ultimatecryptid

[ultimatecryptid]

schools like ucla temporarily switching to remote instruction is twofold interesting because first, it is a transparent attempt to wait out the disruptive effects of protest by shifting the learning environment into the private space (a capitalist innovation!) of the student's room, which a protest cannot so easily impinge upon; but second, it is something that would not have been possible before the pandemic, before the mass adoption of technologies that could serve accessibility but are now being deployed by the reactionary project. an ongoing pandemic is not reason enough to let students participate remotely—the threat that truths about imperialism will spill into this environment of "higher education", however, is enough to force them to.

[ultimatecryptid]

also she should get red lyriumed. emery voice a fourth strange magical toxin? sure why not—

suddenly and intriguingly compelled by warden-commander emery becoming the inquisitor

#oc emery brosca

[ultimatecryptid]

ive never been able to figure out a good inquisitor for emerys worldstate. i havent even been able to say what i WANT in an inquisitor and part of that is because i just couldnt figure out any kind of character that improves the story HOWEVER the overarching plot is that a (culturally powerful) individual wants to use a (historical) artifact to return the world to their (previous) culture, to the detriment of the people who are living now.

and you know who that also describes? paragon branka.

which got me thinking—the elvhen history retcon kind of turned the Creators into a form of anscestor worship. and we already HAVE an anscestor worshipping culture to compare to in The Stone!!! if you squint then Solas and PARAGON Emery are in very similar positions culturally, just on opposite ends of time. Em's been a Paragon for 9ish years, and even if her tales are exaggerated she was still there to see how it evolved, and Solas is [time not found] years out with his legacy firmly out of his control in what seemed to him like the blink of an eye

and this works super well considering Awakening too!!! having someone whose met and sided with (as of my last playthrough) the Architect SHOULD come into contact with Corypheus!

so em's own history with branka and the architect AND her potential future links her to the plot and to our major antagonists in a way that lets you look at both from more angles, which is exactly the kind of thing im looking for in a protagonist

suddenly and intriguingly compelled by warden-commander emery becoming the inquisitor

#oc emery brosca #dragon age

[ultimatecryptid]

suddenly and intriguingly compelled by warden-commander emery becoming the inquisitor

[ultimatecryptid]

Chinese cyberpunk gods. Concept art

SanXingDui inspired. Every detail is referenced from existing artifacts :))

#art #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

In addition to my Monkey Man post from earlier, the always kind & sweet Aparna Verma (author of The Phoenix King, check it out) asked that I do a thread on Hijras, & more of the history around them, South Asia, mythology (because that's my thing), & the positive inclusion of them in Monkey Man which I brought up in my gushing review.

Hijra: They are the transgender, eunuch, or intersex people in India who are officially recognized as the third sex throughout most countries in the Indian subcontinent. The trans community and history in India goes back a long way as being documented and officially recognized - far back as 12th century under the Delhi Sultanate in government records, and further back in our stories in Hinduism. The word itself is a Hindi word that's been roughly translated into English as "eunuch" commonly but it's not exactly accurate.

Hijras have been considered the third sex back in our ancient stories, and by 2014 got official recognition to identify as the third gender (neither male or female) legally. Pakistan, Nepal, Bangladesh, and India have accepted: eunuch, trans, intersex people & granted them the proper identification options on passports and other government official documents.

But let's get into some of the history surrounding the Hijra community (which for the longest time has been nomadic, and a part of India's long, rich, and sometimes, sadly, troubled history of nomadic tribes/people who have suffered a lot over the ages. Hijras and intersex people are mentioned as far back as in the Kama Sutra, as well as in the early writings of Manu Smriti in the 1st century CE (Common Era), specifically said that a third sex can exist if possessing equal male and female seed.

This concept of balancing male/female energies, seed, and halves is seen in two places in South Asian mythos/culture and connected to the Hijra history.

First, we have Aravan/Iravan (romanized) - who is also the patron deity of the transgender community. He is most commonly seen as a minor/village deity and is depicted in the Indian epic Mahabharata. Aravan is portrayed as having a heroic in the story and his self-sacrifice to the goddess Kali earns him a boon.

He requests to be married before his death. But because he is doomed to die so shortly after marriage, no one wants to marry him.

No one except Krishna, who adopts his female form Mohini (one of the legendary temptresses in mythology I've written about before) and marries him. It is through this union of male, and male presenting as female in the female form of Mohini that the seed of the Hijras is said to begun, and why the transgender community often worships Aravan and, another name for the community is Aravani - of/from Aravan.

But that's not the only place where a gender non conforming divine representation can be seen. Ardhanarishvara is the half female form of lord Shiva, the destroyer god.

Shiva combines with his consort Parvarti and creates a form that represents the balancing/union between male/female energies and physically as a perfectly split down the middle half-male half-female being. This duality in nature has long been part of South Asian culture, spiritual and philosophical beliefs, and it must be noted the sexuality/gender has often been displayed as fluid in South Asian epics and the stories. It's nothing new.

Many celestial or cosmic level beings have expressed this, and defied modern western limiting beliefs on the ideas of these themes/possibilities/forms of existence.

Ardhanarishvara signifies "totality that lies beyond duality", "bi-unity of male and female in God" and "the bisexuality and therefore the non-duality" of the Supreme Being.

Back to the Hijra community.

They have a complex and long history. Throughout time, and as commented on in the movie, Monkey Man, the Hijra community has faced ostracization, but also been incorporated into mainstream society there. During the time of the Dehli Sultanate and then later the Mughal Empire, Hijras actually served in the military and as military commanders in some records, they were also servants for wealthy households, manual laborers, political guardians, and it was seen as wise to put women under the protection of Hijras -- they often specifically served as the bodyguards and overseers of harems. A princess might be appointed a Hijra warrior to guard her.

But by the time of British colonialism, anti-Hijra laws began to come in place folded into laws against the many nomadic tribes of India (also shown in part in Monkey Man with Kid (portrayed by Dev Patel) and his family, who are possibly

one of those nomadic tribes that participated in early theater - sadly by caste often treated horribly and relegated to only the performing arts to make money (this is a guess based on the village play they were performing as no other details were given about his family).

Hijras were criminalized in 1861 by the Indian Penal Code enforced by the British and were labeled specifically as "The Hijra Problem" -- leading to an anti-Hijra campaign across the subcontinent with following laws being enacted: punishing the practices of the Hijra community, and outlawing castration (something many Hijra did to themselves). Though, it should be noted many of the laws were rarely enforced by local Indian officials/officers. But, the British made a point to further the laws against them by later adding the Criminal Tribes Act in 1871, which targeted the Hijra community along with the other nomadic Indian tribes - it subjected them to registration, tracking/monitoring, stripping them of children, and their ability to sequester themselves in their nomadic lifestyle away from the British Colonial Rule.

Today, things have changed and Hijras are being seen once again in a more positive light (though not always and this is something Monkey Man balances by what's happened to the community in a few scenes, and the heroic return/scene with Dev and his warriors). All-hijra communities exist and sort of mirror the western concept of "found families" where they are safe haven/welcoming place trans folks and those identifying as intersex.

These communities also have their own secret language known as Hijra Farsi, which is loosely based on Hindi, but consists of a unique vocabulary of at least 1,000 words.

As noted above, in 2014, the trans community received more legal rights.

Specifically: In April 2014, Justice K. S. Radhakrishnan declared transgender to be the third gender in Indian law in National Legal Services Authority v. Union of India.

Hijras, Eunuchs, apart from binary gender, be treated as "third gender" for the purpose of safeguarding their rights under Part III of our Constitution and the laws made by the Parliament and the State Legislature. Transgender persons' right to decide their self-identified gender is also upheld and the Centre and State Governments are directed to grant legal recognition of their gender identity such as male, female or as third gender.

I've included some screenshots of (some, not all, and certainly not the only/definitive reads) books people can check out about SOME of the history. Not all again. This goes back ages and even our celestial beings/creatures have/do display gender non conforming ways.

There are also films that touch on Hijra history and life. But in regards to Monkey Man, which is what started this thread particularly and being asked to comment - it is a film that positively portrayed India's third sex and normalized it in its depiction. Kid the protagonist encounters a found family of Hijras at one point in the story (no spoilers for plot) and his interactions/acceptance, living with them is just normal. There's no explaining, justifying, anything to/for the audience. It simply is. And, it's a beautiful arc of the story of Kid finding himself in their care/company.

#read later #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

ok posting these actually :) i am practising varying up my body types a little and here is where i got w the dao smoochable companions

#MORRIGAN!!!!!! #dragon age #da zevran arainai #da morrigan #da alistair #da leliana #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

giovanni’s room, james baldwin

#quotes #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

Hungry dance

#animals #dogs #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

while i did a gifset to showcase an armour set, i was also intrigued by just how different the animation is for the wizard class vs gale's unique animation:

wizard class animation

gale's unique animation

it's amazing to see not only just how quickly gale performs the somatic component of the spell, but also his efficiency of movement compared to the standard wizard animation.

there's a world of difference here, the difference between a wizard vs a prodigy, an archwizard and chosen.

#things that target me: unique body language #bg3 #anbomiinous q

[ultimatecryptid]

When your partner has a praise kink but you're Montessori trained so you know that praise is an ineffective way to encourage development and it's much more productive to acknowledge their effort so that they learn to effectively give themselves feedback so they can develop a healthy intrinsic motivation instead of deriving their self worth from labels put on them by other people .... "baby it's amazing how much you could last today compared to last week"

#ODKEOODOEOODODKDOE #funny #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

so, I haven't spoken about this much lately, but

last year I completed a 4 year D&D campaign, which also happened to be my first time DMing, and I have been taking a little time off as I very badly needed a break afterward, but I'm starting to test the waters again and really internalizing how much work I accomplished

I had drawn up over 400 character tokens - here's some of the "main" ones (there were so many others for just, random NPCs, combat encounters, etc)

over 100 hand-drawn maps,

and 20 environment art pieces (I've posted some of these, before)

all this just to say... you know... I did a lot of work, and I am coming around to being proud of that

hopefully I'll be able to share new work from a new game, soon 💖

#art #an ominous 1

[ultimatecryptid]

Can I please have a cappuccino but with oat milk and a big pump of sugarfree chocolate syrup and... Lol I remember your stupid ass from 2,300 years ago. We were living in seleucis on the tigris river during the same span of summers... do you rememver a red ibis bird with beautiful plumes? Yeah U were a sort of dull brown goat that didn't train and dint make milk or kids. Yeah? No? Eventually the Zoroastrian homesteaders who owned you started feeding you contaminated barley to try and kill you lol. Maybe you remember the ergotism? Anyway. also I want one of these 🫵stupid little breads in the case

#funny #an omibous q

[ultimatecryptid]

The Hunger

#art #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

clothes

#art #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

Gallery illustration featured in Heavy Metal (Fall 1997), 20 Year Special. Art by Oscar Chichoni

#art #an ominous q

[ultimatecryptid]

#reAl #an ominous q