#or even general east asian architecture

[earlymornings]

regarding sumeru...

hi friends! this is my quick take on what's happening with hoyoverse, the general design of sumeru, and the stream of racism allegations that have resurged recently. i think it's worth trying to analyze why hoyoverse designed sumeru the way it looks like so far (and because i want to add my two cents to the discourse lol).

here are some context:

hoyoverse is a chinese game dev company

sumeru is inspired by the people, religions, architecture, and cultures of south asian countries (india, nepal, pakistan, etc.) and countries in SWANA* (egypt, iran, the UAE, turkey, etc.)

we are only getting a portion of sumeru and 3 new characters in the 3.0 update

here are some of the main problems players have with the current status of sumeru:

the combination of the different countries and their cultures and religions

the lack of diversity

the general lack of effort put into sumeru's design, given the release of the fatui harbingers and the outstanding quality demonstrated in the interlude teaser

in order to address these concerns, i think it's important to think about hoyoverse and the stances its employees have on this issue. this does not mean i am playing devil's advocate or excusing the company's ignorance, but i think it's critical to understand the potential root causes.

because hoyoverse is based in china, their standard of diversity is much, much lower compared to that of other countries, such as the US and canada, which experience decades worth of immigration and are known as melting pots. coupled with east asia's internalized colorism and xenophobia, mainland folks simply do not get much exposure to POC. this means two things. first, they might not understand why global players are so adamant about POC representation and diversity – the developers may not even know how to go about bringing diversity because what they think is diverse is different from our understanding. second, hoyoverse will prioritize its east asian, particularly its chinese, fanbases, and let's be real, any character that's not flour-pale will not be as popular with the latter.**

the lack of popularity then becomes a financial issue for hoyoverse. hoyoverse generates a large portion of its money from the wishing system. it's thriving because so many people whale for 5-star characters and C6-ing them. if hoyoverse's largest community stops pulling for characters, they won't be able to keep up and maintain high quality with future productions (both for genshin and other games).

i promise y'all that there are at least a few designers and staff members in hoyoverse who want diversity in the same way that we do, who want unique characters with intricate lore, and who are willing to put in the effort. but at the end of the day, they are just designers and many of them will be forced to revise darker-skinned character drafts.

besides literal money, another currency that hoyoverse is limited to is time. one thing that i think hoyoverse hasn't disappointed fans in is the consistency of the game. there is always new content, and even during its hiatus in response to the shanghai mass quarantine in may, they provided mini events and extended the banners to make it more accessible for F2P players. while having constant releases is wonderful and retains interest, that means quality will be compromised in other aspects.

in this case, it means the design and intention put into sumeru. to elaborate, by design, i don't just mean character designs (though this is debatable because the community has a pretty bad habit of hating new characters, especially 5-stars, but then growing to love them) but also the geography, architecture, and personality of sumeru.

as sumeru is marketed right now, its concept is that it is a collage of all the aforementioned countries and their respective cultures. unless sumeru is separated into geographical sections to represent the distinct cultural influences, to mish-mash these countries' religions, peoples, and traditions together is disrespectful and reinforces harmful monolithic stereotypes.***

sumeru will be a literal game-changing region because it has so much information to bring: in-depth lore, the dendro element and everything that entails, etc. this is a pivoting point, so that's why it's frankly saddening and anticlimactic for hoyoverse to not put in the effort. i understand that in update 3.0, we will only be getting a taste of sumeru, so while it's hard to judge the production of the region with the limited information we have right now, it's important to push for diversity and representation while we still can and also give hoyoverse time to make the necessary changes correctly.

to summarize: i don't think hoyoverse is being intentionally or actively racist. i think it comes from a place of ignorance, so i personally think it's better to approach this problem with constructive criticism than to send hate messages to hoyoverse staff members who work so hard regardless. if we don't tell them why and what they're doing is wrong, then the game developers won't know how to resolve the concerns. furthermore, sumeru hasn't officially come out yet, and what we have seen in the teasers will be more refined and polished in the released product. i don't think we need to panic or retaliate, i just think we should remind hoyoverse so that they don't put representation on the back burner.

as for solutions, sending messages through different media platforms, emails, etc. has worked in the past (e.g. during genshin's 1st anniversary).**** but it doesn't stop there. just like every other region released so far, sumeru isn't just limited to the 3.0 patch; we will continue getting content for it for the rest of the game, so unless we see results, we have to be consistent with the feedback. that looks like continuing to send messages until we see tangible, permanent change, not being complacent in the lack of POC representation, and more.

i probably missed a lot of great points out there, but this is all my last brain cell can come up with. please repost and add your own thoughts because the more ideas, the better! (if you want to repost this onto other platforms, just make sure you credit me!!)

hope everyone gets their kazuhas, heizous, and yoimiyas in 2.8!!!

--

*i recognize that the name "the middle east" has colonial roots, but because the region is so popularly known as such, i'm using it so that no one gets confused. edit: thanks to @najmaviper for pointing this out, but a decolonized term that is often used is SWANA. you can find more information at the initiative's website: https://swanaalliance.com/about#:~:text=S.W.A.N.A.%20is%20a%20decolonial%20word,contain%20and%20dehumanize%20our%20people.

**this is not to say that all individuals from south asian or SWANA are darker-skinned, but it's crucial to push for change to help gamers who are tan, brown, and black. this is especially important to do with games as popular as genshin impact because it can cause ripple effects.

***here's a tweet that states this argument eloquently: https://twitter.com/timelysumeru/status/1546500639970435072

****i know another method that has worked has been leaving a bunch of bad reviews in app stores, but i don't think it's applicable right now since we know so little about sumeru. if the problem persists, sure, but i think sending bad reviews right now just antagonizes the situation even further.

#genshin impact #genshin #hoyoverse #mihoyo #sumeru #genshin sumeru #sumeru leaks #dendro #collei #tighnari #al haitham #dori #dehya #genshin leaks #genshin impact leaks #dendro archon #kusanali #genshin impact imagines #genshin imagines #genshin x reader #fatui #fatui harbingers

[voidpumpkin]

YOU FIGHT ON THE COLONISERS SIDE IN SUMERU?!?!

I’m honestly losing track of all the bullshit going on with Sumeru, mihoyo, what the fuck, how are you this bad? For my own sake I'm putting all this nonsense in one place.

Sumeru is a nation in Genshin Impact, like all other nations it’s based off a real world culture. Mondstadt: Germany, Liyue: China, Inazuma: Japan, Snezhaya: Russia, Fontaine: France, Natlan: South America and Africa, Sumeru: SWANA countries (note the non-white/east Asian cultures are just lumped together rather than being separate, distinct cultures.)

First inklings of the problems to come with Sumeru were apparent with the travelling npcs, who are all incredibly pale. They look exactly like the white npcs. Pale SWANA people exist, but they are the minority, the Sumeru npcs we see should not all be so pale. Mihoyo has a long history of colourism, out of the 48 playable characters only 2 are darker than milk, there are no darker skinned npcs, the majority of the non-white playable are paler than most white people. In their other game, Honkai Impact there is only one character with a darker skin tone than milk, that is Carole Pepper, who has slight tan. Despite how pale she already is a major characteristic of her is that she hates how dark her skin is. I repeat one of the main characteristics of Honkai’s only non-white coloured character is that she hates her skin tone. Mihoyo has shown themselves to be consistently colourist before, including how they characterised there only slightly darker skinned characters, Kaeya and Xinyan, both being described as more aggressive than their paler counterparts.

Then designs for Sumeru were released. Not only were they white as fuck, but there designs were quite frankly messy. In the case of Tighnari there was no discernible connection to SWANA culture, and in the case of Doir, she is straight up an orientalist caricature of Indian culture rather than SWANA culture, so they couldn’t even get their caricatures to stick to one region. The conflation of SWANA cultures with each other and non SWANA cultures is a form of racism/orientalism and is unacceptable. The orientalism that is Dori falls in line with the larger misogynistic trend in Genshin Impact, virtually all girls who aren't aren't little children are sexualised/fetishized in some way, with high heels, objectifying outfits, and egregious amount skin shown (something not shared with the vast majority of their male counterparts). This objectification is especially dangerous with the SWANA characters as it is this fetishization and objectification that has been used to justify and condone sexual violence against SWANA women. More details about Dori were released, which showed her riding a genie like it was an animal which people criticised as being disrespectful due to genies being based off the Djinn of Islamic belief.

Then the archon was leaked. And she was a white elf child with a generic Isekai design and absolutely no connection to any SWANA. I repeat, the leader of a supposedly SWANA coded nation has nothing SWANA about her. Her whiteness is even more egregious as a 2D cutscene showed her as a brown skinned adult. Not long after this the trailer for Sumeru dropped. With generic and not very good ‘oriental’ music playing it showed a tropical jungle landscape. Tropical jungles don’t really exist in SWANA countries, don’t get me wrong they do have vast beautiful forests but this didn't resemble them in the slightest. Instead of a) showing how cultures can flourish in desert landscapes as SWANA cultures have done for millennia and the plants that can and do grow there. Or b) showing an accurate depiction of the actual forests that exist in SWANA countries, dispelling some widespread myths about the area. But instead they just went with a jungle. During this trailer we also got to see some of the architecture with only slithers of it referencing actual SWANA architecture.

It was right around this time that Mihoyo themselves put out the terrible defence of ‘it’s just a fantasy world, it’s all cool bro, stop being so mad’ an abysmal defence that doesn’t hold up in their own considering how extensively Mondstadt, Liyue and Inazuma were based on Germany, China and Japan respectively. The level of research and care that went into making these areas and the characters from these areas is what makes Sumeru such a slap in the face. Not helped by the names being accurate. The names of the Sumeru characters are accurate, which shows that Mihoyo is in fact capable of doing research into SWANA cultures and putting it into their game, proving that the orientalist caricature was a choice.

More designs were released, more orientalism. Then the harbingers dropped, a pretty blatant distraction tactic from the racist mess that is Sumeru, with people noting noting that this sliver of Russian culture has more care an accuracy than most of Sumeru.

A couple more Sumeru designs were released/leaked, hinted at being dark skin before release but in fact had the world's slightest tan. These were Dehya and Cyno, who are Eremites, the indigenous people of Sumeru and now live in the desert (keep that in mind.) There was also the release of the desert bandits, enemy npcs who hilariously are noted as being more accurate than the playable characters. The enemies you fight are more accurate than the playable characters (though they still are incredibly inaccurate, especially the women), this will become darker with the recent release of Sumeru’s backstory.

Now the backstory of Sumeru has apparently been released, with a rough summary of it being: the eremites (the indigenous people of Sumeru who are for some reason named after a type of Christian hermit) lived in harmony in Sumeru before the Scarlet king fought the original Dendro archon, creating the desert. The dendro archon subsequently forced the indingenous people to the desert and built a wall. They built a wall to keep out the indigenous people they kicked out, and the enemies you fight are from the desert, i.e. you’re fighting the indigenous people of sumeru, on the side of the coloniser. Genshin already has a history of anti-indigenous racism with the hilichurls, humanoid beasts, countless of which you slaughter, with native americans used as reference for their behaviour. People have also pointed out the uncomfortable parallels to the Israeli genocide of Palestine, white people forcing out the darker skinned indigenous people whilst also claiming to be the ones who are causing it to bloom. 

Whilst we don’t know how this plot will end, considering the track record of genshin and other companies the plot is unfortunately likely going to resolve with, ‘the indigenous people and colonisers should just get along.’

Pretty much every single thing about Sumeru is racist and orientalist in someway and it just gets worse with every new update. 

An especially annoying part is the fans so insistent on denying and defending a fucking gacha game of all things, showing how racist they are in both their support and defense of this mess.

Fuck genshin, fuck mihoyo, and fuck the fans defending it.

I am quite frankly terrified for how they will handle natlan, a South American and African coded nation.

#genshin impact #mihoyo #honkai 3rd #carole peppers #sumeru #orientalism #racism #misogyny #anti indigenous racism #kaeya #xinyan #hilichurls #nahida #genshin harbingers #dehya #cyno #colorism #natlan #mondstadt #liyue #inazuma #fontaine #dori #tighnari #hoyoverse

[elderflowergin]

SBS Hyena, episode 1 rewatch (part 3)

Today we will look at cute watch ads, the storm before the actual storm and bonus Yoon Hee-jae being expensive.

Hwang Bo-ra is so wonderful in everything she does. Sim Yu-mi has a great sense of style and an equally loud personality, but she feels quite personable. This means she’s quick to make friends and pull them in, which is what puts Jung Geum-ja in Yoon Hee-jae’s circle.

Kindly note her single earring, the contrast of her aqua blazer, her neon pink nails and her lip. Let's put a pin in that comment by her.

(I live for Hee-jae saying he's expensive. I'm sure you are, babe.)

On any other show, their age difference would have been played for hijinks, laughs or a plot point. Ga Gi-hyeok as the bestie might have told his friend he could do much better (untrue). Boo Hyeon-a might have had an entire jealousy arc with her (you know they would have done that.)

Not on this show. This is the first and the last time a named character says anything on the topic. It’s a sometimes grating comic character who makes the comment, which would have been a sneaky way to slide in something mean or judgmental. But there's none of that here. It’s super refreshing. 

And then, total obliteration: 

Kim Hee-sun is luminous, sexy as hell and completely in control. Yoon Hee-jae may have upped the stakes here by turning up and dropping that outrageous line about leaving with him, but Kim Hee-sun does the metaphorical equivalent of cuffing his chin, smirking and saying "Let me show you how it's done, dear boy." Of course he leaves like he's been lassoed.

Ju Ji-hoon is never going to look like this in a show, ever again. I feel like the costuming team sat down with the PD and went, listen, we have an actor-model in the house. Let us at him. Let us put him in gorgeous suits and saturated colours and lots of great lighting.

This is presumably the Gran Bleu, which is where they met twice more, and...the lighting is not like this on those occasions. Here it's cosy, with lots of warmth on their faces, but there are also plenty of shadows. Almost as if to say that romantic lighting also tends to conceal a lot. 

The last time they do meet here, the lights are up, because the show's over, and the things they say and do are so achingly loving that you won't need any romantic pap. Substance over form. 

This entire sequence plays out like a generic, if extremely posh, romance. Form, rather than substance: two beautiful people listening to the same record, cooking in the kitchen, looking at art dressed like they should be in fashion magazines - culminating in this gorgeous windswept kiss with the sun setting and the mountains behind them. HIGH ROMANCE, or rather, what we think high romance should look like.

I say “generic”, because this could be any couple. There is nothing here that is specifically them. It’s stock architecture over the heart of things that Hee-jae loves, but there is nothing else of him, and absolutely nothing of her. Even that kiss on the rooftop is made to look exactly like those ubiquitous East Asian watch commercials with the blurry slow-motion - and it is, because it’s very smart PPL, I’m certain - but it enhances, rather than detracts from the generic quality of this sequence. 

Anyway, the ad film’s coming to an end because…it’s courtroom time. DUN DUN DUN.

#sbs hyena #sbs hyena recap

[shitminds]

Arabic That Is Not ‘Yala’: How Moon Knight Is The Anti-Orientalist Dream 

Alternative Title: Why I LOVE Mohamed Diab 

In most contemporary pieces of media set in any area deemed the “East”, orientalist portrayal is almost certain. It is easy to spot works in which ignorance about non-western, non-white cultures is prominent- othered people of exotic traditions. In Aladdin, for example, there is an obvious mixture, for lack of a better term, of Middle Eastern and South Asian traditional attire, landmarks and street markets. And when you’re mixing up completely different regions of the Earth, there is little hope for country-specific accurate representation. A more recent, and frankly hilarious, example is Sam Wilson’s complete gibberish that is meant to pass for Arabic in the Falcon And The Winter Soldier. Seriously, it would’ve taken you two minutes on Google Translate to get it right, but alas. 

All of that is to say I’m no stranger to the increasingly frustrating portrayal of the Arab world, specifically, and the “East”, generally. 

Moon Knight, however, was a glaring exception. When I started watching the series, I had no clue that there would be an element of Arabic or Egyptian culture included in the show let alone have it be a main part of the plot; therefore, I can safely say I was surprised when Layla showed up with her slight accent. A quick google search revealed May Calmaway and Mohammed Diab, and I just knew this show was going to be so fucking good. 

I’ll start this off by talking about the soundtrack because oh my god it was unbelievable- the perfect balance of classic Egyptian music like Abd Al Halim’s Shghalony and Warda’s Batwanas Beek and modern “mahraganat” like Made in Egypt. In stark contrast to whatever the fuck kinds of music usually play with the ahhh-ahhhs in the background when shots of The Pyramids or Morrocan street markets are on screen, Moon Knight chose the right music to play at the right time and it landed. 

There are also the accurate shots of the architecture across the Nile, the street markets (that looked almost identical to El Ataba), and the buildings in downtown Cairo. Everything from that one hilarious taxi driver to the streetwear was absolutely on point. I genuinely thought they were shooting on location because of how precise the shots of the city were until I learned that the set was built in Budapest. 

I’m not exactly an avid reader of Ancient Egyptian Deities, but as far as I’m aware, the history was quite factual too. The Ancient Egyptian spoken was cool to hear as well, but unfortunately, there will be no fact-checking from me here. 

Other minor details include things like the dialect, which actually was Egyptian and not Jordanian for once, the traffic patterns (which is something you’d never even think of if you’ve never been to downtown Cairo), and tiny little things said in passing like Layla’s name pissing people off (which, I’m pretty sure, is because in Arabic it means wine). 

By the end of it, I was so completely enamoured with the whole series. I am entirely In Love with Layla’s character, just ass over tits for her. It was the first time I ever watched any media with a satisfactory portrayal of the “East”, and it left me wanting more. 

THANK YOU MOHAMED DIAB!!!

#this was made for me #a rant #no but seriously this show was THE HIGHLIGHT of my summer #moon knight #watch it #marvel #the falcon and the winter soldier #mohamed diab #may calamawy #orientalism #anti orientalism #egypt #cairo

[lericekrispie]

Worldbuilding on Fauna

This was supposed to be a Vyncent headcannon list, but I ended up just talking about Fauna instead. Enjoy!

I tried to do some very surface level research into what Asian decent Vyncent could be based off, and the closest I found that matched was Mongolia. All my research is very shallow, please don't take my word as law, but from what I've gathered is that they are from a cold climate, with rich traditions. They are traditionally nomadic, have extensive and rich cultures in arts, music, and dance. They have unique architecture called a yurt. They had woodcarving, metalworking, embroidery, and weaving. Men and women both wore skirts and pants. They had meat like mutton, and beef, and herded sheep, goats and yaks. They had horse racing, wrestling, and archery. The games they played were chess and checkers, dominos, rock paper scissors, and puzzles.

Deriving from this, I believe that Vync-

likes music without lyrics, because English is his second language and it's hard to keep up, and most of his music back home was mostly instrumental anyways

wears gender non-conforming clothes

used to help herd animals while the older adults hunted. He knows how watch a flock, and has also sat in fields for long times just staying alert. B/c of this, his stake out abilities are top notch. He can disassociate like a pro and probably has ADHD. (head empty fr fr)

is really good at traditional board games, and always wins. He also likes puzzles, even if he is stupid sometimes and has to get help. He likes fidget toys. He likes video games as well, but because he grew up without technology he is horrendous at them. He still loves games and puzzles though so he still tries. Will and Dakota try to help him with some video games, but Vync likes the single player games the most bc he doesn't feel left in the dust when playing with his friends.

can tell when clothing is cheap and of bad material/craftsmen ship, and because of such he has a picky taste in quality. (his preferred fashion is maximalism and weird-core) (He has sensory issues fr fr)

Also, he lives on a floating island. We didn't see a horrible lot of worldbuilding b/c the world building was... well, destroyed in an apocalypse. I wanted to expand a little on that as well. What I think would be cool and good worldbuilding is if every Great is from a different island, and each island as a different climate/elf species.

Remember, all floating islands are flavored to be close in culture to a general overview of Mongolia culture, or in cannon, some East Asian culture.

The Lush Island

Vyncent comes from an island that is more traditional. It's smaller, and the communities are like tight knit families. Their climate gets very cold in the winter, so the weird fae-magical elf evolution would be the small predator animals that people sometimes draw for Vync as a headcannon. Small predator animals include cats, foxes, small predator birds, and sometimes dogs. It helps to be adapted to traverse in the snow, as they have two seasons, 'Dormant' and 'Bloom', basically Winter and Spring. Their Blooms is very abundant and full of festivals and celebrations, with long sunny days that could be disrupted by powerful storms. Dormant is even more brutal and dangerous, and what they prepare for during Bloom, so that they have stored food to survive the freeze. The traditional way of life has been very well preserved, that a lot of old techniques of artisans that would have been lost to time have been preserved. They have expert woodcarvers, metal workers, embroidery and weaving. Vyncent's sword was made on his island, and is part of why it's so powerful.

The Convergence Island

Strider is a rouge, wears a cloak, is mysterious and brooding. Strider would come from a island that has a larger community, because then there would be a reason for crime/stealing and or being a vigilante. The community would have to be large enough that there is animosity, so his island might be known as the 'City' island. This would be a market intersection, like Riptide's 'All-Port'. There is a strong Tribal Government there, with a clear Chief rather than just local figureheads and Respect for Elders. There is hoarding from the rich and people trying to build their lives from the ground up. Think ' The American Dream'. It's mostly a scam, but sometimes if your lucky you can make it big. Because of the city the island is a melting pot of multiple different elf evolutions, but the native's to the island have evolved to fit a more lavish, modern life, growing very tall, slim, and frail. They speak softer and less rushed, are often physically weaker, and have features for social evolution and not survival evolution (think classical faries and fae, with big buggy eyes and eyelashes, high cheekbones, slender faces, shimmery skin, slender soft hands, long hair and well kept hygiene.)

The Sunlight Island

Alphonz is the paladin. He wears a lot of heavy armor, so I believe his island would also metalworkers, the main suppliers of such. They are also a very religious community, with religious leaders controlling the tides rather than political. Their island would be the highest up, to be the closest to whatever the equivalent of 'heaven' would be. Of course, the evolution of the highest island would be wings, but most wings are made for gliding rather than flying because of body mass and energy and whatnot. Because of this, most people from this island can find jobs elsewhere as messengers. These people often get around to other islands eventually in their lives, and are known to be wanderers. They are closest to the sun so they have very thick eyelashes and undereye markings to protect them from the sunlight, and the darkest skin. They have a lot of intense flowers and foliage because the closeness to the sun. Their waterfalls from the top of their island run into the other islands below.

The Sunken Island

Min is a mage, and uses a lot of water themed magic. Because of this, I believe Min's island would be more like a bowl full of water, and most of the people would live in underwater domes, or on small floating islands. The people who live here would have evolved to be semi-aquatic, with features like frogs, dragonflies, fish, and such. Their island would be abundant with a fishing culture and magic, with huge coral structures and beautiful vibrant colors. The island would also be more traditional, much like Vyncent's.

The Badland Island

Ram is our beloved gunslinger, so obviously his island would be like the wild west. Enough said. Think riding horses, saloons, outlaws and sheriffs. The evolutions would be close to hooved creatures, like goats, antelope, deer, rams, horses, things like satyrs and centaurs. Because of the harsh and vast amount of lands these elves need to travel, these evolutions save time and their feet as they traverse the difficult terrain.

The Wildlands Island

Chungus is a the barbarian, very strong and almost a gentle giant. I believe this island would be very much so like Vyncent's, but much harder to live in, in terms of monsters. I think Vyncent's island would have more difficult natural weather and disasters, while Chungus would face a lot more monsters and ruffians. Because of this, the elven evolution would be to match monsters strength a take form of large predator animals, like wolves, cougars, bears, and such, while Vyncent's island would only need to evolve to smaller predator animals for hunting, such as foxes and cats and such. (Chungus would be a bear.)

The Hellfire Island

Finally, Grayson. Grayson is described as having Dragon armor, so why not just go all the way and say the elven evolution is dragon-like. This island would be the hardest to live on, full of flames and lava, basically like a floating volcano. This island would be closest to the surface, and speaking of surface-

Surface

The idea of the surface is that it is basically hell. It's where the lich comes from, it's full of hell fire, screaming damned, zombies and undead and such. The closeness to the surface dictate how dangerous your island is. The position of your island means a lot.

From Top to Bottom

The Sunlight Island -Is reaping the rewards of lush wildlife, but has to deal with extreme weather, sun, and temperatures.

The Sunken Island -is practically unaffected by weather and monsters because they live mostly underwater. Very peaceful. Uninhabitable by people who are not native.

The Convergence Island -In the top middle. The monsters here are the people. Have to deal with extreme weather.

The Lush Island -Reaps the rewards of lush wildlife, has to deal with extreme weather and temperatures, as well as some monsters.

The Wildlands Island -Deals less with weather and temperature, but more with monsters.

The Badland Island -as we get closer to 'hell' basically, the weather get's dry-er and hot-er. There isn't extreme storms, but instead harsh constant heat. Has to deal with monsters, as well as elven criminals. Most intelligent monsters and criminals set up bases here. The largest landmass. (we can never truly escape Texas)

The Hellfire Island -A step up from 'hell'. Has to deal with monsters all day long. The people here are built from blood and spit, metal and nails. Life expectancy is short here, but the people take pride in being the first line of defense for the other islands, are often talented warriors who hunt monsters to allow the rest of the islands to prosper.

It's hard to get to island to island. Sometimes you can because of your adaptations, sometimes you can find a way to safely fall to a lower island. Sometimes you can find a mage who can transport you. It is more common to go down than up. That's why Vyncent's dad was so impressive.

Father Sol

Father Sol was the leader of the group. With this worldbuilding, I think it would be cool if he embarked on a mission to build a party that could defend against a brewing monster from the Surface, The Lich and his forces. So Father Sol went from island to island, searching for the most powerful person from each to make a party. This alone is a feat, for traversing islands is very difficult, most only go to one once in their lives, and most of the time it's a permeant move. You often don't return. It's no wonder The Greats are well known, doing something such as what they did, going from island to island, even without the stories of their deeds and just the feat of traveling islands alone is something to behold and would be talked and gossiped about until they were legends. But on top of that were the adventures they had on each island, of Father Sol having to earn the trust and respect of each powerful warrior for them to join the party. I can already image in the classic Dnd shenanigans, battles, and hero adventures they would have. And to have them fail at the very end.

And all of this we never get to see because it get's destroyed. By the very monsters The Greats gathered to fight against. They lost. They weren't strong enough.

Now. Imagine, Vyncent has to make a choice between staying between Prime and Fauna. He chooses Prime, for his friends. His life is there right now, that's what he tells himself. He can always go back. He has unfinished business on Prime.

What he doesn't say is the pain that is in his heart, looking at his home that once used to be lush and full of life, full of smiles and memories, destroyed. Seeing his people broken and torn by the worst possible thing that could have happened to them. To see his people go from living in community villages full of flowers and celebration to hiding underground like rats. It hurts. It's painful to look at all the despair and pain. Knowing that things probably wouldn't go back to normal, at least in his lifetime.

He's a coward when he stays in Prime. He's not strong enough to go back. He wishes he was. But he isn't.

#jrwi podcast #jrwi #jrwi show #jrwi pd #jrwiblr #jrwi vyncent #jrwi headcanon

[swampgallows]

Im a bit newer to WoW and i could care less about the Dragon Flights but i though Nozdormu always looked like that

he used to be slightly more asian-coded (evidenced by his stereotypical "fu manchu" mustache)—about as much as the old gelkis/magram centaur were, though riddled with negative "marauder" stereotypes.

this, night elves, and "woo ping", are what used to pass for 'asian' in wow. night elves borrow some cultural elements from korean and other east asian cultures, such as pagoda architecture, celebration of lunar new year, food items like kimchi and red bean buns, and clothing items like hanboks. but as far as immediate visual decoding, canon, and fan reception, these cultural influences are rarely featured in the characterization or depiction of night elves.

enter nozdormu's few appearances in the caverns of time dungeons and the dragon soul raid:

sure cata's graphics weren't the best, but nozdormu's custom model was read by much of wow's playerbase as asian, especially when compared to the standard blood elf model and other dragons in the same cinematic.

speaking of limited representation in wow's history, alexstrasza also used to have more of a bronze skin tone, as you can see in the screenshot above, and sometimes nozdormu was drawn this way by fans—he is a bronze dragon, after all! for example, this art of nozdormu fighting murozond, drawn by blizzard-featured chinese fan artist breathing2004, gives nozdormu both darker hair and skin tone:

alexstrasza was also later whitewashed compared to her cataclysm model, both in official artwork and in her debut in heroes of the storm:

here is a fanmade comparison, from left to right: her cataclysm model, a screenshot from the announcement cinematic, and her in-game model/default skin in hots. below is alexstrasza's in-game cataclysm model at the end of dragon soul, versus official artwork in the book Thrall: Twilight of the Aspects:

she has reached a (somewhat) happy medium in dragonflight. her skin maintains a darker undertone and now boasts freckles and makeup highlights, but the overall color is more of a "blink and you'll miss it" general "warm" tone than the distinct darker skintone of her cataclysm model.

here she is in a pre-rendered cinematic in dragonflight (extra warm because she's looking out at the sunset; compare her "darker" skin to the lighting on wrathion's). but hey, at least she's not pink anymore.

to bring it back to nozdormu, in the same cinematic nozdormu's model is markedly different from both the loading screen artwork (right) and in the legacies shorts (bottom). his eye shape suggests possible epicanthic folds, which seem to have been sculpted specifically for nozdormu as they are not the standard for the blood elf model, yet they are absent in the artwork. (there were other elf models with similar eyes in the past, but blizzard rounded them for the player models).

overall i think both nozdormu and alexstrasza stlll "read" as white. it doesnt really help that the "east asian" facial options promised at blizzcon 2019 were never truly delivered; the "asian" eyes as they are in-game (right) look nothing like the concept presented (left):

as a result it may be a while before there is true asian representation in WoW, and nozdormu's ambiguity means those fans are now waiting even longer.

#world of warcraft #dragoflight #dragonflight spoilers #df spoilers #hots #long post

[supernoondles]

2024

In my haste of class planning and making the most of my time in the bay, as I moved to LA for work in December of 2023, I completely forgot to write my year in review. So now I tell that it was a great year!

It was a year of milestones: I finally finished my PhD and graduated over the summer, spent the fall funemployed and traveling, and the last month moving and preparing for what, at least right now, seems to be my dream job. Yet when things are too good, I harbor a greater fear it could all come falling down.

I write this sitting on a plane from SFO to LAX (wretched airport) because 1) it was conveniently timed with my brother and his fiance (!)’s flight back to the Netherlands, and 2) I had airline credit from when I got COVID and could not make my friend’s wedding in Florida. In 2023 I got a PhD, my brother got a bachelor’s, and I got COVID from my mom when we went to Boston for said brother’s graduation. Last night (which isn't technically 2023, but 2024 starts, for me, when my health insurance card finally arrives in the mail and I get in a classroom with students) I hung out with my friends, who largely live in San Francisco, in the endless Asian strip malls of Union City. “When you get to the suburbs, SF and LA aren't so different,” said a friend. This has helped quell my anxiety about the move: that driving 30 minutes to neon plazas of Rowland Heights was semantically and experientially the same as the imitation mission plazas of the East/South Bay. (Since starting to read City of Quartz, again part of my migration south, I have thought: how funny that the lasting impact of the Spaniards, besides white supremacy, is their architecture. How funny it is that Asian immigrants now occupy these sites of worship.) This year, despite being filled with drama and (claimed) abandonment and reconciliation (or not despite, perhaps because of?) was the year of my mostly queer, entirely Asian diaspora friend group. In LA I believe I will have everything I need except for them (so although I'm scouting, I know what a rarity and a privilege I've had).

To put my move in perspective, I haven't changed geographic regions since I started college. Leaving high school was exciting (I couldn't wait) and for the last decade of my life I've had solid friends and community, as well as my family nearby. Sure, it's just the other major metropolitan area in the same state, but the distance is non trivial! For the first time in my adult life I don't have a reserve of people who are willing to hang out on a moment’s notice. For the first time in my adult life I am also living alone. I have loved the control (especially around having a clean house), but I get lonely very easily.

This year my Canadian partner left the PhD program and moved far away (back to Canada) to my immediate and eminent grief. I'm better now: daily calls help, as does begging for attention, as does turning an old friend into a lover. Japan was a sex vacation. Banff was a sex vacation. Oahu (where my lover’s aunt lives) was a sex vacation. 2023 was the year of having really good sex: public sex in a Petaluma park, sex in a ryokan with paper thin walls, hookups of varying but generally positive quality. As a consequence of my partner leaving, I finally became a real slut. It's been liberating, except for the fact that, even as of writing, I never heard back about my Medicare application so I was fucking uninsured. Out of the many indulgent days of unemployment vacation, two instances have stuck with me: hiking 12 miles while it was snowing in Banff to two teahouses nestled amongst glaciers, and landing at LAX after a sleepless flight from Japan, with a grueling 7 hour drive back to the bay ahead of us.

As I knew I would be leaving the bay area in 2022 (do you sign a year before you start in any industry besides than academia?), in 2023 I whittled away at my bay area bucket list. While I never managed to get up Sutro Tower, I did go to the Fallorons, which, despite my throwing up twice, was everything a birder could have wanted. (I took two boat rides this year, the other at Cape Cod when my brother begged for us to vacate his suffocating studio, and in that one I saw a great white shark attack. How lucky I am!) As usual, I went to many shows. New this year were shows my friends performed in! The past winter had the most rain I’d ever seen in the bay area, so I did a lot of hiking amongst the luscious green east bay hills, which stayed green until May. This made me also really happy, but I don't want my relationship to the bay area (like it is for so many people I know who have moved) to be one defined by lack.

One thing I will not miss, however, is West SF’s fog. This summer, as well as the ending of Daylight Savings time, particularly pushed me to my limits. As I get older my need for two daily hours of direct sunlight exposure grows more dire. The other lowlights of the year were having to replace my phone screen twice, and, after a decade in the bay, finally having my car broken into. I found it ironic that it was not because of petty theft (I also never leave anything in my car), but a TikTok trend encouraging teens to steal Kias and Hyundais. At least they failed with me!

In 2023 I organized a really big (600 people) party for a conference. I wrote a paper with my friends about power dynamics for the same conference (which usually only talks about “technical” things) which was also the last chapter in my thesis. Thanks, advisor, for believing in me. As the party was on Halloween, I hosted a costume contest. The winner for scariest costume was my labmate who put a photo of our advisor (my other one) on a programmable LED screen strapped to his chest.

In 2023 I also started getting paid an hourly wage that made me happy looking at the number doing contract work with an old undergraduate mentor. Beyond this, and the volunteer labor, and the paper/thesis writing, I did not do much of “working” this year: also part of the reason why this year has been awesome.

Thanks to an Asians with dyed hair and pronouns art accountability club, in 2023 I made more art than I had in past years. I did gouachetober and the occasional digital illustration. I did not, however, accomplish what I sought to do during my unemployment: dedicate myself to being a full time artist and making something great. (In retrospect, rest, recuperation, and being excited for my job instead of burnt out from my PhD was the more important goal, and I definitely achieved that!) I feel like one’s relationship to their creative practice is a lifelong evolution (mine certainly is), and at least I had time to slow down and think about how I want that to shape out (the answer which is, more than it has been.) I didn't sew much of significance (a robe with black cat fabric I bought in Japan, a very hungry caterpillar Halloween costume, a Pokémon fanny pack) this year. It was, however, a great year for video games: I really enjoyed Tears of the Kingdom (timed well with my COVID recovery), Super Mario Wonder, Pikmin 4, and I wouldn't say I “enjoyed” it, but I did play the Scarlet Violet DLC. My brother started playing Pikmin Bloom (so I have been playing it more) and I also “play” Pokemon Sleep every night. The best thing I watched was Beef. I listened to a lot of Caroline Polachek.

At a zine making workshop at Sour Cherry I got a 4x6 photo print of a cat that says, Wow! I'm looking forward to the future! That's the energy I'm approaching this new year with (I'm going to hang it in my office for my students). I am looking forward to adopting cats. My only resolution is to work less than 40 hours a week. Recapping how I did with last year's resolutions, I 1) did not really exercise more consistently, but I did run more consistently, and did a 5K with my dad on Thanksgiving! (Middle school me would never imagine.) 2) am unclear if I developed a more methodological way to conduct literature reviews, because my thesis related work was mainly copy/pasted from my old papers, and 3) did very much enjoy my last year in the bay. Here's hoping I can find community, nature, and food (rip China Lounge, I love you so much) as good in LA.

#noon's shitty end of the year summary posts

[wayfarer-exchange]

Resources

General

Content Warnings: While this event will accept content with canon typical violence, it may be a good idea to add a content warning if your work involves the following: blood, death, alcohol/drug use, violence. We suggest using this format at the start of your work and in your tags: "CW Blood".

Ratings: We strongly suggest adding a rating to any written works using the following system: G for General Audiences, T for Teen and Up Audiences, and M for Mature Audiences. We will not accept works of a sexual nature for this event, but mature topics include more than sexual content. Please be mindful as you tag!

Adding a Readmore: To keep things looking neat and make stories easy to access, we strongly encourage using tumblr's readmore feature. This creates a line that hides some of the body of the work until it's clicked to display the rest.

Mobile: Start a new paragraph, type :readmore: and start another paragraph.

Desktop: Start a new paragraph, select the right-most icon that looks like a zig-zag between two straight lines.

Creating with Sensitivity in Mind

Wayfarer's setting is extremely diverse, and some of us will end up creating things for characters that have features or identities we're unfamiliar with. It may feel daunting, but a little additional research will grow your skills and make the recipient of your gift even happier in the end!

The official Wayfarer discord server has dedicated space for sensitivity questions, for both art and writing. Don't hesitate to ask about things you're unsure of!

Writing

Here are a few resources on describing characters of color and queer characters in appropriate ways.

Words to Describe Skin Tone - via @writingwithcolor

Words to Describe Hair Texture - via @writingwithcolor

Describing East Asian Eyes - via @writingwithcolor

@yourbookcouldbegayer - a blog dedicated to helping others write queer characters

Art

Here you'll find several tutorials that may help you better represent people of color in your art, or expand your skillset in general.

Whitewashing In Art & How Color Works

Coloring Dark Skin

Skin Tones and Undertones

Tips for Drawing Black Hair

Black Hair In Depth

Drawing East Asian Faces

Youtube Playlist: Anatomy Tips

Fun Stuff

The Pinterest boards featured here are strictly headcanon, but have been vibe checked by Anna as pretty fitting for the setting. Feel free to use them as inspiration for your work! If your vision doesn't mesh with these, that's okay!

Velantian Fashion Pinboard - via @coldshrugs

Wayfarer Origin Inspiration Boards - via @coldshrugs

Velantian Architecture Board - via @harumeau

Damascus Steel Facts - the alassar steel of wayfarer weapons is based on this type of steel.

Rhesainian Beauty Standards - via @idrellegames

Timeline of Recent Rhesainian History

Vibe Tip: Corsets/Stays don't exist in this setting. Flowy, draping fabrics cinched or belted at the waist better fit the energy.

Vibe Tip: Asymmetry is considered very fashionable!

#housekeeping #resources

[mightyflamethrower]

One of the many satanic paradoxes of the Third Reich’s architecture of the Final Solution was the requirement—mandated after the 1939 outbreak of the war—that Jews anywhere under German rule or occupation had to wear a yellow badge or armband with the Star or David.

Yet was not all this elaborate bureaucratic need for identification embarrassing to the Nazi apparat?

After all, if Nazi doctrine about supposedly manifest Aryan “racial” superiority—Nordic looks and build, superior intelligence, stable disposition—were so persuasive, then why the need for Jews to identify themselves?

In contrast, the Star-of David IDs were prima facie proof that the entire bankrupt Nazi project was based on the unspoken fear that millions of Jews were indistinguishable in all respects from other Europeans.

In other words, on the fascist right, anti-Semitism was predicated on the pseudo-science that Jews were not European and thus somehow racially inferior. Yet currently, the entire industry of anti-Semitic hatred has flipped, from Jews as toxic non-whites to Jews as toxic whites. The two common denominators of racial obsession and hating Jews remain the same.

One of the key reasons leftwing anti-Semites have been so effective at galvanizing campus hatred of Israel, and by association of Jews in general, is their careful effort to brand themselves DEI victims why tarring Jews with the empty white supremacy slur.

Accordingly, Jews and Israel now supposedly enjoy toxic white privilege. They are libeled as veritable white supremacists illegitimately in the Middle East to colonize “Palestine,” and as European imperialists picking up the mantle of the earlier 19th century British and French—as if a prior 400 years of Ottoman imperialism in the Middle East never occurred.

As now-privileged white victimizers, contemporary Jews are not seen as victims of the Holocaust, explaining the comfortable alliance between Islamist Holocaust deniers and the DEI crowd.

It was no accident that a racist BLM on news of the October 7 massacres quickly issued posters glorifying Hamas hang-gliding murderers.

It was no surprise that DEI czars and professors in various ethnic and race studies programs proved the most prominent on campus in damning Israel and its Jewish citizens as racists. And who was shocked when university administrators—the cowardly MIT campus is a good example—simply warned Jews of no-go zones, rather than ensured there were no such zones anywhere on campus for anyone?

Jews seem to be collateral damage from the damning of an entire group of people, namely white Americans and Europeans. In a society that is supposedly wedded to Martin Luther King, Jr.’s dictum that we should be judged by the content of our character, not the color of our skin, it is shocking how the racist DEI and woke industries have been given a complete pass to castigate and demonize an entire group, without any concern for individual characteristics, or for class, religious, or ethnic differences.

Indeed, white is as sloppy a term as Hispanic. Just as third generation Cuban-American professionals have almost no intrinsic ethnic, political, class, or often even linguistic affinities with impoverished Oaxacans who just crossed illegally into America—and vice versa—so too a white male from rural America working as a welder in the Ozarks or a logger in the Sierra Nevada has zero solidarity with a white Bay Area techie at Google or an Ivy League legacy preppie screaming “from the river to the sea” in Harvard Yard.

But “white” is not just a ridiculous construct that ignores the multiplicities of European ethnic and religious fault lines, the vast differences in “white” class, income, and politics, and the increasing frequency of whites marrying non-whites. When joined with the tired epithets “privilege,” “supremacy,” and “rage,” the result grows even more incoherent and sinister.

Is proof of the privilege of “whites” that their life expectancy is lower than Hispanics and Asians?

A suicide rate higher than blacks, Asians, and Hispanics?

Dying in combat in Afghanistan and Iraq at double their numbers in the general population?

An inordinate percentage of fentanyl deaths?

A current percentage of whites in Ivy League freshman classes of 20-40 percent, despite making up 55 percent of the youth demographic?

Why does “white rage” not result in whites being overrepresented as perpetrators of “hate crimes,” as are Latinos and blacks? Or in relatively rare interracial crimes, why are blacks far more likely to assault or kill whites than vice versa? In the DEI lexicon of reductionist stereotypes, is there a term “black rage” that reflects FBI statistics on hate or interracial crimes?

Woke and DEI fads have created entire anti- “white privilege” industries. One result was the epidemic of careerism-inspired and media-fed hoaxes, such as the Duke Lacrosse lie, the Covington Kids myth, and the Jussie Smollett fiasco. All were predicated on the idea the white male smear would alone obviate the need for evidence—and would provide exemption when the fakers were exposed.

Another bastard child of the “white privilege” myth was the ironic but pathetic effort of whites to fake a non-white identity to win privileges in hiring, admissions, and status.

What, after all, drove the transitioning of Sen. Elizabeth Warren to declare herself the first “native American” professor of law at Harvard, or careerist professor Ward Churchill to outfit himself in buckskin and beads—not to mention the famous Rachel Dolezal, former head of the NAACP in Spokane, Washington?

Identity fakery is traditionally an empirical guide to privilege, or otherwise nonwhites would be transitioning to white status, as in the segregationist and overtly racist days of the Old South.

In that regard, why did the New York Times dub Hispanic, half-Peruvian George Zimmerman “White Hispanic,” when they had never used that phrase for any other person, even though two thirds of “Hispanic” Americans self-identify as white? Because it was an acceptable affront in demonizing Zimmerman, but would have been considered a racist slander against another Hispanic American?

A hallmark of the white-privilege slander industry is the one-way application of “disproportionality,” or the idea that coveted or celebrity billets must reflect demographics.

Such institutionalized discrimination is now applied in crude fashion throughout companies and universities, but not when inconvenient. In professional sports, where meritocracy is deemed essential and whites are “underrepresented,” or in recording contracts, or even in the US postal service, there is no such sin in any group’s overrepresentation.

Another dividend of the blanket white privilege/supremacy slur is the racial shakedown industry. The BLM movement in the wake of George Floyd’s death ended up extorting millions of dollars from guilty or scared corporations. The vast majority of donations ended up unaccounted for, but likely enriched the founding grifters of BLM.

Ibram X. Kendi earned lucrative fees and honoraria espousing “anti-racism” and founded an “anti-racism” academic center that produced no tangible research. All that and more followed from his academic mish-mash of writings justifying racism against whites to “stop racism.”

The industry of white demonization also plays a role in the drastic reductions in U.S. armed forces recruitment. The Pentagon insists that labor shortages, obesity, criminality, gang affiliations, or drugs explain their current alarming dearth of recruits.

But the drop-off in white rural and suburban males is demonstrable, and the reason is most likely their weariness with constant woke hectoring and discrimination.

Such pandering was on display when Chairman of the Joint Chiefs Mark Milley in his June 2021 testimony to Congress pontificated about ferreting out “white rage” and “white privilege” in the ranks—despite providing no evidence or data to back up his white bias and racism allegations.

Indeed, the Pentagon publicly quotes in detail the racial makeup of almost every branch and rank of service—except the disproportionately-white demographics of combat deaths, which are considered taboo and inherently macabre and “divisive.”

The DEI virus and the incessant “white privilege” stereotyping infect all areas of American life, and have rendered our society obsessed and hypocritical, if not incoherent as it equates everything from meritocracy to punctuality to toxic “whiteness.”

The normal rules of media sensationalism dictate that when any law enforcement officer lethally shoots an unarmed suspect, especially at a distance that posed no direct threat to the shooter, the name of the officer is immediately released.

But when a capitol officer shot and killed the unarmed January 6 protestor Ashli Babbitt for the likely misdemeanor of entering a broken window in the Capitol, his name and identity were immediately hidden from the public for months.

The same coverup was at work in the suppression of the manifesto and diaries of the self-declared trans mass shooter in Nashville—given that current leaks reveal one of her motivations was sheer hatred of what she deemed “white privileged” children, or, as she also called them, “crackers.”

If New York Prosecutor Letitia James had been a white male conservative activist prosecutor, seeking fame and an upward political career in his state by indicting Barack Obama in an election year for some suspicious financial transactions or sweetheart real estate con from years ago, he would have been denounced as racist.

And what if said prosecutor was on record screaming, not the now socially acceptable and common slogan “too pale, too male, and too stale,” but something about the overrepresentation of the “not pale, not male, but stale?” Would the result be the summary dismissal of an embarrassing, superfluous, and racist writ by a grandstanding, incoherent political hack?

Inconsistency is a final hallmark of “white privilege” ideology. What characterized the exemptions given to the summer of 2020 riots—with 35 dead, 1,500 law enforcement officers injured, $2 billion in damages, and a courthouse, police precinct, and historic church torched—was their pretense that white privilege had resulted in George Floyd’s death and anti-racist violence was justified.

Black Lives Matter therefore was to be immune from consequences in its “rage” against “white supremacy.” During the lockdowns, when minor infractions of the quarantine warranted everything from social ostracism to jailing, thousands of health-care professionals—once the most adamant in insisting on the shutdowns—hit the streets claiming that they were marching against white privilege and therefore exempt from the very protocols they had inflicted on others.

By contrast, both the peaceful protestors and the rioters of January 6 were alike dubbed “white supremacists” and “insurrectionists,” and given harsh sentences. Some no doubt deserved such arrest and punishment, but the single-day event was hardly comparable to the 120 days of rioting, looting, arson, and killing associated with the Antifa/BLM-engineered 2020 riots.

The low bar for “insurrection,” of course, was white-privilege-inspired. Note the contrast with the recent “pro-Palestine” demonstrations. Ostensibly these protests should have qualified for all the new requirements of “insurrection” established by the official responses to January 6.

Some of them entered the Capitol rotunda, where protests are forbidden. They interrupted a session of Congress, yelling and disrupting congressional hearings. They defaced government property, smearing fake-blood on the White House stone wall and swarming iconic statues. The genocide of Jews was the theme of their “river to the sea” monotonous chants.

And to make the analogy with the January 6 “insurrection” complete, a prominent politician, Rep. Rashida Tlaib, delivered a speech to the protestors prior to their entry into the Capitol.  In fact, she too implicitly fired up the volatile crowd by calling for the destruction of Israel by demanding a Palestine “from the river to the sea.” Yet in contrast to the January 6 protestors, there were very few arrests and likely will be fewer convictions.

In sum, for years the left has been exempted for what in normal circumstance would be a cardinal civil rights sin. They demonize and stereotype an entire group solely on the basis of their skin color, attributing to them collective negative characteristics that trump all individual differences by presenting them as if frozen in a time warp of the pre-1960s.

Anti-Semitism is on the rise and fortified by the campus DEI and woke crowd. Hate crimes are soaring. Violent crime in general is on the upswing. Military recruitment is dropping. Trust in the media is plunging. Anti-Semites are proud and not ashamed of acting out their hatred. The progressive woke agenda is imploding.

The one common denominator is the now-acceptable notion that it is not just permissible but encouraged to smear without evidence over two-thirds of Americans as the sole beneficiaries of “privilege,” prone to rage, and conspiring to ensure racial supremacy—all lies.

But they are lies nevertheless as useful to their promulgators as they are toxic and incendiary to a multiracial consensual society if not addressed, refuted, and discredited.

It is past time for Americans to reject all racial stereotyping and the racist careerists who leverage it—before we all descend into tribal nihilism.

[tiana4evahh]

i apologize in advance if this adds on any additional stress for you over the italian song twins but it Is a bit of an issue. its a bit ironic that you dont consider kotlc characters, specifically the song twins, having a race or ethnicity bc theyre not human ... to headcanon them with another human ethnicity? you probably dont have any ill intentions about the headcanons but the basis of it is found in ignorance/naievity. although the song twins may not have an actual 'race' their characters are inarguably tied to real cultures and ethnicities. their family names have to vietnamese and chinese and korean origins. their family home features east asian architecture. to erase this background is akin to, as stated by another user, whitewashing(song twins with italian looks..? as an example). even if you aren't realizing it the headcanon essentially removes representation from actual asian people like myself(and i understand that these are not canon and made by fans and no one has to take headcanons as the real deal, but the idea in general is still harmful). there is a multitude of other characters which you could headcanon as italian without changing their original race. and before you get carried away, please don't perceive constructive criticism as 'hate anons'; we mean well and would like you to understand the outside perspective.

Yeah i 100% realize what I did wrong. I wasn’t trying to be racist, I really wasn’t. I honestly was just curious if I could headcanon that, but now I realize I sorta can’t. Thank you very much for clearing this up! (I also appreciate that you didn’t make it sound rude or mean). Thank you!

[imeverywoman420]

I love like east asian architecture and nature and like the vibe i get from looking at pics from that general area. Like thats a really big area ik but i really mean ever since i was a child i feel this calmness and resonance looking at stuff like this, watching mulan etc. I think every single part of the world/culture has its own unique like vibe and theres specific like vibe lessons each general region of the world and country can teach you. You know? Like im talking the dirt and the air not even just the man made culture. Love ALL nature but this is just so vibey and dreamscapey???? Like this sky is what my dreams skies look like. Like the fog the shade of green etc.

[flecks-of-stardust]

this is still bothering me, so i’m going to talk a little bit about something that cropped up in Act 5 of Wandersong. if you saw my liveblog, you can probably guess what.

bit of a warning for, ah, discussion of war, particularly the World Wars, under the cut, as well as discussion of racism in fantasy.

it’s always tricky territory when you’re writing about war, because of how many factors that can go into a war. it’s not inherently bad to write about war, it just gets. complicated when you start drawing on real world aspects, especially when you do not have the specific context yourself.

i was not happy about the war between Rulle and Chaandesh to begin with, but frankly, as a whole the worldbuilding of Act 5 does not sit right with me. i’m going to keep this as brief as i can because i am not the Most knowledgeable on what i’m talking about here, but i did live this. i grew up with this history, and it’s disappointing, to say the least, to see them so carelessly handled in this game (that i otherwise adore).

one of the first things i noticed is that the major city in Rulle, which you spend a significant amount of time in, is called Xiatian. that’s pretty obviously ripped from mandarin; 夏天, xia4 tian1, means ‘summer’ in mandarin. it’s probably to keep with the theme of Rulle being more of the land of sun, and Chaandesh being the land of moon. what i don’t understand is why they chose to name the city that when seemingly nothing else in Rulle or Chaandesh has a similar theme. so there’s just one random city that happens to have a very obviously mandarin name.

it just makes me very wary in general to see stuff like this, because it often is a sort of... orientalism, so to speak? not sure if that’s the right term. specifically, what i’m referring to is the racist depiction of (usually east-) asia that amalgamates the different cultures in the area into one mess. in wandersong, there’s also people who have names that are also obviously mandarin based, like Ping, but aren’t real names people would have in mandarin. ‘Ping’ is nothing. that’s not a name. a nickname, maybe, but look at that man, do you think he walks around with a nickname? and there’s also the architecture style, which. oh my god, this is so common, but the architecture is japanese. even if not, because admittedly the two can be similar, it’s still basically the most stereotypical (east) asian thing you can find out there, and it speaks to lazy worldbuilding.

i don’t trust this sort of worldbuilding. most of the time it just feels like they wanted to build an area that felt ‘foreign’ or ‘exotic’, and then looked around for the quickest way to achieve this, which is so often based on non-white cultures. my culture isn’t ‘exotic’, white people just don’t bother to learn about other cultures. i don’t see why someone would choose to base aspects of a fantasy kingdom off of real countries but only take the bare bones and get everything else wrong, unless they were lazy and didn’t properly do research. frankly, i would have loved to see a fully chinese inspired area in wandersong, but Xiatian just isn’t that.

the reason i even bothered typing this up though is specifically because of the (possibly scant) japanese influence in Xiatian. if you’ve paid any attention to your history classes, you will know japan participated in the world wars, and they were fighting alongside germany in world war two. there is so, so much history of the violence japan enacted against so many countries in asia that just isn’t discussed, because people like to think of japan as the ideal technological utopia that can do no wrong. even today, japan refuses to take responsibility and adequately apologize for its war crimes.

[image description: a screenshot from Wandersong, taken from Skurry’s vod of the game. Kiwi and Miriam are crossing a red bridge, depicted in a markedly East Asian style. In the background is the sun, a dull red, with rays of orange coming out from it in stripes. end image description]

this specific screen... worries me. i’m aware that it’s almost certainly just the game’s art style, which is very shape based, with simple colors often used to provide contrast. but given the japanese influences, as well as the fact that Rulle and Chaandesh are at war, it made me think of this:

[image description: the Rising Sun flag. It has a red circle set slightly off center, with rays of red and white radiating out from it. end image description]

the Rising Sun flag has extensive war history, and it was the flag that was flown when japan participated in world war two. to this day, this flag is associated with japanese military violence and imperialism in china, korea, and other countries in asia. even now, it’s flown by the japanese navy. as much as japan may want to deny it, this flag has military ties.

which is why it’s alarming to me that an area with japanese influences that is at war has iconography that reminded me of this flag. i highly doubt this was intentional, but it truly speaks to the lack of care put into the worldbuilding in this act of the game. if they’d even put slightly more effort into refining the worldbuilding, maybe changed some aspects around, made the area feel less japanese, etc, i probably wouldn’t have noticed. they should have put more thought into building this area, and frankly, the choice to make the area east asia inspired adds literally nothing to the game. i’d rather they kept doing pure fantasy.

this is unfortunately not surprising to me, as i’ve seen so many other games do something similar, though i do have to admit that wandersong is the first game to stumble into something that so painfully represents military propaganda for some people. just the general lack of commitment to researching what you’re borrowing aspects from is very common in games that have some elements of fantasy. it’s exhausting. so much of what’s considered ‘exotic’ in media is really just watered down and blenderized aspects of non-white cultures, and people just don’t acknowledge it.

and, like. look. i still love wandersong. i think the message it conveys is really important. i know the devs really put their soul into making this game. but they could have spared some of that to make their story less racist. i’m tired of seeing white people do less than the bare minimum when engaging with non-white cultures, and even then sometimes, just stomp all over culture altogether. you can all do better.

#wandersong #if this sounds too blunt? i honestly don't care #this is mostly just me getting the thoughts out #i know japanese imperialism is not really something that's discussed in the us but now you know ✨ #god i'm just fucking tired okay #i can't play Anything without running into racist bullshit #eyestrain #also the rising sun flag hurts to look at

[bunny-rambles]

I remember when I first saw Cyno I thought Sumeru was going to be Egyptian themed,,, like his design was (is) so cool and I really wish there are at least some hints of Egyptology in Sumeru

Just imagine that academia being based on the old Egyptian great library,,,

It’s great that it’s the Middle East, India and that area in general but it would’ve been so cool for it to just strictly be ancient Egypt themed,,, it would’ve slotted in nicely with the lore too about it being the nation of wisdom.

And the temples too - they would’ve looked magnificent in Genshin !! There’s just so much amazing architecture and they had so many amazing gods they worshipped which could’ve been really nice to see different types of gods instead of just archons.

Sorry sorry I know it’s probably uninteresting hearing me nerd out about this but,,, man,,, an opportunity was missed. Ancient Egypt would’ve been so fun to see represented properly. But with the character design leaks, a part of me is kind of glad they didn’t go down that route so it wasn’t misrepresented. A shame, really. Such rich history that would’ve fitted in nicely with the lore but instead they went for shoving in different pieces of completely different cultures in one area.

I’m 50/50 for Sumeru honestly, it has potential and it does look pretty, but they’ve kind of been really messy with it. Like they could separate China and Japan even though they’re both Asian, but you can’t separate India with the rest of the Middle East? I don’t know, I wish they just stuck to something that could’ve been represented correctly.

Ok I’ve gone on long enough, if cyno becomes playable I’m most likely pulling for him, he has an Anubis inspired design and I absolutely adore it <3

#don’t mind me rambling #i just love ancient egypt so much #i was obsessed with it as a kid #cyno

[ladyimaginarium]

yknow what, to add onto this blog being multipurpose ( a mixture between personal, rpc, vent, queerness, alterhumanity, plurality, indigeneity & occultism, among other things!! ), I'll& be using this as an academia / writeblr / langblr / studyblr / studyplace blog, too, especially considering that is a big step for me& considering I& dropped out of college a few years ago due to mental health reasons, so I'll& be taking a mental health class, the Be There Certificate under the Born This Way Foundation which was founded by the queen Lady Gaga herself, hopefully in the future taking online free yeshiva classes & I'm& also taking free university classes bc we stan indigenous students in quote on quote "higher education" striving for education in post-secondary educational institutions that were never created for us in mind, particularly because so often academia is inaccessible to natives, especially disabled & neurodivergent natives !! we're building nations & the revolution will be indigenized !!

with that said, though, as much as we& love the academia aesthetic, imma& just say this now. to anybody who's an academic who ends up looking here: do NOT come here expecting to only see a bunch of content exclusively related to staple white academia movies & poets & writers & philosophers like william shakespeare, edgar allan poe, h.p lovecraft, j.r.r. tolkien, jane austen, sylvia plath, oscar wilde, sappho, etc. or studying van gogh's art or learning latin or listening to mozart, vivaldi or tchaikovsky, particularly where cis white men ( & sometimes cis white women ) are idolized uncritically, which isn't to say that there won't be any european works being studied here nor that they don't have their place at all bc ofc they do, it's just that i& see this so often & because of that we& intend to incorporate international world history & world literature into our& decolonized curriculum. only studying white european cultures doesn't make you an academic, bc academia, music, art, architecture & literature have existed for millennia all around the world outside of europe. you also won't be seeing any glorification of parts of the aesthetic with roots in the obsession over white/pale skin, ivy league & old money worship, the glorification of the 1%, putting cis white academics & oftentimes white eurocentric academia on a pedestal while blatantly ignoring other underrepresented cultures ( & even when poc are represented it's primarily east asian i.e han chinese, yamato japanese or korean or generally lightskinned aesthetics ), antiblack racism, antinative racism, antisemitism, islamophobia, sexism, homophobia, transphobia, queerphobia, classism, ableism, sanism, oppression & discrimination.

it's also important to note that in our& academic studies we& will be using etuaptmumk which literally translates to two-eyed seeing in mi'kmawi'simk which essentially means learning to see from one eye with the strengths of indigenous knowledges & ways of knowing, & from the other eye with the strengths of western knowledges & ways of knowing & learning to use both these eyes together, for the benefit of all, as envisaged by elder dr. albert marshall.

here's a preview of our& studies so far, with some of our& names being censored for system safety reasons:

#arcana.txt #tagging for visibility purposes: #studyblr #bnistudies

[gaykarstaagforever]

We have to start using otaku / weaboo more specifically. I think 98% of the human race at this point loves at least 4 different animes or Nintendo games.

"Otaku" is pretty much analogous to "stan," so if you call an obnoxious "ACTUALLY" Japanese media fan an otaku, that's okay. So long as the thing you're mocking is their annoying asshole fandom thing (that happens to be about Japanese IP), and not their general love for Japanese stuff.

"Weaboo" is a made-up word from a webcomic that was about corporate executives spanking a guy's bare butt in a public bathroom, so I have no idea how the hell that got linked to liking manga, except probably Reddit / 4chan. Either way, it has morphed into "weeb" at this point and is generally equivalent to otaku in the West, so similar rules should apply.

I know us anime / manga / video game fans self-identify as these things. And that's great. But, especially now, there seems to be a persistent racist thing in the West about Japanese media being inherently inferior or immoral, especially amongst the white intellectually-60-years-old people you people keep voting for.

Just be aware that youth group leaders in Alabama are flaccidly whining about how Jesus wants you to wed and bear holy pink fruit, instead of watching Pokémon. They are appropriating these terms to sell their nationalist theocracy shit. And we passively encourage that by still talking like being a fan of utterly ubiquitous Japanese IPs and technology is somehow still kooky and weird.

...Also the cyberpunk aesthetic is, at its root, Boomer / Gen Z racism against East Asian immigration into Western countries. It can evolve beyond that, but be aware of that. Like I think the Kowloon Walled City was neat, too, but it hasn't existed for 40+ years, and only became a trope in cyberpunk media because white guys from Indiana were referencing it as an example of how filthy and emotionally unstable Chinese people are. You can still like it for better reasons, just know why you know about it over here.

Also any "Chinatown" stereotypes you know and like from media are, if even in any way accurate, only renditions of those places as they exist in the West. The people there are a result of living there, as in a citizen subculture, surrounded by architecture they probably didn't even have anything to do with, because some racist white guy thought they liked lanterns and weird geometric patterns. That isn't a fair rendition of what a China or Korea is. Again, like it for what it is, because what it is is cool. But it is utterly and only that thing.

I like bad American kung-fu movies too. But to the point, we aren't even using that phrase correctly, or spelling it right.

Love East Asian stuff all you want. Just don't be uniquely racist about it.

#rant #manga #anime #otaku #weeb #weaboo #chinatown #kowloon #racism #japan #china #korea

[ashitakaxsan]

When miraculously Treasures return home

On the evening of September 20,Thursay, when Iran’s presidential jet touched down in Tehran, it bought the fourth batch of Achaemenid clay tablets from the U.S., where they had been kept on loan for nine decades.

A total of 3,506 Achaemenid tablets were returned home by the plane carrying President Ebrahim Raisi, who addressed the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly during his visit to New York.

The recovered collection consists of 836 small tablets written in Aramaic and 2,670 large tablets with cuneiform inscriptions in Elamite, CHTN reported.

“Thanks to proper follow-ups by the Ministry of Cultural Heritage, Tourism and Handicraft Organization, the permanent mission of Iran to the United Nations in New York, and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the tablets of the Achaemenid Empire, which were being kept in the United States and the Center for East Asian Studies at the University of Chicago (CEAS) for 84 years were repatriated to Iran. The tablets were originally set to stay there for three years for study purposes,” Raisi told reporters upon arrival at Tehran’s Mehrabad Airport.

“It is questionable why the tablets were in the possession of Americans. The scientists who worked on the tablets are of Iranian origin, and have been undertaking studies on them for more than 10 years,” he stated.

The Iranian president said the clay tablets will be delivered to Iranian museums to be put on display.

The royal tablets were shipped in nine boxes each weighing 75 kg, the report said. They were reportedly produced during the reign of Darius I, commonly known as Darius the Great, who served as the third King of Kings of the Achaemenid Empire, reigning from 522 BC until he died in 486 BC.

Earlier in August, Iran’s deputy cultural heritage minister said the United States was set to return over 20,000 Achaemenid clay tablets to Iran within months. “The good news is more than 20,000 Achaemenid tablets belonging to Persepolis will be returned from the U.S. by the end of this year,” Ali Darabi said.

So far, hundreds of those tablets (and fragments), which have been on loan from Iran to the Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago since 1935, have been returned home. For example, in 2019, Iran received 1,783 of those important objects being kept at Chicago’s Field Museum of Natural History and the University of Chicago’s Oriental Institute.

In February 2018, following years of ups and downs, the fate of those ancient Persian artifacts was left in the hands of a U.S. Supreme Court, which ruled in favor of Iran.

Archaeologists affiliated with the University of Chicago discovered the tablets in the 1930s while excavating in Persepolis, the ceremonial capital of the Persian Empire. However, the institute has resumed work in collaboration with colleagues in Iran, and the return of the tablets is part of a broadening of contacts between scholars in the two countries, said Gil Stein, director of the Oriental Institute at the University of Chicago.

They are very important sources of information revealing economic, social, and religious data about the Achaemenid Empire (550-330 BC) and the larger Near Eastern region in the fifth century BC.

Persepolis, locally known as Takht-e Jamshid, was the ceremonial capital of the Achaemenid Empire. It ranks among the archaeological sites, that have no equivalent, considering its unique architecture, urban planning, construction technology, and art.

Let's just keep in mind that while Alexander the great burned only the palace of Xerxes he didn't hold grudge on the Persian nation .It were the Arabs,on 642 A.D, who burned down Persepolis.

Source:https://www.tehrantimes.com/news/489266/Presidential-souvenir-3-506-Achaemenid-tablets-returned-from

#archaelogy #culture #ancient Persia #achaemenid #Iran Persepolis #Tehrantimes #Takht-e Jamshid #Cultural Heritage #Oriental Institute of the University of Chicago