#land of saints and scholars

[irishhistorynerd]

Céad Mhíle Fáilte agus Hello Friends

Welcome to my inaugural post here at @irishhistorynerd.

I thought, what better place to start this blog than with Ireland herself, and all of her other names. So indulge me as I show you all the etymology and meaning behind the wonderful names of Ireland.

Starting with the most known,

Ireland: Ireland is made of two parts, 'ire' and 'land.' Ire doesn't come from the english word ire, meaning anger, but the Irish name for the country being Éire (Air-ah). The last three letters were taken and land was added to the end, making Ireland.

But where does Éire come from? Well that'd be from the Old Irish word Ériu, the matron goddess of the land of Ireland.

Éirinn and Éireann are both grammatical forms of Éire.

Erin originates from Éirinn and is notable for being a common poetic way to refer to Ireland. They personified Ireland as a beautiful woman named Erin in their poetry and songs.

Hibernia is another name used for personifying Ireland. The name is the Latin word for Ireland. It comes from the Roman Historians's Tacitus' book 'Agricola.' While Hibernia isn't much used as a name for Ireland anymore, its compound form is more commonly used to mean Ireland or Irish, e.g. Hiberno-English means the Irish dialect of english.

The Emerlad Isle, a common epithet for Ireland, first shows up in print in the 1795 poem by William Drennan, 'When Erin First Rose.' It references the beautiful green fields of the Irish countryside.

The Land of Saints and Scholars is another common epithet. Which goes to show the magnitude of influence the catholic church had on ireland. One of the most famous saints in the world, Saint Patrick, is the patron saint of ireland and is mythologically responsible for converting a large nu,ber of people to catholicism and driving evil (the snakes) away from the land. Our scholars date back to the dark ages, where monks would work tirelessly to transcribe copies of text in an age where literacy was at a shocking low. Our tradition of scholars continued on for centuries, with the monks being replaced by great writers and poets such as Padraig Pearse, W. B. Yeats, and James Joyce.

So there we go! the most common names for Éire and her land. I hope you enjoyed! Feel free to follow for more fun Irish knowledge.

And of course I'm only human, if I made any many mistakes please let me know so I can fix them as soon as possible.

#ireland #irish #irish history #éire #éirinn #éireann #the emerald isle #land of saints and scholars #hibernia #hibernian #ériu

[tamamita]

Question: what does ‘wahabi’ mean and why do you use it?

Wahhabism refers to a movement within Salafism concerned with the purification of Islamic traditions. It was founded by a scholar by the name of Muhammed ibn Abdul Wahhab. Wahhabism is concerned with the idea of Islamic revivalism and restorationism. The idea that absolute monotheism must be cleansed from every impurity and theological assumption about God's Oneness in the sense that nothing can be attributed to God's Uniquess which upon would compromise Monotheism. Due to this belief, Wahhabism is concerned with eliminating innovations and beliefs in sainthood and saint veneration, which is held to be a form of idolatry, strictly ordering the destruction and desecration of Shrines and the likes.

Wahhabism considers any branch of Islam that does not adhere to Sunni Orthodoxy to be a form of heresy, professing that anyone who strays from their belief is an apostate by excommunicating them (=Takfir). This is why they're opposed to Shi'a Muslims, various Sufis and any Sunni Muslim that stray from their religious belief.

Like other Salafi schools, Wahhabists believe that Taqlid (=following a religious school) is discouraged, if not detested, and Islam must be investigated in the traditional and literalist sense rather than following the consensus. This means that any metaphorical and allegorical exegesis is rejected in favour of a literal interpretation of the Qur'an. For example, if God says "He sees the universe with his eyes", then it must be assumed that God have eyes in the most literal sense. Anyone who strays from this tradition falls into disbelief they claim.

Wahhabism have a historical alliance with the House of Saud , who which Wahhabism became the established state religion within the terroritories of al-Saud. Wahhabi clerics used their monopoly over religious authority to construct a puritanical religious culture by suppressing dissent and non-Wahhabi Muslims, even going so far as to ban travel to neighbouring Islamic countries. Madkhalism is a form of Wahhabism that upholds that Muslims must obey the ruler of a land they reside, thereby considering any dissent to be a form of deviancy, hence their strong support for the Saudi regime.

[givemewallywestorgivemedeath]

K but the fact that Kristen is just a regular human being. Just a standard, average person in a land filled with mystical beings and magic spilling from every crack, nook and cranny.

And here's Kristen Applebees, the first born child of typical suburban parents, born into a religious neighborhood where everyone goes to church every Sunday and prays every night and everyone has a white picket fence with a perfect manicured lawn and not-so-subtly shuns those who are in anyway different from them.

Was Kristen not chosen by her God, by Helio himself, because of her perfect average parents with their perfect average house in their perfect average neighborhood?

Kristen wasn't rich, she didn't have a powerful bloodline, her parents weren't important, there was no prophecy foretelling her birth. No, Kristen was an attainable goal. Kristen was a good example for the youth, an example of what could be achieved if you just played along and played your part.

Kristen was destined to be the perfect picture of a devoted follower of Helio. She was the poster child, born smack dab in the center of Helio's flock, surrounded on all sides by followers and moulded into the perfect unquestioning chosen one since birth.

But by choosing Kristen, by marking her as property of a God, Helio gave Kristen power. Power over him, power over good and evil, the divine and infernal. Because Kristen is promised to Helio, because she was chosen by him and prophesied to be his, Kristen wields the power to start the end of days and crumble nations with a snap of her fingers. Should she want to, Kristen could destroy the world by simply not doing that, by not ending up in Helio's afterlife to live for eternity by his side, by proving a God wrong.

And it's with this power, this leverage that Kristen holds over Helio's neck like the sword of Damocles, that Kristen is able to free herself from his grasp. It's slow, at first. Joining a 'risky' school, meeting people outside of the religion, questioning elders, researching history and religions. And she doesn't understand how much power she has, not at first, because the power she possesses isn't magic, but a divine promise and unspoken rules that govern a world that she was never supposed to know.

But despite not having magic, despite being chosen for her averageness, despite being trained to be naive and blinded to the realities of the world, Kristen is overpowered as, if you'll excuse the pun, hell.

Helio creates divine religious scholars to protect her when she doubts and strays from him. Helio creates an entire new deity and religion for Kristen, allowing her to think that YES! (and, later, YES?) is it's own separate power from his and he does all of this, not out of generosity or love, but because he needs to keep Kristen alive. Kristen cannot die before she rejoins Helio's flock or the divine promise will break and Helio would be fucked.

So Helio gave her power under the pretense of it being from elsewhere, solely so that he could keep Kristen alive until he changed her mind.

And then! And then Kristen dies! And is revived. And she's Saint Kristen Applebees now (but the Saint of who?) and Helio has fully given up on her and turned his back on her (but his prophecy cannot be unspoken and he cannot be proven wrong so does he really? Can he really?) and Kristen finds a new God, a broken God and Kristen chooses her.

Kristen names her, creates her, Cassandra the Goddess of Doubt and Night, and Kristen finally has her religion, a source of power that doesn't stem from Helio, she's finally escaped his grasp.

And yet.

And yet, Helio still spoke his prophecy, still chose Kristen and she will always have that power over him.

And yet, in his own foolish shortsighted attempt to keep Kristen within his grasp, Helio still created a deity for her, a separate divine entity that chose her as well.

And yet, Kristen is still the undying, the follower of Night and Doubt, Saint Applebees, Creator of Cassandra.

With no real magic to speak of, with nothing special in her bloodline, with no real talents or money to her name, the perfect picture of normalcy in every way, Kristen has managed to twist the divine sphere around her little pinky finger. She has so much power and she has so little awareness of it.

And also she's going to be President, bitch.

#there's a reason why (when asked if theres a new chosen one) the other cleric made it VERY CLEAR #that Kristen was special in that regard. it doesn't transfer. she can't be replaced. it doesn't work like that #theres a reason why the bad guys want to know where YES! was created. why Cassandra was targeted first. #KRISTEN HAS SO MUCH FUCKING POWER YO ITS INSANE #thats MY president #kristen chilis applebees #an actual fucking saint and wielder of so much divine power #and shes failing her cleric classes. KRISTEEEEEN. WRITE YOUR ESSAYS BESTIE #YOUVE CREATED MULTIPLE FUCKING GODS AND DIED SEVERAL TIMES JUST WRITE SOME ESSAYS #dimension 20 #d20 #kristen applebees #fantasy high #fantasy high sophomore year

[whoistartaglia]

sweet talk

based on sweet talk by saint motel.

alhaitham x gn! reader

alhaitham is not one to pull his punches, not even with you.

presently, you lounge in alhaitham’s office, seated incorrectly, with your legs over the arms of the chair and back against the other side, in front of alhaitham’s desk. the scholar watches as you flip nonsensically through a scriba, your eyes barely skimming the page, before you toss it on the desk. it lands in the middle of a hurricane of documents and open books, and nearly topples over an inkwell.

“can i assume this book too has lost your interest?” alhaitham says, picking it up himself. he fights the urge to roll his eyes. a romance novel, of course. when you first came marching in his office, ignoring the plaque on his door of “leave me alone” (though in much more “professional” language), you claimed the novel was a dissertation, and that you needed a nice, quiet place to work. the library, you claimed, was too packed with students studying for finals and working on their own reseatch papers. alhaitham allowed you to begrudgingly take residence in his office. yet flipping through the novel know, alhaitham realizes he should have known better.

“naturally,” you reply, hopping off the chair. “i’m so bored and there’s nothing to do.”

“what about your research?”

you make a face like you bit into a lemon.

“i would rather read that entire book to you upside-down and backwards.”

now it’s alhaitham’s turn to make a face. his is bitter like he downed a black coffee, no sugar, no milk, except that you know better; alhaitham probably has those on the daily and enjoys them.

alhaitham pretends to think, then snaps his fingers when the idea comes to him.

“you could always leave,” he says, quite pleased with himself.

you roll your eyes. “ha-ha. very funny.”

“i wasn’t joking,” alhaitham replies, tossing your novel to the corner of his desk. “you are always welcome to go, [name]. right now especially. i’ll even walk you to the door.”

this has the opposite of alhaitham’s intended effect. what he wanted was your sour expression to deepen, lips puckering and brows furrowing, not the absolutely sweet and beaming smile that has replaced it.

“what a lovely idea!” you say, clasping your hands together. “unfortunately, i will have to decline your generous offer for a walk today. i feel i’m just too tired.” you make a point of sitting back down, on his desk this time, and dangling your feet off the edge. you look over you shoulder to grin at him, and it doesn’t even falter at alhaitham’s visible confusion.

this isn’t the first time his harsh words haven’t the slightest negative effect on you. the scribe, for all his intelligence and determination, can’t figure out why. if he said those same words to anyone else, they would have run out of his office with their tail between their legs. but not you.

short of telling you to piss off and go away, alhaitham does not know what could actually deter you—and even then, he feels him saying that would only further encourage you. between this and his research, alhaitham can’t tell which is the harder nut to crack, though he’s leaning towards the former.

“i’m going to take a break,” alhaitham announces, standing up and heading towards the door. the latter is at a standstill, and he’d rather return to it later than brute-forcing his way through it now.

“great idea,” you say, hopping off the desk. “where are we going? on a walk?”

“well, i am,” alhaitham says, “but didn’t you say your legs were hurting?”

“oh!” you pause and think very quickly. “they’re all better now—unless you want to carry me. then i have no objections.” this earns you an amused snort, but you figure that if alhaitham really doesn’t want you to come, he wouldn’t be opening the door in front of you like he is now.

“is there anything i can say to deter you?” he wonders aloud.

you think for a second, walking out of the office. alhaitham keeps pace next to you as you travel down the halls.

“i’m not sure. you could always send the matra after me. but even if you told me to drop dead, i wouldn’t care.”

“i didn’t realize i was such a sweet talker,” alhaitham mutters, more to himself than to you. you simply smile up at him, and when you ask him to repeat himself because you didn’t hear, alhaitham just smiles and shakes his head.

alhaitham isn’t one to pull his punches, and he likes to think it’s the same with you. but you smile so sweetly that the sourness and bitterness from earlier fades, and alhaitham finds himself wondering if there was ever a punch to be pulled in the first place.

#genshin impact #genshin impact headcanons #genshin impact x reader #genshin headcanons #genshin impact fluff #genshin fluff #genshin imagines #genshin x reader #genshin impact x you #alhaitham x you #alhaitham headcanon #alhaitham x reader #al haitam x reader #alhaitham headcanons #genshin impact alhaitham headcanons #alhaitham #alhaitham fluff #al haitham x you #genshin impact alhaitham #alhaitham imagines #alhaitham x y/n

[3rdeyeblaque]

On January 7th, we venerate Ancestor & Hoodoo Saint, Auntie Zora Neale Hurston on her 133rd birthday (updated 2024). 🎉

Novelist, Anthropologist, Folklorist, Scholar, Vodou initiate & Historian, Zora Neale Hurston's legacy is forever cemented in Hoodoo Culture (and beyond) as the masterful wordsmith who cast a shining light on black excellence in all everyday forms/spaces, our ATR roots, & the preservation of Black Voices during the prime of the Harlem Renaissance.

Auntie Zora was born in Notasulga, AL and raised on 5 acres of land in Eatonville, FL by her preacher-father and free-spirited mother ; in what would be the first all-Black township in the country. After the shattering loss of her mother, Zora turned up in Baltimore, MD where she presented herself as a 16 year old (10 years her junior) in order to access free public school education resources; thereby finishing school. From then on, Zora lived her life presenting herself as 10 years younger than she actually was. She'd go on to graduate from Barnard College in 1928. 

She published several novellas & articles, including "Mules & Men"; a collection of Hoodoo Folklore. She entered the zenith of her career in the late 30s/40s after publishing her masterworks: "Their Eyes Were Watching God", "Tell My Horse", "Moses, Man of the Mountain", & an anthropological study on Hatian Vodou .After publishing her autobiography, "Dust Tracks on a Road, "Auntie Zora finally received the public recognition & literary respect that was long overdue. Despite her successes, and unprecedented contributions in classic literature & anthropology, Zora never received the financial contributions that her work so deserved. 

Zora Neale Hurston passed away; penniless, alone, & drifting into obscurity. Friends and supporters from near and far raised $600 for her funeral service and burial. She was buried in an unmarked grave, in a segregated section, at the Garden Of Heavenly Peace Cemetery in Fort Pierce, FL. Over a decade later, in 1973 the Great Alice Walker found the unmarked grave and ordered a headstone to be placed on it; engraved with, "Genius Of The South" in Zora's honor. It remains in place today.  “Let no Negro celebrity, no matter what financial condition they might be in at death, lie in inconspicuous forgetfulness. We must assume the responsibility of their graves being known and honored.” - Zora Neale Hurston to W.E.B. Dubois Auntie Zora wanted to be remembered & demanded that the same honor and respect be given unto her peers & others. Never forget the infectious voice that defined & defied, inspired & struck fear in many hearts of her time & after. We pour libations & give 💐 today as we celebrate Auntie Zora for her enigmatic spirit, ancestral wisdom, labor of love for Hoodoo Folklore, & for the seeing the beauty in the dark, sometimes solemn, corners in Black Culture. Let her studies continue to inform our own. Let her spark a fire in us to reconnect to our roots & grow within our lineages.

Offering suggestions: money, music, read/share her work, libations of water, & flowers.

‼️Note: offering suggestions are just that & strictly for veneration purposes only. Never attempt to conjure up any spirit or entity without proper divination/Mediumship counsel.‼️

#hoodoo Saints #Hoodoo Saint #zora neale hurston #Hoodoo #vodou #haitian vodou #the hoodoo calendar #hoodoohistory #hoodoos #atrs #atr #hoodoo culture #bvm #Hoodoo Folklore #Black authors #Black writers #own voices #Black Power

[cosmic--dandelion]

So how did we get from this

Dedicated to his Worshippers, George Frederic Watt (1817-1904)

To this?

A brief history of Mammon

Addendum Because We Can't Have Nice Things: this essay is in no way meant to be a "critique", criticism, or personal attack against Helluva Boss/Hazbin Hotel/Vivziepop as I am, in fact, a big fan of all three! I actually loved the newest episode and Mammon as a character. Seeing him in motion, I think he looks damned near perfect as a modern take on the King of Greed. I wrote this ONLY for educational purposes.

Mammon is a Chaldee (the Semantic language of ancient Chaldeans, the people of a small Mesopotamian country who were later absorbed by the Babylonians) or Syriac word meaning "wealth" or "riches".

The Worship of Mammon, Evelyn De Morgan (1909)

He is best remembered from the Sermon on the Mount from Mathew 6: 24 (King James version): “No man can serve two masters: for either he will hate the one, and love the other; or else he will hold to the one, and despise the other. Ye cannot serve God and mammon.”

Some scholars believe Mammon might have been loosely based on Dīs Pater, originally a Roman God of mineral wealth and fertile lands who was later merged with the chthonic deities of the underworld Pluto and Orcus (because minerals come from underground). Pluto was depicted in the Divine Comedy as "wolflike demon of wealth"; wolves in the medieval times were symbols of greed. Others think he might have been an ancient Syrian god, though no trace of his cult or temples exists.

Mammon transformed over time from an abstract concept to major demon. This is thanks to later philosophers and theologians such as Saint Gregory of Nyssa, a third century Byzantine scholar, Archbishop of Constantinople John Chrysostom, and Peter Lombard, bishop of Paris from 1159 to 1160. His book of Four Books of Sentences (Sententiarum libri IV) was the standard theological text of the Middle Ages.

Mammon was assigned the sin of greed according to the Peter Binsfield classification of demons.

John Milton of Paradise Lost fame imaged him as a fallen angel. He is described as being stooped over (literally the "least erected" of Lucifer's demonic host) because he always has his eyes downward looking for gold and would rather use Hell's resources to finance his lavish lifestyle than wage war against Heaven.

In Edmund Spenser's 16th long poem, The Faerie Queene, Mammon is a “uncouth, salvage, and uncivile wight” who sets up his cave of riches right next to the entrance to the underworld. Subtle, huh? He tries to tempt Sir Guyon, the protagonist of Book II, with all his fabulous wealth, arguing that he could use it for good. (This is a religious-moral-political allegory about temperance, so you can guess how well that went.) He shows up again in Jacques de Plancy's Dictionnaire Infernal as Hell's ambassador to England. Yes, really.

Just like in Biblical times, reformists used Mammon as a symbol of exploitation and unfettered capitalism during the industrial age.

Fun fact: Mr. Burns lives at the corner of Croesus and Mammon street.

So how does Vivziepop's version compare to the historical Mammon? I dunno, he hasn't appeared in the show yet. It's not my favorite design, but I like the fact that half the fandom was expecting him to be the Big Bad of Helluva Boss, and he's a just big heckin' chonk who sort of looks like a demented Dr. Suess character crossed with a demonic air freshener. It's a silly design for a silly dude, but he could be more dangerous than he looks...

#helluva boss #mammon #religion #history #vivziepop #mythology #demonology

[knightsickness]

medieval-catholic miscellanea i want in asoiaf

saints in general local saints and central church saints. saints going in and out of fashion based on contemporary events/values. saints as a connection between the congregation and the more difficult to grasp seven. we’ve been over this

saint-cults and relics, especially in relation to royal/noble power. access to the holy as an attribute of power targ saint relics from old valyria (to be unattainably holier than the other houses), noble family saints with their own relics for religious clout (lannisters definitely pushing for a saint in the family every time one of them dies. lying through teeth like yeah she loved wearing hair shirts and sponsoring monasteries)

hagiographies (saint biographies) as a significant genre of history-writing ‘as much as it could be liturgy, theology, edification, and propaganda’ - scholar’s editions might inform sermons on saints’ lives, the details of which could be judiciously edited (significant overlap between saint-kings and kings who donated large sums of money to the church)

ascendancy for women within the church, potential to socially advance as an abbess, but also noble families putting excess daughters into the church to write the family history and stay out of trouble

more religious schisms in general i know there’s scholars at the citadel inventing seven-related discourse we can’t even imagine. does not matter how minor these arguments are you can fight a holy war over that. history maesters are knifing each other in the cafeteria over the theological relationship between the father and the mother

more medieval-style stained glass/fresco/carving communication through images targeting the illiterate. pov characters are by and large outliers and should not have been counted most people in westeros can’t read!!

miracle accounts person or relic. touch relics to cure disease touch the king to cure disease. power of some (targ) relics so potent that even cloth that’s touched one is holy (contact relics)

miracle power of saints is itself a form of magic/superstition, but ‘occult’ practices mix with church ideas especially in the localities. pagan practices official gods slaughter a goat for your local saint magically misappropriate an image of the maiden

local differences in religion closest we get is dornish faith gay rights. this shit was village-by-village even if it was all broadly the same ideas

genuinely surprised there’s so little crusading/sanctified violence into ‘heathen’ lands

does anyone in asoiaf have a book of hours? i love books of hours. church time and the ritual year as easiest method of tracking dates e.g. three days after candlemas

catholic confession is in asoiaf nice one george!!

#asoiaf #a song of ice and fire #game of thrones #got #hotd #house of the dragon

[scotianostra]

Happy St Andrews Day.

As part of our Patron Saint’s Feast Day the Scottish Saltire is proudly flown and many people add it to their posts on social media to celebrate the day, but how did Scotland adopt the saltire?

There is no actual date, or in fact nothing in our written history of the time, but legend has it that in AD 832 the king of the Picts, ‘Aengus MacFergus’, ( Anglified to Angus but some stories say Hungus) with the support of 'Scots’ from Dalriada, won a great battle against King Athelstane of the Northumbrians. The site of the legendary battle became known as Athelstaneford in present-day East Lothian.

St Andrew visited the Pictish leader in a dream before the battle and told him that victory would be won. When the battle itself was raging, a miraculous vision of the St Andrew’s Cross was seen shining in the sky, giving a boost to the morale and fighting spirit of his warriors. The result was a victory over the Saxons, and the death of Athelstan. Thus, after this victory, according to the tradition, the Saltire or St Andrew’s Cross became the flag of Scotland, and St Andrew the national patron saint.

While there is no written reference to the battle in Scotland from the period it was said to have taken place, this is not surprising, as it was a time for which we have little or no documentation for anything. The earliest written mention of the Battle of Athelstaneford in Scottish history comes from years later in the newspapers of the day, if you follow my posts then you know I dip into these “Chronicles from time to time, the first one to mention Athelstaneford is the Scotichronicon, written by the Scottish historian Walter Bower.

The Scotichronicon has been described by some Scottish historians as a valuable source of historical information, especially for the times that were recent to him or within his own memory. But he also wrote about earlier times, and this included the battle at Athelstaneford.

Bower’s account includes the scene where Aengus MacFergus is visited by St Andrew in a dream before the battle. He was told that the cross of Christ would be carried before him by an angel, there was no mention of a St Andrew’s Cross in the sky in this version. It was in later accounts, from the 16th centuries onwards, that we have the description of an image of St Andrew’s Cross shining in the sky

Bower was writing in the early 1400s. The bitter and bloody struggle to retain Scotland’s independence was not just a recent memory but also a current reality for him. Parts of Scotland were still occupied by England, and Bower had been involved in raising the money to release Scotland’s king, James I, from English captivity.

Also, Scotland’s early historical records and documents had been deliberately destroyed during the invasion by the English king Edward I. This was done in part as an attempt to remove historical evidence that Scotland had been an independent kingdom. The idea was simple: take away a nation’s history and you strip it of its identity and justification for its independent existence. The theft of the Stone of Destiny was part of this process, the Black Rood which was believed to contain a piece of the Cross Jesus was crucified on was also removed, I have covered both these in previous posts.

Part of Bower’s motivation in writing his Scotichronicon was to help restore this stolen history. He was a scholar and a man of the church. In his time, the figure of St Andrew had become a prominent presence in Scottish society.

The greatest church building in the land during his time was the Cathedral of St Andrew, which housed relics of St Andrew himself. It had taken over a hundred years to build and wasn’t formally consecrated until 1318, just four years after Bannockburn. The ceremony of course included Robert the Bruce and at it thanks was given to St Andrew for Scotland’s victory.

Less than 100 years after this, in 1413, the University of St Andrews was established and Walter Bower was one of its first students. By this time, the Cathedral of St Andrew was a place of pilgrimage, with thousands travelling there to venerate the saint’s relics. A pilgrimage route from the south took in the shrine of Our Lady at Whitekirk, not far from the site of the battle, and many pilgrims took a ferry across the Firth from North Berwick, where the ruins and remains of the old St Andrew’s Kirk can still be seen close to the Scottish Seabird Centre.

So as he sat down to write his history of earlier times, he was able to trace this connection to St Andrew, using the limited earlier written accounts, such as those of earlier Chronicler I’ve mentioned before, John Fordun, who lived in the 1300s. While Fordun doesn’t specifically mention the location of Athelstaneford, he records a battle which took place between the Picts led by Aengus and a force from the south led by Athelstan, and said the location of the battle was about two miles from Haddington. The account of St Andrew appearing in a dream to Aengus is also described by Fordun.

This creates a powerful link to the development of the written version of the story. Let’s remember Bower came from what is now East Lothian. Let us also remember that people in the early centuries stored and passed on much of their historical knowledge not in the written word but in memory and handed down oral traditions. People told stories, remembered them and told them to the next generation. Undeniably, some details would be forgotten or changed over time, but the bones of the story would be handed down. And that would include reference to locations of significant events in the local landscape.

Bower will have had access to this rich oral tradition of local stories based on handed-down collective memories of past events, which is perhaps why he was able to name the location. The later writers who added to the story of the battle will likewise have found new sources in the oral tradition to add to the narrative. Even in the 19th century, cartographers mapping the area were able to identify locations traditionally associated with the battle from local people who were custodians of ancestral memory.

This is how the story of the Battle of Athelstaneford and its connection with St Andrew and the Saltire has evolved.

The village is home to the National Flag Heritage Centre which occupies a lectern doocot built in 1583 and rebuilt in 1996. It is at the back of the village church. Today the village is surrounded by farmland and has little in the way of amenities. Tourists can follow the "Saltire Trail", a road route which passes by various local landmarks and places of historical interest.

Athelstaneford Parish Kirk has a connection with the subject of my post last week, author Nigel Tranter, who was a prominent supporter of the Scottish Flag Trust. He married in the church, and in April 2008 a permanent exhibition of his memorabilia was mounted in the north transept of the church. Items include a copy of Nigel Tranter's old typewriter, a collection of manuscripts and books, and other personal items. The display was previously at Lennoxlove House, and prior to that at Abbotsford House, the home of Sir Walter Scott.

#scotland #scottish #history #Picts #Pictland #sr andrew #legend #Patron saints day #religious figure

[heresiae]

popular opinion: in medieval times (1016 years btw) they barely washed, they used to eat the same five things every day, they were generally miserable, died very early and didn't have any kind of serious medicine. they used religion as witchcraft and they were technology stuck. also, INQUISITION.

reality:

they washed, quite regularly, like any other worker in the country. not only that, they knew there was a correlation between dirt and infections. warriors used to wash themselves and their clothes thoroughly before a battle, because they knew wounds would have a less likely chance to become infected if they didn't come into contact with dirt (they actually boiled their linens).

Europe have always had its large variety of vegetables, we just stopped eating them / grow them / because after the 1400 some of the imported seeds were easier to farm in large quantities in various climates (but we lost most of their knowledge after the 50s). we always had lots of herbs so food did have taste.

they were not miserable, they were simply living. they had a decent work/life balance but it's not like the Roman Empire crumbled and everything become very sad (like, no holidays, free time, food and shelter. you have to remember that the nuclear family is a very young concept. people lived in large numbers, extended families etc. you were never alone and you shared responsibilities and all). they were still regular people with regular lives and regular problems (and honestly, can you look at our world today and saying we don't have to worry about was, famine, drought and pestilence?).

yeah the life expectancy was not the one of today but it wasn't that uncommon to reach 50 o 60. it depended a lot of your job, luck, class, care of yourself, etc.

they did had medicine. not the one of today but you know all those "modern" bio remedies based all on plants etc? yeah, they're old. very old and they could cure some common stuff and hard stuff (I should find that link of a medicine book that there was only one copy of it in England and had the only recipe for curing an eye disease that it's still tricky today).

yeah. no. yes, they were religious in a different way that we are today because religion kind of permeate every aspect of their life. you have to remember that theater was not allowed, but religious reenactment were and you can betcha they went full drama on them (it's actually how the theater got to be reborn). so it was like the cinema of today. they did not fall on their knees praying for God or the Saints to save them at any occasion, they put work towards fixing their problem. not very different than today.

guys, you seriously believe that in 1016 years, with scholars freely running through the lands of Europe (they used to get free passage everywhere), books being copied and shared, big fairs happening regularly with people from near and far countries participating, that there wasn't even a single tiny tiny technological improvement? I'll leave you the wikipedia article for you to read in your own time

guys, if Galileo taught us anything is how they were not so ready to burn people at the first sign of heresy. "heretics" got several warnings and occasions to abjure whatever they were doing and killing them was the last extreme solution (like, refusing to stop following your own cult, preaching to the masses, fortifying your village to resist the besiege from the Church army, etc...). the Spanish inquisition was another thing and it was after the medieval millennium.

I'm not saying it was a peachy period, I'm just saying it was a period and not the worse by a long shot.

[thewitcheslibrary]

Romanian Folklore

Balaur-

In Romanian mythology, a balaur (pl. balauri) is a many-headed dragon or gigantic snake that is often supposed to have wings. According to certain stories, the number of heads is generally three, although it might be seven or twelve.

In folktales, the balaur is often wicked, demanding or abducting young maidens or princesses before being destroyed by a hero like Saint George or the fair youngster Făt-Frumos. There is some legend that the balaur is responsible for weather and lives in an airborne condition, although these versions of balaur are frequently referred to as hala or ala, which is confused with the pan-Slavic air and water demon. According to some stories, the weather-controlling Solomonari drives a balaur rather than a zmeu.

There are additional stories about the balaur and their ability to generate rare stones from their saliva. Furthermore, it is stated that whomever succeeds to kill it will be forgiven a sin.

In Romanian, balauri are "monstrous serpents" or dragons. Alternatively, the word balaur can refer to any monster-like entity. They have multiple heads, like the Greek hellhound Cerberus or the hydra.According to Lazăr Șăineanu, they are winged and golden. According to journalist Eustace Clare Grenville Murray, in Romanian tradition, the balaur or balaurul is a serpentine monster that guards treasures and princesses, occasionally clashing with the valiant Fêt-Frumos.

According to folklorist Tudor Pamfile, there are three sorts of balauri in folklore: water-, land-, and air-based.[6] A first-type balaur is a seven-headed monster that lives in a village well and demands maidens as sacrifice until vanquished by either the hero Busuioc or Saint George.[6] The second sort of balaur, according to Pamfile, lives in the "Armenian land" (Romanian: ţara armenească), where they manufacture valuable stones. According to American writer Cora Linn Daniels, in Wallachia, balaur saliva is said to generate valuable stones. Mircea Eliade, a Romanian scholar, observed that the belief that valuable stones are generated from snake spittle is widespread, extending from England to China.

The balaur is frequently connected with the weather and is also known as hala or ala, which is typically a Slavic name for a weather demon. Pamfile refers to this as the "third type" of air-dwellers.When two balauri collide and fight in the air, a variety of meteorological effects occur, such as tree uprooting or things being scattered. Another story holds that the balaur follows the rainbow and draws rainwater from any location to generate rain. There is additional mythology about the balaur that is claimed to be quite similar to Bulgarian Banat lore about the lamia (locally known as lam'a), which indicates that the lam'a pull water from the sea to fill the cloud.

Although the Solomonari's dragons are commonly referred to as zmei (sing. zmeu), some accounts suggest that they were balauri. These weather-controlling sorcerers controlled a balaur with "a golden rein" (or golden bridle; Romanian: un frâu de aur). Dragons were often kept concealed in the depths of a lake until called by their riders.

Căpcăun-

In Romanian folklore, a Căpcăun is portrayed as an ogre that kidnaps children or young females (usually princesses). It denotes evil, as do its equivalents Zmeu and Balaur. In most Romanian translations of other European literature, the names of creatures such as ogres or trolls are frequently rendered as căpcăun. The Romanian name appears to have meant "Dog-head" (căp is a variant of cap, meaning "head", and căun is a derivation of câine, meaning "dog"). According to Romanian folklore phantasy, the căpcăun has a dog head, sometimes with four eyes, with eyes in the neck, or with four legs, but whose major trait is anthropophagy.

Thatpcăun can also mean "Tatar chieftain" or "Turk chieftain" as well as "pagan". Some linguists believe căpcăun is an echo of a title or administrative position, such as kapkan (also kavhan, kaphan, kapgan), used by several Central Asian tribes that invaded Eastern Europe throughout late antiquity and the mediaeval era, including the Pannonian Avars, Bulgars, and Pechenegs.

Dhampir-

In Balkan legend, a dhampir (Albanian pronunciation: [ðamˈpir]) is a supernatural creature born from the mating of a vampire and a human. This union was mostly between male vampires and female humans, with reports of female vampires mating with male humans being uncommon.

Dhampirs and other mythical creatures are well-known in Balkan folklore. In the remainder of the region, titles like Serbian vampirović, vampijerović, and vampirić (hence, Bosnian lampijerović, etc.) literally mean "vampire's son" are used. In other places, the kid is referred to as "Vampir" if a male and "Vampirica" if a girl, or "Dhampir" if a boy and "Dhampirica" if a girl.[Citation required] In Bulgarian mythology, several titles such as glog (lit. "hawthorn"), vampirdzhiya ("vampire" + nomen agentis suffix), vampirar ("vampire" + nomen agentis suffix), dzhadadzhiya, and svetocher are used to refer to vampire children and descendants, as well as other specialised vampire hunters. Dhampiraj is an Albanian surname.

According to legends, dhampirs were generally accepted members of the community. However, dhampirs, particularly males of paternal vampire lineage, could see invisible vampires and practise magic, frequently embarking on careers as vampire hunters that would be passed down through generations. Some traditions describe indicators for recognising a vampire's children. According to Albanian mythology, they have untamed dark or black hair and are extremely crafty or fearless. They are not drawn to blood and can eat regularly like humans, yet the option of biting other living beings to extend one's life is always available.

When compared to vampires, dhampirs are considered to be very harmful to blood drinkers since a dhampir's blood and spit acts as an acid to vampires, rendering them incapable of being bitten. Because of their blended blood, dhampirs are not scorched by the sun.

In Bulgarian legend, such indicators include being "very dirty," having a soft body, no nails or bones (the latter physical characteristic is often attributed to the vampire itself), and having "a deep mark on the back, like a tail." In contrast, a prominent nose, as well as larger-than-normal ears, teeth, or eyes, were frequently used as indicators. According to J. Gordon Melton's book The Vampire Book: The Encyclopaedia of the Undead, in some locations, a real dhampir had a "slippery, jelly-like body and lived only a short life—a belief... that vampires have no bones."

Iele-

The iele are feminine legendary beings from Romanian mythology. There are several descriptions of their qualities. They are sometimes depicted as faeries (zâne in Romanian), with immense seductive power over males, as well as magical abilities and characteristics comparable to nymphs, naiads, and dryads from Greek mythology.

The iele are claimed to reside in the skies, woodlands, caverns, and solitary mountain cliffs, and have been observed bathing in springs or at crossroads. From this perspective, the Iele resemble the Ancient Greek Hecate, a three-headed Thracian deity who guards crossroads.

They mostly appear at night by moonlight, as dancing Horas, in secluded areas such as glades, the tops of certain trees (maples, walnut trees), ponds, river banks, crossroads, or abandoned fireplaces, dancing naked, with their breasts almost covered by dishevelled hair, bells on their ankles, and holding candles. In virtually every case, the Iele appear to be incorporeal. They seldom use chainmail jackets. The effect of their special dance, the Hora, is comparable to that of the Bacchantes.

The site where they had danced would later be carbonised, with the grass unable to grow on the trampled ground and the leaves of the nearby trees burned. Later, when grass grew, it would be scarlet or dark-green in colour; animals would not eat it, but mushrooms would flourish on it.

Dimitrie Cantemir depicts the iele as "Nymphs of the air, in love especially with young men" in his Descriptio Moldaviae. The origins of these beliefs are uncertain. Interestingly, the term iele is phonetically similar to the feminine plural version of the Romanian word meaning "they". Their true identities are kept hidden and unavailable, and they are frequently changed by nicknames based on their traits.

The names based on epithets are: Iele, Dânse, Drăgaice, Vâlve, Iezme, Izme, Irodiţe, Rusalii, Nagode, Vântoase, Domniţe, Măiestre, Frumoase, Muşate, Fetele Codrului, Împărătesele Văzduhului, Zânioare, Sfinte de noapte, Şoimane, Mândre, Fecioare, Albe, Hale, etc.

Personal names that appear include Ana, Bugiana, Dumernica, Foiofia, Lacargia, Magdalina, Ruxanda, Tiranda, Trandafira, Rudeana, Ruja, Păscuţa, Cosânzeana, Orgisceana, Lemnica, Roşia, Todosia, Sandalina, Margalina, Savatina, Rujalina, and so on. These names should not be used at random, as they might be the foundation for deadly enchantments. It is said that every witch learns nine of these pseudonyms, from which she crafts combinations, and which are the basis for spells.

The iele are claimed not to be solitary animals, but rather to assemble in groups in the air, where they may fly with or without wings and travel at amazing speeds, either alone or with fire chariots. The iele manifest in many forms, including bodies and immaterial souls. They are youthful and attractive, sensuous immortals whose fury causes madness in bystanders, possess terrible tempers, but are not always malicious. They appear in bunches of three or seven. This version is particularly common in Oltenia, where three Iele are regarded Alexander the Great's daughters, Catrina, Zalina, and Marina.

They are not generally regarded as evil genii: they only take revenge when provoked, offended, seen while dancing, when people step on the trodden ground left behind by their dance, sleep under a tree that the Iele regard as their property, or drink from the springs or wells that they use. Those who ignore their offer to dance or imitate their gestures face severe punishment. Anyone who suddenly hears their tunes becomes instantaneously silent.

One distinguishing feature is their wonderful vocals, which are utilised to lure their listeners, much like the Sirens from ancient Greek mythology. They are invisible to humans, although mortals can see them when they dance at night. When this occurs, they capture the victim and punish the "guilty" one with magical spells, having earlier made him to fall asleep with the noises and vertigo of the frantic Hora, which they dance around their abducted victim, causing him to vanish forever without trace.

The iele are also thought to be agents of retribution for God or the Devil, with the authority to avenge in the name of their employers. When called upon to act, they pursue their victims into the centre of their dance, where they perish in a fit of madness or pain. In this hypostasis, the Iele resemble the Ancient Greek Erinyes and the Roman Furies.

People set aside festival days to honour the iele, such as the Rusaliile, the Stratul, the Sfredelul or Bulciul Rusaliilor, the Marina, and so on. Anyone who did not observe these holidays was said to face the Iele's wrath: men and women who worked during these days would be lifted into spinning vertigo, people and cattle would die mysteriously or become paralysed and crippled, hail would fall, rivers would flood, trees would wither and houses would catch fire.

People also devised treatments for the iele, whether preventative or exorcistic in nature: garlic and mugwort worn around the waist, in the bosom, or hung from the hat; or hanging a horse's skull on a pole in front of the home. The most significant remedy is the Călușari dance.

Marțolea-

Marțolea is a malevolent monster from Romanian mythology (particularly in Bucovina and Maramureș). The entity's gender is unknown, as it may shapeshift at will. It resides in the mountains and descends on Tuesday evenings to seduce and punish women who are caught working. Called as Marţi Seara (the old Romanian terms for "Tuesday Evening"), is a malefic creature that insists that the semi-holy day of Tuesday be observed and bans four women's chores: spinning wool, sowing, boiling laundry and making bread. This is a pagan entity. Faun is one of his equivalents.

Marțolea's punishments for these actions are terrible, such as murdering by tearing and hanging the guts on nails to the wall and around the dishes in the case of unmarried women. For married women, the punishments include murdering or seizing their kid or a spouse who is away from home. It usually takes the appearance of a goat with a human-like head, horns, and hooves. It can transform into an unattractive old woman clothed entirely in black, a soldier, or a lovely guy. It portrays married women as an old lady, married men as a virgin, and unmarried women as a young charming guy.

In some locations, there is a separate character known as Joimârița, which is a variant of the Romanian word for Thursday. This one, however, penalises indolent children. Marțolea rewards the women who keep Tuesday sacred by leaving eggs on their doorsteps or flowers from the highest mountains in Bukovina. On the first night of March, women who wear March Trinkets (Mărțișor) are rewarded by Marțolea with a silver coin, which the girls must preserve for the entire year.

Moroi-

A moroi (also spelt moroii in contemporary fiction; plural moroi) is a sort of vampire or ghost in Romanian mythology. A female moroi is termed a moroaică (plural: moroaice). In some tales, a moroi is a ghost of a deceased person who emerges from the grave to take energy from the living. Moroi are frequently linked to other characters in Romanian folklore, such as strigoi (another sort of vampire), vârcolac (werewolf), and pricolici (werewolf). Moroi's specific traits, like those of most folklore notions, vary from source to source. Wlislocki described a notion that the kid of a woman pregnant by a nosferat (a kind of incubus-vampire) would grow extraordinarily unattractive and covered in thick hair, rapidly becoming a moroi.

In modern legends, they are also known as the live spawn of two strigoi. It may also refer to a child who died before being baptised. The roots of the name "moroi" are uncertain, however the Romanian Academy believes it may have sprung from the Old Slavonic word mora ("nightmare")

Otila Hedeşan observes that moroi is produced using the same augmentative suffix as strigoi (along with the related bosorcoi) and believes this similar derivation indicates participation in the same "mythological micro-system." The "-oi" suffix notably changes feminine nouns to masculine gender and frequently invests them with a complicated blend of amplification and pejoration.

Muma Pădurii-

In Romanian folklore, Muma Pădurii (Romanian pronunciation: [ˈmuma pəˈdurij]) is an ugly and mischievous or demented old lady dwelling in the forest. She is the antithesis of fairies like Zână. She is also the defender of animals and plants, preparing remedies and assisting ailing creatures. She heals the fading woodland and scares away undesirable trespassers. She may be connected with witches (such as the witch in the fable "Hansel and Gretel"), but she is a neutral "creature" who only harms people who disturb the forest.

Muma Pădurii technically means "mother of the forest," but "mumă" is an ancient variant of "mamă" (mother), giving the Romanian reader a fairy tale feel. A few additional nouns, usually the protagonists of folktales, have this impact.

Muma Pădurii is a woodland ghost that appears in the form of an ugly and elderly lady. She sometimes has the capacity to shift her form. She lives in a gloomy, awful, and secluded small home. She is considered to assault children, and as a result, she is the target of a wide range of spells (descântece in Romanian).

This (step-)mother of the forest kidnaps and enslaves young children. In one legendary myth, she attempts to cook a little child alive in a soup. However, the little girl's brother outwits Muma Pădurii and pushes the woman-monster into the oven instead, akin to the fable of Hansel and Gretel. The narrative concludes on a positive note, with all of the children free to return to their parents.

Muroni-

The Muroni (or Murony) is a vampire from Wallachian folklore. It can morph into a number of animals. Because of this, a Muroni assault can be difficult to distinguish and is sometimes mistaken for an animal attack. The sole indication that a Muroni was present was a significant loss of blood. While the Muroni was often supposed to be a vampire, it may also be classified as a shapeshifter because it takes on the form of animals. The Muroni is one of many vampire stories about a blood-sucking ghost who takes on the guise of other beings to make feeding easier.

Pricolici-

A Pricolici (pronounced /pri.koˈlitɡʃʲ/) (same form in plural) is a werewolf/vampire fusion in Romanian legend. Similar to a vârcolac, albeit the latter occasionally represents a goblin, pricolici always have wolf-like traits and may shift into regular humans or animals. Pricolici, like strigoi, are undead spirits who have emerged from the tomb to harm living people. A strigoi retains human characteristics identical to those it had before death, but a pricolici always resembles wolves. Malicious, aggressive males are frequently supposed to become pricolici after death in order to continue hurting others.

According to certain Romanian tradition, Pricolici are werewolves in life before becoming vampires after death. This also gives birth to the mythology that vampires may transform into animals like wolves, dogs, owls, and bats. The unifying denominator across all of these creatures is that they are nocturnal hunters, much like vampires.

Even in modern times, several individuals in Romania's rural areas have reported to have been violently attacked by exceptionally huge and aggressive wolves. Apparently, these wolves attack stealthily, unexpectedly, and solely on single targets. Victims of such attacks frequently allege that their attacker was not a normal wolf, but a pricolici who has returned to life to continue inflicting havoc. The derivation of the term is uncertain, but it possibly has Dacian origins.

Rahmans-

Rahmans (Ukrainian: рaхма́ни, Romanian: rohmani, blajini) are a mythological country of pious Christians, according to popular beliefs in Romania and Ukraine. Neopagans believe that Rahmans is a reference to the Indian caste of Brahmins. The term "blajini" (pronounced [blaˈʒinʲ]) comes from the Slavic word "blažĕnŭ," which means a friendly and considerate person.

They are characterised as humanoid and short, with rat-like heads on occasion. They are either depicted as malevolent or as having a deep regard for God and living a spotless life. They are thought to fast throughout the year, so benefiting humans greatly.

Blajin can also refer to a deceased infant who did not receive the Holy Spirit's blessing. The ethnograph Marian Simion Florea wrote: Blajini are fictional entities, embodiments of unbaptized dead infants who reside at the end of the Earth, near the Holy Water (of Saturday).[8] Some see them as the offspring of Adam's son Seth. Others believe they used to coexist with humans on Earth, but Moses, seeing his people oppressed by them, parted the waters and, when he and his people had fled to safety, poured the waters back over them, sending them to their current location.

Sântoaderi-

The Sântoaderi were a group of magical beings described in Romanian folklore. They were shown as seven or nine young men with large feet and hooves, dressed in capes. It was claimed that they would emerge magically in a community, sing, beat their drums, and inflict disease on individuals by putting them in shackles, inflicting rheumatism, or stomping their bodies.

People were urged to stay indoors after hearing their music and the sound of hooves, since this was regarded safe. Those who did not seek refuge indoors risked being kidnapped by the Sântoaderi and forced to participate in the parade. Victims of such kidnappings would occasionally return in good health and with presents, while others would return sick, dying, or mad.

The Sântoaderi have some parallels to the fairies of Irish legend. Mircea Eliade, a Romanian historian, observed a parallel between the Sântoaderi and the zîne, the Romanian version of the fairy godmother, both of whom were thought to go through the night in a procession of dancers. There is also a legend that on the 24th day following Easter, the zîne and Sântoaderi gather to play and exchange flower bouquets.

Sânziană-

Sânziană is the Romanian word for gentle fairies who play an important role in local tradition; it can also refer to the Galium verum or Cruciata laevipes flowers.[Citation required] In its plural form, Sânziene refers to an annual event honouring fairies. The name is derived from the Latin Sancta Diana, the Roman goddess of hunting and the moon, who was also venerated in Roman Dacia (ancient Romania).[Citation required] Diana was regarded as the virgin goddess, and she watched after both virgins and women. She was one of three virgin deities - Diana, Minerva, and Vesta - who vowed never to marry.

Every year on June 24, people in the western Carpathian Mountains commemorate the Sânziene festival. This is related to the Swedish Midsummer festival and is said to be a pagan celebration of the summer solstice in June. According to the official viewpoint of the Romanian Orthodox Church, the practices are related to the commemoration of Saint John the Baptist's Nativity, which also takes place on June 24.

According to Sânziene folklore, the most attractive maidens in the village dress in white and spend the entire day searching for and gathering flowers, one of which must be Galium verum (Lady's bedstraw or Yellow bedstraw), also known as "Sânziànă" in Romanian. The girls braid flowery crowns from the flowers they collected during the day and wear them when they return to the hamlet at night.

There, they meet their lover and dance around a bonfire. Crowns are tossed over buildings, and it is thought that if the crown falls, someone will die in that house; if the crown remains on the roof, the owners will have a bountiful crop and fortune. Jumping over the coals after the campfire has died down, like with other bonfire festivities, purifies the person and brings health.

Another common belief is that on Sânziene Eve night, the skies open, making it the most powerful night for magic spells, particularly love charms. Plants gathered this night are also thought to have significant magical abilities.

It is not advisable for a male to walk at night on Sanziene Eve, as this is when the fairies dance in the air, blessing the crops and bestowing health on people - they do not like to be seen by males, and whoever does will be maimed, or the fairies will take their hearing/speech or make them angry. In certain parts of the Carpathians, the locals then light a large wheel of hay from the ceremonial bonfire and push it downhill. This has been regarded as a metaphor for the lowering sun (the days will shorten from the solstice until the midwinter solstice).

Spiriduș-

In Romanian mythology, a spiriduș is described as a "demon incarnate" or a household spirit, who frequently takes the appearance of an avian familiar, such as hens, crows, or hunting birds. Once summoned, these familiars serve as messengers or middlemen between the master of the home where the spiriduș was born and the devil. The spiriduș allows the master to ask the devil for any mortal desire in exchange for their soul in the hereafter.

Strigoi-

In Romanian mythology, strigoi are disturbed ghosts that are claimed to have risen from the tomb. They are said to be capable of transforming into animals, becoming invisible, and gaining energy from their victims' blood. Bram Stoker's Dracula may be a contemporary version of the Strigoi, given their historical association with vampirism.

Strigòi is a Romanian word derived from a root similar to the Latin terms strix or striga, with the addition of the augmentative suffix "-oi" (feminine "-oaie"). Otila Hedeşan observes that the same augmentative suffix exists in the related words moroi and bosorcoi (derived from Hungarian boszorka) and believes this similar origin indicates participation in the same "mythological micro-system." The "-oi" suffix notably changes feminine nouns to masculine gender while also frequently imbuing them with a complicated blend of amplification and pejoration. The root has been linked specifically to owls.

Strega and strìga, both meaning "witch" in Italian and Venetian, are examples of cognates found in Romance languages. The Italian stregone even has a similar augmentative suffix that signifies "sorcerer." In French, "stryge" refers to a bird-woman who sucks the blood of youngsters. Jules Verne used the term "stryges" in Chapter II of his novel The Castle of the Carpathians, which was published in 1892. The Greek term Strix, Polish strzyga, Hungarian sztriga, and Albanian shtriga are all cognate. It is connected to the Romanian word a striga, which meaning "to scream".

Uriaș-

Uriaș (plural uriaşi) is the typical Romanian-language term for giants, who are important figures in Romanian folklore. There are various variants of uriași, which share many characteristics but have distinct names depending on the historical area of Romania. Thus, Jidovi is the name used mostly in Oltenia, and its bearers are said to be the constructors of enormous mounds, with some stories portraying them as malicious. Novaci is mostly used in Muntenia to refer to animals native to the Southern Carpathians.

Vâlvă-

Vâlvă (plural vâlve) is a female ghost described in Romanian folklore. The Vâlve are said to stroll over the hilltops at night, and are separated into two groups: Vâlve Albe ("White Vâlve"), who are regarded beneficial, and Vâlve Negre ("Black Vâlve" or "Dark Vâlve"), who are considered bad. In certain cases, they are thought to be human (particularly when they arrive to defend towns from a storm). They may also appear as shadows or black cats. They are also capable of shapeshifting.

The Vâlve are classified into several types, including Vâlva Apei ("of the water"), who is thought to be a guardian of water sources and fountains; Vâlva Bucatelor (roughly, "of the morsels"), who protects the poor and crops; and Vâlva Băilor ("of the mines"), who defends and protects mines and tunnels, whose departure signals the end of the deposit.

Vâlva Banilor ("of the money"), the guardian of money; Vâlva Comorilor ("of the treasures"), the protector of valuables, who can also indicate the location of their burial; Vâlva Pădurii ("of the forest"), like Muma Padurii, protects woodlands; Vâlva Ciumei ("of the plague"), controls bubonic plague and other diseases; Vâlva Zilelor ("of the days"), protects the days (one for each day of the week); and Vâlva Cetăţi ("of the citadels"), defends ancient ruins.

The Vâlve of the mines remains the most well-known oral tradition. Legends concerning them abound in traditional metal exploitation locations in Romania, such as Roşia Montană, a region rich not just in gold but also in folklore and myth. There, many still believe that finding gold in the mines requires the assistance of a Vâlvă (a white person). However, if someone becomes overly greedy, spends the money recklessly, or steals the gold or money from the family to whom it was initially revealed, the Vâlvă will turn black and will not stop until she has avenged the wrong and disrespect shown to her.

Miners claim that anybody can hear her banging through the galleries in the next corridor, even if they have no knowledge of the location in the rock or are certain that no one can be there at the moment. She makes that weird sound to find riches to show them or to keep them from getting lost. If they don't follow her instructions, the galleries will fall on them.

Vântoase-

Vântoase are entities that appear in Romanian mythology as feminine spirits. According to popular belief, they may cause dust storms and violent winds in the same way that harpies do. They dwell in forests, the air, and deep lakes, and they move in a specially designed waggon. The Vântoase are also thought to be capable of assaulting youngsters, and the sole defence against them is the enigmatic "grass of the winds".

Vrykolakas-

In Greek folklore, a vrykolakas (pronounced [vriˈkolakas]), also known as vorvolakas or vourdoulakas, is a terrible undead monster. It is comparable to many other mythical animals, although it is most commonly associated with the vampire from adjacent Slavic nations' mythology. While the two are quite similar, a vrykolakas consumes flesh, particularly livers, rather than drinking blood, which, paired with other characteristics such as its look, brings it closer to the current image of a zombie or ghoul.

The word vrykolakas comes from the Bulgarian word vǎrkolak. The term is documented in other Slavic languages, such as Slovak vlkolak, Serbian vukodlak, ultimately derived from Proto-Slavic vьlkolakъ, and cognates may be found in other languages such as Lithuanian vilkolakis and Romanian vârcolac.

The Greeks thought that a person may become a vrykolakas after death if they lived a sacrilegious life, were excommunicated, buried on unconsecrated ground, or ate the flesh of a sheep injured by a wolf or werewolf. Some thought that after being slain, a werewolf may transform into a strong vampire with the same wolflike fangs, hairy hands, and blazing eyes. Vrykolakas' bodies are similar to those of vampires in Balkan legend. They do not rot; rather, they enlarge and may even acquire a "drumlike" form, being quite enormous, with a rosy hue, and being, according to one report, "fresh and gorged with new blood".

According to reports from the territory of contemporary Serbia, people with red hair and grey eyes were considered vampires at the time. The vrykolakas' activities are almost invariably negative, ranging from simply leaving their grave and "roaming about" to indulging in poltergeist-style behaviour and even creating epidemics in the town. Among other things, the monster is claimed to knock on the doors of dwellings and shout out the people' names.

If it receives no response the first time, it will terminate without inflicting any harm. If someone answers the door, he or she will die a few days later, becoming another vrykolaka. For this reason, there is a tradition in several Greek towns that one should not answer a door until the second knock. According to legend, the vrykolakas crushes or suffocates the sleeping by sitting on them, similar to a mare or incubus (cf. sleep paralysis)—as does a vampire in Bulgarian mythology. Unlike vampires, vrykolakas are characterised in Greek tradition as cannibals rather than bloodsuckers, with a preference for human liver.

Legends say that if the vrykolakas is left alone, it will grow in strength. As a result, it should be destroyed. According to certain tales, this can only be done on Saturday, when the vrykolakas is buried (similar to Bulgarian vampire folklore). This can be accomplished in a variety of ways, the most frequent of which include exorcism, impaling, beheading, cutting into pieces, and, most importantly, cremating the alleged body to remove it from living death and keep its victims safe.

Zână- Zână (plural zâne) is the Romanian equivalent of the Greek Charites, or the fairy godmother. They are the antithesis of monsters like Muma Pădurii. These figures make pleasant appearances in fairy tales and are typically found in woodlands. They are also known as the Romanian version of fairies and Germanic elves. They vary in size and appearance, and they may change to fit in with their environment for safety and shelter. They can emerge openly in the woods and entice travellers to follow them in order to guide them to their destination. They may also lurk in the woods and silently guide anyone in need through the woodland using signals and "breadcrumbs".

They give life to foetuses in utero and bestow wonderful qualities such as the art of dance, beauty, benevolence, and luck. In folklore, it is said not to offend them since they have the capacity to do horrible things or curse the wrongdoer. They also function as guardian angels, particularly for youngsters who enter the woods or other nice individuals.

Zburător-

Zburător or sburător (a Romanian term meaning 'flying') is a supernatural figure in Romanian mythology, described as a "roving spirit who makes love to maidens by night".

The zburător is also compared to an incubus and characterised as a malignant demon who acts in a "oniric-erotic" manner, visiting women in their dreams in the form of a lovely young man.

In certain locations, the zburător is also known as a zmeu (another dragon-like creature, albeit it is said to have more human-like characteristics than the zmeu.

Dimitrie Cantemir, writing about the myth concerning it in Descriptio Moldaviae (1714-1716), stated that the "zburator" meant "flyer" (Latin: volatilis), and according to the Moldavan beliefs, it was "a ghost, a young, handsome man who comes in the middle of the night at women, especially recently married ones, and does indecent things with them, although he cannot be seen by other people, not even by those who waylay him"

Ion Heliade Rădulescu Zburătorul subsequently reworked the tale in his love poem 'The Flyer/Flying Incubus' (1843), in which the "incubus" with flowing black hair visits a young girl and induces her sensual awakening. The tale occurs in late romantic literature, including Romanian poet Mihai Eminescu's Călin (file de poveste) and Luceafărul (The Evening Star) (1884). According to George Călinescu's framework (1941), the zburător (sburător ) story emerged as one of the four essential myths in Romanian folk poetry.

Zmeoaică- The Zmeoaică (plural: zmeoaice) is a figure from Romanian mythology. It's a bad character, the wife of a zmeu.

Zmeu-

The Zmeu (plural: zmei, feminine: zmeoaică / zmeoaice) is an incredible monster from Romanian folklore and mythology. Though some accounts refer to the zmeu as a dragon, it is unique since it is humanoid, has legs and arms, the capacity to produce and utilise artefacts such as weapons, ride a horse, and desires to marry young girls. Some observers identify it as a giant (similar to an ogre), a devil, or even a vampire.

In other accounts, Zmeu comes in the sky and spits fire, or he may change shape. In some myths, it carries a mystical valuable stone on its head that sparkles like the sun. It prefers attractive young females, which it typically kidnaps in order to marry. It is nearly always defeated by a brave prince or knight-errant. The zmei has also been mistaken for or confused with the dracu or the balaur type dragon.

Some refer to the zmeu as a "dragon," but it may also play the role of a suitor or lover of a human female, and in some circumstances, they are heroic[4], while in others, they are devilish. Thus, zmeu has been observed to be "anthropo-ophidian," i.e., bearing both man and dragon/serpent-like features: a "scale-covered, human-like body, a snake's tail, and bat-like wings," or alternatively it is a "man's head" resting on a "bird's trunk, [and] a serpent's tail," according to other sources.

Indeed, zmeu has been depicted as a man-eating monster, similar to the Western ogre, with a "rocky tail" but the ability to mount a horse. According to some folklorists, the zmeu was nothing more than a monster with a human face, but slightly taller and bulkier in body, and was capable of human speech, albeit in an unpleasant manner. One publication classified the zmeu as a Rumanian vampire, alongside the vârcolac (blood-drinking werewolf),[12], but the latter is more commonly associated with the blood-sucking strigă (pl. strigoi).

The zmei are also mistaken with the dracu (dragon) by the public. The Řolomonarii ride winged beasts known as zmeu or balaur, depending on their authority. However, in some fairytales, the zmeu only appears as the king of the serpents.

#pagan witch #witch #witchcore #witchblr #beginner witch #witchcraft #folklore #romanian #romanian folklore

[mcd-brainrot-hours]

The Divine Warriors p.1

howdy here’s a post about the divine warriors in my rewrite. this is more of the religious aspect of them. part 2 will be more about them personally. feel free to ask questions!

Irene is the matron of healing, fertility, love, faith, rebirth, and life.

Shad is a symbol of death, decay, plague, destruction, and suffering.

Esmund is the deity of strength, protection, weath, stone, commerce, and smithing.

Kul’zak is the deity of stars, travels, land, weather, music, luck, and storytelling (along with enki).

Menphia is the deity of women, justice, wrath, fury, freedom, choice, and meifwas.

Enki is the deity of knowledge, truth and deceit, storytelling (along with Kul’zak), outcasts, and medicine.

The divine are worshiped in different ways by different people.

-Irene is worshiped by religious folk (mainly in ru’an) and people in the medical field. Really, everyone worships Irene in some way. They typically say a prayer while kneeling, heads bowed with their hands cupped towards the sky (there’s a belief that the rain is the matron’s tears, no one knows why she weeps though). Sometimes, religious extremists will willingly mutilate themselves to be “perfect” in the eyes of the matron. People pray to irene for blessing in fertility, love, life, and whenever they are struggling. She is the most commonly prayed to.

-There are still some mortals who still worship Shad despite it being illegal. When they pray to him, they often do so while kneeling on hot coals. if they are caught worshiping him, they will be promptly executed for their act of treason.

-Esmund is worshiped by guards for strength and people of power during wartime for protection as a graduation ritual, graduates of the guard academy will pray to Esmund while holding a piece of jewelry that is sentimental to them (something that belonged to either a mother or a lover) and they get a symbolic tattoo (idk what yet).

-Enki is worshiped by scholars. They often leave things related to knowledge behind after they pray to Enki (college students joke about leaving blood offerings to enki so they can pass their exams). schools and certain libraries will have shrines dedicated to Enki.

-Kul’zak is worshiped by travellers. They often pray before they leave for their travels and leave offerings to Kul’zak at every stop of their journey. Kul’zak’s followers build him little shrines at certain stops. Those shrines act as guides for fellow wanderers.

-Menphia is mostly worshipped by women and is seen as a symbol of justice amongst them. There's an old legend that once Menphia killed her own father to protect her younger sisters. Many women look up to her as a symbol of strength. women who are caught in abusive relationships will pray to her for the strength to escape. Meifwa in Tu’la will pray to her for safety from the king.

Many churches dedicated to the matron will have stained glass depictions of each of the divine warriors. They are each shown with a halo of light, portraying them as saints. In churches that date back to the divines’ time, there used to be one of Shad. Those were all destroyed, though.

There used to be churches dedicated to Shad but those were all destroyed. Rumor has it there is still one remaining. Nobody has found it.

There are smaller churches through out the specific region each divine warrior is from (except Kul’zak, nobody knows where they came from).

Tu’la has churches dedicated to Menphia and Gal’ruk has one dedicated to Enki (it’s more of a library than a church).

Churches that are dedicated to Irene will also teach about the other divine (mostly Esmund- especially in O’khasis).

The most commonly accepted and preached story of the divine warriors is that Shad was the villian and the rest were the heroes (more on that later >:3 ).

Everybody paints the divine warriors (especially Irene) in such a holy light where they do no wrong (minus Shad).

Little does the world know, the Church went on a little spree and burnt every single book (that they could find) that contained information that opposed what they believed about Irene. But they didn’t find all of them.

Maybe Irene isn’t as holy and pure as they thought.

Maybe the divine aren’t exactly as they seem.

:)

#aphmau #minecraft diaries #mcd #aphblr #rewrite #divine warriors #sorry some of this is a little cryptic #i promise my rewrite will explain stuff better :3 #news flash: the church is a liar

[ae-neon]

Little Rewrite Lore Dump

I haven't started on the A Grave of Thorns and Roses superpost yet but know that Fae are not immortal in my version, just long lived

The King of Hybern, his actions and motivations are...? Okay ? In canon

Mostly they feel flimsy because the reason behind human slavery by the Fae is not very grounded. Humans are infinitely weaker so they don't make a good labour source and ending the world just to have cattle slavery is so ridiculous it makes the KoH a flimsy villain

So let's build the KoH:

The first change that came to mind was making Amarantha his daughter (named Cleo)

Based on the religious and magical lore (which I'm sure I've made a post about under this tag) patterns of magical and religious significance happen in 3s and always relating to the primordial elements of Life, Knowledge and Death. Aspects are modern 'incarnations' of those elements and treated like Saints

The KoH has triplet daughters and thinks (as well as convinces others) that his daughters (Cleo, Clythia and Calliope) are Aspects of these three Elements.

In this version the Fae kingdoms of Xian, Lapplund, Rask, the Black Land etc are all West of Hybern so that Hybern lies between them and Prythian.

Geopolitically Hybern used to be Prythian's greatest ally and a centre of trade in the Fae world. The King's seemingly blessed children only increased that power and influence.

However the KoH is a scholar of the arcane and has been obsessed with trying to tap into magic beyond what modern Fae can do, driven by stories of the Fae of past ages battling demi gods and otherworldy entities

He digs deep and actually manages to find out where Koschei was imprisoned.

Koschei is one of the first 4 beings, the last born child of the Mother. He feeds off Death itself but grew impatient with the Fae's long lives and made humans weak and short lived. (This is why Fae see humans as not just inferior but like a taboo stain)

He along with Stryga (Life) and the Bone Carver (Knowledge) were imprisoned by the Fae of the second age. Their power supply was restricted when they were bound to physical forms, making it so that only elements specifically sacrificed or dedicated to them could feed their power. (Like just the act of death wasn't feeding directly to Koschei anymore, the death had to be dedicated to him to count)

Hybern sacrifices his daughter Calliope (the false Aspect of Death) to Koschei who reveals to Hybern that his daughters are not actually Aspects but he appreciates the depth of the King's sacrifice and will make a bargain with him

Koschei will sustain Hybern, his power and his land indefinitely as long as there is a consistent flow of sacrifices of humans so he can grow strong enough to escape his prison

That's why Hybern went bad, they started doing this dark taboo magic and the king grew older and older without dying but the humans escaping beyond the Wall dried up his power supply and his kingdom fell to ruin

He knows Cleo is a false Aspect but she goes silent in Prythian and then rumours come of a High Queen with eternal life and unfading youth and he knows from his own experience that "Amarantha" has found a demigod (Stryga) and made a deal

He thinks the third (the Bone Carver) might also be in Prythian but his kingdom is basically in ruin and he would need to begin sacrificing again to gain power so he needs to bring down the wall and get the humans

But Prythian lies between Hybern and the Continent

*

This is just the bare bones but hopefully it makes sense

#acotar : the rewrite #a grave of thorns and roses

[ludcake]

Practices of the Faith of the Seven in the Fifth Century, Part I

by Maester Steffon

It is difficult to write of the familiar with the same rigorous detachment as one may write of the foreign, yet for the enterprise of a maester, it is fundamental to understand well that what is written down shall be passed down to generations; and such it is that the future may not preserve our familiarity, and may be aghast with that which we write with such familiar notions, and require guidance in their introduction to our most sacred traditions, that they may one day follow it, too, in greater virtue and intensity than even the ancients could dream of. So it is that I set down my quill, and write of the Faith of the Seven, as it exists in the holdings of the Iron Throne, in this year of 467 since Aegon’s Conquest.

The first and primary precept of the Faith is the belief in the Seven-Who-Are-One, a single deity composed of seven aspects - the Father, the Mother, the Warrior, the Maiden, the Smith, the Crone and the Stranger. This fundamental division, of seven aspects in one single body, is the crux of our iconography and belief - as well as the understanding that each aspect does not exist as an individual, and that the Seven encompass all. Why, the Smith is all that toils, and the Father all who rule and cast doom; the Crone is all the wisdom that may be passed down, and the Stranger all who are cast out and lost. They each have a thousand names, yet in the liturgy, they are referred to as such; and are opposed not by any foreign deity, but that we may rest safe in the confidence that all good and evil are the domain of the Seven, though they may cast upon us challenge and hardship, that even devils serve the divine in intent.

The aspects of the Seven are most often split in two triptychs; the Father, Warrior and Smith, as representative of masculine roles, and the Mother, Maiden and Crone, as representative of feminine roles. Sometimes, however, they are paired up in duos - the Father with the Mother, the Maiden with the Warrior, the Crone with the Smith. In all its iterations, however, one thing remains constant - that the Stranger remains alone and outcast, as a representation of social outsiders, wanderers, ostracism and death.

It is of note that a central aspect of the practice and teachings of the Faith is the understanding of the individual as always centered around aspects, and some maesters of my order have speculated that at one point in the early life of the Andal peoples, there was a meaningful form of a caste split between the different aspects of the Seven. To surrender one’s identity to more fully align themselves with the Seven is noted as a virtue, and very prominent among the High Septons, who cast away their names to live a life dedicated to prayer, and Saints, whose names are stricken from records upon canonization and a title granted befitting their martyrdom. Indeed, all Septons are required to give up their family names to join the Faith, and sign their names away to the books of the Great Sept, and the Silent Sisters, Elder Brothers, Knight Inquisitors, commanders of the Faith Militant and other subgroups of the Faith oft give up their names entirely, or even other forms of personal identification, such as individual possessions, marking clothes, hair and, in more extreme cases, speech.

The Faith of the Seven marks its beginnings in the lands of Andalos, where it is said that the Seven themselves once walked as men - though it bears note that they’re rarely referred to as separate individuals, but as “a single divine in seven forms”, to quote the Seven-Pointed Star. While the text itself does not make a clear distinction as to when, or if, the Seven left the material earth, which has become a theme of much discussion among scholars of theology, it is common folk belief that they’ve joined the stars as their homonymous constellations after the crowning of King Hugor of the Hill. Another popular folk tale notes the position of these stars, and claims that they joined the heavens to guide the Andals in their crossing of the Narrow Sea, and guide them through it.

Whilst the practices of the early faith are shrouded in mystery, what little can be verified is passed down in the writing of the early Andals, who used carved stone to mark their accounts and stories; we've an understanding that the settlement of the seven aspects of the divine were a relatively late development, as we find prayers to several personal ruins to faces that are no longer worshiped, such as the Sailor and the Merchant. The Faith itself argues that these are but other names for the existing faces of the Seven, most prominently the Smith, which “takes the aspect of all forms of toil and labor with which the spirit is enriched”, and is often brought up as perhaps the primary aspect of worship of these early Andals, and often associated with the peoples of the Rhoyne and their metalworking and trade.

It is with the series of migrations to Westeros known as the Andal Invasion, however, that we find much of the basis for the modern practice of the Faith of the Seven; the first Sept across the Narrow Sea, erected at the Fingers, is a structure of seven slabs of stone closed around each other in a henge, the faces of the Seven each painted upon it - since, a larger sept has been built surrounding the structure, in the style of later Arryn period buildings, with white marble walls and fine stained glass windows shining light into the central structure. It's in Westeros that we find evidence for the early organizational structure of the Faith, with tellings of Septons coming across with individual kings and how they each founded their own septries and motherhouses, and how they slowly spread deeper into the continent - at this point, written records begin to survive within the Citadel archives, though they are sparse and often writ in a variation of Old Andalish that is not entirely comprehensible to our modern sensibilities.

The institution of the High Septon in Oldtown, however, is the turning point in terms of the creation of a single liturgy and canon for the practice of the Faith in Westeros; whilst before they directly competed against each other, with Andal king against Andal king, some incorporating the beliefs of the First Men and others adamantly refusing to allow the impurities of heresy into their worship, it was House Hightower's patronage of the Faith centered in their capital, as well as the spread of the maesters and the Citadel as a centralised institution across several kingdoms, that ultimately resulted in the formalization of a single liturgical canon in the form of the modern revisions and translations of the Seven Pointed Star, originally a work passed down by oral tradition with vast regional variation; still, it was a slow process of hegemonic transition into a unified institution of the Faith, as records attest of difficulties in how different septs and lordships understood the rights of the temporal and spiritual, culminating in the final consensus, upheld until the First Baelorite Schism, that it is the local community of faithful which decide the institution of a septon, though a lord has full rights to exile those who prove themselves disloyal, and the High Septon the ability to defrock those who show their devotion to be failing.

Indeed, that status quo of the Faith was upheld for much of its existence; before the reign of King Baelor the Blessed and his subsequent reforms, it was only with the ascent of House Targaryen that the Faith saw significant changes, particularly with its attachment to the legitimacy of House Targaryen after the Faith Militant Revolt and the tradition of the High Septon crowning the King, as set forth by Aegon the Conqueror; indeed, Septon Barth's influence as Hand of the King was so vast that in many ways, during the realm of King Jaehaerys the Faith became an arm of the Crown, a connection that was maintained throughout the reign of Viserys and Aegon II, and shattered with the final results of the Dance of the Dragons.

The understanding of embodiment and sainthood is a fundamental aspect of the Baelorite Reforms and its succeeding movements, in particular the schism succeeding the end of Baratheon rule. King Baelor was a firm believer in the at the time heretical thesis that the Seven still walked the Earth, embodied within the virtuous faithful - it was a cornerstone of his relations with the Church, including the succession of High Septons appointed by his favor and virtue, as he would often compare some of his devout subjects to the Seven themselves. This was later expanded under the rule of Queen Jeyne Baratheon into the doctrine of sainthood, upheld to this day by the Starry Septry primarily, as well as a few others of the temporal institutions; under the thesis of sainthood, a blessed, virtuous few would sacrifice themselves whole in the name of the Seven, and thus abdicate their own identity through martyrdom and become one with the divine - that is to say, “the divine spirit of the Seven-Who-Are-One would replace the physicality of being and undo the individual identity of the self, in favor of a more perfect union with virtue”. The Faith in the North has also found identification with this concept, as Lord Brandon the Pious well established it as a contentious matter of identification among the northern hosts; through syncretism with local practices, the tradition of regnal names, where upon assumption to a lordship a Lord would take a name already blessed as that of a saint and cloth himself in much the same garments as he, became a popular one among the Northmen who hold to the Faith, calling back traditions of the heathen First Men in its practice.

Though such figures are few, the process for canonization is initiated often enough; most often, it is the family of the martyr who requests that the High Septon investigate the miracle of martyrdom, whereupon a knight inquisitor should be granted leave of the land and its people to investigate it. At times, maesters are invited to join the inquiry, as they’re often specialists in the histories which may require to be uncovered to assert the virtue of the deceased, though most often it is the local septons which give testimony as to the beatitudes. Ultimately, if the candidate is canonized, the Faith strikes their name from the record and seeks to erect a septry at the site of their martyrdom, wherein, by custom but not law, the seven faces of the gods are each different depictions of the martyr; and the High Septon travels to the resting place of the deceased, exhuming their body and anointing them with seven oils as though a newborn, marking them by a new name which more perfectly reflects their virtue - the names of men, after all, are base and of the Earth, and to surrender oneself whole to the Faith, a name is the first thing that ought to be dismissed.

The traditional liturgical calendar of the Faith is split in seven months, each marked by one aspect of the Seven; it is then split in seven weeks of seven days for each month, giving a total of 343 days, and one extra week, split along the year, which are usually holidays unaligned to any specific aspect. Though some of the breakaway septries have taken to a secular calendar, the liturgical dates remain consistently lined up with a holy day each seven consecutive days that pass. This “puzzling obsession” with the number Seven is a repeating pattern along the Faith, and is found everywhere, all the more in folk beliefs; seventh children are often seen as lucky, and the seventh year of a summer is seen as the hallmark of the beginning of a particularly cruel winter for many, called the Year of the Stranger. A popular kind of book of prayers are called septologies, in which several lists of seven items are bundled up as curiosities, usually each corresponding to one of the Seven - and with a fitting prayer accompanying it. The pattern of seven is perhaps one of the few tenets of the Faith which remain universal to this day - there are records of attempts to change it, such as the brief enterprise the Harrens took at including the Drowned God as an eighth, and other efforts to focus on the oneness of the Seven undertaken in the early days of the Andals, yet that fundamental thesis, of Seven-Who-Are-One, has remained almost entirely uncontested.

Of the schisms, septologies, and the role of the Faith Militant, as well as modern conceptions of the Doctrine of Exceptionality, we will write more at a later date; yet it must well be said that the Faith which is practiced here is much different from that which is practiced there, and that the God which our ancestors believed in may very well not be the same we worship today - for variety and diversity is perhaps one of the few things that the Faith of the Seven has conserved, despite repeated attempts at further centralization of ecclesiastical authority by King and High Septon alike.

#.txt #provisory au tag #the better asoiaf that exists in my head #the idea of the seven as fundamentally alienating personal identity is so fun to me #and something i really wanna go ham on

[ofoceansandtombsanew]

r/otomegames: Seraphim Ending Guide *Spoilers*

Posted by u/yournameismyrealname

So for the main routes, I’m pretty sure I’ve figured out what it takes to get the good and bad endings for all of the Main and Secret Love Interest routes! So if you’re having any trouble getting the endings you want, hopefully this guide’ll help out anyone trying to 100% everything in Normal Mode so you can unlock Hard Mode!

Diluc: The easiest love interest to win over and the poster boy of the game and the fiancé of the Villainess although the marriage is one that is political. The eldest son of the ailing Lord of House Ragnvindr. Kaeya is key to Diluc’s good ending and the player must balance raising Kaeya’s affection score to a point to restore his relationship with Diluc without triggering his route + exploring the Ragnvindr Manor for more information about his and Kaeya’s childhood in order for Kaeya to begin showing up in Diluc’s route early on in order to rebuild their relationship.

Good Ending: Should you accumulate the necessary love/affection points for his route, after Lumine’s lineage as being the descendant of a saint, a lost member of the royal family and the true extent of her power is discovered Diluc publicly denounces his relationship with the Villainess. In her humiliation and heartbreak, the Villainess attacks Lumine and is killed by Diluc. With the Villainess gone and Kaeya’s loyalty won over, the final battle against Khaenri'ah is 10/10 a good win and Diluc proposes to Lumine shortly after and they get married.

Bad Ending: Same as the Good Ending, but Diluc doesn’t propose to Lumine. Feels guilt-ridden from killing the Villainess and goes into a self-imposed banishment and the story ends abruptly. Lumine never sees Diluc again.

Kaeya: You find out halfway through his route that Kaeya is the prince of a fallen kingdom who was planted in Teyvat for the plans of an ambush on the nation. Struggles between his loyalty to his fallen people and his loyalty to the land that adopted him as one of their own. You have to raise his affection points but also raise Diluc’s enough without triggering his route + exploring the Ragnvindr Manor to learn more about their past.

Good Ending: His loyalty to the Ragnvindrs and love for Lumine win over his loyalty to Khaenri'ah. He confesses to the king the plot of Khaenri'ah and that information is used in the final battle to assure their victory. They end up getting married.

Bad Ending: Should you not have enough affection points and have failed to fix the broken bond between Kaeya and Diluc, Kaeya decides to side with Khaenri'ah and abandons his adopted family. Since, Khaenri'ah is doomed to fail within the game, in the final battle Kaeya willingly lets himself be slain by Diluc.

Villainess: Kaeya has stacked up enough evidence of the Villaness’ inhumane cruelty towards Lumine, a member of the royal family to have her thrown into jail with a planned execution.

Alhaitham: Because he was raised by his grandma who took him in when his late parents were disappointed in his magic being Dendro, Alhaitham doesn’t care about titles or status and his initial interest in Lumine is only based on the rarity of her magic although he is pretty upfront with his intentions. Values intelligence and the like. He is the trickiest love interest to in over so you need to focus the most on building up your magical skill in the first half of his route and focus less on affection. His good ending doesn’t require much in affection points I think so you can save gathering them closer to the second half.

Good Ending: Alhaitham confesses to Lumine so randomly I almost thought I missed something but he confesses after you go to observe the stars which Lumine finds strange when he confesses and awkwardly admits that he had done some studying in romantic love confessions. His route is simple and cute and has nothing to do with the main conflict. You become a loving pair of scholars who don’t care about the magic types of their children.

Bad Ending: Rather than be confessed to, Lumine confesses to Alhaitham and is flat out rejected and the story ends abruptly. A pretty tame ending for a bad end.

Villainess: Alhaitham has stacked up enough evidence of the Villainess’ inhumane cruelty towards Lumine, a member of the royal family, to have her thrown into jail with a planned execution.

Scaramouche: You find out that he is actually a puppet in his route in an attempt to make an immortal heir but he was deemed unfit by his creator despite being the first ‘born’ and was left to his own devices and sent to a foreign kingdom. Now he lashes out at everyone around him. If you want his good ending, you need a high level of affection points otherwise the option to run away with him doesn’t appear at the end of his route.

Good Ending: Rather than be involved in the final battle, Lumine and Scara run away together and dip out the story completely after Lumine heals Aether. In a timeskip, you see that Lumine and Scara live in a unnamed small village with a kid on the way.

Bad Ending: Forsakes his humanity and runs away on his own, only for him to be seen later siding with the fallen empire of Khaenri'ah. After  Khaenri'ah’s defeat, he ends up being taken back to his homeland to be punished by being placed in an eternal prison.

Villainess: killed by Scaramouche when she attempts to attack Lumine.

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Secret Love Interest Guide: Because these love interests are secret, the Villainess is uninvolved in all of these routes. We don’t really get much information on the Main Love interests if we go Secret Love Interest route but I can only assume that Diluc marries the Villainess and they have a miserable marriage, Kaeya is killed by Diluc in the final battle, Alhaitham is just Alhaithaming and Scara runs off as he planned.

Candace: A princess from a foreign desert kingdom who is studying in Teyvat and Lumine’s best friend throughout the course of Normal Mode. You find out that her kingdom is one that is in a bit of decline so she is here in hopes of bettering her kingdom’s position in the world. (Side note, her retainer Dehya is really hot and it sucks she isn’t available to be a Secret Love Interest. Are the rumors that she will be in the DLC true or...?)

Good Ending: Lumine confesses her feelings of love to Candace who returns them in full. After healing Aether, Lumine leaves and goes to the great Red Sands with Candace and helps the kingdom rise with her light magic. It’s a rough start at the end with people in the kingdom unsure if Lumine can be trusted but that quickly changes.

Bad Ending: Not really a ‘bad ending’ per say. She just thinks your confession of love is one of friendship and says she is happy to be your best friend as well. Friendship ending.

Zhongli: A chatty nobleman who gives lots of exposition dumps for someone so young. But rather than this just be the exposition giver, it is explained in his route that he is actually an ancient Geo god posing as a mortal in present day Teyvat. He even created the currency used in the game, how cool is that!

Good Ending: In order to live a life with Lumine where they won’t part from another too soon or too long after, Zhongli gives up his immortality and becomes human to marry Lumine and grow old with her.

Bad Ending: If you don’t have enough affection points when you confess, Zhongli rejects Lumine because their lifespans are too different and he has faced enough heartbreak in his past to allow another and the story ends abrupty.

Baizhu: A famous doctor in Teyvat who suffers from the same illness Aether has. He is studying immortality in an attempt to prolong his life out of fear of his premature death. Interestingly enough, you find an old picture of him and the Villainess together when they were children in his route so I’m wondering what’ll happen if you try interacting with him in Hard Mode. Like Alhaitham’s route, you have to focus on your magic points and developing your magical ability in addition to gathering affection points.

Good Ending: Lumine is able to heal Baizhu of his illness and they wed shortly after.

Bad Ending: Should you not have enough magic points, Lumine is unable to heal Baizhu and he eventually succumbs to his illness.

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Hard Mode Guide: Y’all has any one actually even BEAT Hard Mode because I swear all the dialogue options are just setting the Villainess up for failure. I can’t get past the first event so I can’t even get on any routes or even see if the Secret Love Interest routes are available for the Villainess either. It’s just sad to me that she dies in literally every one of the main routes and if you decide to do any of the secret routes, she’s most likely just stuck in a loveless marriage with Diluc for the rest of her life.

The Villainess is the victim here, like, what did she even do besides react to the shitty situation she was placed in? She’s arguably got a sadder backstory than Scara and is similar in that because of the abuse she faced she became a spiteful person, but he gets to live and she dies in every ending?! That’s so unfair!!

I want to get her to at least ONE happy ending! I wanna know what’ll happen if she gets 100% favorability with the Main Love Interests and Secret Love Interests!  I’ve 100% everything in this game except Hard Mode, so any help would be appreciated.

No spoilers though, please! I just want to know what I should focus on to progress in Hard Mode!

#look she's writing #genshin villainess au #diluc x reader #kaeya x reader #alhaitham x reader #scaramouche x reader #wanderer x reader #candace x reader #baizhu x reader #zhongli x reader

[thecorpselight]

At sea they take the form of sudden squalls, waterspouts, and spindrift columns, which cause wrecks and drowning, driving, besides, the fish from the shallows into deep water, so that the fisherman baits his lines in vain. n land their object is to check and crush back vegetation into its state of mid-winter torpidity; but failing in this, they swirl about in clouds of dust, which, being inhaled, causes grievous sickness in man and beast. Against the demon of the dust-cloud, as it swirls along the highway, a wise man will take this precaution: as it approaches, you are instantly to close your eyes and mouth as tightly as possible, at the same time turning your back upon it until it has swept by, mentally repeating - for you are not to open your mouth, nor as much as breathe, as long as you can help it - this rhyme: - "Gach cuman a's mias a's meadar Gu Pol, gu Peadair 'sgu Bride; Dion, a's seun a's gleidh mi 'o ole 'so chunnart, Air a bheallach, 's air a mhullach 'Sair an tullaich ud thall; Pol a's Peadair a's Bride caomh!" These old rhymes and incantations, abrupt and inconsecutive as they frequently are, and with such recondite allusions, are extremely difficult to translate, though to the competent Gaelic scholar and antiquary the general drift and meaning may be plain and patent enough. The above lines are something like this: - "Be the care of milk-pail, and bowl, and cog Given to Peter and Paul and Saint Bride: Wherever I wander protect me, ye Saints! Let not evil or harm me betide; Hear me, Peter and Paul, and gentle Saint Bride!" Twixt Ben Nevis and Glencoe: The Natural History, Legends, and Folk-Lore of the West Highlands. Alexander Stewart.

#scottish folklore #hymns and incantations #folklore #protective charms #folk prayer #saints #saint bride #saint peter #saint paul

[breakfast-at-timothys]

Founded in 1440 by Henry VI, Eton College (The King’s College of Our Lady of Eton besides Wyndsor), was intended as a charity school to provide free education to 70 poor boys; Henry VI also founding King’s College, Cambridge (The King’s College of Our Lady and Saint Nicholas in Cambridge), with the intention that Eton would serve as its feeder school; Henry taking William of Wykeham’s joint-founding of Winchester College and New College, Oxford, as his model, to the extent of borrowing Winchester College’s statutes and removing its Headmaster and some of Winchester’s Scholars to start Eton College.

Intending Eton should be part of a large and magnificent foundation which included a community of secular priests (10 of whom were Fellows), a pilgrimage church and an almshouse, Henry lavished a substantial income on the school and gifted Eton a huge collection of holy relics among which were fragments of what were supposed to be the True Cross and the Crown of Thorns. He even persuaded the Pope to grant a privilege unequalled anywhere in England: Eton was to have the right to grant Indulgences to penitents on the Feast of the Assumption.

Progress was interrupted however, and much of the building work left uncompleted when Henry VI (a Lancastrian King from the House of Tudor), was deposed in 1461 during the so-termed Wars of the Roses by Edward IV (a Plantagenet King from the rival House of York).

Consequently, Parliament annulled all grants made to Eton by the Lancastrians, the College’s lands were removed, and Edward IV ordered the school’s ornaments, relics and treasures be confiscated and placed instead in St George’s Chapel, Windsor – a royal palace situated on the opposite bank of the River Thames.

Bishop Waynflete (founder of Magdalen College, Oxford; a former provost of Eton and previously Head Master of Winchester College), came to the rescue and arranged for work on the Chapel of Eton College to be completed - the Chapel, still standing today (noble in its simplicity of Perpendicular Gothic design), said only to be part of what might have been one of the largest and finest churches in the country if Henry’s plans had been fully executed.

Lupton’s Range (built by Henry Redman, whose work is also to be seen at Hampton Court) was completed in 1520 with Lupton’s Tower (perhaps Eton’s most iconic image), at its centre. The fourth side of School Yard was added by Provost Allestree in 1665; its main feature is Upper School on the first floor (Eton’s second and largest classroom). In the middle of School Yard stands a bronze statue of the Founder in Garter robes. It was erected in 1719 by Provost Godolphin and is the work of Francis Bird.

More than five and a half centuries after the foundation, Eton College has a fame second to none. From the 70 scholars for whom Henry provided, the school has expanded to about 1,290 boys aged from 13 to 18. Eton’s ’Scholars’ are admitted by competitive examination; the remainder, known as ‘Oppidans’, are distributed between 24 boarding houses. Besides a large part-time staff, there are 143 masters and a Governing Body composed of a resident Provost and Vice-Provost together with 10 non-resident lay Fellows; successors of the 10 priest-Fellows of the original foundation.

The earliest records of school life date from the 16th century and paint a picture of a regimented and Spartan life. Scholars were awakened at 5 am, chanted prayers whilst they dressed and were at work in Lower School by 6am. All teaching was in Latin and lessons were supervised by ’Praepostors’ (senior boys appointed by the headmaster). There was a single hour of play, though football appears to have been popular, for a sentence set for Latin translation in 1519 was ’We will play with a bag full of wynde’.

The school flourished particularly under the reign of George III (1760-1820); George frequently visiting Eton and entertaining boys at Windsor Castle. The school in turn made George’s birthday, the Fourth of June, into a holiday marked by speeches, cricket, a procession of boats along the River Thames, and picnics on ‘Agar’s Plough’.

Eton College is known for its traditions, including a uniform of black tailcoat (or morning coat) and waistcoat, false-collar and pinstriped trousers. Most pupils wear a white tie that is effectively a strip of cloth folded over into a starched, detachable collar, though some senior boys are entitled to wear a white bow tie and winged collar; ’King’s Scholars’ are entitled to use the letters ’KS’ after their name and can be identified by a black gown worn over the top of their tailcoats, giving them the nickname tugs (Latin: togati, wearers of gowns).

During ’Summer Half’ (Summer Term) boys divide into ’Dry Bobs’ (those who play cricket, tennis or athletics), and ’Wet Bobs’ (those who row on the River Thames in preparation for the National Schools Regatta and the Princess Elizabeth Challenge Cup at the Henley Regatta).

One of England’s four remaining boarding schools for boys (the others being Harrow School and the colleges of Radley and Winchester), Eton has educated 19 British prime ministers and generations of the aristocracy, including Princes William and Harry; and thirty-seven ’Old Etonians’ (the term given to the alumni of Eton College) have been awarded the Victoria Cross (the largest number of alumni of any school).

The College motto is ’Floreat Etona’ (May Eton flourish). The school song is ’Carmen Etonense’. And the school colour is a distinctive blue-green known as ’Eton-Blue’; the colour being adopted by the University of Cambridge for the Boat Race against Oxford in 1836, and they have kept it ever since.

Notable Old Etonians include the writers Henry Fielding, Aldous Huxley, Percy Bysshe Shelley, Eric Blair (better know perhaps as George Orwell), and Ian Fleming; The explorers Sir Ranulph Fiennes; Composers Thomas Arne, George Butterworth, Roger Quilter, Thomas Dunhill, Philip Heseltine (known as Peter Warlock), and Hubert Parry (who wrote the song 'Jerusalem’ and the coronation anthem 'I was glad’); And the actors Eddie Redmayne, Damian Lewis, Jeremy Brett and Hugh Laurie.

Speaking of his time as an Eton College schoolboy, actor Tom Hiddleston said there are widespread misconceptions about Eton. ’People think it’s just full of braying toffs. … It isn’t true… It’s actually one of the most broad-minded places I’ve ever been. The reason it’s a good school is that it encourages people to find the thing they love and to go for it. They champion the talent of the individual and that’s what’s special about it.’