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miirshroom · 4 months

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Mushroom Vision

I am going to attempt explaining how there is an entire vast segment of environmental storytelling in Elden Ring that is going unremarked upon. It isn't just about mushrooms. But that's where I first took notice, so that's where I will start in this post.

The above is the view from a mushroom on the entry ramp to Raya Lucaria, just above where the merchant is sitting. This was maybe my 3rd or 4th random stop back when I decided to appreciate the scenery from the point of view of the mushroom (for fun!). It is an example of perfect framing for elements in the far distance:

The North Liurnia Minor Erdtree

The Church of Vows

The Erdtree

But really, it's "perfect" framing of only the Erdtrees - the Church of Vows is blocked from view and hidden by a stone pillar with a quatrefoil symbol on it. This is a noticeable trend at many mushroom spots - it would be a great view...except there is a nearby tree or a piece of stone exactly in front of one element in the far distance. The perspectives seen from these mushrooms are missing the full picture. Rotating to the left on top of the same mushroom, there is also a perfectly clear view of the Bellum Gate in front of Mt. Gelmir.

Setting the scene a bit more, the ramp is heavily forested, populated by 4 packs of wolves (numbering 3, 3, 3, and 5 including the white wolf in the group lowest down the ramp), then the Isolated Merchant, a Trina's Lily, a corpse with 2 strips of white flesh, and right inside the impassible gate is a Bloodhound Knight guarding a corpse holding Celestial Dew. The sealed entry to the ramp is looking directly towards the Cathedral of Manus Celes.

Also, there is a second mushroom on the bridge which has a view of the Church of Vows restored, but instead this one is blocked from viewing Mt. Gelmir. The Church of Vows is directly aligned with Morgott/Mohg's Divine Tower. This mushroom is between the 2nd and 3rd wolf pack.

Paying attention to the mushrooms also calls attention to something else interesting. There are 4 stone viewing spots built into the ramp face - the two middle ones occurring at those two mushroom spots, one at the top of the ramp just before the 1st wolf pack, and one at the bottom of the ramp between the merchant and the bloodhound knight.

The lowest of these viewing points has a clear view at the Erdtree (nearest to the gate). Also from this vantage point the Liurnia North Minor Erdtree is in alignment with the withered Minor Erdtree in the Altus Plateau:

The highest viewing point near the top of the ramp has views of Mt. Gelmir, Bellum highway Gate, and the Wandering Mausoleums:

In the photos of the first mushroom (lower ramp) I placed more emphasis on the Erdtrees, as this is the view obtained by looking directly at the minor Erdtree. See below as rotated to face the pillar directly, which corrects for peripheral vision picking up certain distant objects that do not actually have direct sightline to the mushroom.

And like at the upper ramp mushroom, the transparency of the Erdtree is accounted for in what is visible from this vantage point. From the corrected viewpoint Rykard's Divine Tower is also completely obscured by the pillar and Morgott/Mohg's Divine Tower is not only behind the Erdtree, but also behind a conveniently placed rock spear. Rotating to the right, a clear view of Liurnia Divine Tower and just the top of the Isolated Divine Tower. Caelid Divine Tower is obscured by the Carian Study Hall, and Limgrave Divine Tower is exactly behind the steeple of a pillar.

So what does it matter exactly, that landmarks are blocked from certain locations? Good question! I am trying to understand this! It seems to me quite obvious from the framing of this one small corner of the map that care is being taken to craft these vistas in a certain way. Perhaps travelling up the ramp is telling a story in sequence. Perhaps there is one story told from the balcony spots while a second lens is placed on the story from the mushroom spots.

Overall, what I see are pieces of an environmental puzzle deliberately crafted at hundreds of locations. Just from mushrooms alone. But there is no reason to stop at mushrooms - I know that some people are already taking interest in the locations of Trina's Lilies and Miquella's Lilies, but has any attempt been made to really consider what is visible (or not visible) from their locations? The things that NPC's can see from their vantage points, the directions that corpses are looking and the items they hold, the view of the divine towers from rebirth monuments (previously discussed in a different post) all seem to be carefully planned. Rowa bushes are very frequently found in pairs, and at almost every location I've checked so far across Limgrave there will be something clearly visible from one bush that is just barely out of sight from the other.

For anyone wondering whether Elden Ring actually innovated on anything compared to Dark Souls? It's this. Literally - it's the depth of environmental storytelling.

#elden ring #environmental storytelling #mushroom vision #wandering around looking at stuff is more fun than making posts #but sometimes the findings need to be documented #this is basically the same skillset that I use for taking photos documenting site conditions for work lol

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angstyaches · 1 year

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ooh 16 and 25 for sick eli would be so cool! we haven’t had a proper sick eli for so long 🍄

Hehe you're so right, thank you for the prompt!

Prompt List by the magnificent @butterfliesornauseous 🖤

CW: (imagined) danger of falling from a height, body horror, supernatural abilities, blood drinking mention, emeto, sick character with emetophobia*, anxious caretaker.

(*accidentally published with emetophilia earlier, oops)

___

Felix sat at the edge of a rock, sucking on a blood lollipop. A few minutes ago, he had started swinging his legs rhythmically in an attempt to soothe his nerves. It had helped… marginally.

He knew he ought to be enjoying what was one of the most stunning views he had seen in his life. That was why they had pulled the rental car over into this viewpoint – a dusty little outcropping on the side of the mountain road, separated from a sheer drop by a wooden barrier. But that was more than a little difficult, considering that the view might, at any second, be spoiled by the sight of the love of his life plummet from the sky like a sack of potatoes.

As much as he couldn’t bear to look, the faint shape that seemed to pass between him and the sun drew his gaze upward. He didn’t so much see the shadow as feel it, as though it had passed across the surface of his brain instead of his skin. He wondered if he’d have noticed it, if it hadn’t been for his heightened vampiric senses. Were there humans on this mountain who were experiencing unexplained shivers up their spine in the middle of their summer hikes? Did they keep glancing towards the sky, unnerved by an undetermined sense of the supernatural?

Would today see the birth of local legends that people would whisper around campfires? Even in his state of anxiety, Felix had to admit that would be pretty cool.

He had to lift a hand to shield his eyes from the sun’s glare. His stomach burned with squirming discomfort as a faint, black smudge zipped across the sky, probably about forty feet higher than the plateau where they’d parked the car, if Felix’s spatial awareness could be trusted. He didn’t even want to guess how high Elliott was flying over the bottom of the valet itself.

He let out a high-pitched hum, leaving the lollipop sitting in his mouth while he squeezed the fingertips of his left hand, starting with his thumb and working his way across to his pinky.

Please, Elli, he thought. Come down soon.

___

Elliott rode the wind.

No. No, that wasn’t intimate enough to describe what this felt like.

Elliott was the fucking wind. A force of nature, slipping and dancing through the cracks between the physical and the otherworldly.

Technically, he was a swarm of ethereal bats, but when you were faced with scenic majesty on a scale like this, it was hard to give a shit about technicalities. The summer air rushed through the fur on each of the individual creatures, each shard of him. He had a bird’s eye view of the landscape, and instead of having actual bird’s eyes, he had hundreds of eyes to drink it all in.

He tumbled through the air, whipping up wisps of water vapour and bathing in dazzling sunbeams. He twisted his way up the side of a sheer mountain face, cut through the crystal rush of a waterfall, cast his form out through the endless blue sky like a dark, shadowy firework.

If he’d been in his humanoid form, he’d have been whooping and laughing until his lungs collapsed, but he settled for a contented chittering.

Elliott was in his element.

___

A shudder bolted down Felix’s spine as the beat of a thousand wings filled the air, lifting dust from the dry ground.

Elliott moved the swarm like the bats were performing an interpretive dance, swirling them in a circle around the rock where Felix was seated. He couldn’t tell if this little display was intended as a greeting (the bat-cloud equivalent of a hug, or a kiss on both cheeks?), or if Elliott was just showing off how well he could control this form’s movements now.

The bats shot together as though pulled towards the centre of the swarm by a magnet, and Elliott’s figure materialised a couple of inches above the ground. He dropped delicately onto his feet, lifting his head to grin at Felix as soon as his eyes and mouth had formed. His pupils were blown out wide and his mouth hung slightly ajar.

Gosh, he was beautiful. Felix drew a trembling breath, feeling his gratitude for Elliott’s safety congeal as tears in the corners of his eyes. He swallowed back the emotion, though, not wishing to taint Elliott’s experience.

“How w-wash it, darling?” he asked, slurring his speech around the lollipop.

“Oh, Fee, it was…” Elliott pressed his hand to his head, dumbstruck.

He stared at Felix for a few seconds and then turned to lean on the barrier and stare off across the valley, as though he was still trying to comprehend the fact that trees and mountains and rivers could possibly exist. The view from the platform must have looked as flat as a postcard after he’d been tearing through the air above it.

“Fee, that was unlike anything I ever thought I’d ever experience.”

Felix sat forward to rest his chin in his hands, feeling a smile of his own coming on. This was why his anxious waiting had been worthwhile; Elliott was happy, and nothing else came even close to being as important as that.

He watched his partner spread his hands to the landscape, and followed his gaze as though he were seeing the view for the first time himself.

“Everything we’re seeing right now, from here…” There was a faint distant quality to Elliott’s voice, as though he knew human languages couldn’t encompass what he wanted to say. Felix could understand that. He’d gone through the same thing the first time he’d tried Kobe beef.

“It – it’s only a fraction of what is like out there. It’s magnificent. It’s –”

Elliott retched and sagged forward.

Oh, boy. Felix lurched to his feet instantly.

Elliott’s hands clawed at the wooden barrier as he hung his face over the side, saliva and bile and swallowed blood draining from his lips as his torso convulsed. The sticky combination dripped down into the rocks and foliage that awaited on the other side of the barrier.

Felix jogged over to the car, sparing only a brief flash of concern over his own decision to run with a lollipop in his mouth. Not a good idea, but his darling needed something. They had packed a cooler box – mainly for Felix’s benefit – which he dug through now, pulling out a bottle of water.

Felix pulled his lollipop out of his mouth and tried for an encouraging smile.

“God fucking damn it,” Elliott was muttering to himself as Felix approached him.

“Agua?”

Elliott turned his head. He blinked heavily as he put out his hand to take the bottle. “Gracias, mi amor.”

“Are you alright, darling?”

Elliott closed his eyes and nodded in that gentle, tentative way he did when he wasn’t quite sure if he was alright, but deeply wanted to be.

He lifted the bottle and filled his mouth with water, holding it in his cheeks as he glanced briefly across the valley again. The hyperactivity had drained from his expression, and now his eyes were watering, his pupils shrivelled into his golden irises. He spat the water from his mouth over the side of the barrier, and lifted the bottle again. This time, he took three long, deep gulps that made his throat ripple with the force of them.

“Ugh,” he muttered, propping his elbow on the wooden barrier and letting his head hang forward. “Fuck, my stomach…”

Felix’s nerves spiked at the thought of the barrier giving way under Elliott’s weight, but soothed himself with the knowledge that Elliott could switch into bat form and fly himself to safety.

Maybe there were perks to having a flying partner after all?

“I was… quite nervous about you flying so high,” Felix admitted, again trying to keep a light tone. He started fidgeting with his fingers again, despite himself. “But I didn’t think it would make your stomachhave such a bad reaction…”

Elliott groaned as he took one more swallow of water. His breath trembled while he exhaled. “Yeah, me neither. I might’ve thought twice.”

That made Felix’s heart sink. The thought of his adventurous partner restricting his indulgence of his new power was like… well, it was like Felix giving up cake and bread despite being perfectly capable of ingesting gluten. It just didn’t sit well with him.

But as he leaned on the barrier, trembling and gulping audibly, Elliott seemed to be letting his eyes fall anywhere but on the view that he’d been so in love with until a few moments ago. It looked like he was trying to avoid making eye contact with someone he’d once kissed at a party.

He wasn’t just shaken by the sudden onset of nausea; Elliott was embarrassed.

“Perhaps you’re still getting the hang of it, darling,” Felix said softly. “I’m certain it will get easier with time. Like me, with my car sickness. A few years ago, I’d never have been able to make it all the way up here in a car, with all of those switchbacks.”

Elliott grunted in acknowledgement.

“Perhaps I’ll let you steal some Dramamine for next time,” Felix chuckled softly.

Elliott’s eyes drifted up towards Felix’s face at that. His eyelids drooped a little, and his lips were glistening. “Do… you think it would help, if I took some right now?”

“Now? It is better to take it beforehand…”

Elliott gave another – sadder – grunt of acknowledgement. He lowered his head again, jolting as a low, wet belch crept up his throat.

“Honestly, darling, I don’t think medicine can help your belly if it's this upset.” Felix started to lift a hand to rub Elliott’s back, then stopped himself. “It would be better to… get it over with.”

Elliott let out a small, closed-mouth whine. He had hated the sensation of vomiting ever since his transformation to full vampire had ridden him constantly nauseous for month-long bouts at a time.

On top of that, he had always been repulsed by touch when he felt sick, meaning that Felix was left with very little to do.

“I don’t know what I was thinking,” Elliott groaned.

Felix’s heart sank. “Darling, you were… you were thinking that you have an awesome new power. You were thinking that you were awesome. Which is true; you are. Just because you feel a little sick now, it doesn’t mean you failed at anything.”

Elliott shook his head and let out a soft burp.

“You… you aren’t weak, Elli.”

“I appreciate,” Elliott murmured, “that you believe that’s true.”

“Are you saying that I’m wrong? Does seeing your strength and power make me silly?”

“I… no, boo, of course you’re not silly.”

“I resent that,” Felix smiled. “I am the silliest, I’ll have you know. But for a multitude of reasons, not one of which has anything to do with believing in you and thinking you’re amazing.”

Elliott shook his head again, though Felix could have sworn that the ghost of a smile tugged at the corner of his mouth, deepening his cheek dimple just a little. As far as cheering him up went, that would have to do for now, because the moment was interrupted by a sharp gurgle, and Felix had the feeling that this time, Elliott’s stomach wasn’t just churning up a belch.

“Fuck, fuck, it’s happening again,” Elliott whined, knuckles tightening on the wooden barrier. “Fee, it’s happening again.”

“I know, my darling, I know.”

Felix moved his body as close to Elliott’s as he dared. He might not be able to touch him, but at least Elliott could lean into Felix’s side if he decided he wanted a little bit of support. If Elliott appreciated the thought, he didn’t say so, but it might have been because his gratitude was muffled by another mouthful of red, glistening vomit.

Felix grimaced as the natural greenery continued to be painted in red. It looked like strawberry syrup dribbled across a salad. He tucked his lollipop back into its wrapper, which he’d thankfully saved in his pocket, his desire to snack away his anxiety dissolving.

Elliott’s shoulders convulsed with another retch.

Felix sighed in sympathy and rested his hands on the barrier. His heart lifted as Elliott stretched out his pinky finger, so that it interlocked slightly with Felix’s.

“I’m right here,” Felix whispered. “I’m right here, darling.”

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beingharsh · 3 months

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It is wrongly said (in Marxism in particular) that a society is defined by its contradictions. That is true only on the larger scale of things. From the viewpoint of micropolitics, a society is defined by its lines of flight, which are molecular. There is always something that flows or flees, that escapes the binary organizations, the resonance apparatus, and the overcoding machine: things that are attributed to a "change in values," the youth, women, the mad, etc.

"1933: Micropolitics and Segmentarity", Gilles Deleuze and Félix Guattari, A Thousand Plateaus

#a thousand plateaus #gilles deleuze #felix guattari #philosophy

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xiaojianggshi · 11 months

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i was the anon that asked abt idol life readings, tysm for ur quick reply omg <3 ill submit one anyway bc i'm curious 😅 take ur time w/ answering though, no pressure! sun scorpio moon leo rising capricorn :)

p.s can i just add i love ur classical music tarot segment... i play violin & piano so i loved that post!! i honestly didn't expect sunghoon mozart tbh but it's understandable since it's one of his more emotionally provocative compositions

anyways love ur blog. that's. that's it :D

hello!! thank you for the ask!! i am so glad to hear that you liked that post!! i'll explain more thoughts for it in a reblog!!

you would make a lot of good connections in the industry!! this does not only mean connections that would help you solely with opportunities, but you would meet some really good friends that you would keep around for life!!

you could however, reach a plateau. when this happens, you should change your viewpoint and see a better way around things! i suspect you woukld be a vocalist or the leader! if you were a leader, your members would have a lot of respect for you!!

the lovers, four of swords rx., six of candles, ten of cups

#kpop tarot

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spaceintruderdetector · 1 year

Photo

https://archive.org/details/after-utopia-the-decline-of-political-faith-by-judith-n.-shklar-z-lib.org/Virtual%20Dimension_%20Architecture%2C%20Representation%2C%20and%20Crash%20Culture-Princeton%20Architectural%20Press%20%281998%29John%20%28ed.%29%20%20John%20Beckmann/

In a century immersed in technological acceleration, we have reached a strange new plateau in the human condition. Advanced technologies such as biometrics and DNA cloning have not only caught up with reality, they have in many ways already surpassed it. The Virtual Dimension critically examines the role that digital and immersive technologies have on the methods used by architects, designers, and artists to conceptualize and represent new mediated spaces, topologies, and both real and virtual communities. This collection of interdisciplinary essays addresses the implications of "going virtual" from a variety of cultural and theoretical viewpoints.

#architecture #virtual reality

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rabbitcruiser · 1 year

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Clouds (No. 990)

Plateau Viewpoint, UT (three pics)

Monitor and Merrimac View Area, UT (seven pics)

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talesofsonicasura · 2 years

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Ash Soul AU

An AU thought that came to me yesterday while suffering from a minor head cold. (I'm still sick btw but not woozy.) This involves Wild, Breath of the Wild Link but more on the angst side.

Before being taken to the Shrine of Resurrection, Link's body unluckily gets more exposed to Calamity Ganon's malice fueled flames. The dark energy of the blight had become so thick that the shrine estimated it would take a millennia to purge. Yet, what if... such malice could be converted and weaponized?

Thus the machine did the unthinkable. It merged Wild's body with the malice burnt inside creating something new yet so heartbreaking. A living mass of emotionally charged energy. Form wise, I think something like the Auditor from Madness Combat.

Something that acts very similar to fire but isn't. I'll say that Wild's body is very odd since it can go from solid, semisolid, liquid and to even plasm via thought. Has a consistency akin to tar with an ink like texture.

Overall, Link had a lot of difficulty keeping himself together much less forming a humanoid form. You can say his body is similar to an amoeba. It can mold, stretch, and consume anything he envelopes. Wild can eat normal food but living creatures such as animals, plants and even other people will properly fuel him.

Cooking is more of a way to handle stress. His adventure is a lot more difficult as his inhuman nature will frighten someone. Wild can take on a human form however it's a bit hazardous. In order to do this, he steadily leeches the color of nearby life.

Preferable to do near very lively places as 15 minutes in disguise equals one Hylian. Just know that any creature that has all it's color drained from Wild is dead, their bodies being nothing more than stone statues.

Link absolutely loathes his new inhuman nature especially when he regains a memory. Only a small group of people know about his inhuman nature: Flora (Zelda), Purah, Symin, Kass, Impa, Riju, Teba, Sidon, and Yunobo. (Riju found out and told other three.) You can say they are part of the Protect Wild squad.

Link usually stays on Satori Mountain with the Blupees and Lord of the Mountain. The ambient magic keeps him fed whilst the residents provide him company. Wild's house in Hateno Village and the rundown house on the Great Plateau are for different uses.

Now his new form has some complications involving certain Sheikah Technology such as the Guardians, Divine Beasts and Shrines. By that I mean they... tend to glitch. Wild's body is malice converted into something else, mostly a particular emotion very close to it, Wrath.

Just like Malice, Wrath can be directed onto another. Sheikah Shrines will practically kick Link out if he doesn't complete the challenge in a set amount of time. The functions inside will act janky or flat out won't work.

Guardians are extremely hostile in a berserker manner around Wild. They will attack EVERYTHING the moment he is in either line of sight or 5 meters. Animals, the environment and even each other are fair game. Finally the worst of the worst, the Divine Beasts.

These four titans will go berserk the moment Wild inside. Seeing Purah is completely mandatory as the destruction from a rampaging Divine Beast is devastating. Each one will practically harm themselves just to eject Link.

Overall, his adventure is even more difficult than any other incarnation so far. It only gets worse once the Chain are sent to recruit him. Especially when they have Calamity (BoTW Hyrule Warriors version) with them.

Wild wants nothing to do with the group. Even more so with his successful counterpart and still Hylian counterpart. Something made more difficult as Calamity can pinpoint his location. Basically an unwanted game of Hide and Seek that leads to the unfortunate meeting.

It's only the possiblity of reclaiming his humanity does Wild end up with the Chain. Trust, boundaries, friendships, and viewpoints are gonna be challenged. Some will break. Whether Wild can heal from everything he's suffered depends on not just him but the people around him. Even a Phoenix needs help rising from the ashes.

That's all I have for now! Until next time folks, I'll see you back in Hyrule. Enjoy the song that give this AU it's title, Ash Soul by Cheshyre.

youtube

#au #ash soul au #tales of sonicasura #sonicasura #loz #loz botw #loz link #legend of zelda #legend of zelda link #legend of zelda breath of the wild #lu wild #linked universe related #linked universe #Youtube

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autobotmedic · 1 year

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PROMPTS

@lcrdstarscream

LAST RESORT : injured / sick and alone after an encounter with a threat or a run-in with a dangerous situation, sender finds themself at receiver’s door, coming to them because they have nowhere else to go.

When one of the sensors surrounding the Autobots' plateau of a base activated, Ratchet pulled up visual on his nearest console. His plating flared instantly. Saying it was highly concerning that Starscream had apparently discovered where they were would have been an understatement, regardless of his present condition. If he had been attacked, was he followed directly? If he had been bleeding, had someone already picked up the trail he left?

The medic quickly retrieved additional viewpoints of their surroundings, searching for signs of a pursuer. He found none.

... What if it was purely consequence? Perhaps Starscream didn't know, perhaps he would keep traveling, if his injuries were minor... But there would still be an energon trail. Even MECH could accidentally discover their base as a side effect of it.

"Hhhgh," Ratchet's stressed noise transformed into an agitated growl, which then morphed into a revving engine as he shifted to vehicle mode. The ambulance shot off toward the base's hidden entry.

Returning to root mode once he had located him outside, Ratchet stared down at him with closed fists, silently analyzing his condition... Then he spoke, in a clearly hostile whisper, "If I see a hint of ill-intent in your optics or a twitch of your claws toward those under my care, I will finish hwatever another started." His extensive knowledge of biology was not limited to healing, despite how he hated to apply it to violence.

"But, as long as you behave, I will help you." With that stated, Ratchet bent down. Large hands firmly captured and lifted the uninvited guest to his chest, before he carried him inside, walking in steady stride to their makeshift medbay.

Oh how he hoped Optimus returned before any of the others; finding Starscream in their home was not going to receive positive reactions from anyone, but Ratchet truthfully did not want to deal with a certain furious two-wheeler on his own.

#ratch: i have no pity for you this is just tactically wiser than leaving your aft outside ok #[QUESTION] distract me so I stay inside #lcrdstarscream #injury tw #blood tw

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thorsenmark · 3 months

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Any Excuse to Visit Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument by Mark Stevens Via Flickr: While at a roadside pullout along Utah Scenic Byway 12 with a view looking to the southwest across the high desert of Grand Staircase-Escalante National Monument. My thinking in composing this image was to take advantage of the nearby foreground to create a layered look with some nearby canyons and eroded gullies leading up to more distant colorful slickrock. I felt including some shrubbery and small trees helped to add to that look of the American West in the image captured.

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shamsaddinmegalommatis · 1 year

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History of Achaemenid Iran 1A, Course I - Achaemenid beginnings 1A

Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

Tuesday, 27 December 2022

Outline

Introduction; Iranian Achaemenid historiography; Problems of historiography continuity; Iranian posterior historiography; foreign historiography; Western Orientalist historiography; early sources of Iranian History; Prehistory in the Iranian plateau and Mesopotamia

1- Introduction

Welcome to the 40-hour seminar on Achaemenid Iran!

It is my intention to deliver a rather unconventional academic presentation of the topic, mostly implementing a correct and impartial conceptual approach to the earliest stage of Iranian History. Every subject, in and by itself, offers to every researcher the correct means of the pertinent approach to it; due to this fact, the personal background, viewpoints and thoughts or eventually the misperceptions and the preconceived ideas of an explorer should not be allowed to affect his judgment.

If before 200 years, the early Iranologists had the possible excuse of studying a topic on the basis of external and posterior historical sources, this was simply due to the fact that the Old Achaemenid cuneiform writing had not yet been deciphered. Still, even those explorers failed to avoid a very serious mistake, namely that of taking the external and posterior historical sources at face value. We cannot afford to blindly accept a secondary historical source without first examining intentions, motives, scopes and aims of it.

As the seminar covers only the History of the Achaemenid dynasty, I don't intend to add an introductory course about the History of the Iranian Studies and the re-discovery of Iran by Western explorers of the colonial powers. However, I will provide a brief outline of the topic; this is essential because mainstream Orientalists have reached their limits and cannot provide us with a real insight, eliminating the numerous and enduring myths, fallacies, and deliberately naïve approaches to Achaemenid Iran.

In fact, most of the specialists of Ancient Iran never went beyond the limitations set by the delusional Ancient 'Greek' (in reality: Ionian and Attic) literature about the Medes and the Persians (i.e. the Iranians), because they never offered themselves the task to explain the reasons for the aberration that the Ancient Ionian and Attic authors created in their minds and wrote in their texts about Iran. This was utterly puerile and ludicrous.

And this brings us to the other major innovation that I intend to offer during this seminar, namely the proper, comprehensive contextualization of the research topic, i.e. the History of Achaemenid Iran. To give some examples in this regard, I would mention

a - the tremendous, multilayered and multifaceted impact of the Mesopotamian World, Civilization and Heritage on the formation of the Achaemenid Empire of Iran, and more specifically, the determinant role played by the Sargonid Empire of Assyria on the emergence of the first Empire on the Iranian plateau;

b - the ferocious opposition of the Mithraic Magi to the Zoroastrian Achaemenid court;

c - the involvement of the Anatolian Magi in the misperception of Iran by the Ancient Greeks; and

d- the utilization of the Ancient Greek cities by the Anti-Iranian side of the Egyptian priesthoods, princes and administrators.

To therefore introduce the proper contextualization, I will expand on the Neo-Assyrian Empire and the Sargonid times, not only to state the first mentions of the Medes and the Persians in History, but also to show the importance attributed by the Neo-Assyrian Emperors to the Zagros Mountains and the Iranian plateau, as well as the numerous peoples, settled or nomadic, who inhabited that region.

There is an enormous lacuna in the Orientalist disciplines; there are no interdisciplinary studies in Assyriology and Iranology. This plays a key role in the misperception of the ancient oriental civilizations and in the mistaken evaluation (or rather under-estimation) of the momentous impact that they had on the formation of the World History. There are no isolated cultures and independent civilizations as dogmatic and ignorant Western archaeologists pretend.

Only if one studies and evaluates correctly the colossal impact of the Ancient Mesopotamian world on Iran, can one truly understand the Achaemenid Empire in its real dimensions.

2- Iranian Achaemenid historiography

A. Achaemenid imperial inscriptions produced on solemn occasions

Usually multilingual texts written by the imperial scribes of the emperors Cyrus the Great, Darius I the Great, Xerxes I, Artaxerxes I, Darius II, Artaxerxes II, and Artaxerxes III, as well as of the ancestral rulers Ariaramnes and Arsames.

Languages and writing systems:

- Old Achaemenid Iranian (cuneiform-alphabetic; the official imperial language)

- Babylonian (cuneiform-syllabic; to offer a testimony of historical continuity and legitimacy, following the Conquest of Babylon by Cyrus the Great, who presented himself as king of Babylon)

- Elamite (cuneiform-logo-syllabic; to portray the Persians in particular as the heirs of the ancient land of Anshan and Sushan that the Assyrians and the Babylonians named 'Elam' and the indigenous population called 'Haltamti' / The first Achaemenid to present himself as 'king of Anshan' is Cyrus the Great and the reference is found in his Cylinder unearthed in Babylon.)

and

- Egyptian Hieroglyphic (if the inscription or the monument was produced in Egypt, since the Achaemenids were also pharaohs of Egypt, starting with Kabujiya/Cambyses)

Imperial inscriptions are found in: Babylon (Cyrus Cylinder), Pasargad, Behistun, Hamadan, Ganj-e Nameh, Persepolis, Naqsh-e Rustam, Susa, Suez (Egypt), Gherla (Romania), Van (Turkey), and on various items

B. Persepolis Administrative Archives

This consists in an enormous documentation that has not yet been fully studied; it is not written in Old Achaemenid as one could expect but mainly in Elamite cuneiform. It consists of two groups, namely

- the Persepolis Fortification Archive, and

- the Persepolis Treasury Archive.

The Persepolis Fortification Archive was unearthed in the fortification area, i.e. the northeastern confines of the enormous platform of the Achaemenid capital Parsa (Persepolis), in the 1930s. It comprises of more than 30000 tablets (fragmentary or entire) that were written in the period 509-494 BCE (at the time of Darius I). The tablets were written in Susa and other parts of Fars and the territory of the ancient kingdom of Elam that vanished in the middle of the 7th c. (more than 130 years before these texts were written). Around 50 texts had Aramaic glosses. More than 2000 tablets have been published and translated. These texts are records of transactions, distribution of food, provisioning of workers, transportation of commodities, etc.; few tablets were written in other languages, namely Old Iranian (1), Babylonian (1), Phrygian (1) and Greek (1).

The Persepolis Treasury Archive was found in the northeastern room of the Treasury of Xerxes. It contains more than 750 tablets and fragments (in Elamite) and more than 100 have been published. They all date back in period 492-458 BCE. These tablets are either letters or memoranda dispatched by imperial officials to the head of the Treasury; they concern the payment of workmen, the issue of silver, and other administrative procedures. Only one tablet was written in Babylonian.

The entire documentation offers valuable information as regards the function of various imperial services, namely the couriers, the satraps, the imperial messengers, the imperial storehouse, etc. The archives shed light on the origin of the imperial administrators, as ca. 1900 personal names have been recorded: 10% were Elamites (who had apparently survived for long far from their country after the destruction of Susa by Assurbanipal (640 BCE), fewer were Babylonians, and the outright majority consisted of Iranians (Persians, Medes, Bactrians, Sakas, Arians, etc.).

C. Imperial Aramaic

The diffusion of the use of Aramaic started already in the Neo-Assyrian times and during the 7th c. BCE; the creation of the 'Royal Road', the systematization of the transportation, the improvement of communications, and the formation of the network of land-, sea- and desert routes that we now call 'Silk-, Spice- and Perfume- Road' during the Achaemenid times helped further expand the use of Aramaic. The linguistic assimilation of the Babylonians, the Jews and the Phoenicians with the Aramaeans only strengthened the diffusion of the Aramaic, which became the second international language ('lingua franca') in the History of the Mankind (after the Akkadian / Assyrian-Babylonian). Gradually, Aramaic became an official Achaemenid language after the Old Achaemenid Iranian.

Except the Aramaic texts attested in the Persepolis Administrative Archives, thousands of Aramaic texts of the Achaemenid times shed light onto the society, the economy, the administration, the military organization, the trade, the religions, the cults, the culture and the spirituality attested in various provinces of the Iranian Empire. At this point, only indicatively, I mention few significant groups of texts:

- the Elephantine papyri and ostraca (except Aramaic, they were written in Hieratic and Demotic Egyptian, Coptic, Alexandrian Koine, and Latin) – 5th and 4th c. BCE,

- the Hermopolis Aramaic papyri,

- the Padua Aramaic papyri, and

- the Khalili Collection of Aramaic Documents from Bactria (48 texts written on leather, papyrus, stone or clay, dating from the period 353-324 BCE, and mainly from the reign of Artaxerxes III whereas the most recent dates from the reign of Alexander the Great).

Here I have to add that the widespread use of Imperial Aramaic and its use as a second official language for Achaemenid Iran brought an end to the use of the Elamite (in the middle of the 5th c.) and, after the end of the Achaemenid dynasty and the split of the state of Alexander the Great, contributed to the formation of two writing systems, namely Parthian and Pahlavi which were in use during the Arsacid and the Sassanid times. Imperial Aramaic helped establish many other writing systems, but this goes beyond the limits of the present seminar.

3- Problems of historiography continuity

There are no historical references to the Achaemenid dynasty made at the time of the Arsacids (Ashkanian: 250 BCE-224 CE) and the Sassanids 224-651 CE); this situation is due to many factors:

- the prevalence of another Iranian nation of probably Turanian origin, namely the Parthians and the Arsacid dynasty,

- the rise of the anti-Achaemenid, anti-Zoroastrian Magi who tried to impose Mithraism throughout Iran during the Arsacid times,

- the formation of an oral epic tradition and the establishment of a legendary historiography about the pre-Arsacid past during the Sassanid times, and

- the scarcity of written sources and the terrible destructions that occurred in Iran during the Late Antiquity, the Islamic era, and the Modern times (early Islamic conquests, divisions of the Abbasid times, Mongol invasions, Safavid-Ottoman wars, Western colonial looting, etc.).

This situation raised Western academic questions of Iranian identity, continuity, and historicity. But this attempt is futile. Iranian historiography of Islamic times shows that these questions were fully misplaced.

4- Iranian posterior historiography (Iranian historiography of Islamic times)

With Tabari (839-923) and his voluminous History of Prophets and Kings we realize that there were, in spite of the destructions caused because of the Islamic conquests, historical documents on which he was based to expand about the Sassanid dynasty; actually one out of the 40 volumes of the most recent translation of Tabari to English (published by the State University of New York Press from 1985 through 2007) is dedicated to the History of Sassanid Iran (vol. 5). And the previous volume (vol. 4) covers the History of Achaemenid and Arsacid Iran, Alexander the Great, Nabonid Babylonia, Assyria and Ancient Israel and Judah.

Other important Iranian historians of the Islamic times, like Abu'l-Fadl Bayhaqi (995-1077), Rashid al-Din Hamadani (1247-1318) who wrote the truly first World History, Alaeddin Aṭa Malik Juvaynī (1226-1283), and Sharaf ad-Din Ali Yazdi (ca. 1370-1454), did not expand much on pre-Islamic periods as the focus of their writing was on contemporaneous developments.

However, the aforementioned historians and all the authors, who are classified in this category, represent only one dimension of Iranian historiography of Islamic times. A totally different approach and literature have been illustrated by Ferdowsi's Shahnameh (Book of Kings). Abu 'l Qasem Ferdowsi (940-1025) was not the first to compose an epic in order to standardize in mythical terms and legendary concepts the pre-Islamic Iranian past; but he was the most successful and the most illustrious. That is why many other epic poets followed his example, notably the Azeri Nizami Ganjavi (1141-1209) and the Turkic Indian Amir Khusraw (1253-1325).

Within the context of this poetical historiography, historical emperors of pre-Islamic Iran appear as legendary figures only to be then viewed as materialization of divine patterns. The origin of this transcendental historiography seems to be retraced in the Sassanid times, but all the major themes are clearly of Zoroastrian identity and can therefore be attributed to the Achaemenid world perception and world conceptualization.

It is essential at this point to state that, until the imposition of modern Western colonial academic and educational standards in Iran, Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and the corpus of Iranian legendary historiography was the backbone of the Iranian cultural, intellectual and educational identity.

It is a matter of academic debate whether an original text named Khwaday-Namag, written during the Sassanid times, and now lost, is at the very origin of Ferdowsi's Shahnameh and of the Iranian legendary historiography. The 19th c. German Orientalist Theodor Nöldeke is credited with this theory that has not yet been proved.

All the same, the spiritual standards of this approach are detected in the Achaemenid times.

5- Foreign historiography

Ancient Greek (in reality, Ionian and Attic), Ancient Hebrew and Latin sources of Achaemenid History exist, but first they are external, second they appear to be posterior in their largest part, and third they often bear witness to astounding inaccuracies, fables, untrustworthy data, misplaced focus, excessive verbosity without real substance, and -above all- an enormous and irreconcilable misunderstanding of the Iranian Achaemenid reality, values, world view, mindset, and behavior.

The Ancient Hebrew sources shed light on issues that were apparently critical to the tiny and unimportant, Jewish minority of the Achaemenid Empire; however, these Biblical narratives concern facts that were absolutely insignificant to the imperial authorities of Parsa. One critical issue is concealed by modern scholars though; although all the nations of the Empire were regularly mentioned in the Achaemenid inscriptions and depicted on bas reliefs, the Jews were not. This undeniable fact irrevocably conditions the supposed 'importance' of Biblical texts like Ezra, Esther, Nehemiah, etc. All the same, these foreign historical sources are important for the Jews.

The Ionian and Attic accounts of events that were composed by the Carian renegade Herodotus, the Dorian Ctesias, and the Athenian Xenophon present an even more serious problem. They happened to be for many centuries (16th – 19th c.) the bulk of the historical documentation that Western European academics had access to as regards Achaemenid Iran. This situation produced grave biases among Western academics, because they took all these sources at face value since they had no access to original documentation. The grave trouble persisted even after the decipherment of the Old Achaemenid cuneiform writing and the archaeological excavations that brought to daylight original Iranian imperial documentation.

Only recently, at the end of the 20th c., leading Iranologists like Heleen Sancisi-Weerdenburg started criticizing the absolutely delusional History of Achaemenid Iran that modern Western scholars were producing without even understanding it by foolishly accepting Ancient Ionian myths, lies and propaganda against the Iranian Empire at face value. This grave problem had also two other parameters:

- first, there was an enormous gap of civilization and a tremendous cultural difference between the Iranian imperial world view, the spiritual valorization of the human being, and the Zoroastrian monotheism from one side and the chaotic, disorderly and profane elements of the western periphery of the Empire. The so-called Greek tribes in Western Anatolia and in the South Balkans were not only multi-divided and plunged in permanent conflict; they were also extremely verbose on common issues, they desecrated the divine world with their nonsensical myths and puerile narratives, and they defiled human spirituality with their love stories about their pseudo-gods. But, very arbitrarily and quite disastrously, the so-called Ancient Greek civilization had been erroneously taken as 'classics' by modern Europeans at a time they had no access to Ancient Oriental sources.

- second, the vertical differentiation between Imperial Iran as the blessed land of divine mission and the disunited and peripheral lands of conflict, discord and strife that were inhabited by the Greek tribes was reflected on the respective, impressively different types of historiography; to the Iranians, few words written by anonymous scribes were enough to describe the groundbreaking deeds of divinely appointed rulers. But for the Greeks, the useless rumors, the capricious hearsay, the intentional lie, the nefarious expression of their complex of inferiority, the vicious slander, and the deliberate ignominy 'had' to be recorded and written down.

The fact that Herodotus' and Xenophon's long narratives have long been taken as the basic source of information about Achaemenid Iran demonstrates how disoriented and misplaced modern Western scholarship is. But by preferring to rely mainly on the Ancient Greek lengthy and false narratives, and not on the succinct, true and chaste Old Achaemenid Iranian inscriptions, they totally misrepresent Ancient Iranian History, preposterously extrapolating later and corrupt standards to earlier and superior civilizations.

And whereas Ancient Roman authors, who wrote in Latin (Pliny the Elder, Seneca the Younger, etc.), and Jewish or Christian historians, who wrote in Alexandrine Koine, like Flavius Josephus and Eusebius of Caesarea Maritima, reproduced the style of lengthy narratives that turns History to mere gossip, the great Babylonian scholar Berossus was very reluctant to add personal comments to his original sources or to allow subjective considerations and thoughts to contaminate his text.

In any case, the vast issue of the multilayered damages caused by the untrustworthy Ancient Greek historiography to modern Western academics' perception and interpretation of Achaemenid Iran is a topic that deserves an entirely independent seminar.

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To watch the video (with more than 110 pictures and maps), click the links below:

HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN - Achaemenid beginnings 1Α

By Prof. Muhammad Shamsaddin Megalommatis

youtube

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To listen to the audio, clink the links below:

HISTORY OF ACHAEMENID IRAN - Achaemenid beginnings 1 (a+b)

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Download the text in PDF:

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erikaqueenpauline · 2 years

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I'm starting this post for like the third time hoping dumb ass Tumblr doesn't say 'oops something went wrong' and delete everything I wrote. continuing on about dextromethorphan, I have to tell you about the 4th plateau. 4th plateau dxm tripping (for most people anything north of 1000mg would be edging into this territory) is some serious shit not to be toyed around with or attempted on a whim. I have had some mystical, spiritual nirvana like experiences in the 4th plateau and on the other hand I've accidentally gotten trapped there and experienced hellish terrifying madness. I have ended up in jail cells and psych wards fucking with the 4th plateau, this is not something to be taken lightly. you experience total annihilation of all familiar constructs and tethers you're just adrift in the white blank abyss outside everything you can't tell what's real you don't know if you're on drugs or if things have always been this way and always will be forever ... like I said it can be terrifying or super sublime, it will make you reconsider every preconceived notions and belief you had, seeing everything from an emotionless objective outside viewpoint. proceed with caution lil dextronaut, tread carefully 4th plateau can be belief-shattering, life altering. you can also recall repressed memories in 4th plateau (maybe even 3rd) which can be really traumatic and huge. I definitely have experience with that phenomenon.

other dxm wisdom I bestow onto you 😁... lots of people like "triple C's" or coricidin cough and cold - I don't fuck with that shit cuz the chlorpheniramine weirds up the high too much... idk how to explain it but throw in that (also psychoactive) extra ingredient and it's a whole different ballgame. you get real fucked up but it's not for me any more. that being said, I ALWAYS take diphenhydramine (benadryl) with my dex, anywhere between 4 and 10 25mg pills depending on how fucked up I'm trying to get. dph is also an SSRI and an anticholinergic deliriant hallucinogen, frankly it's straight up dangerous, much more so than dxm. causes heart rhythm problems and convulsions and shit if you take too much - it enhances the dxm high to me, gives it a little more euphoria and body high and edging into visual hallucinations (esp higher amounts) but it also makes me fucking RETARDED in a way dxm alone does not, like seriously slow and simple in the head like counting things is hard lol ... so not something you want to do when you need to be functional, only good for being extremely fucked up listening to music and watching visualizers. 😄 also causes shaky hands, dry mouth, poor motor skills you walk like your drunk all teeter tottery and shit. so if you're gonna try adding in dph just know a little goes a long ways and your kinda playing with a live cobra that can turn on you. IMPORTANT: THE TRIP LOG. something I started doing long ago and follow religiously is I keep a designated little notebook where everytime I take a dose of dxm or dph (I include all psychoactive substances) I write down exactly how much I took and at what time. this is very helpful for when you're like "hmm I don't feel that high, I'm gonna take some more" if you look at the trip log and see it's only been 45mins since you took a dose of dxm you know to wait another 15mins or so for that to kick in before you go taking more shit, you feel me. it helps to know dxm hydrobromide takes about an hour to kick in, Mucinex about an hour and a half and delsym about two to two and a half hours. diphenhydramine takes about 45 minutes. you should generally always do these drugs on an empty stomach, food slows down the absorption and you won't get as high and it'll take longer. so if you know you're gonna trip don't eat anything heavy beforehand. and if you were wondering yes just swallow the syrup or pills, dxm and dph cannot be injected snorted or smoked. use caution when mixing dxm and THC you will get WAY more fucked up than either substance alone. alcohol and dxm is a good way to end up puking esp if you tend to have a weak stomach, products with guaifinesin extra prone to make you nauseated and or puke.

DANGERS OF DXM USE:

causes heart rate to be very elevated like 140 just sitting there not doing anything. if you have a weak heart don't use. for some reason extended use causes (at least for me) super low blood glucose levels, just found this out recently - to combat this drink regular (sugary) soda. dxm abuse can very often cause urinary retention! (doubly so if mixing in dph) - I cannot tell you how many times I've gone to ER in severe discomfort with liters of piss in my bladder completely unable to urinate, get bladder scanned and then catheter in the urethra, I have done this so many times it's not even fucking funny. over the years have learned some ways to cope with that (limiting fluid intake before and during trip, moderating dosage, tricks to coax the urine out of me) but seriously this can be unpleasant if you drink too much liquids and are on a high dose of dxm.

chronic extended abuse like I do causes other problems like digestive tract issues, short term memory loss (amnesia like a motherfucker), falling out and having convulsions and splitting your fucking face open, all sorts of fun adventures like that. so yeah dxm can be a powerful tool to recall repressed memories, cope with trauma, shake off outmoded beliefs, etc but not when you do it every fucking day all day, then you're just a fucking vegetable doing nothing and going nowhere. I'm trying to get clean off this shit and get back to recording my music. aight that's all for now got shit to do - Erika aka Queen Pauline

#dxm #dextromethorphan

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