Our Campaign’s Big Bad, Threatening Our Necromancer Through Her Dreams: I Am Beyond Your Mortal Comprehension.

Now I feel bad doing absolutely nothing

Let aeniith be an inspiration to us all.

Conlangs in 2021

I usually try to keep my “resolutions” for the new year realistic, and think of them more as goals. I always like to have goals, and the new year gives me a convenient (if artificial) turning point that reminds me to consider and perhaps update my goals, especially those that are accomplishable over the period of about a year or so.  A few of my conlang and worldbuilding goals for 2021 are: - Revise Rílin and Karkin grammars

- Add Ori to the website 

- Add to Tosi grammar (it’s so barebones)

- Figure out how Gotevian/Lomi/other languages in Quarios are written. 

- More music in Aeniithian conlangs! I recorded a few songs in 2019 in Rílin, Tosi, and Gotevian, and I want to do more. 

- Record spoken audio stories that add to Aeniith worldbuilding (narrated exploration, in a sense) 

- Do more drawings/paintings/visual designs related to Aeniith 

- Fill out my flora and fauna collections and get them on the website  Do you have any goals related to worldbuilding, writing, conlanging, or creation in general? 

Every person is inherently bad because they [are tainted by Original Sin / have privilege and benefit from colonization]. Some people are good, however, because [they became Christian / are oppressed minorities], and these people cannot do any wrong. The problem is the remaining people, who are [minorities and Jews / oppressors and capitalists and Jews], who cause all the problems in the world. But the [Democrats and Zionists / Democrats and Zionists and Republicans] have a vested interest keeping them in power. We should ally with [Russia / Russia and Hamas and Hezbollah and Houthis] to take down the true enemy, [immigrants and Arabs and Jews / America and Jews]. Once we kill all the bad people, the [Rapture / Glorious Revolution] will come, and everything will be better.

Big mood

All of my worldbuilding projects remind me too much of what is going on for me to be able to work on any of them.

Feeling weird about being an angst writer at the moment

How can I enjoy guiding characters through The Horrors when those same horrors really are being inflicted on my people and possibly my friends, without the neat closure of being saved by a mentor or brought closer with a lover or receiving the comfort and catharsis to heal?

It's definitely not like I can't write other types of story - the play I wrote and directed is a romantic drama comedy, the opera I'm working on is G&S-inspired with only a little vulnerable-hero-in-deadly-peril, and I have concepts in various stages of development in all genres and styles.

But one of my favourite tropes suddenly feeling off-limits as I'm already behind on many stories that involve it is... very unbalancing.

a lot of you hate historians and archaeologists, and i think that’s a problem

look, i fully recognize that there are reasons to be skeptical of history and archaeology. i am very on board with criticizing academia as an oppressive institution, and the way that researchers take their bigotry and bias with them to their work. i also recognize that academia does a pretty bad job of communicating what it does to the public, and that’s a part of why people’s hostility to it is able to flourish.

but i am disturbed by the pervasive narrative in online leftist spaces that people who research the human past are ignorant and bigoted, and i think we need to do more to combat that narrative.

historians being homophobic has become a whole meme, and it feels like people are just using historians as a homophobia scapegoat, when in reality the humanities are overwhelmingly left-leaning. people also keep blaming historians for erasing the homoeroticism of fictional literary characters, which is just… not what historians do. homophobic biases and erasures in the interpretation of history over the past few hundred years are a very real thing that’s important to learn about, but scholars have radically shifted away from that approach in recent generations, and these memes are not helping people outside the field to understand history and reception. instead, a lot of people are coming away with the impression that…

(source… really? nobody?)

this thread gets bonus points for the comments claiming that modern historians argue about whether achilles was a top or a bottom using homophobic stereotypes, which i can only guess is a misunderstanding of the erastes/eromenos model (a relationship schema in classical greece; i think people have debated whether achilles and patroclus represent an early version of it). also a commenter claims that the movie troy invented the idea of achilles and patroclus being cousins when no, they were also cousins in lots of ancient sources.

there’s this post about roman dodecahedra (link includes explanation of why the original post is misleading).

there’s this thread about how some thin gold spirals from ancient denmark look exactly like materials used in gold embroidery to this day but archaeologists are stupid and don’t know that because they dont talk to embroiderers enough. in fact, the article says they were most likely used for decorating clothing, whether as a fringe, braided into hair, or embroidered. so the archaeologists in the article basically agree with the post, theyre just less certain about it, because an artifact looking similar to a modern device doesn’t necessarily mean they have identical uses.

this thread has a lot of people interpreting academic nuance as erasure. the museum label literally says that this kind of statue typically depicts a married couple, giving you the factual evidence so you can interpret it. it would be false to say “these two women are married” because there was no gay marriage in ancient egypt. (interpreting nuance as erasure or ignorance is a running theme here, and it points to a disconnect, a public ignorance of how history is studied, that we can very much remedy)

lots of other conspiracy theory-ish stuff about ancient egypt is common in social justice communities, which egyptologists on this site have done a good job of debunking

oh, and this kind of thing has been going around. the problem with it is that there are loads of marginalized academics who research things related to their own lives, and lived experience and rigorous research are different forms of expertise that are both valuable.

so why does this matter?

none of these are isolated incidents. for everything i’ve linked here, there are examples i havent linked. anti-intellectualism, especially against the humanities, is rampant lately across the political spectrum, and it’s very dangerous. it’s not the same as wanting to see and understand evidence for yourself, it’s not the same as criticizing institutions of academic research. it’s the assumption that scholars are out to get you and the perception that there is no knowledge to be gained from thorough study. that mindset is closely connected to the denial of (political, scientific, and yes historical) facts that we’ve been seeing all around us in recent years.

on a personal note, so many marginalized scholars are trying to survive the dumpster fire of academia because we care that much about making sure the stories that are too often unheard don’t get left out of history… and when that’s the entire focus of my life right now, it’s disheartening to see how many of my political allies are just going to assume the worst about the entire field

The reduction gears and steam turbines under construction at the General Electric Plant, circa March 1942.

There are four sets of double reduction cross-compound geared turbines, with each turbine set driving a single shaft. “They offered almost 10-1 reduction to allow the turbines to run at much higher and more efficient rpm. These are some of the most critical components of the powerplant and one of the things which allowed long ranges in US battleships.“

Due to the date and the fact USS Iowa (BB-61) and USS Missouri (BB-63) were the only Iowa Class Battleships to receive General Electric gears and turbines, these are most likely for USS Missouri.

A man is shown deburring the edges of teeth with a file.

Note that they are double helix which eliminates axial thrust while providing the quieter running and increased strength of helically cut gears.

Photographed by Dmitri Kessel of LIFE Magazine. Identify by Peter Deforest.

LIFE Magazine Archive: 121941, 121944, 121942, 121943, 121940, 121945, 121946, 121949

Fresh Waffles and knock knock wildelifecomic.com

The song this tumblr is named after. It was written by Jerry Gray (music) and Carl Sigman (lyrics) in 1940. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra recorded it as a Bluebird 78 rpm single on April 28th of the same year, and it was released in June.

The name of the song comes from PEnnsylvania 6-5000, or 736-5000, the phone number of Hotel Pennsylvania, New York City. Glenn Miller and His Orchestra was one of several jazz bands that frequently performed at the hotel’s main restaurant, the Cafe Rouge, which feautured a ballroom to dance in. Sadly, the Cafe Rouge no longer operates, with the space being converted into a venue for megacorps and sport events.

The phone number still works: after adding the area code 212, you will hear the song in the background as the hotel’s automated message plays.

Saxophones: Hal McIntyre, Tex Beneke, Wilbur Schwartz, Ernie Caceres, Al Klink Trumpets: John Best, R. D. McMickle, Clyde Hurley, Legh Knowles Trombones: Glenn Miller, Jimmy Priddy, Paul Tanner, Frank D'Annolfo Piano: Chummy MacGregor String bass: Herman "Trigger" Alpert Guitar: Jack Lathrop Drums: Moe Purtill

The “Necromancy is evil“ we see in most fantasy worlds stems from a christian view of having to honor the body after death in a certain way to ensure the soul’s safety in the afterlife. And while I encourage you to explore societies that don’t see necromancy as evil, I also encourage you to explore societies that see necromancy as evil for different reasons.

Drow might believe that after death, your body belongs to Lolth and must be fed to spiders. Reanimating a body means stealing from Lolth and must therefore be punished.

A Zoroastrian inspired society might believe that with death, evil starts infesting the body, so dead bodies must be kept away from the community, and reanimating them keeps them in the community and is therefore bad.

Best author ever

pratchett will write an entire book about the grim reaper pretending to be santa claus while the grim reaper’s granddaughter goes about hunting down the dumbass who decided to kill santa, and then right when you think you’re done and the oddly pointed shenanigans are winding down he hits you with “humans need fantasy to be human. to be the place where the falling angel meets the rising ape,” and knocks you into next wednesday

Today's Google Doodle was fun and informative, suggest everyone check it out.