but it's the only one he's ever really been called

>> his mother is slavic and he speaks a little bit of the language he picked up from her (im not sure which specifically)

>> his other parental figure is of nordic or finnic descent but again not sure where specifically, and they're a generation removed (was born in whatever country anastas was born and presumably raised in and has less cultural ties to the heritage)

>> has a bunch of s[tik] lying around his room from stints of trying new things and then losing interest

>> has a roommate (not the best friend) but they don't exactly get along all the time

>> can't afford things because hes very prone to impulse purchases

>> barely holding on to his current job and its killing him

>> can survive in fistfights and stand fights. doesn't mean he wins or is good though

>> tends to turn up somewhere looking really bruised and can't seem to remember why when asked

>> makes a lot of bad decisions

>> stays with his best friend sometimes

>> likes to wear a lot of makeup

Second Wind

>> This is Anastas' stand second wind!!

>> It's sort of a stand that uses mistakes as an advantage, let me elaborate

>> If you (as in the user) fail an intended action, it lets you "try again", like if you hypothetically throw something at someone and miss; it doesn't undo the action but gives you another thing to throw and the same opportunity to throw it without the target moving away. So how I described it was: what it does is "double" an action with different results, so it sort of overlaps two "times". When you throw the thing at that person and miss, it "rewinds" it to let you try again, but the second try overlaps with the first, so it looks like you only did it once because both instances occurred at the same time even though it had two results. So the first object, the one that was originally thrown, misses and goes wherever it initially landed, and the second object, duplicated from the first by the Stand's time-cloning ability, will hit the person at the same time (assuming your second throw actually hits this time!)

That's just an example, of course. It works in a lot of different ways. For example, going off the previous example, if you were aiming for a specific part of someone's body, missed that spot, but still hit the person, you still get a second throw, so both objects (the original and the duplicate) will hit at the same time. It works similarly with throwing punches, but before I get to that...

It can't duplicate entire people. However, it can still allow a retry of any individual action failed by the User; if you trip and fall, you get a retry on the step you failed to make. If this happens, you still sustain any injury you got from the fall, but at least you don't look clumsy! (and you're not on the ground) So it can't necessarily save you from injury, but it's good for recovering your footing, like when in a fight. There's one exception, though: if the injury would have been fatal (like if you, say, lost your balance and fell onto something sharp), and you manage to avoid it on the second try, then you'll still sustain the same kind of injury at a reduced severity (you would have been impaled and died but now you've just got a hole/puncture wound in your midsection and it hurts real bad). You'll probably still need to get to a hospital, but you'll survive, so the Stand can save its User's life.

Now, going back to the other thing I was saying, Second Wind's ability can also be used to double attacks as well as objects, which makes it theoretically pretty useful... but only when you're, well, kind of bad at things? Since it only works when you fail. Of course, you can't intentionally miss an attack or fumble something to try and get a double-shot or duplicate; failing was your intention, so you still succeeded. Failed successfully! And successfully failed at activating the Stand... Because of his ability's specific activation prerequisites, Anastas has developed a quirk where, when in a fight, he announces where he's aiming, where he's going/trying to punch. He feels that it raises his chances of doubling an attack, as it clearly establishes his intention and makes it obvious when he's missed his mark.

Even if Anastas learns ways to fight better, like better stances or the like, he usually intentionally forgoes those tactics and effectively 'shuts off' his brain during a brawl in order to fight worse; it's because doubling punches can be really useful... especially since he's developed his habit of announcing his intentions in pretty much any combat situation, which makes his actual intended punches kind of easy to block or dodge since you know where he's aiming. On the other hand, the more you block and dodge, the more likely he is to hit you twice, and since he has Second Wind also, this adds up to a potential 3 simultaneous punches from him in a fight. Anastas walks into the ring and says, 'I'm throwing', proceeds to throw, and wins by doing so.

Second Wind is able to hold its own in normal combat but has a better defence stat than power stat, presumably thanks to its armour, so they usually hit a lot right away to try and get the fight done quick because they're not good at actually fighting when it comes down to it.

>> and thats all I have on Anastas! as for the lesbian best friend i don't really know much about her i don't know if shes a stand user or not all i really know is shes a lesbian (and probably has dyed maybe really short hair). i kind of originally left it open ended when i first talked about anastas like 'if anyone wants to make the best friend feel free' and i still don't really have any ideas for her so...

>> Please enjoy!!! - atreyu