#mixed experiences

[writingwithcolor]

Sri Lankan Fairies and Senegalese Goddesses: Mixing Mythology as a Mixed Creator

[Note: this archive ask was submitted before the Masterpost rules took effect in 2023. The ask has been abridged for clarity.]

@reydjarinkenobi asked:

Hi, I’m half Sri Lankan/half white Australian, second gen immigrant though my mum moved when she was a kid. My main character for my story is a mixed demigod/fae. [...] Her bio mum is essentially a Scottish/Sri Lankan fairy and her other bio mum (goddess) is a goddess of my own creation, Nettamaar, who’s name is derived from [...] Wolof words [...]. The community of mages that she presided over is from the South Eastern region of Senegal [...] In the beginning years of European imperialism, the goddess basically protected them through magic and by blessing a set of triplets effectively cutting them off from the outside world for a few centuries [...] I was unable to find a goddess that fit the story I wanted to tell [...] and also couldn’t find much information on the internet for local gods, which is why I have created my own. I know that the gods in Hinduism do sort of fit into [the story] but my Sri Lankan side is Christian and I don’t feel comfortable representing the Hindu gods in the way that I will be this goddess [...]. I wanted to know if any aspect of the community’s history is problematic as well as if I should continue looking further to try and find an African deity that matched my narrative needs? I was also worried that having a mixed main character who’s specifically half black would present problems as I can’t truly understand the black experience. I plan on getting mixed and black sensitivity readers once I finish my drafts [...] I do take jabs at white supremacy and imperialism and I I am planning to reflect my feelings of growing up not immersed in your own culture and feeling overwhelmed with what you don’t know when you get older [...]. I’m sorry for the long ask but I don’t really have anyone to talk to about writing and I’m quite worried about my story coming across as insensitive or problematic because of cultural history that I am not educated enough in.

Reconciliation Requires Research

First off: how close is this world’s history to our own, omitting the magic? If you’re aiming for it to be essentially parallel, I would keep in mind that Senegal was affected by the spread of Islam before the Europeans arrived, and most people there are Muslim, albeit with Wolof and other influences. 

About your Scottish/Sri Lankan fairy character: I’ll point you to this previous post on Magical humanoid worldbuilding, Desi fairies as well as this previous post on Characterization for South Asian-coded characters for some of our commentary on South Asian ‘fae’. Since she is also Scottish, the concept can tie back to the Celtic ideas of the fae.

However, reconciliation of both sides of her background can be tricky. Do you plan on including specific Sri Lankan mythos into her heritage? I would tread carefully with it, if you plan to do so. Not every polytheistic culture will have similar analogues that you can pull from.

To put it plainly, if you’re worried about not knowing enough of the cultural histories, seek out people who have those backgrounds and talk to them about it. Do your research thoroughly: find resources that come from those cultures and read carefully about the mythos that you plan to incorporate. Look for specificity when you reach out to sensitivity readers and try to find sources that go beyond a surface-level analysis of the cultures you’re looking to portray. 

~ Abhaya

I see you are drawing on Gaelic lore for your storytelling. Abhaya has given you good links to discussions we’ve had at WWC and the potential blindspots in assuming, relative to monotheistic religions like Christianity, that all polytheistic and pluralistic lore is similar to Gaelic folklore. Fae are one kind of folklore. There are many others. Consider:

Is it compatible? Are Fae compatible with the Senegalese folklore you are utilizing? 

Is it specific? What ethnic/religious groups in Senegal are you drawing from? 

Is it suitable? Are there more appropriate cultures for the type of lore you wish to create?

Remember, Senegalese is a national designation, not an ethnic one, and certainly not a designation that will inform you with respect to religious traditions. But more importantly:

...Research Requires Reconciliation

My question is why choose Senegal when your own heritage offers so much room for exploration? This isn’t to say I believe a half Sri-Lankan person shouldn’t utilize Senegalese folklore in their coding or vice-versa, but, to put it bluntly, you don’t seem very comfortable with your heritage. Religions can change, but not everything cultural changes when this happens. I think your relationship with your mother’s side’s culture offers valuable insight to how to tackle the above, and I’ll explain why.  

I myself am biracial and bicultural, and I had to know a lot about my own background before I was confident using other cultures in my writing. I had to understand my own identity—what elements from my background I wished to prioritize and what I wished to jettison. Only then was I able to think about how my work would resonate with a person from the relevant background, what to be mindful of, and where my blindspots would interfere. 

I echo Abhaya’s recommendation for much, much more research, but also include my own personal recommendation for greater self-exploration. I strongly believe the better one knows oneself, the better they can create. It is presumptuous for me to assume, but your ask’s phrasing, the outlined plot and its themes all convey a lack of confidence in your mixed identity that may interfere with confidence when researching and world-building. I’m not saying give up on this story, but if anxiety on respectful representation is a large barrier for you at the moment, this story may be a good candidate for a personal project to keep to yourself until you feel more ready.

(See similar asker concerns here: Running Commentary: What is “ok to do” in Mixed-Culture Supernatural Fiction, here: Representing Biracial Black South American Experiences and here: Am I fetishizing my Japanese character?)

- Marika.

Start More Freely with Easy Mode

Question: Why not make a complete high-fantasy universe, with no need of establishing clear real-world parallels in the text? It gives you plenty of leg room to incorporate pluralistic, multicultural mythos + folklore into the same story without excessive sweating about historically accurate worldbuilding.

It's not a *foolproof* method; even subtly coded multicultural fantasy societies like Avatar or the Grishaverse exhibit certain harmful tropes. I also don't know if you are aiming for low vs high fantasy, or the degree of your reliance on real world culture / religion / identity cues.

But don't you think it's far easier for this fantasy project to not have the additional burden of historical accuracy in the worldbuilding? Not only because I agree with Mod Marika that perhaps you seem hesitant about the identity aspect, but because your WIP idea can include themes of othering and cultural belonging (and yes, even jabs at supremacist institutions) in an original fantasy universe too. I don't think I would mind if I saw a couple of cultural markers of a Mughal Era India-inspired society without getting a full rundown of their agricultural practices, social conventions and tax systems, lol.

Mod Abhaya has provided a few good resources about what *not* to do when drawing heavily from cultural coding. With that at hand, I don't think your project should be a problem if you simply make it an alternate universe like Etheria (She-Ra and the Princesses of Power), Inys (The Priory of the Orange Tree) or Earthsea (the Earthsea series, Ursula K. Le Guin). Mind you, we can trace the analogues to each universe, but there is a lot of freedom to maneuver as you wish when incorporating identities in original fantasy. And of course, multiple sensitivity readers are a must! Wishing you the best for the project.

- Mod Mimi

#asks #multiracial #multicultural #south asian #sri lankan #senegalese #west african #identity #representation #worldbuilding #fantasy #mythology #folklore #fairies #deities #adoption #identity issues #mixed experiences #coding

[its-tortle]

— taylor swift albums as months of the year —

#thought about adding ttpd as november #but i did not feel sure enough #also i think folklore is a mix of august/september and evermore is a mix of november/december #but i went with the later months because september is also a retrospective of summer and december includes the experience of november yknow #i hope that makes sense #and i hope my general album to month decisions make sense also #feel free to ask me about my reasoning #or fully disagree with me lmao #taylor swift #ts #taylor swift albums #tortle makes things #ts debut #fearless #speak now #red #1989 #reputation #lover #folklore #evermore #midnights

[mariyekos]

Okay to reblog to help sample size!

#erurandomness #erubabbles #fanfiction #fanfic #I have a few longfics I've come to realize I'll probably never finish #but they have like 50k words and maybe people would enjoy the beginning? #and i *want* to finish them. I just don't know if I'll ever get that spark back that'll let me finish. it's frustrating #my perfectionism has kind of paralyzed me and a mix of that and drifting fandoms has me wondering #would people like it if i shared them so they could experience what's been written? or is it not worth it if they won't be updated? #fic tag

[pierog]

tiny comic about eating toast with friends

#i have sooo many more thoughts about this but i couldnt be arsed making a longer comic..a few ppl seemed to relate so i will put it here #comic #art #artists on tumblr #axolotl #studyblr #academia #<-why the fuck not. it's set at uni #furry #mine #personal #i do wish i spent more time on this but i got 80hd #anyway the experience of loved ones + food is so important to me #and those little moments which you don't realise are so special until they're gone #i'm very bad at living in the present.. always have been.. gotta learn to appreciate wot i have #my hall experience was a mixed bag - loads of fun but also problematic as an institution and i dont miss it #im lucky to have heaps of friends who i love :) #but it's my first year as a Real Adult outside of academia and im trying not to be scared of growing up

[mrs-gauche]

Alas, so long as the music plays, we dance.

(Cole's cryptic comments + The Song)

#dragon age #dai gifs #flemeth #solas #cole #my gifs #you know.. isn't it interesting how DA4 seems to be going for a purple color scheme now? #....and if you mix blue and red you get WHAT?? 👀👀 #EXACTLY #coincidence?? I think NOT lmao #if the ''song is sundered''... then what'll happen when everything sings the same again? 👀 #then there's that one line from Solas in Haven.. #''harmonizing with new magic in an unending symphony'' that's also a very interesting way of phrasing #there's that musical connotation again #but let me tell you.. #listening to super eerie soundtracks while making this was certainly an experience 😶 #I'm just happy I managed to make a gif set after 84 years.... #and it only took me [insert unhealthy amount of hours] #hahaha 💀 #at least I still remember how the flycam works lol

[dlartistanon]

Fellas is it gay to top the Radiant Knight

#arknights #degenbrecher #nearl #dlarts #the question isn't 'who would win' #(it's the people watching) #the dynamic is an eclectic mix of respect and degen wanting to be the one to knock her down #in their fated match; should it ever come to pass #also degen has like 25 years of combat experience... that's as long as nearl's been alive;; whew

[chellychuu]

Misty 💛

Kofi ♡ Inprnt

#First art after surgery! I missed drawing haha even though it’s only been a few days! #I tried some crayon brushes! I kinda wanna experiment with different brushes to mix things up! #Misty #misty pokemon #kasumi #kasumi Pokémon #anipoke #pokemon art #pokemon #art #artists on tumblr #cute #90s anime #90s nostalgia #digital art #fanart #togepi #anime #anime art #anime fanart #pokémon #pokeblr #artist

[starry-bi-sky]

I'm in A Mood™ (stressed) so im going back to my roots of melting two character together into one person. So bruce wayne!danny fenton. Danny Fenton who, for eight years, grew up in a beautiful gothic manor with his mom and dad under the name "Bruce Wayne". Playing piano with his mother, running around the manor with his father.

Then when he's eight it's ripped away from him. There's blood on his hands and pearls pooling at his feet, and both his parents are dead in front of him.

And he gets shipped off to distant relatives "the Fentons" shortly after, Alfred close on his heels because someone needs to take care of him, someone that knows him. Bruce goes to the Fentons for the safety of anonymity. Gotham's press wants to sink its teeth into him.

Danny misses his city even if it took everything from him. There are shadows in his eyes and he's pale as a sheet even beside his distant cousins, and they change his name to "Danny Fenton' because nobody should know that their newest child was illustrious orphan Bruce Wayne.

They call him Bruce behind closed doors. Danny prefers it that way, he clings onto the name -- the one his parents gave him -- like a lifeline. He makes friends with Sam and Tucker. Tucker takes one look at the willowy, morbid little boy standing in the corner like a shade, ghosts in his eyes, and drags him out into the sunlight, and takes him over to Sam.

When Danny is twelve, he's still not over it -- and he's a little obsessed with the Fentons' research, with the morbid. He has books upon books on death, murder, detective work. Anything he can get his hands on. And stars. He loves stars.

Alfred owns the apartment next to them and comes over regularly. Danny clings to him.

When Danny is twelve, he's still quiet, meek, a shy little thing prone to being bullied. Freaky little Fenton with the night in his eyes and too-cold skin even before he put one foot in the grave. in a sleepover in his room with Sam and Tucker, he tells them the truth. They're his friends, he trusts them.

"My name is Bruce." he murmurs, voice quiet as the breeze, always quiet. he's staring at his star-covered sheets.

"Like Bruce Wayne?" Tucker asks, a joking tone in his voice.

Danny smiles a little, lamb-like with insecurity. "I am Bruce Wayne." And he takes them down to the lab, disrupting Maddie and Jack, to prove it. Sam tells them of her own wealth then shortly after. They start calling Danny "Bruce" in private too -- its trust. Thats what it is. It's trust.

Sam goes to media functions and comes back with aching feet and complaints on her tongue -- and Danny soaks it up all like a sponge, splayed across a beanbag chair with Tucker in her room. He's not envious of her, he used to go to events with his parents and they kept him safe from the ugly of Gotham's Elite. For the most part. He's had comments made at him, he doesn't miss them.

Alfred returns to the manor semi-regularly, Danny goes with him. he wanders the hallways and helps Alfred clean, the last thing either of them want is for their home to fall into disrepair. He brings Jazz with him next time, then Tucker, then Sam. They all help him clean, and he shows them his room. The one across from his parents', it feels strange.

When Danny dies when he's fourteen, the first adult he tells is Alfred. He and Jazz go over to his house more often than they stay in the Fentonworks building. At least at Alfred's, the food doesn't come to life. Alfred sits at the kitchen table and weeps when Danny tells him, Jazz is upstairs, and its just the two of them.

Danny's ghost form wears pearls around his wrist and the gloves look stained with some kind of black substance. He looks like a child who died in a lab accident, but he also looks like a child who has shadows dripping off his shoulders, curling at his feet, hanging from his eyes.

because amorphous blob batman has my heart always and danny/bruce will not escape it even in death even if that IS the only reason im giving him Mild BatBlob Vibes...so far

when they go to the manor, alfred helps danny make a pile of stones between Martha and Thomas' graves, nobody but the two of them (and sam and tucker) will know what it means. (not even bruce's children later down the line, not for a long, long time)

danny dives into ghost fighting on shaky feet and not half as witty as he once was in one world. he's skittish, skittering between blasts from shadow to shadow and clumsily making his way through each battle. but helping people lights a fire in him. he still has shadows dripping off his feet but there's a purpose in his eyes.

and god help him, he's going to help people.

#dpxdc #dp x dc #danny fenton is not the ghost king #dp x dc crossover #dpxdc crossover #dpdc #dpxdc prompt #this is just me torturing danny for a little bit because im stressed and i cried for an hour while i was driving so im taking it out on B #thanks for being my little stress ball danny #aha my old middle school habit of frankensteining two characters together is resurfacing again :) yall should've seen my wattpad drafts #in middle school. i had 50 of them and most of them were me combining two characters together to make one person and putting them in one au #my most memorable being skydoesminecraft and harry potter. THAT was a fun worldbuilding experience #do i think that growing up with the fentons would fix bruce/danny completely?? hurm. no. dont kid yallselves jazz is not a licensed #therapist not even at like. nine when she meets danny. she's not helping him through his trauma in the slightest. she's nagging. #she's his sister or sister-like figure before she's his therapist. would he be #*entirely* like canon bruce tho?? no. dannybruce is a mix of the both of them. but this is still the first post of the au and is more so #just me doing the equivalent of popping a stress ball so nothing is smoothed over. mostly im just trying to keep bruce's trauma prominent i #danny's character because he IS Bruce. i dont want him to just be 'danny with bruce's backstory but without any of the ugly bits'. #danny and bruce is used interchangeably because they're the same person but sorry if his personality feels imbalanced i came up with this o #the spot. was going to type more but the stress has left me. for now. watch ur back danny 👀

[riense]

freckles ✨

#I was experimenting with coloring #mixed feelings about the result #but any experience is good experience #i guess… #bg3 rolan #bg3 #baldur’s gate 3 #my art #fanart

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Wei Wuxian eats a watermelon. Yep!

#poorly drawn mdzs #mdzs #wei wuxian #nothing out of the ordinary here. Just good fandom fun #Watermelon discourse has been going on and I want to let people know where I stand. #This came about because I wanted to experiment with translating the (traditional) PD-MDZS style to a digital format #and while sitting there thinking of what to draw...my inspiration came to me. #This is the equivalent of sneaking vegetables into the spaghetti sauce but its important to get your gotdamn veggies #I'm not very good at organizing my thoughts (evidence: the tags of every post on this blog). #but please do not look away from this moment in history. One person cannot solve it and no one expects you to. #Even if it is just spending time doing some research on the situation and history. Or boosting posts that are more articulate #Any action helps! ANY action! Everyone has a different level of capacity for this and that's okay. Anything is fine. Dont let it be nothing #Anyhow. did I like doing this digitally? Yes but its mixed. It was faster but also spark the same joy I usually get while drawing #I will have to get over it very quickly though. You will all see why in a few days

[notebookpapers]

I know for a fact that Miles has a B in Spanish because they’re teaching that Español de España con sus vosotros y acentos colonizadores I feel it in my bones

#like I get that’s where the language originated but NO ONE USES THAT HERE #NO ME DIGAS SOBRE VOSOTROS DÍGAME CÓMO PUEDO PASAR LOS EXÁMENES AP #miles morales truly the experience of every mixed kid taking Spanish in high school #miles is one of those kids whose fluent but speaks spanglish cause he can i just know it #across the spiderverse #Miles morales #spiderman across the spiderverse #spiderman: across the spiderverse #spiderverse

[comradekatara]

Ik you went into the whole stupid "nonbenders are oppressed" thing in lok in one of the asks I sent you, but it keeps on making me think about how much I wish i got to see mako and bolin's mixed earth kingdom fire nation heritage play a role in the story. Maybe if lok had the themes of atla it could go into how the two are treated differently for Mako looking more fire nation and bolin looking more earth kingdom. I think it'd be interesting if Korra keeps on hearing Amon's followers yell on the streets about how benders oppress everyone but then notice how Bolin gets treated significantly better when he pretends to be a non-bender fire national/lean into his fire nation heritage by ignoring his bending compared to when he is openly an earthbender which directly ties him to his earth kingdom heritage.

right!!! i am literally always saying this. like it’s sooo weird how lok does not understand what it means to be mixed in any meaningful capacity. neither with the kataangs nor with mako and bolin, they’re each just largely tied to the element they bend with no consideration given to the other half of their heritage. bumi doesn’t consider himself an air nomad until he magically gains airbending, despite his father literally being the only air nomad currently in existence. instead of trying to preserve his familial heritage, he completely undermines all of aang and katara’s cultural values and joins the fucking military. kya doesn’t seem to give a shit about air nomad culture either, seeing as she doesn’t even know guru laghima’s name (and he’s the wisest air nomad who ever lived!). despite apparently being an independent free spirit who values her freedom, she seems 100% affiliated with her mother’s heritage, because waterbender. even though the values of community and tradition kind of conflict with her whole “you can’t tie me down” attitude, so. um. and they never once explore how the value of, for example, hunting as an important cultural tradition in the water tribes may conflict with the value of vegetarianism and doing no harm to any living organism. these are interesting tensions that could have been explored!! but instead, tenzin is merely an air nomad who takes after his father both culturally and physically, kya is a waterbender who takes after her mother, and bumi is a…..cosmopolitan, and nobody likes him.

as for mako and bolin, they don’t even get the privilege of being the children of the avatar and the chief of the southern water tribe (i said what i said), so being mixed race in the neocolonial cesspit that is republic city would be bound to cause some tensions. but instead of actually addressing what the ramifications and complex colonial dynamics of inter/multiracial family structures in a postwar society that is nonetheless still struggling to contend with a century’s worth of global imperialism and the lingering trauma of that violence would be, they kind of just….ignore it. yes, mako is a firebender who takes after his fire nation mother, and bolin is an earthbender who takes after his earth kingdom father, and they live in a city that was once earth kingdom land that now functions as a neocolony of the fire nation, but also, the police force are all earthbenders, and there isn’t any sort of lingering racial/colonial tensions in this city whatsoever! you know how mako and bolin were orphaned as children and forced to live on the street and dumpster dive for food and eventually did labor for a gang because they had no other means of survival? are we going to question or implicate the systems that enabled those abject conditions? no, of course not. look at mako fumble two gorgeous, ridiculously privileged girls! look at bolin do the charleston! isn’t republic city FUN???

#bakedbeanchan #asks #lok crit #in the lok rewrite that lives in my head Children of Mixed Experience get the identity crises they DESERVE 😤😤 #but yeah. what a mess #analysis #bumi ii #kya ii #tenzin #mako #bolin #bolin&mako

[horsechestnut]

AU to add to the list of AUs I'll never write: All of the Robins are de-aged to the age they were when they became Robin. Their memories are also reset to that point, and somehow they're in their Robin suits.

So you have a 16 year old Steph, desperately trying to wrangle 4 feral children who look nearly identical and won't tell her their names because "you do know what a secret identity is, don't you Stephanie?"

#also Duke can be there if you want but I get mixed reports on if he's Robin or not and I haven't reached him yet in my read through #stephanie brown #batfam #jason todd #dick grayson #tim drake #damian wayne #robin #Steph has years of babysitting experience #and yet she is nowhere near prepared for this #She knows that one of these kids is Tim #and it's not the eight year old or the one with a sword #but under the mask it could be either of the other two #also where the hell did the one with the sword come from??? #Why does he keep trying to kill people??????? #And wait... hang on this guy's saying he's the second Robin #isn't he supposed to be dead? #I don't know why Bruce isn't around to help her #but for at least the first day it's Steph against the 4 feral children #all of the robins #au ideas #batfamily

[berrydoodleoo]

i am the emissary and i shall never die

#ffxiv #ff14 #elidibus #themis #venat #emet selch #lahabrea #hermes #i think the parallels between themis and venat are really interesting #their physical similarities and everything else #i really liked the new raids and new i had to make something with themis in this room it's honestly just an amazing space #i tried to capture the moments before the sundering #when the convocation resolved to sacrifice the life on the planet and venat stood up against them #the timeline is a bit mushy of course #especially after the flashback scene in ew #but eh creative liberties i guess #i wanted to capture a mix of grief and resolve #and i tried to make it look painterly #it's something i've been experimenting with but this is the first time i pulled it off in a way i like #click to see the full res version! #ffxiv 6.4 spoilers

[fleshwizard]

The Parakeet King

Based on The Boy and the Heron.

#i enjoyed the movie !! but didnt understood everything ahahaha #aaand i didnt like the parakeet king design #so here's my version?? #i think it was way too different compared with the regular parakeets and not weird enough #character design #the boy and the heron #chara design #parakeet king #ghibli #fan art #it started as a quick sketch and ended with mixed media and all ahaha #bird #king #fantasy #also moleskin sketchbooks are good for sketches but for colors it has been a terrible experience ahahah

[torra-and-the-toons]

>You can't STOP! THE! MUSIC!

>We'll just go underground!

>Crash! Boom! Bang!

#my art #animaniacs #sweet cap'n cakes #sweet cap'n maniacs #yakko warner #wakko warner #dot warner #this whole piece was an experiment lol #trying out a mix of old and new style and really experimenting with colors #though idk if I like the way the lines/ color turned out but hm #I tried lol