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caparrucia · 6 months

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would Zhongli lay eggs if he had offspring?

If you mean in general and you're into it? Fuck it, sure. Why not. He's a fictional character and he exists purely for your entertainment. And if you have fic recs about it, sure, go nuts and share. I survived the Homestuck fandom, I'm always of the "Yeah, sure, why not?" persuasion when it comes to characters doing unusual things for sex and reproduction.

Have fun!

If you mean specifically the Zhongli I'm writing in this fic, the answer is no for two reasons, one of which is hysterical and the other an indictment of how much of a theology nerd I still am. To wit:

Number one (the funny one): He's not a dragon, my dude. He's a furry. A scaley even, might be the right terminology, I think? Furry friends, correct me if I'm wrong. Anyway, he made himself a dragon fursuit. Explicitly in the text. That's what the exuvia was. A very emotionally significant and symbolically charged dragon fursuit, but still a fursuit. He's not a dragon ascended into godhood, he's a god who showed himself in dragon form to humans. His true form is his humanoid form that matches the Statues of the Seven and the form he shows in, in most cutscenes about his past: black arms with geo veins in them and the most logic defying hoodie. The hoodie is actually the main reason I chose to make that his true form: he has a cutout for his fucking ponytail, if he had horns or any kind of interesting dragon features, you bet this dramatic moron would have designed the world's most impossible hood to both show them off and still work as a hood somehow.

Number two (the nerdy one): He's a god! Gods do not have the need to reproduce sexually at all, because they don't make more of themselves that way. (They can, however, make more of themselves, we've seen that, with Nahida and Focalors, but neither of those was sexual and neither of those was the same method.) It's an instinct they directly lack. That's not to say gods don't have sex or don't understand the concept of sex, or more egregiously that they don't understand the concept of romance and love. They do, to different degrees depending on the individual and their relationship with humans and other creatures who DO have sexual urges baked right into their cultures. I would put most of the Gods in Teyvat somewhere in the ace spectrum (except Venti, because it's Venti) but that's mostly a shorthand to explain that sex is not a thing that drives most of their relationships. It's also a fun excuse for them to get really freaky about sex, in general, because sex is completely divorced from reproduction, so if they're having sex at all, they're 100% doing it for fun. And if you've ever hung around the kink community, you'll know that's the environment that produces the weirdest fucking shit imaginable that ends up rewiring your brain in the process. It's great.

There's two kinds of gods in canon, and I've extrapolated from that both in this fic and the other fic that take place in the same shared verse. The first kind is gods who are born as gods, they did not ascend, they just... one day existed and they were the gods of the thing they are gods of. They are created from the faith and prayers of the people in the things they eventually become gods of. Zhongli is this type of god. Then, there's also gods who attained godhood: people and creatures who are not gods, who then, through their actions and the faith of people in them, turn into gods. Venti is the prime example.

I'm sure this distinction will at no point come back to bite anyone, ever, across the entire ficverse. /s

Like, if we're talking broad strokes, the main flaw with Zhongli is that he doesn't understand his own nature. Like the main driver for him, as a character, is that he's perpetually isolated from people. He's lonely. But he's always been the strongest god, the most powerful one, the one people treat with reverence and respect and therefore put massive walls and ritual and distance between him and them. He doesn't really have friends, besides Venti, because the people who know who he is venerate him to some degree (the Adepti, etc.) and the people who don't know who he is, he doesn't consider friends because it feels... fake, in a way. They're not friends with him, the real him, they're friends with the version of him they made up and isn't actually him.

The punchline is that every attempt Zhongli has made to close the gap between himself and others has instead widened it, up to and including changing the thing he's god of: he's the god of contracts, but that's not the thing he was born as, he was originally the god of the mountain: the largest one in Liyue, the one that loomed over everything and everyone worshiped at least a little. So when the loneliness gets to him and he comes down to the mountain to connect with people, he invents the concept of contracts to regulate their interactions, but that just means his powers just grow as people adopt the concept of contracts and their faith in him grows substantially. In the fic he's the one who illuminates the illuminated beasts: he takes what's essentially Guizhong's pet talking animal companions and raises them almost to godhood by giving up part of his power to them, turning them into Adepti. This was made in an attempt to create more of himself and simultaneously diminish himself back so they would all be equals. But it doesn't work, because the Adepti immediately turn around and worship him for it, swearing their power and their loyalty to him, which makes his power grow exponentially from that, so the companions he tried to make, the circle of friends he tried to build, turn instead into more worshipers that increase his power and treat him with respect and deference because they owe their existence to him. You can see how the Adepti - and the Yaksha - have really close bonds of friendship and affection with each other (and with Guizhong!) but when it comes to Zhongli, he's kept at arms length, mostly out of respect and reverence. He's always there as a figure of authority, a mediator, a leader, etc.

He's only ever met two people in the entirety of his life that have known he is a god, and moreover which god he is, and haven't worshiped him, even a little: Guizhong and Childe.

He hasn't, however, made that connection yet.

Expect it to hit him like a freight train when it does, it'll be fun.

I give you all that meandering ramble to say: Zhongli has issues with power structures and sex has never really existed outside that power structure for him. He's also still not understanding what kind of relationship Childe wants with him, and in his own dipshit moment, he just assumed it was sex: which is why they're not having sex right now. Childe is so offended at the idea that he refuses to engage, which means he's in a hell of his own making, because... I mean. LOOK at them. Zhongli hasn't been human long enough to fully appreciate the state of horny, but he will eventually be very, very confused because he's never been horny in his life. But let the man master the basics of hunger and sleep, before he gets on the advanced curriculum of "so you wanted to be a human and you fucked it up spectacularly."

In 100K-150K words, when they get their respective heads out of their respective asses about a fuckton of things and sex is actually a thing they're doing? Oh yeah. No. They're gonna get up to impressively kinky shit. It'll be fun.

#rie answers #Anonymous

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rev3rb · 1 year

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Hiya! This chapter definitely intrigued me with the design and purpose of the city. Idk how exactly this fits in with current events, but I’m definitely interested in how we went from a well-populated angel civilization with ice cream to just The First doing his mad scientist experiments all alone. Especially since it seems like he’s at the top of the angel hierarchy. I really wish we could get his pov that way he could just tell the audience straight up lmao.

The introduction of the Tower of Babel is really catching my attention. God knows I have extremely limited knowledge on Christian theology, but if the name is not just for shits and giggles, I wonder why it seems like the angels were successful in returning to the heavens. If Irc, the tower being struck down leads to different languages amongst humans. So maybe in this case, it’ll lead to different species of the present??

Idk but I’m really curious to hear what you think about all of this.

Okay! I finally got around to the chapter! Thank you so much for your patience.

So... I'm not entirely sure how to feel about this chapter. We got a little progress so I'm happy about that, but again it felt like a lot of the chapter space was taken up with rehashing the same interactions we've been seeing. Character interactions are nice, and with being a monthly manga, you have the luxury of panel space for them, but it just feels like the last... 5? chapters have had an abundance of them. Still though... we got progress so I'm not really upset with the chapter or anything.

Anywho, yeah! The city was interesting. I actually wish that if we weren't going to get a ton of progress this chapter that we would have at least gotten a better feel for the city. We kinda just got "it's a city, it has ice cream, and there's a building called the Tower of Babel. That's nice, but none of that really gives me much of an impression of the city itself. ...That being said, I'm glad it wasn't just a chapter of exploring the city with no payoff so. You know, maybe I'm just being difficult LOL Quick side note, but sometimes I've wondered how OnS would be as a novel instead and this is one of those moments. In a novel, you can put a few lines of description of the city and let the reader fill in the details, but with a manga, what you see is kinda what you get? Not trying to bash Kagami or Yamamoto at all. It's just a feeling of 'we probably would have gotten a bit more about the city had this been a novel instead of a manga'. Word space in a novel is way less than panel space in a manga after all.

Given that the First is also seemingly revisiting his past memories, maybe we will get some of his perspective on things! I lean towards doubt on that, but I don't think it's impossible. Either way, I'm sure we'll get to see at least a little of what the First was up to back then soon... right? Right?? Lmao please don't make me wrong on this.

I'm in the same boat as you anon and know virtually nothing about Christian theology. When they said Tower of Babel, I just thought "that sure is a Christan thing I recognize the name of" and knew nothing else. Now that you say all that though, that does sound super familiar, so I probably knew that at some point? You bring up a good question though. Thinking back on the other imagery we've gotten, I think nods to Christian theology have been relatively loose, like the trumpets of the apocalypse, so maybe there will be a little bit of that involved? Like maybe the tower will end up falling in this memory and it will lead to humanity coming to exist? They don't seem to exist yet and that makes sense. Just had the thought of what if the Tower of Bable falling is what wiped out the dinosaurs? I think I'd cry laugh. Regardless, I am just as curious as you to see how the name will play into things if it does at all.

At the end of the day, I'd say the chapter was fine. Progress is slow but there's some progress, and the setting is interesting so far, so it's not like I'm not engaged. I just hope for more in the near future. The potential for some really interesting stuff is right there! I want the series to deliver.

#Owari no Seraph #OnS 124 #Anonysis asks #My posts #Sometimes I wonder if it's just me that's not as interested in the series anymore or what #I don't think it is because I get excited when it nears a chapter release date #but idk #I love Mika and Yuu but please have an interaction that is something other than 'you're kinda stupid' 'lmao yeah ig I am'#I'm begging you

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jarredlharris · 7 months

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Thoughts inspired by open discussions during a progressive Christian church service

Note: Nothing I say here should be taken as criticism of the people I'm discussing. I sincerely believe that these are well meaning people who do great things and are even doing their best to address some of the things I'm going to talk about. Instead, please see this as a discussion of some ideas and the complexities and difficulties involved in those ideas.

For about six months, I've been attending the online streams of a progressive Christian church's services when I get a chance. One might wonder why a witch that worships Freyja, but that's a question (and a fair one) for another post. But for now, I want to talk about something the head pastor of this church has been trying for the past couple Sundays. At the end of the past couple sermons, he's set aside time for people (including people attending online) to ask questions and share their own thoughts.

I think this is a wonderful idea, as it gives a chance for people to openly talk about their own doubts and struggles. It's especially helpful as a lot of the members of this church, like me, have come from a more conservative Christian background. In many ways, many in attendance are still trying to sort through what they used to believe and trying to understand how a form of Christianity that differs from what they originally learned might work and what it might look for. These discussions give them to verbalize that process and work it out in community with the encouragement of their pastor.

This past Sunday, one thing occurred to me, however. In some ways, it still felt like it was the "lay people" seeking answers from "the answer guy." And this got me thinking about just how hard it can be to get away from the tendency to seek out "experts" and "authorities" for answers.

The irony here is that the head pastor -- and I also say this in his defense -- isn't seeking to be the "authority" or an "expert." He often points out that there are different lines of thought on many of the things he talks about and tends to present his interpretation of things as just that: his interpretation. And he welcomes disagreement -- after all he welcomes comments and other peoples thoughts during this discussion in addition to questions.

I also think that it's natural, normal, and even understandable to seek out "experts" on various topics. After all, we are humans with a finite lifespan and a limited amount of free time. it simply isn't possible to learn everything about everything ourselves. We often have to rely on people who have dedicated more time to studying a particular topic than we have to help keep us informed. And in many ways, I think that's the real service that the head pastor is providing, as someone who has spent considerable time studying the Bible and learning theology.(1)

And yet, I couldn't help but notice this dynamic and wonder how the various people in attendance -- including myself -- have progressed in being our own authorities and having our own ideas. Ultimately, having ideas that are purely our own and uninfluenced by others is most likely impossible. I certainly don't think it's entirely desirable either, if I'm being honest. But I do hope that we're all considering the answers we get and thinking critically about them. And I hope we're listening to multiple answers (something I'm sure the head pastor at this church would promote as well). And hopefully as time goes on, we continue to find more answers for ourselves.

---

(1) One thing I'll note is that being the scholarly type, this pastor also tends to have what I might call "academic humility." This is a trait I've noticed among many historians and other scholars. They tend to present things as "how they understand things at this time" and are very open about the questions they still have. I first noticed it when Is tarted reading Hilda Davidson's books about Norse culture and mythology and it's pleasant to see it reflected in some Christian ministers as well.

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asklepiean · 3 years

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I'm a Christian and have just finished my MA in Christian theology. However I have a love and fascination with reconstructionist Roman polytheism (RRP) but coming from my background the theological landscape of RRP (and reconstructionist paganism generally) can seem a bit barren when compared with the expansive and living theological tradition of Christianity (I think this is a barrier for many Christians), have you ever felt like this and what would your advice be to get passed it?

One thing that I think not a lot of people understand is that we can't compare a religion that has 2000+ (and still going) years and millions of followers worldwide with one that gradually disappeared after more or less 1000 years of "popularity" in a small scrap of land.

We don't have theological sources because a) people already knew how it worked and thought that it wasn't necessary to write about it (it happened a lot, and it's probably why we don't have extensive records of rites and prayers), b) those works didn't survive the trial of time, c) they weren't found and/or transcribed during the Middle Ages and later, d) there were so many different approaches that writing about all of them was pretty useless, limiting or simply impossible (our sources were written by wealthy citizens, we miss all the beliefs and interpretations of "middle class" and poor people, both Roman/Italic and provincial).

There's another thing to consider: Christianity works differently from Religio. Christianity and its branches have specific sets of beliefs and dogmas that help to create new debates and encourage scholars and clergy to think about new ways of thinking about and describing the divine. On the other hand, three cultores could have three (or more) different interpretations plus what their household's religious traditions were plus what philosophical approach they choose to adopt (if they were into philosophy), etc.

There are a lot of factors to consider when we discuss what ancient theology was and how could it worked because ancient religion was a matter of orthopraxy and relied more on rites than on personal beliefs. Being a cultor means doing certain rites in a certain way, and while people probably believed in something it wasn't that vital to know it, share it, or discuss it in on a scholarly level to create a codified corpus - or at least this is what we understand looking at ancient sources.

I don't think it's necessary to have a theological conversation because honestly, I don't trust pagans when they talk about it. I have many, many issues with pagan authors and I have no trust in the majority of those who write about it online (me included, I'm not a reliable source for theological speculations). It requires a lot of knowledge to talk about this matter and it's not something you can do after a couple of years of worship. We lack a codified corpus of ideas, we're not even sure that some of our Gods existed outside of grammar treatises or Church Fathers' commentaries.

I don't think we can properly discuss our Gods because we lost so much info, but this doesn't mean that we can't discuss our personal cultus and how we are trying to understand again how the divine exists in our reality. The only problem is that Religion became popular after centuries of oblivion and we don't know how to do things properly because we went 0 to 100 in too little time, and it shows (this is valid for other polytheistic traditions too).

Sometimes is hard to practice a religion that gives you zero clues about what people thought and believed, what stories shared during festivals, and how intellectuals talked about the Gods, but it's refreshing - it forces you to think a lot about what we know thanks to archaeology, literary criticism, and the rare new historical records. I don't know if I have any advice other than this: study what we have and appreciate what the ancients have passed down. It's a blessing we can read about it.

And to be honest, I like Religio Romana because we don't have theology.

(I don't know if this post makes sense. Also, I was thinking about theology this morning, so thank you for asking)

#religio romana #cultus deorum #cultus deorum romanorum

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lets-get-fictional · 7 years

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hello! I'm really glad to find your blog because it helps me a lot to get through many things for my future project! I also wanna know if you maybe can help me, bcs the world of my project is just like our own Earth, but there are monsters and people who can control elements like air, fire, etc. I'm still confused on how to make the world seems realistic and relatable to the readers, I wonder if you can help me? and I'm not a native English speaker, sorry if there is any mistake. thank you!

Hello, love! Your English is great 👍 And thank you for following!

That sounds like a really cool universe :) I strongly relate to your struggle with relatability – I tend to make my worlds complex and a bit inaccessible to readers. And that’s the kind of problem that, when you look at it as a whole, feels pretty overwhelming. That’s why I break it down into three different areas…

The Three C’s of Relatable Stories

In general, there are three big parts of your story that you’ll need your characters to understand and, on some level, relate to. While your fictional universe should be unique and different from our real world – especially the more removed it is from real-life science and society – there should be a few common threads that your readers can see and think, “Oh, that’s just like real life!” Examine your story in the following three areas:

1. Culture

This is the topic I’ll discuss most, so I put it first. Your story’s culture is, for some readers (including myself), one of the most immersive and exciting aspects of your fictional universe. Everything that creates your society – architecture, art, history, education, food, fashion, sports, politics, religion, medicine, community, major moral beliefs and conflicts – will shape how your readers experience your story. Interesting fictional culture also promotes fanfiction, cosplay, and strong fandom ties that enable you to write sequels/spin-offs (J.K. Rowling is living off how strong her fictional culture was).

Because we want our cultures to be so unique and entertaining, though, many writers make the mistake of creating cultures too exotic or fantastical to reach readers. But there are certain “human” parts of culture that reappear no matter what universe you’re in, so make sure your story has at least a few of the following:

Games. Even wild animals, who have nothing to do with our society, play games with each other in real life – so unless fun and games are strictly outlawed in your universe, you should probably have some. Games aren’t necessarily going to mirror ours; after all, we have board games, card games, video games, arcade games, sports games, drinking games, and games that don’t require supplies (guessing games, tag, hide-and-seek, charades, I-Spy etc.). Different games are more appropriate for different ages – some are associated with certain genders, certain events, or certain environments. Develop some of your own games, and maybe use some that mimic real games (with different names, of course).

Food. Food isn’t just something we eat – it’s a culture. Food culture = answering questions like:

Where do people of [lower/middle/upper] classes eat?

What sort of events are tied to food? (e.g. Thanksgiving, harvest festivals, etc.)

Are there special foods or meals for special occasions?

What do children eat in schools?

How difficult is it to get organic ingredients?

What is weight culture like? In other words, are people viewed as more healthy when they eat more/less? What figure is considered normal or attractive? Do people diet?

Sports. No matter where you live on planet earth, there’s generally some kind of sports culture – some sports are more dominant in some places than others (think about the U.S.’s relationship to soccer vs. everywhere else). Some cultures use sports as a social activity for their kids, while others cultivate serious sports practice from childhood. Certain sports are environmentally more relevant to certain places (which is why Canadians are so damn good at the winter Olympics). Some sports are more violent than others – and each one has certain values: strength, speed, stamina, reflexes, agility, artistry, precision, rhythm, teamwork, or strategy. Assess your fictional region’s values and develop sports culture that mirror said values.

Politics. Every type of government comes with its own benefits, challenges, and conflicts. Issues of allocating funds, handling corruption, checks and balances, legal rulings, outdated laws, controversial leaders, foreign relations, taxes, inequality, nature conservation, church vs. state, overpopulation – many of these problems will likely exist in your universe, in some form or another. Pick and choose what political conflicts you’ll share with readers, and think about how they relate to and reflect in your fictional society.

Theology. Decide on the majority worldview/s (theism, deism, naturalism, nihilism, pantheism, new age, post-modernism, etc. – although these worldviews shouldn’t be mentioned by name in your work) of your universe. Read about these worldviews and how they shape society’s morals, legal system, government, interpersonal relationships, parenting, and environmentalism. Create characters who align with the majority, and characters who contrast with the majority – thus creating conflicts that are very familiar to us. This doesn’t mean your story has to become a religious or political commentary, of course! But these belief systems have effects on every aspect of life, including life-or-death situations, romantic entanglements, and day-to-day affairs like work, money, and school.

2. Characters

Arguably the most important aspect of relatability, your characters are the driving force of empathy and comfort for your readers. Although your characters will have some level of difference from real people (especially if your genre is fantasy/supernatural), there are a few common things that your characters should more than likely have:

Desires. Everyone everywhere has desires, both attainable and unattainable, that drive them through every action. There are large-scale desires – dream colleges, dream jobs, dream power, dream relationships – and small-scale desires – to help someone through a hard time, to make money, to eat right, to be a patient person – and even unknown desires – answers, fulfillment, guidance, the “right thing”, passion – all of which will exist in each character simultaneously. Decide what your character wants, and you’ve already got multiple platforms for relatability.

Weaknesses. Where there are desires, there are weaknesses that get in the way of those desires – and that’s usually the best way to find them. What gets in the way of what they want? Look at the Seven Deadly Sins; look at your own flaws, and the flaws that annoy you the most in others, and the flaws you don’t mind in others. If your character, for example, wants to become famous on Broadway… what makes it a challenge? Does she have social anxiety? Is she impatient? Does she struggle with her responsibilities? Does she struggle with internalized discrimination? What makes her dream personally, circumstantially, or socially unattainable?

Self-image. So they’ve got their desires, and the weaknesses that keep them from those desires, so the real question is: how do they see themselves? Do they focus on their failures or their successes? Do they see their dreams as attainable or impossible? Do they make steps to better themselves or do they feel comfortable with who they are now? Do they absorb other people’s opinions of them, or reject those opinions? Self-image is almost more relevant to a character’s story than their actual image, because this directs a lot of how they behave, how they struggle, and most importantly, how they narrate their own story.

Sins. Bad habits, conscious choices, past sins – the sins they don’t even know are sins – these things are the ultimate stuff of relatability. When someone reads your book and sees a character who shares their struggles, they won’t put the book down. Don’t be afraid to let your character do bad things. Don’t try to make them lovable angelic cinnamon rolls who do no harm. Let them do things that make your readers cringe because damn it, she’s yelling at the people she loves again – stop pushing them away! This will keep readers involved and allow them to feel your character’s failures as if they were their own.

Humor. Everybody’s got a sense of humor – even those dumbass middle school boys who joke about sexual experiences they’ve never had. Everyone has their own type of humor based on the kind of people they live with and the TV shows they watch and the experiences they’ve had. Writing humor, however, can feel less natural – because there’s this pressure to make everybody laugh. Don’t worry about that. Just give your characters their own senses of humor, and someone will find it relatable.

Love. Even villains have love to give. Every person, and therefore every character – from every background and every trauma and every bad relationship and bad childhood – has love in their heart, as cheesy as that sounds. They have love they want to give to people (sometimes a particular person) and love they want to receive, and different methods of expressing their love (see: The Five Love Languages) to others. They have love for themselves, too, and conditions on which they’ll treat themselves with love. Determine their potential for loving themselves, for loving others – both platonically and romantically – and for unconditional love. Then allow this to grow over the course of the story, and you’ll have a character arc everyone can appreciate.

3. Conflict

Here is a post I’ve written discussing 4/5 of the main types of conflict, which are:

Man vs. Man

Man vs. Nature

Man vs. Society

Man vs. Self

Man vs. Technology/Supernatural

The reason these categories of conflict are so popular is because they’re the same conflicts we face in day-to-day life. The fight over territory with your roommate = Man vs. Man. Trying to find your car in the rain = Man vs. Nature. Making the same New Year’s resolution for the third year in a row = Man vs. Self. So identify these conflicts in your story, both large-scale and small-scale. Both are important, but the personal conflicts – the ones that most affect your characters, like their resolutions or their roommate, or the killer beast that’s trying to eat them or the A.I. that’s taken control of their spaceship – will give your story stakes that, on their basest level, your readers will understand.

That’s my only real advice for you, since this is something I also struggle to manage – but I hope some of this makes sense for you and your story. If you have any further questions, hit me up and I’ll try to get back to you way sooner. Good luck!

If you need advice on general writing or fanfiction, you should maybe ask me!

#writing #writeblr #writing blog #writing tips #writing advice #my post #ask #corosays #conflict #characters #culture #relatability #planning #worldbuilding

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