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afeelgoodblog · 11 months

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The Best News of Last Week - May 29, 2023

Rwanda’s life expectancy has increased by 20 years in the last 20 years

What did Rwanda change? Three developments stand out: low-cost community-based health insurance plans, national investments in rural health posts, and ramped-up foreign collaborations. In 2020, more than 90 percent of Rwanda’s people had some kind of health insurance. This stands out relative to other low-income countries, where on average 31 percent of people have health insurance.

2. Brandon School Division rejects call to remove library books on sexuality, gender identity

Loud cheers erupted inside a packed high school gymnasium after the Brandon School Division rejected a call to remove books dealing with sexuality and gender identity from libraries. Hundreds of people in Manitoba's second-largest city showed up for the marathon school division meeting, which ran into the early morning hours.

The trustees ultimately voted 6-1 to reject a proposal to create a committee of trustees and parents to review books available in division schools.

3. Lotto winner pledges to fund classrooms in his native Mali

Happiness for one lucky North Carolina resident comes not from newfound wealth from a lottery win, but using those winnings to help schoolchildren -- in this case, from Mali.

Souleymane Sana of North Carolina won $100,000 from a scratch-off ticket. Relocating to the United States from Mali -- a war-torn county in West Africa -- Sana is using his earnings to create a non-profit to help school kids from his hometown.

4. Mountain gorillas rebound thanks to Ugandan veterinarian

In 2018, as their population topped 1,000, they were removed from the critically endangered list and their status upgraded to just endangered. That positive step was due, in no small part, to Ugandan veterinarian Dr. Gladys Kalema-Zikusoka.

Her working home is Bwindi Impenetrable National Park, home to roughly half of the world's mountain gorillas. But early on she also realized that to help the animals and keep them free from disease and poaching, she needed to also help their human neighbours, launching successful initiatives to improve the health and well-being of the people living around the park.

5. Imports of ivory from hippos, orcas and walruses to be banned in UK

Ivory imports from hippopotamuses, orcas and walruses will be banned under new legislation to protect the endangered species from poaching.

The Ivory Act, passed in 2018, targeted materials from elephants, but a loophole meant that animals other than elephants, including hippos, were being targeted for their ivory.

6. Solar power due to overtake oil production investment for first time in 2023

Investment in clean energy will extend its lead over spending on fossil fuels in 2023, the International Energy Agency said on Thursday, with solar projects expected to outpace outlays on oil production for the first time.

Annual investment in renewable energy is up by nearly a quarter since 2021 compared to a 15% rise for fossil fuels, the Paris-based energy watchdog said in its World Energy Investment report.

7. Paralyzed man walks naturally, thanks to wireless ‘bridge’ between brain and spine

Gert-Jan Oskam lost the ability to walk in 2011 when he injured his spine in a cycling accident in China. Six years later, the Dutch man managed to take a few short steps thanks to a small array of electrodes implanted on top of his spinal cord that delivered nerve-stimulating pulses of electricity.

Today in Nature, an international team of researchers reports giving Oskam a better fix, a way to digitally bridge the communication gap between his brain and lower body. Brain waves signaling Oskam’s desire to walk travel from a device implanted in his skull to the spinal stimulator, rerouting the signal around the damaged tissue and delivering pulses of electricity to the spinal cord to facilitate the movement. Oskam can now walk more fluidly, navigate obstacles, and climb stairs.

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#best news of last week

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thehopefuljournalist · 8 months

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Am I a little bit late for some of you? I might be. But anyways. Here's what went right around the world this past week :)

Youth climate activists won a huge climate lawsuit

Sixteens youths (aged five to 22) from Montana, US, have emerged victorious after suing state officials for violating their right to a clean environment.

In their lawsuit, they argued that Montana's fossil fuel policies contributed to climate change, which harms their physical and mental health. Montana is a major coal producer, with large oil and gas reserves. The state has rebuffed these claims, saying that their emissions were insignificant on a global scale.

Judge Kathy Seely, in a 103-page ruling, set a legal precedent for young people’s rights to a safe climate by finding in their favour. “Every additional tonne of GHG [greenhouse gas] emissions exacerbates plaintiffs’ injuries and risks locking in irreversible climate injuries".

This win marks the very first time a US court has ruled against a government for a violation of constitutional rights based on climate change. It will now be up to Montana lawmakers to bring state policies in line.

“As fires rage in the west, fueled by fossil fuel pollution, today’s ruling in Montana is a gamechanger that marks a turning point in this generation’s efforts to save the planet from the devastating effects of human-caused climate chaos.” - Julia Olson, executive director of nonprofit law firm, Our Children’s Trust, which represented the youths in this case.

Number of Mexicans living in poverty fell by millions

Thanks to a new minimum wage boost and increases to pensions, the number of Mexicans living in poverty fell by 8.9 million between 2020-2022, according to new data published by the country’s social development agency, Coneval.

Coneval’s statistics suggest that the number of people living in extreme poverty also fell – from 10.8 million in 2020 to 9.1 million last year – although that figure is still up from a pre-Covid 8.7 million recorded in 2018.

There is still a long way to go, and some critics do claim that during the current president, López Obrador's presidency has been characterized by austerity.

An organised crime group trafficking endangered species has been jailed

The Wildlife Justice Commission (WJC), a small European wildlife charity, is apparently busting kingpins behind as much as half of the world's illegal trade in pangolin scales. The traffickers began six-year jail sentences a few weeks ago.

The wildlife charity went undercover to expose three Vietnamese and one Guinean national, members of an organised crime group trafficking body parts of endangered species including rhinos.

They were arrested in May 2022, following a four-year investigation by the WJC, and were accused of trafficking 7.1 tonnes of pangolin scales, as well as 850kg of ivory. Last month they pleaded guilty to smuggling and were jailed for six years.

All eight species of pangolin are listed as threatened animals, four critically endangered - they are protected by international law.

“There has not been a reported seizure of pangolin scales in Asia originating from Africa in more than 550 days,” said Steve Carmody, WJC’s director of programmes. “There is no clearer example of the importance of disrupting organised crime networks.”

AI gave conservationists a breakthrough

The use of AI-controlled microphones and cameras seems set to revolutionise

biodiversity monitoring in the UK following groundbreaking work by researchers at the Zoological Society of London (ZSL). They used the tech to record and analyse 3,000 hours of wildlife audio captured by monitors located near London railway lines.

The computers detected dozens of bird species, foxes, deer, bats and hedgehogs, and mapped their locations.

It’s hoped the innovation will help improve conservation and habitat management on Network Rail land.

This year is best ever for UK renewable energy installations

This years looks to be the best year so far for UK renewable energy installations, with record numbers of households fitting solar panels and heat pumps.

2023 marks the first time solar panel installations have topped an average of 20,000 a month, as homeowners look to harvest energy from the sun amid rising utility bills.

Read the full story here.

The UK’s Tree of the Year shortlist was revealed

The Woodland Trust has announced the shortlist for its annual celebration of some of the UK’s most treasured ancient trees, and for 2023 the spotlight is on the urban landscape.

“Ancient trees in towns and cities are vital for the health of nature, people and planet,” said the charity’s lead campaigner Naomi Tilley. “They give thousands of urban wildlife species essential life support, boost the UK’s biodiversity and bring countless health and wellbeing benefits to communities.”

Article published August 17, 2023

Thank you so much for reading! Let me know what interested you, and if there's any specific topic you'd like me to dig into, my DM's are always open :)

Much love!

#climate change #climate #hope #good news #more to come #climate emergency #news #climate justice #hopeful #positive news

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probablyasocialecologist · 10 months

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The main goal of degrowth can be best described as making the necessary transition to an environmentally-friendly and sustainable economy in a way that is smart, social, and democratic. Ecological economics, political economics, geography, biology, and political ecology are just some academic disciplines that contribute to the expanding body of knowledge that shapes the discipline of degrowth. Like Keynes and Friedman before them, degrowth economists are keen on not staying in some ivory tower but having a real impact on society. Supporters of the degrowth approach rely on the growing body of scientific evidence suggesting that continued economic growth dependency leads to gradual collective destruction and impoverishment through the detour of its environmental impact. Degrowth is in opposition to the idea of “green growth”. Green growth supporters promote environmental awareness and care for humanity but cling to the belief that growth and the damages caused by growth can be decoupled in a timely and sufficient manner. However, multiple studies in top academic journals, such as Nature and Science, have refuted this core assumption thoroughly. Since 2019, when the EEB published its groundbreaking and much-cited report titled “Decoupling Debunked”, the burden of proof concerning decoupling prospects arguably lies with green growthers. As explained in the “Decoupling Debunked” report, the economy’s carbon intensity should fall 100 times faster than now – an unrealistic number – for green growth to work. In turn, degrowth as a physical necessity is an inconvenient truth that frequently encounters populist resistance and disinformation. As long as we only add renewable energy and do not phase out fossil energy, our existential problem will continue to grow.

[...]

The best available scientific synthesis is increasingly pointing to degrowth as a necessity, from the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC) for the climate to the Intergovernmental Science-Policy Platform on Biodiversity and Ecosystem Services (IPBES) for biodiversity. A rapid reduction in the most harmful extraction and production is a scientifically proven prerequisite for achieving global sustainability, social justice, and well-being.

#degrowth #green growth #sustainability #decoupling

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a-dinosaur-a-day · 8 months

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All the "birds are dinosaurs" deniers got me thinking:

Is there a specific word to refer to dinosaurs as common non scientific perception defines them??? Like, everything I can think of is either too specific (ie 'jurassic period dinosaurs') or just. "Extinct/prehistorical dinosaurs" or something like that, and that's just... eh. "Extinct" is at least kinda funny because it includes ivory billed woodpeckers but not pileated woodpeckers lol

Sometimes when I speak about dinosaurs to friends and stuff (and what that one person who was like "I want to see a dinosaur and it makes me sad that I can't!" person was probably getting at) I want to specifically refer to the sorts of species that are old enough to be fossils, you know? Including the old avian dinosaurs! :)

Apologies if you've answered this sort of ask before! But since I don't know the word I cannot search your blog for it lol. Thank you in advance, I love seeing you on my dash and learning things!

so there's a few different things you could mean depending on the situation.

here's the thing:

what's a bird, to you?

if you want the smallest group you can pick, ie the clade that consists of all the birds of today and nothing else, then you mean

"non-neornithine dinosaur"

aka

dinosaurs that aren't in Neornithes, which is that smallest possible group

so if you want to say "nonavian dinosaur" (aka, a dinosaur that isn't a "bird") you have to know what you're saying

bc there is also "nonavialan dinosaur", that is often just "nonavian dinosaur", aka the group of dinosaurs that have traditionally been considered as such exclusive of things that sometimes got put with birds instead

aka it includes Velociraptor but not Archaeopteryx

but the difference between the two is honestly miniscule at this point and things jump around a lot. many scientists do not think that's how we should define bird versus "classical dinosaur"

hence non-neornithine, aka neornithes being just the dinosaurs that survived the end-cretaceous extinction (most likely don't worry about it) and into the cenozoic, and non-neornithine dinosaurs being all that went extinct

being the most exact term for what you're looking for

you also could just go simple and do "classical dinosaurs"

but most often you'll see "nonavian dinosaur" which usually means, in practical parlance, non-neornithine dinosaur, or maybe non-avialan. sometimes non-pygostylian if they want to be contrarian, even non-maniraptor(iform?) if they want to be hipster

it's a fun time

what is a bird, indeed

#bird political spectrum #birds #dinosaurs #birds are dinosaurs #what are dinosaurs #what are birds

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specialagentartemis · 9 months

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#wait is there something wrong with the history hates lovers song? I read the linked post and now I'm worried D: (via @gardenofarson)

I thought I explained pretty straightforwardly in the linked post why I hate the "History Hates Lovers" song: It takes the explicit stance that you, ordinary citizen of the world with no special training, are actually smarter than the experts by virtue of being gay. It assumes that historians are all old ivory-tower eggheads and homophobic clueless idiots and only they, youtube user Oublaire, know the REAL truth. It's smugly anti-intellectual in a meme way, rather than historically curious in any serious way. "Too afraid to call it what it is / It doesn't take a scholar to understand this" like oh Come On.

Other reasons I hate it:

"Who's gonna tell us the stories, that our textbooks don't?" Gosh I don't know, maybe Actual Historians? Believe it or not, "writing high school history textbooks" is not the sum total of what historians do. There are so many books about queer history written by queer historians out there. Aside from narratives about Stonewall, AIDS, and various worldwide rights movements in the 20th century, of which there are Lots, how about any of these books or these ones or these or this book about Sappho or these biographies of Oscar Wilde or this study of homosexuality in Ancient Greece - by a historian from the 1970s! Wow!!! Maybe historians have been thinking about this for a While! - and all the various articles written by academic historians about homosexuality in history. Untangling histories that were either treated as derogatory, hidden in shame, or ignored is important... and people are doing it. This is such a dismissal of the work that a lot of historians - especially queer historians - are doing these days!

Have you (Oublaire) ever read a biography. Even once. Historians and biographers LOVE to speculate about historical figures' sexualities. You can't get away from it. Especially when someone never married, biographers and writers looooove to speculate about the love affairs and heartbreaks they must have been having. Gay or straight. History loves lovers to the point where it's hard to find a discussion of a perpetual-bachelor-or-spinster figure that doesn't dip into trying to imagine them as Being A Lover. Yes I'm vaguing at American Bloomsbury's treatment of Thoreau (and Margaret Fuller, who she soooo wanted to be having torrid romances with both Hawthorne and Emerson) and The Fossil Hunter's insistence on imagining Mary Anning as secretly being in love with her male friend despite no evidence of this.

The haughty amatonormativity. "'Just friends' don't live like that / They don't look at each other / With love in their eyes" Deeply sorry to all Oublaire's supposed friends for learning via this song that Oublaire doesn't care about their friends, I Guess. The assumption that anyone who cares about each other has to be In Love. Fuck off.

"How many decades of hiding? Twenty-one centuries of hate Some things may not've been okay back then But it's sure all right today" This is what proves that Oublaire doesn't actually care about history. Back when? Are they implying that homophobia was invented with the birth of Christ? Was history just the same for 2,100 years, until a switch flipped in the 21st cenntury and now everyone is chill with gay people? What a narrow-sighted reduction! "It's a rhetorical flourish" well I hate it anyway. Get better rhetorical flourishes.

People who really like the song keep applying it to Achilles and Patroclus, who are, notably, fictional characters, and not historical figures.

The scansion and rhymes are terrible.

#history and the world #misinformation

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raytm · 20 days

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AS THE PLANETS.

BOLD always applies. italics sometimes apply / are verse dependent. strikethrough never applies.

viii. 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍. traditional. overbearing energy. a sculptor of reality. this existence is a karmic one. has a heart ; it’s just way down deep. law, order, & justice. avoid all necessary risk. the sound of shackles clanging. sisyphus’ struggle. grappling with the reality of time. self—governing. ix. 𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐒. psychedelic funk music. overflowing cups. a rebellion with skin. looking good in photo id. oblivious but caring. middle fingers in the air. double rainbows. icy diamond exterior. holographic. afraid of their own mediocrity. pearlescent smoke. x. 𝐍𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐄. an elegy for the lost. dissolving boundaries. white horses. the burden of mystical conditions. deceptive. escapism is their reality. a polarizing entity. artist’s soul. paranoia. searching for the unseen. a siren’s swan song. xi. 𝐏𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐎. angel statues over graves. power. the cycle of necrosis. transformative. unfathomable depths. an ivory tower toppling over. screaming at the sky. violets & irises. eclipsed darkness. speaks with their shadow. sex, death, rebirth.

tagged by: stolen ! tagging: steal it from me !

#the way my pc frozed 10000 times while trying to small font this jesus.#⋆⁺₊❅. 𝐺𝐸𝑃𝐴𝑅𝐷 𝐿𝐴𝑁𝐷𝐴𝑈. › 𝐬𝐭𝐮𝐝𝐲.#long post /

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starsburned · 21 days

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AS THE PLANETS.

BOLD always applies. italics sometimes apply / are verse dependent. strikethrough never applies.

i. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐒𝐔𝐍. egotistical. melted wax wings & fingers. stretching sunburned skin. the most generous soul. blood in the fruit. halos. anger on fire. high vitality. thunderous laughter. is pride really a sin? halogenic aura. ii. 𝐌𝐄𝐑𝐂𝐔𝐑𝐘. expansion of the mind. silver—tongued. an everlasting wanderer. polyglot. high dexterity. handwritten letters. innately critical. en vogue. eyes in the trees. hidden libraries. there’s always room for improvement. iii. 𝐕𝐄𝐍𝐔𝐒. in love with strangers. iridescent waters. love potions for your mirror. selfless devotion. shattering crystal. seafoam upon sand. the golden ratio. drowning in your own passion. material value & high principles. luring. plush lips. iv. 𝐄𝐀𝐑𝐓𝐇. fresh springs. tree hugger. we can start again tomorrow. a blazing rainforest. respects survival of the fittest. nature’s adversity. lazy bones. constantly evolving. flowers sprouting from wounds. a granite altar. fossilized remains. v. 𝐓𝐇𝐄 𝐌𝐎𝐎𝐍. illusory. silver shimmer off the ocean. secrets & gossip. cycles of reincarnation. a crybaby. physically ethereal. shared glances with a stranger. cat eyes. mistrusting their intuition. fear is a prison. ornate magic wands. vi. 𝐌𝐀𝐑𝐒. healthy competition. attraction & repulsion. magma & rubies. a blade being forged. wrath, wrath, wrath. malefic. intense eye contact. cannon fodder & fireworks. blood floods. copper taste on your tongue. vii. 𝐉𝐔𝐏𝐈𝐓𝐄𝐑. red robes & a suit of armor. beacon of stability. leader by birth. thunderbolts & lightning. guilty but can’t stop. secret rich kid. golden touch, golden tears. innate optimist. failure isn’t an option. constantly reaching for more. unfinished symphonies. viii. 𝐒𝐀𝐓𝐔𝐑𝐍. traditional. overbearing energy. a sculptor of reality. this existence is a karmic one. has a heart ; it’s just way down deep. law, order, & justice. avoid all necessary risk. the sound of shackles clanging. sisyphus’ struggle. grappling with the reality of time. self—governing. ix. 𝐔𝐑𝐀𝐍𝐔𝐒. psychedelic funk music. overflowing cups. a rebellion with skin. looking good in photo id. oblivious but caring. middle fingers in the air. double rainbows. icy diamond exterior. holographic. afraid of their own mediocrity. pearlescent smoke. x. 𝐍𝐄𝐏𝐓𝐔𝐍𝐄. an elegy for the lost. dissolving boundaries. white horses. the burden of mystical conditions. deceptive. escapism is their reality. a polarizing entity. artist’s soul. paranoia. searching for the unseen. a siren’s swan song. xi. 𝐏𝐋𝐔𝐓𝐎. angel statues over graves. power. the cycle of necrosis. transformative. unfathomable depths. an ivory tower toppling over. screaming at the sky. violets & irises. eclipsed darkness. speaks with their shadow. sex, death, rebirth.

tagged by: i stole it from one of my older blogs so nyeh tagging: @frost-eyed-autumn, @lunargifted, @theircurse, @memoryextrction, @cursedlane, @cherrygardn, & anyone else that wants to tbh

#| MUSE ★ OSAMU DAZAI.#| HEADCANON ★ OSAMU DAZAI.

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justmemethings · 1 year

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Disclaimer ! I'm not the original creator of these fill-up memes. I simply collected them from the search section / dash. The credit goes to the original source (which unfortunately I haven't been able to track down.

Your OC as the solar system

RULES: bold what applies - italicize sometimes - strike out never. Tag some friends to play along! Repost, don’t reblog !

SUN • egotistical • melted wax wings and fingers • stretching sunburnt skin • the most generous soul • blood in the fruit • halos • anger on fire • high vitality • thunderous laughter • is pride really a sin? • halogenic aura

MERCURY • expansion of the mind • silver-tongued • an everlasting wanderer • polyglot • high dexterity • handwritten letters • innately critical • en vogue • eyes in the trees • hidden libraries • there’s always room for improvement

VENUS • in love with strangers • iridescent waters • love potions for your mirror • selfless devotion • shattering crystal • seafoam upon sand • the golden ratio • drowning in your own passion • material value & high principles • luring • plush lips

EARTH • fresh springs • tree hugger • we can start again tomorrow • a blazing rainforest • respects survival of the fittest • nature’s adversity • lazy bones • constantly evolving • flowers sprouting from wounds • a granite altar • fossilized remains

MOON • illusory • silver shimmer off the ocean • secrets and gossip • cycles of reincarnation • a crybaby • physically ethereal • shared glances with a stranger • cat eyes • mistrusting their intuition • fear is a prison • ornate magic wands

MARS • healthy competition • attraction and repulsion • magma and rubies • a blade being forged • wrath wrath wrath • malefic • intense eye contact • cannon fodder & fireworks • blood floods • copper taste on your tongue

JUPITER • red robes and a suit of armor • beacon of stability • leader by birth • thunderbolts and lightning • guilty but can’t stop • secret rich kid • golden touch golden tears • innate optimist • failure isn’t an option • constantly reaching for more • unfinished symphonies

SATURN • traditional • overbearing energy • a sculptor of reality • this existence is a karmic one • has a heart it’s just.. way down deep • law, order & justice • avoid all necessary risk • the sound of shackles clanging • sisyphus’ struggle • grappling with the reality of time • self-governing

URANUS • psychedelic funk music • overflowing cups • a rebellion with skin • looking good in photo id • oblivious but caring • middle fingers in the air • double rainbows • icy diamond exterior • holographic • afraid of their own mediocrity • pearlescent smoke

NEPTUNE • an elegy for the lost • dissolving boundaries • white horses • the burden of mystical conditions • deceptive • escapism is their reality • a polarizing entity • artists soul • paranoia • searching for the unseen • a siren’s swan song

PLUTO • angel statues over graves • power • the cycle of necrosis • transformative • unfathomable depths • an ivory tower toppling over • screaming at the sky • violets and irises • eclipsed darkness • speaks with their shadow • sex, death, rebirth

tagged by: tagging:

#rp meme #roleplay meme #fill in memes #oc meme #hc meme #aesthetic meme #dash games #rp memes #headcanon memes

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dailyadventureprompts · 2 years

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Plancescape: The Palace Moon

Hovering beyond the reach of mortals and beneath the notice of gods, this eerily tranquil wasteland awaits those who would explore its mysteries and discover the fate of a vanished pantheon.

Gods die, this is known, as their fossilized bodies are sometimes found floating in the astral sea or interred in great monuments hidden throughout the cosmos. Sometimes they are slain by other gods, or die as part of their own mythology, or shift and reoccur as new deities as the people who they are pledged to go through ideological changes.

This does not explain the absence of the gods that built the palace moon, a demiplane hanging just outside the material realm in much the same way that a regular moon might orbit a celestial body. In its time it was a hanging garden, a lush green paradise where one might lounge in mountain sized castles and observe the goings on of the material plane, basking in riches and radiance and all the splendor their divine might could conjure. Today the moon is a dust-riven wasteland, with its halls and city sized gardens smothered under colorless particulate with those remaining edifices exposed to the air slowly being worn away by time. It is a land ripe for exploration, as the relics of divinity lay scattered among the towering pagodas and basilicas covered with petrified ivory, amounting to not only the treasures of unknown gods but to the flotsam of various celestial courts and clergies born to serve the now absent divinities. It is for this reason that both scholars and terrible warlords choose to make the Palace moon their home, sifting through the rubble of the dead world in the hopes of finding some fossilized trace of the ineffable.

Hooks:

The a powerful druid who’s influence once kept the region stable has gone missing investigating strange omens from a set of ancient megaliths contained within the foundations of an overgrown temple. As tensions between the region’s factions escalate, those who would seek peace reach out to the party to find her and bring her back. After delving the dangerous ruins (and having to overcome some of the druid’s on defenses along with the local critters) they discover her journal. In attempting to stabilize the ruin, the druid activated some kind of portal and pulled something through, after which the party can deduce that whatever it is she summoned dragged her back with it before the portal closed. Their only hope of rescuing the peacekeeper is to retrace her steps, activate the portal and plunge through themselves, surviving the lunar wasteland and get her back, all before war breaks out at home.

In the light of the full moon, the silver inlaid skull of a particular aasimar possesses the power to teleport those holding it to a graveyard on the moon, the spirit of it’s departed owner desperate to return to the land from which it was banished. A fortune hunting thief has purchased this skull from an occultist, and has been using it to loot the graves of the celestial court and turn a tidy profit. The players might find a few of these objects in the local magic shops, with a chance to trace them back to their source.

Seeking visions of the divine, a group of mystics cast their mind out to the aether and were cursed with visions of the lunar tomb palace. Extracting from this foreboding omen that the true gods of their world were dead, and all others were merely invading presences, they set about forming a heretical order and stirring up no end of trouble, even after their deaths. These followers of the Lunatic’s Canto can be responsible for all manner of blasphemous crimes across the realm, eventually drawing the party into one of their moon mad rituals the way that cultist are wont to do.

Further Adventures:

It’s up to you whether the palace moon is one of the ACTUAL moons of your campaign world, or whether it exists in a parallel space to one of those satellites, the way olympus as unreachable home of the gods existed parallel to the quite scalable mountain in the Grecian countryside. If it’s the latter, then the Palace Moon may only be accessible by specialized rituals and at particular times of the year, then the palace is accessible to anyone with a strong enough teleport spell, making it a great “ staring you in the face since level 1″ twist to where the villian has their lair.

Not to play into the old “ That Wizard came from the Moon” meme, but the moon really is an underexploited place for weird monsters to come from, ranging from old classics like mooncalf , or stranger aberrations that have taken up residence on the moon’s marble halls (thanks @thirdtofifth and @dm-tuz). Let your party enjoy a bit of flash-gordon weirdness, you know you want to! Plus it’s also a good home for angels and other godly beings to hang out that’s not so distant as the afterlife.

The vanished pantheon of the Palace moon is a great way to explain “ Silent gods” in your campaign world, regions that are cut off from the divine while others are in communion with their gods and have a LOT to say about that fact. Likewise, a partymember with Aasimar heritage may be descended from one of the celestial courts that dwelt on the palace moon, escaping to the world below after their masters left.

#dnd #dungeons and dragons #adventure #5e homebrew #homebrew adventure #The Palace Moon #planescape #mid level #low level #Cultists #Occult #lunar #thief #treasure #dungeon #rescue mission #high level #celestial

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mostly-mundane-atla · 2 years

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Hi! What kind of goods, do you think, Water Tribes are likely to export and import? North and South comic tried to make a story of oil discovery at the South Pole, but I hope they are not going to end up an oil-export based economy. Would they export furs? I am pretty sure rich folk in FN and EK would want the furs, but is it something Water Tribes be willing to do? Would they export ice (or waterbending services?) And what would they import, not just as luxury items, but as a staple?

Ooh, this is an interesting one.

Ice as an export makes a lot of sense. Everyone wants to keep food cold to slow down spoilage, and chilling food as a means to prep it allows for all kinds of methods. I'm sure waterbenders would make quick work of cutting ice into pieces and keeping it frozen throughout the shipping process and perhaps even installing the ice into cellars for customers.

Furs as they are, i'm not so sure about, as the qualities that make polar furs great clothes for polar regions can make them difficult to handle outside of those regions. My mom's rabbit skin parka can only be worn at -30°F or colder, otherwise, it's uncomfortably warm, and that's taking the stitching being worn out in places into consideration. Fur scraps to use as trim could be a good market. Baleen would be a hot commodity in a pre-plastic world. It can't be melted and poured into a mold like plastic, but it is a waterproof, sturdy material with plenty of give and with enough time and applied heat, will mold to the shape you bend it into. (For those unfamiliar with the details of corsetry: this is why baleen was used for corset bones. Not only did they offer sturdy, yet not brittle or shatter-prone support, but the baleen sewn into the corset would mold to the wearer's body due to their body heat, providing a custom fit once it was broken into or "seasoned.") Ivory, both fresh and fossilized, is easily carved, smooth to the touch, and has an elegant look. With any number of uses and the difficulty of obtaining it (fossilized ivory especially can only really be obtained through luck because it washes up in tidal pools after something someone dropped ages in the water), i imgine artisans of the Earth Kingdom and Fire Nation would pay a lot for it.

Traditional art is another possible market, and craftsmanship has always been a means to bring in other resources irl, even before circumpolar peoples were pulled into a cash economy. To this day, a lot of money is found in selling traditional art of traditional material, including ivory, baleen, bone, antler, fur and skin, intestine, shell, sinew, nephrite jade, soapstone, grass, and driftwood. This art could come in the form of jewellery, sculptures and figurines, scrimshaw, miniature models of things like boats or dance masks, slippers, spoons, tobacco pipes, waterproof garments and wrappings of intestine and specialized sinew stitching, baskets, boxes, hairpins, traditional toys and more. People generally like to fill their homes with beautiful things, and expensive ones if they have the money for it. One can easily imagine nobility or even royalty spending a pretty penny commissioning, say, baleen scrimshaw illustrations of classical literary works for a library well-decorated with unique art from around the world and none of it captures darkness and light quite the same, or a matching necklace and earrings set of nephrite and shell beads to gift a beloved wife because no other material quite compares to the light in her eyes, or a likeness in memory of a father known for his strength and tenacity carved in ivory; a material so dangerous to come by, it takes at least four men to harvest a body that yeilds two pieces.

If they have oil, they might also have gold, but i don't think that's really all that much better in terms of exploiting indigenous peoples and damaging the environment and local ecosystems.

For services, i've mentioned before ways waterbenders fleeing the Fire Nation's genocidal raids in the south pole might make a living in the Earth Kingdom without giving away that they're waterbenders. I said stonecutting (carrying grit in the water makes it even easier) and drying grain for farmers (typically dried laying it out in the sun, if not done thoroughly enough you get mold). I could also see dehydrating fruit and veggies and mushrooms to keep them perserved getting an income, as well as laundry services. Canonically the best healers in the world are women from the north pole. Waterbending aids them in spiritual healing and perhaps physical healing as well, given that so much of wellness involves keeping body fluids where they need to be. One could charge a heavy fee for those skills and services.

A word about luxury imports vs imported houshold staples; what falls into which cattegory is subject to change as it's entirely based on how affordable and available various items are. For example, is something as ubiquitous and notable an aspect of the universe as tea affordable for all social classes? What about sugar? Foreign spices? Candles? Paper and ink? For simplicity's sake, I'll be going off of what is canonically or easily assumed to be available and frequently used in-universe as well as items imported into Native villages irl.

Rice is an easy starch to eat and store. I can easily see it used to suppliment a water tribe diet. Tea could be helpful for its caffeine, though it is not necessary especially if we assume they have fireweed to process into ivan chai which has B vitamins which also give's one energy.

With vegetables, buying them is a lot easier than buying soil, keeping it warm, and growing what they can. Potatoes are always a good idea, being a hearty starch with a lot of nutrients. Onions and garlic are quite flavorful. Fruit could also supplement nutrients that are hard to come by in such a meat-heavy and low-fiber diet. They preserve well dried or in jam and their sweetness makes them easier for children to eat. Dairy and soy products would be helpful with calcium deficiencies. Given their infamous fickleness, however, i think fresh fruits and dairy would be considered higher end items to be used up quickly before they spoil.

My heart wants them to have pilot bread/hardtack since unlike the other starches mentioned, it requires no prep to eat, and if it's packaged in a long, dark blue box with a sailor on it, so much the better. Vinegar and sugar are both flavorful and allow for more preservation techniques than freezing and fermenting alone, and so would be optimal to have. Whether or not they would buy up yeast and flower depends on if you think the Water Tribes would incorporate bread into their cultures, which i'm all for but some may think unnecessary. I don't think alcohol would serve any purpose but for sterilization, and if i'm honest, Water Tribesmen drinking gets a little too close to racist jokes for me to recommend writing no questions asked. Ginger and black pepper would probably be the most favored spices due to how compatible they would be to the flavor profiles of local foods, but other spices might also be common too.

Paper for ink and ink for paper would be a good investment for letterwriting and ordering specific goods rather than hoping a merchant will offer them. Theoricically, parchment and ink could be made domestically of skins and soot, respectively, but I'm not sure if that would be the more efficient use of resources or if imported paper and ink would be preferable.

When irl circumpolar people assimilated, the textile industry favored cotton, and so sturdy and often printed cottons were the defualt fabric brought into the villages. Without the circumstances leading to that (cotton plantations run on brutal slave labor and specific technological advancements that made it much easier to process) i think the fabic of choice would be linen. Linen is a much more low-maintinence and fiber to produce and its low elasticity makes it very durable. The antimicrobial properties make it a no brainer for medical uses (bandages, patient bedding, healer's smocks, just for a few examples) and the moisture wicking and cooling qualities would make it very attractive to a wife tending her oil lamp in a house that prioritizes insulation over ventilation or a hardworking hunter sweating into thick furs. Wool, with the way it insulates even when wet, might also be considered a good enough investment to import. Whether or not they have any sort of way to raise fiber domestically (some kind of fantasy musk-oxen, perhaps) is up for interpretation as canon doesn't seem to suggest one way or the other.

As far as for building and housewares: lumber and metal goods. Pots used by the irl Inupiat were typically carved of wood and water was boiled in them with hot stones rather than placing them over fire, ulu blades were traditionally sharpened slate, and arrowheads were shaped of bone or antler. Even scrap iron and steel can be repurposed for tools and art, making a good resource to have and probably a good deal for both sides of the trade. Wood was used irl, not always as the main building material, but almost always as a frame and typically for flooring. Storage caches were also typically wood as well as the stilt houses of King Island. Often the main source was driftwood as the environment and wildlife dependant lifestyle of the Inupiat made growing trees for lumber at such a scale close to impossible. A supply of well-treated, sturdy lumber would be good to have and use. If any of this was taken into consideration when Jianzhu was asking for a loan to get lumber to the Southern Water Tribe in Rise of Kyoshi, then it would come off a lot less like "the poor savages need our advanced wood boat technology" and more genuinely altruistic.

#response #eskimo on main #water tribe #atla headcanons #asks that make you pop your knuckles and say *alright let's get down to it*

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