Minthara

[kFoyauextlH]

"
Off the starry shores of a black liquid ocean is the base of the Temple of Mant. Inside you may find me to consult, covered in hair and gigantic in a place where coldness is a dimension of emotion which does not mean unemotionality but the same sort of thing as physical coldness. It acts as a symbol of veracity, that indeed this place is real if you are here
"

https://dragonlance.fandom.com/wiki/Mina

The part where Mina keeps turning six years old sounded so badly written that it led me down this rabbit hole bringing up weird themes, but it was already weird how Mina sounded like Minthara and had a similar background and way of changing, since in Baldur's Gate III Minthara switches from Lolth to "The Absolute" to not that either. In Dragonlance, Mina is going for "The One God", which is like The Absolute on several levels. The character that is hiding behind the moniker of The One God is similar to Lolth.

https://forgottenrealms.fandom.com/wiki/Viperhands

"
The Ancient Ones were drow living in Mount Zatal who disguised themselves as supernatural beings sent by Zaltec. They manipulated and effectively controlled the cult of Zaltec in Nexal, and by extension the cult of Zaltec throughout Maztica. The Viperhands were also effectively under their control.[5]
"

"
As they attacked the Legion and their Maztican allies, during the battle they took many captives and brought them to Hoxitl who sacrificed them to Zaltec. Among these was Bishou Domincus, the Legion's cleric of Helm. At the same moment that he was sacrificed, a Couatl and the leader of the Ancient Ones both fell into the magical darkfyre focus inside Mount Zatal. This focus had supposedly been the cause of the rpckfire cataclysm that destroyed the underdark beneath Maztica centuries earlier, and it was also a form of drow magic that had been created in the time when the Ancient Ones still served Lolth. A huge explosion then immediately erupted from Mount Zatal. Lolth who had been very jealous of how the Ancient Ones had abandoned her to serve Zaltec, was able to manifest her power through the darkfyre to corrupt the ashes from the eruption and when the ashes fell on those who had been marked by the Viperhand, they were horrifically transformed. The common warriors became orcs, the eagle knights and jaguar knights became ogres, and the Viperhand priests of Zaltec became trolls. Hoxitl was himself transformed into a giant humanoid monster by the ashes.[9] This transformation was also done with the power of Zaltec, as the growing bloodlust of his followers in these new forms gave him greater power. [10]

These creatures then marauded through Nexal, killing everyone, including many Nexalan civilians. Qotal used his power to turn the water around Nexal to ice so that the survivors could flee. A body of survivors, including Nexalans, other Mazticans, and survivors of the Legion then gathered together under the leadership of Erixitl of Palul, the chosen of Qotal, who led them south from the city into the House of Tezca. Zaltec had grown with so much power as a result of the massive killing and death on the Night of Wailing and what followed, that he was able to manifest his own presence physically in the material plane. He became a massive stone statue in Nexal that was able to walk and move. Hoxitl, still sensing the will of his master, led the Viperhand south to chase the fleeing refugees. [11]
"

"
In Godshome, Mina took up the holy artifacts Sedition and the Pyramid of Light, offering them both to the obsidian pool and telling the gods that she would serve the Balance as a goddess, but one outside any of the pantheons, even the Neutral one, as joining any pantheon would disrupt the balance. She then departed the world and joined the pantheon in the heavens, leaving Valthonis to wander the world once more.
"

https://dnd-wiki.org/wiki/Canon:List_of ... _locations

"
Godshome
A desolate crater of a wasteland located in the Vingaard Mountains. It has only one entrance and one exit that leads into Neraka. At the center is located a pool of black obsidian that reflects the stars in the heavens and the Divine constellations. It is surrounded by nineteen pillars, each representing a particular god, with pillars of white stone for the gods of light, pillars of black for the gods of darkness and pillars of "an indeterminate colour" for the gods of neutrality. One black pillar and one white have fallen, and while the white one remains whole, the black one has been broken, representing Paladine's renunciation of godhood so that the newly-mortal Takhisis could be slain. Standing apart from the rest are three pillars, one of white jade, one of black jet and one of red granite, representing the gods of magic, Solinari, Nuitari and Lunitari. According to Fizban, the gods once convened there.

Here Fizban carried the dwarf Flint Fireforge (who died moments earlier of a failing heart) onto the Obsidian reflecting pool to disappear.

At the ending of The War of Souls two of the center pillars fell, one of which broke in pieces as it hit the valley floor. These represented the now dead "Queen of Darkness" Takhisis and the self-exiled "Fizban the Fabulous" Paladine.

Mina entered Godshome with the elf "Valthonis" also known as "The Walking God" for he is in fact Paladine. She had a last talk with the former god who was her father and stepped onto the obsidian reflecting pool to place on it a holy artifact of Takhisis and a holy artifact of Paladine. Then she stepped off and walked the valley until she found a spot contested by shadow and light. She stood still with her back to the pillars of the Gods and while she departed from the world, she wept.

At that location standing apart now is found a pool of night-blue water that would reflect nothing at all, but shows the faces of all the living of all the races. At the center stands one pillar made of amber.
"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Raistlin_Majere



"
[deleted]
•
2y ago
I will always hear Kiefer Sutherland's voice in my head when reading Raistlin's lines, thanks to the animated movie. Whatever else anyone has to say about it, that was some stellar voice actor casting right there.


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BattleReadyZim
•
2y ago
The Soulforge
Foreword
It's been over ten years since we gathered in my little apartment for a game session. Dragonlance was known only to a handful of us then, an infant full of promise not yet realized. We were playing the first adventure of what would eventually prove to be a wonderful experience for millions-but on that night, as I recall, we mostly didn't know what we were doing. I was running the game from my own hastily assembled design notes. Both my wife and Margaret were there among a host of others who were struggling to find their characters from the thin shadowy outlines we had given them. Who were these Heroes of the Lance? What were they really like?
We were just settling in to the game when I turned to my good friend Terry Phillips and asked what his character was doing. Terry spoke . . . and the world of Krynn was forever changed. His rasping voice, his sarcasm and bitterness all masking an arrogance and power that never needed to be stated suddenly were real. Everyone in the room was both transfixed and terrified.

To this day Margaret swears that Terry wore the black robes to the party that night.
Terry Phillips happened to choose Raistlin for his character and in that fated choice gave birth to one of Dragonlance's most enduring characters. Terry even wrote an Adventure Gamebook on Raistlin's tests which bore the same title as the book you hold in your hands. Krynn-not to mention Margaret and myself-owe no small debt of gratitude to Terry for bringing us Raistlin. Other characters in Dragonlance may belong to various creators, but Margaret, from the very outset, made it clear to all concerned that Raistlin was hers and hers alone. We never begrudged her the dark mage-she seemed to be the only one who could comfort his character and soothe his troubled mind. The truth is that Raistlin frightened the rest of us into distance. Only Margaret knew how to bridge that abyssal gulf.
Now you hold the story of Raistlin as told by Margaret-the one person who knows him best of all. The journey may not always be comfortable but it will be a worthy one. Margaret has always been a master storyteller. Here, now, is the story that she has longed to tell. And if Terry is reading this now-wherever he is-I wish him peace.

Tracy Hickman
October 10, 1997

I'm often asked, "Who's your favorite character?" This is tantamount to asking a mother to name her favorite child! We love our children for themselves, a love individual as each child. It is true, however, that a writer comes to know and like some characters better than others. Some I know better than I know my own friends and family! The innermost recesses we hide from the world are clearly visible to our Creator. Playing God with my characters, I see their weaknesses, their strengths, their inner doubts and turmoil, and their dark and secret parts. Raistlin Majere was such a character. When I first met Raistlin, he was a name on a Character Sheet. I knew his "stats," developed for the Dragonlance roleplaying game. I knew he was a third-level mage in his early twenties. I knew he was slight in build, wore red robes, and that he was known among his friends as "The Sly One." I knew he had a strong, well-built, powerful twin brother named Caramon. But he was just one of a number of characters-Tanis, Sturm, Flint, Tasslehoff-until I read the passage that said Raistlin had "golden skin and hourglass eyes."

"Why does he have golden skin and hourglass eyes?" I asked, puzzled.

"Because the artists think he would look cool!" was the reply. This intrigued me. I had to know the reason Raistlin had golden skin and hourglass eyes. In trying to solve this mystery, I was led to an understanding of the true nature of Raistlin's character. That he would be jealous of his good-looking, stronger twin brother was a natural feeling to which every person who has ever grown up with a sibling could relate. That he was not generally trusted or well liked by his peers was obvious. If his friends called him "The Sly One," what would his enemies term him? Naturally he would be the target of bullies, which would lead his brother to protect him. It seemed to me that Raistlin would grow dependent on his brother for such protection, but that he would, at the same time, resent Caramon for it. Thus Raistlin would constantly struggle against a love as smothering as it was nurturing.
The fact that Raistlin was of slight build and physically weaker than his brother seemed to indicate a sickly youth, which might also be indicative of an introspective nature, particularly if he was forced to spend time cooped up in a sickbed. Such a childhood would have contributed to his feeling of alienation from his peers but would later give him empathy for others in like circumstances. That Raistlin would turn to the study of magic was again obvious. Of course, it would be his elder half-sister, the restless and ambitious Kitiara, who would lead his thoughts in that direction. In a rough and dangerous world her younger brother lacked physical strength to wield a weapon. He needed some way to defend himself. Magic was the answer, especially since he already showed some talent in that area. Raistlin soon came to realize that magic was also the means by which he could gain power and ascendancy over others.

All very intriguing, but it didn't explain the golden skin and hourglass eyes. Certainly he wasn't born with them. His twin brother and his elder half-sister were perfectly normal-looking humans. Perhaps his study of magic had caused this transformation. He must have had to take a test to prove his abilities to the wizards who lived in the Towers of High Sorcery.
What sort of magical test would they give young wizards? A difficult test, probably extremely difficult. Otherwise anyone with a bit of talent could declare himself a wizard. What if the Test required that a mage stake his or her very life on the outcome? And what if something happened during the Test that caused Raistlin's skin to acquire a golden tinge and to give him eyes that would see the ravages of time upon all living things? Thus the Test in the Tower of High Sorcery came into existence. It was during that Test that Raistlin had the fateful meeting with the lich, Fistandantilus. I became so fascinated with Raistlin that I wrote a short story about his journey to the Tower to take the Test. I also came to know a lot about Caramon on that trip. I saw Caramon's great inner goodness that to his friends would seem a weakness but that in the end would be the rock on which he would build a successful and happy life.
I'm still learning about Raistlin. With every book I write about him and his twin and their adventures in the world, I discover something new. Raistlin is, and continues to be, a favorite of all the many different characters it has been my privilege and my joy to know.
Margaret Weis
August 1998
"

https://www.enworld.org/threads/why-dra ... pt.690048/

This theme came up in the Reddit due to the male author named Tracy, then again through "Drew Faust". The other theme that repeated was about promotion of "roleplaying games", both as helpful for writing and helpful for ethics and philosophy, so the overlap is "helpful" and connects creativity to morality and moral development, and roleplaying and thinking about characters and calculating how they will interact, receive reactions, and play out, along with the idea of what might be "realistic" and what is "real" about fantasy and where the "real" is. These were themes that were present here in 2017, and amazingly also the symbols were similar, like the "black liquid". Even "Faust" coming up through the name of that professor fits in with all these themes, as well as "switches", like "switching".

https://nameberry.com/blog/unisex-baby- ... ue-to-pink

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christopher_Robichaud

"
In the classroom, he has championed the use of role-playing games such as a fictional zombie apocalypse to simulate real-time leadership and policy decision-making in times of crises or disaster.[3][4] In 2014, Robichaud agreed to give an opening lecture at a reenactment of a Black Mass by the Satanic Temple at the Queens Head Pub on Harvard University campus organized by the Harvard University Extension School Cultural Studies Club. The topic of the lecture was religious liberty, and Robichaud planned to explore the ways in which society defines ideas such as hate-speech and tolerance.[5][6] The event was widely criticized by local Catholic leaders and Harvard affiliates, including Harvard President Drew Faust, and was eventually canceled by the Cultural Studies Club as interest in the event greatly exceeded the bar's capacity.[7]
"

https://www.thedp.com/article/2007/04/f ... es_no_more

"
Philosopher Christopher Robichaud considered Raistlin Majere to be "the greatest D&D character ever".[38]
"

"
References to Raistlin have appeared in several other media, most notably in heavy metal music. The Swedish band Lake of Tears recorded a song called "Raistlin and the Rose" for its 1997 album Crimson Cosmos. "The Soulforged", by German metal band Blind Guardian, is another song inspired by Raistlin's story. The song appears on the band's 2002 album A Night at the Opera.[29] "Wishmaster", a song by Finnish metal band Nightwish also pays tribute to Raistlin. Among other references, the song uses the word "Shalafi" (the elven word for "master", used by Dalamar toward Raistlin), and there is a lyric that reads "if you hear the call of arcane lore / your world shall rest on earth no more."[citation needed] The song first appeared on the 2001 album of the same name. The song is one of the most popular among the fans and is still played in concerts.[30] In 2010 a Russian musical titled "Последнее испытание (The Last Trial)" emerged, telling the whole story of Legends in 39 songs, written over more than 10 years by Anton Kruglov and Helena Khanpira.
"

https://www.etymonline.com/word/veracity

"
and I will answer truthfully whatever you may wish to learn about regarding your interests. Do not dissapoint me, because I can not dissapoint you. It is only fair.
"

dissapoint is a non-standard spelling, which might be considered incorrect and disappointing immediately, but it is there specifically, like all these mystical things I put up.

"
veracity(n.)
1620s, of persons, "habitual truthfulness;" from French véracité (17c.), from Medieval Latin veracitatem (nominative veracitas) "truthfulness," from Latin verax (genitive veracis) "truthful," from verus "true" (from PIE root *were-o- "true, trustworthy"). By 1660s as "fact or character of being true."
"

"
*were-o-
*wērə-o-, Proto-Indo-European root meaning "true, trustworthy."

It might form all or part of: aver; Varangian; veracious; veracity; verdict; veridical; verify; verisimilitude; verism; veritas; verity; very; voir dire; warlock.

It might also be the source of: Latin verus "true;" Old Church Slavonic vera "faith," Russian viera "faith, belief;" Old English wær "a compact," Old Dutch, Old High German war, Dutch waar, German wahr "true;" Welsh gwyr, Old Irish fir "true."
"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Veracity

"
Veracity may refer to:

Honesty, an ethical principle
Truth, a property of beliefs
"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Honesty

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Truth

https://honkai-star-rail.fandom.com/wiki/Voracity

"
"Insects are to birds, as hares are to wolves. The stars are to the black hole, as the worlds are to the voracity."
— Worlds History as a Mirror, Xianzhou
The drinker of worlds, the unsatisfied devourer, the black hole with thought. THEY are an Aeon and a Leviathan at the same time.
In the eyes of Oroboros, life is a flickering fragment floating in the sea of void, destined to return to the darkness along with the stars which birthed THEM — This darkness is within the depths of THEIR mouths.
"

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Veracity

"
Veracity, also called the Sword of Oblivion, was a unique Execution Blade wielded by the leader of the Sisters of Silence.
"

https://warhammer40k.fandom.com/wiki/Sisters_of_Silence

"
The most singular thing about the order was that each and every woman within its ranks was an "Untouchable," a rare genetic sub-set of Humanity who cast no soul-shadow in the Warp, and whose minds are completely immune to psychic assault and an anathema to all those with psychic powers.

Their mere proximity is enough to cause psykers discomfort and pain, and in truth they will even sow fear and disgust in the hearts of those whose minds are without the psyker's gift, no matter how strong-willed they may be. It is a simple and irresistible reaction to the fundamental "wrongness" of the Untouchable or as it is often put more melodramatically, "a body without a soul." This curious and macabre phenomena goes beyond simple absence, as one might feel disturbed by a mannequin or automata which apes Humanity but remains unalive -- instead it is an observably preternatural effect which seems to strike deep against the fundamental unconscious perceptions of all living beings as something malignant and contrary to the natural order of existence.

There appears to be perceptible degrees of this effect which vary from individual to individual, with some Untouchables "stronger" in the phenomena than others, and it is from the strongest of these that the Sisters of Silence are drawn. It is also noteworthy to the extent that the disturbance caused by an Untouchable is evident not only to Humanity, but also all other lifeforms and xenos species encountered to some greater or lesser extent.

In proof of this there are many recorded incidences of the unsettling effects of Human psychic Nulls being enough even to unnerve the blind brutal savagery of rampaging Orks, while to the Aeldari xenoform, psychically attuned as every individual of their species is, the presence of a Human Untouchable is a thing of acute, existential horror. The most potent and perhaps shocking power of the psychic Null however is that which makes them the perfect hunters and slayers of psykers; Untouchables such as the Sisters of Silence are almost impossible to affect with Empyreal powers. Their minds cannot be taken over, their perceptions cannot be altered and their bodies cannot be possessed by Warp entities.

Even the cruder but more direct manipulations of the environment or ambient energy by the psyker such as conjured fire or the hurling of debris by telekinetic force is lessened and sometimes negated outright by the Untouchable's sheer proximity. With psychic Nulls such as the Sisters of Silence, specifically chosen for the "strength" of their gift, it is the case that their minds are not simply absent or inert to a psyker's mental perception, but howling abysses of darkness that not only negate psychic force directed at them, but actively interfere with the flow of Warp energies into realspace around them.

The profoundly phobic reaction they engender extends to both Human and xenos psykers as well as entities and creatures of the Empyrean like Daemons, their mere presence a debilitating toxin. Further, there are those among the Sisterhood who through arcane training and practice -- and whose nature has never been revealed to outsiders -- are able to develop their "Null" abilities further until they are actively disruptive enough to make any use of psychic power in their presence extremely hazardous.

These Sisters are honed into the "Oblivion Knights," and within their order they are the foundation stone of an elite force specially tasked not with the day-to-day enforcement of the Great Tithe, but the destruction of alpha-level rogue psykers and the ceaseless training for battles of this deadly kind.

In their studies, the Sisters of Silence read many of the great texts that were found in the towering stacks of the Libraria in the Somnus Citadel on Luna, from the earliest surviving volumes of the Psykana Occultis to the Voiceless Judgements of Melaena Verdthand. Within these tomes of psychic research and ancient lore, the young Sisters-in-Waiting learned much concerning the nature of the witch.

They came to believe that skill in the Power Sword and bolter were but one half of a sister's armoury, for knowledge of their quarry carried equal weight. In this quest they had learned a great deal about the extremes of psykerkind to be found in the Human-settled galaxy. The sisters learned to ferret them out, combat them and, if need be, execute them with extreme prejudice for the greater good of all Mankind.

The exact biological source -- as it is believed to be -- which creates in a Human being the state of psychic Null, the so-called "Pariah Gene," has proven an elusive and ephemeral subject of study, and in testing no single "gene" at all. Such attempts to exploit or isolate it when pursued by both the Imperial Archotechnologist Corps and the Mechanicum during the Great Crusade's early years courted disaster, and as a result the Emperor decreed a general moratorium upon the study of the biological basis of the psychic Null phenomena, affecting all but His own direct experimentation should He wish it.

What remains of those extant studies indicates that most attempts to synthesise, propagate or even weaponise the psychic Null were tragic failures or worse. Despite all this evidence, shadowed accounts of certain clades of the Officio Assassinorum and the dread and obscure Ordo Sinister also contain evidence of the Emperor's own "engineered" use of the psychic Null in warfare. To others however, the mystery of the Pariah Gene, if it truly exists, remains out of reach.

So many unanswered questions revolve around this most arcane and dangerous of topics. Foremost are those which centre around theories of how the Pariah Gene came about: was it perhaps the result of ancient xenos tampering with the Human genome or some strange and terrible experiment of the Dark Age of Technology? Or, as the wildest theories state, is is some perverse evolutionary development to provide protection against the Warp-riddled cosmos itself?

There is also the observation that no Space Marine, or Custodian Guard for that matter, has ever been recorded as being a psychic Null. This factor weighs the evidence of some scholars that within the Space Marine gene-seed itself is perhaps a shadow of the Emperor's own genetic material and a sliver of His own psychic power which is crucial to the process and success of the transformation of a mere Human into a transhuman Astartes.

If this is the case, it would be wholly an anathema to the Pariah Gene and likely simply kill its implanted subject. It can only be speculated that if even a single Legion of psychic Null Legiones Astartes had been possible, how very different history may have been -- just as without the involvement of the Sisters of Silence in the Horus Heresy and the Emperor's great work of the Webway Project during the War Within the Webway, Horus' treachery may well have ended in triumph upon the broken throne of Terra.
"

Minthara is also psychic and a Paladin who had "Selune" linked to them, just like "Luna" was mentioned in this article about the Sisters Of Silence. This theme of "sensed aversion by proximity" came up earlier here:

https://mojobob.com/roleplay/monstrousm ... pkend.html

"
Despite their links to Sithicus, the vampire kender are not natural creatures and, therefore, have no place in the biology of the world around them. The elves in Sithicus can sense the presence of one of these creatures whenever it comes within 100 yards of them. At first, the elves feel only a curious sense of concern or dread; but, as the monster draws nearer, the feeling intensifies into one of loathing and horror. The elves describe these sad creations as vile pollutants that foul the living by their mere presences. It is unclear why only those elves native to Sithicus can sense the kender vampire so easily.
"

https://dragonlancenexus.com/wp-content ... opedia.pdf

Fear plays a big role in philosophy, ethics, roleplaying, action and reaction which involves consideration, senses, self-preservation, and emotion.

"
Mina's place outside the pantheons is served as the Goddess of

Tears,

bringing comfort to any who feel

sorrow

and come to her,

regardless of their alignment.

She was originally the goddess of

Innocence,

but following her corruption by

Takhisis, and her later trials, the Goddess of

Tears

is her final outcome. Most of the gods in the pantheon accept and welcome her, except for

Chemosh,

who is opposed to her in all things.

Mina dwells alone in the Ethereal Plane,

rather than living with the other god, and

refuses to accept clerics or worshipers.

She does not grant spells to anyone, but instead

sometimes directly intervenes on behalf of those who pray to her,

though she is always mindful of the magnitude and nature of these, lest her actions disrupt the

balance.
"

[kFoyauextlH]

Added in 3 days 24 minutes 5 seconds:


The distance is pretty big physically on the map but they are extremely similar people who clearly carried a lot of the words and culture from a certain period. From around that region the people also seemed to have traveled to Italy at some point also, though much earlier waves had cross all of Europe, the wave that causes the words to be so similar, and then the wave that makes the guy in the video look so similar to "Luigi" show that they kept sweeping across. I think Bulgaria retained some older words that froze more and didn't get modified or shortened, and that whoever was more cut off from lots of mingling and cosmopolitan societies and interest may have retained older style looks.

I got on this because I saw this costume and liked it, as it also reminded me of one I had seen earlier that I liked:

https://c8.alamy.com/comp/DKJ1W4/bulgar ... DKJ1W4.jpg

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... Access.png

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issyk_G ... ct_Warrior

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issyk_kurgan

It is pretty interesting, weird, and almost scary that this clothing is seemingly genetically built into my system that I can recognize it in a video game image and it happens to come from a very closely connected region and people, that these are likely things my ancestors wore, especially since they were even up until recently from tribal chieftain lines in mountainous areas.

Seeing the version from the fantasy game, the first version of Minthara, had sent shockwaves when I saw how familiar it was to me, and now I see that such clothing was worn all the way in both directions, but especially closer to the mountains where my ancestors are from.

The mountains cut off those regions a little more, so that the people retained very ancient looks and languages.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... ned_up.jpg

"
For the Achaemenids, there were three types of Sakas: the Sakā tayai paradraya ("beyond the sea", presumably between the Greeks and the Thracians on the Western side of the Black Sea), the Sakā Tigraxaudā (the Massagetae, "with pointed caps"), the Sakā haumavargā ("Hauma drinkers", furthest East). Soldiers of the Achaemenid army, Xerxes I tomb detail, circa 480 BC.[38]
"

"
The Achaemenid inscriptions initially listed a single group of Sakā. However, following Darius I's campaign of 520 to 518 BC against the Asian nomads, they were differentiated into two groups, both living in Central Asia to the east of the Caspian Sea:[37][39]

the Sakā tigraxaudā (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎡𐎥𐎼𐎧𐎢𐎭𐎠) – "Sakā who wear pointed caps," who were also known as the Massagetae.[40][41]
the Sakā haumavargā (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐏃𐎢𐎶𐎺𐎼𐎥𐎠) – interpreted as "Sakā who lay hauma (around the fire)",[42] which can be interpreted as "Saka who revere hauma."[43]
A third name was added after the Darius's campaign north of the Danube:[37]

the Sakā tayaiy paradraya (𐎿𐎣𐎠 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼𐎭𐎼𐎹) – "the Sakā who live beyond the (Black) Sea," who were the Pontic Scythians of the East European steppes
An additional term is found in two inscriptions elsewhere:[44][37]

the Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam (𐎿𐎣𐎡𐎲𐎡𐏁 𐏐 𐎫𐎹𐎡𐎹 𐏐 𐎱𐎼 𐏐 𐎿𐎢𐎥𐎭𐎶) – "Saka who are beyond Sogdia", a term was used by Darius for the people who formed the north-eastern limits of his empire at the opposite end to the satrapy of Kush (the Ethiopians).[45][46] These Sakaibiš tayaiy para Sugdam have been suggested to have been the same people as the Sakā haumavargā[47]
Moreover, Darius the Great's Suez Inscriptions mention two groups of Saka:[48][49]

the Sꜣg pḥ (𓐠𓎼𓄖𓈉) – "Sakā of the Marshes"
the Sk tꜣ (𓋴𓎝𓎡𓇿𓈉) – "Sakā of the Land"
The scholar David Bivar had tentatively identified the Sk tꜣ with the Sakā haumavargā,[50] and John Manuel Cook had tentatively identified the Sꜣg pḥ with the Sakā tigraxaudā.[47] More recently, the scholar Rüdiger Schmitt has suggested that the Sꜣg pḥ and the Sk tꜣ might have collectively designated the Sakā tigraxaudā/Massagetae.[51]

The Achaemenid king Xerxes I listed the Saka coupled with the Dahā (𐎭𐏃𐎠) people of Central Asia,[45][47][44] who might possibly have been identical with the Sakā tigraxaudā.[52][53][54]
"

"
Although the ancient Persians, ancient Greeks, and ancient Babylonians respectively used the names "Saka," "Scythian," and "Cimmerian" for all the steppe nomads, modern scholars now use the term Saka to refer specifically to Iranian peoples who inhabited the northern and eastern Eurasian Steppe and the Tarim Basin;[7][55][8][14] and while the Cimmerians were often described by contemporaries as culturally Scythian, they may have differed ethnically from the Scythians proper, to whom the Cimmerians were related, and who also displaced and replaced the Cimmerians.[56]
"

"
Conan the Barbarian (also known as Conan the Cimmerian) is a fictional sword and sorcery hero created by American author Robert E. Howard (1906–1936) and who debuted in 1932 and went on to appear in a series of fantasy stories published in Weird Tales magazine.
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Hither came Conan, the Cimmerian, black-haired, sullen-eyed, sword in hand, a thief, a reaver, a slayer, with gigantic melancholies and gigantic mirth, to tread the jeweled thrones of the Earth under his sandalled feet."

Robert E. Howard, The Phoenix on the Sword, 1932
Conan is a Cimmerian. The writings of Robert E. Howard (particularly his essay "The Hyborian Age") suggest that his Cimmerians are based on the Celts or perhaps the historic Cimmerians.
"

"
Howard describes the character as wearing whatever garb is typical for the kingdom and culture in which Conan finds himself. Howard never gave a strict height or weight for Conan in a story, only describing him in loose terms like "giant" and "massive".[14]

According to a report by The Independent, Den Beauvais, a Canadian artist known for his illustrations in the role-playing game Dungeons & Dragons and at the well-known U.S. comic book publisher Dark Horse Comics claimed that Rob De La Torre's Conan adopted from Turkish actor Yavuz Selekman.
"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yavuz_Selekman

"
In the tales, no human is ever described as being stronger than Conan, although a few are mentioned as taller (including the strangler, Baal-Pteor) or of larger bulk. In a letter to P. Schuyler Miller and John D. Clark in 1936, only three months before Howard's death, Conan is described as standing 6 feet (1.8 m) and weighing 180 pounds (82 kg) when he takes part in an attack on Venarium at only 15 years old, though being far from fully grown. At one point, when he is meeting Juma in Kush, he describes Conan as tall as his friend, at nearly 7 feet (2.1 m) in height.

Conan himself says in "Beyond the Black River" that he had "not yet seen 15 snows" at the Battle of Venarium: "At Vanarium he was already a formidable antagonist, though only fifteen, He stood six feet tall [1.83 m] and weighed 180 pounds [82 kg], though he lacked much of having his full growth." Although Conan is muscular, Howard frequently compares his agility and way of moving to that of a panther (see, for instance, "Jewels of Gwahlur", "Beyond the Black River", or "Rogues in the House"). His skin is frequently characterized as bronzed from constant exposure to the sun. In his younger years, he is often depicted wearing a light chain shirt and a horned helmet, though appearances vary with different stories.
"

Added in 35 minutes :


I scanned through lots of "ethnic" music to see what strikes me as familiar, and this was the only one really with the instrument and the way of singing that did, but not the language.

This is more recognizable:



Interesting also that Sky is in my name.

"
@Elhafres
7 months ago
It sounds like a mixture of Sanskrit, Russian and Portuguese
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"
@GreaterAfghanistanMovement
7 months ago
It sounds more like Pashto then i expected!
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@lambert801
7 months ago
The people of Khotan were often referred to as the greatest painters and the most beautiful people on earth in classical Persian literature. They were known as a great, civilized people worthy of respect and admiration.
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"

@Ma1nspr1ng
7 months ago
I see so many familiar words in here!

1
1



@Ma1nspr1ng
7 months ago
Cognates with modern-day Indo-European languages
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@nikhilalbert3084
7 months ago
Excellent! Khotan was likely founded by the Gandharan migrants from Kashmir and other parts of Greater Buddhist Gandhara, who migrated to Central Asia, to spread Buddhism, Khotan was conquered likely by the Scythians. The Scythian and Gandharan languages fused and created Khotanese. This is likely how this language was born.

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@ilovelanguages0124



@huskee7684
7 months ago
well not really fused but more like scythians adopted lots of words from the native indian people while keeping their own language

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@lifeasme3340
7 months ago
It sounds like Pashto
"

Lol, the Europeans always want to separate things out into little boxes and hallucinate these extreme mixtures when these were simply the same people as the Pashto speakers who were all across the region and spread in every direction. The Saka are the same people.



They are pronouncing these things in certain ways that are hardening the sounds and making them sound like other languages, if they pronounced it in another way, it would sound like other languages from the other side of the world.

The Portuguese language seems to retain some very old sounds which are also in languages like Pashto and Khotanese and the Saka runes.



Added in 13 minutes 59 seconds:
https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Issyk_inscription

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kharosthi

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brahmi_script

33 characters:

k- kh- g- gh- ṅ- c- ch- j- jh- ñ- ṭ- ṭh- ḍ- ḍh- ṇ- t- th- d- dh- n- p- ph- b- bh- m- y- r- l- v- ś- ṣ- s- h-
Ashoka[179] 𑀓 𑀔 𑀕 𑀖 𑀗 𑀘 𑀙 𑀚 𑀛 𑀜 𑀝 𑀞 𑀟 𑀠 𑀡 𑀢 𑀣 𑀤 𑀥 𑀦 𑀧 𑀨 𑀩 𑀪 𑀫 𑀬 𑀭 𑀮 𑀯 𑀰 𑀱 𑀲 𑀳
Girnar[180] 𑀰 𑀱
Kushan[181]
Gujarat
Gupta[182]

Added in 35 minutes 33 seconds:


Added in 1 minute 19 seconds:


Added in 16 minutes 26 seconds:
https://m.youtube.com/@CamelVIP-u5l/shorts

Weird, simple strategy, just find a bunch of random women showing off aspects of their appearance to grab those with a s*xual interest in such things, couple it with the favorite type of music of colonizers today, and:



"

@oPeRa1923
1 year ago
I think the french invented effortless and stoic but emotional singing i'm addicted to this song then until now. ❤
"

Stoic?

Added in 44 minutes 25 seconds:
Maybe they mean "defiant".

https://www.etymonline.com/word/stoic

"
The general meaning "person not easily excited, person who represses feelings or endures patiently" is recorded by 1570s. The adjective is recorded from 1590s in the "repressing feelings" sense, c. 1600 in the philosophical sense.
"

Resilient, possibly.

Stoic and emotional at this point seem to be conflicting terms.



That ad bothers me, because the face and the skin coloring all looks like how real corpses look, it really looks sick, besides looking very ugly anyway.

So people don't have a very good vocabulary to access anymore or a visual library to be able to understand things. It is focused in many ways on exaggerated statements and images now, to grab attention at any cost, even if it is nonsense or hideous and hateful, in order to claw to the forefront in a sea of competition all struggling for attention and recognition.



Can you believe that I actually extract meditative thoughts out of all of this stuff I dislike immensely?

7.25 Million Subscribers for a nail channel lol.

"
Make Your Nails Last Longer — Holo Taco nail polish is about having nails that are bold, playful, & anything but boring.
"

Notice the "sparkles" theme with the way elements of the costumes from the images look and these nail polishes.



She created the brand that comes up when the word "holo" is used with "nails".

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nail_polish

"
Nail polish originated in China and dates back to 3000 BCE.[1][2] Around 600 BCE, during the Zhou dynasty, the royal house preferred the colors gold and silver.[1] However, red and black eventually replaced these metallic colors as royal favorites.[1] During the Ming dynasty, nail polish was often made from a mixture that included beeswax, egg whites, gelatin, vegetable dyes, and gum arabic.[1][2]

In Egypt, the lower classes painted their nails a reddish brown with henna.[3][4] Mummified pharaohs also had their nails painted with henna.[5]
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The oasis of Hotan is strategically located at the junction of the southern (and most ancient) branch of the Silk Road joining China and the West with one of the main routes from ancient India and Tibet to Central Asia and distant China. It provided a convenient meeting place where not only goods, but technologies, philosophies, and religions were transmitted from one culture to another.

Tocharians lived in this region over 2000 years ago. Several of the Tarim mummies were found in the region. At Sampul, east of the city of Hotan, there is an extensive series of cemeteries scattered over an area about 1 kilometre (0.62 mi) wide and 23 km (14 mi) long. The excavated sites range from about 300 BCE to 100 CE. The excavated graves have produced a number of fabrics of felt, wool, silk and cotton and even a fine bit of tapestry, the Sampul tapestry, showing the face of a Caucasoid man which was made of threads of 24 shades of color. The tapestry had been cut up and fashioned into trousers worn by one of the deceased. An Anthropological study of 56 individuals showed a primarily Caucasoid population.[12][13]
"

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Yūsuf Qadr Khān was a brother or cousin of the Muslim ruler of Kashgar and Balasagun, Khotan lost its independence and between 1006 and 1165, became part of the Kara-Khanid Khanate. Later it fell to the Kara-Khitan Khanate, after which it was ruled by the Mongols.

When Marco Polo visited Khotan in the 13th century, he noted that the people were all Muslim. He wrote that:

Khotan was "a province eight days’ journey in extent, which is subject to the Great Khan. The inhabitants all worship Mahomet. It has cities and towns in plenty, of which the most splendid, and the capital of the province, bears the same name as that of the province…It is amply stocked with the means of life. Cotton grows here in plenty. It has vineyards, estates and orchards in plenty. The people live by trade and industry; they are not at all warlike".[27][28]
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According to other genetic studies, the Khotanese Sakas had paternal haplogroups Q1a, O3a, O2a, R1a, R1b.
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Found among all bigger tribes and especially the subclade R1a-YP413 is common. R1a is the most common haplogroup in Pashtuns.
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"
R1b and R1a. R1b is
the most prevalent haplogroup in Western Europe. This raised questions concerning a Norse
origin for Leod, this particular haplogroup not being typically Scandinavian. While this study
showed a secondary haplogroup, R1a, which is typically Scandinavian, the R1b haplogroup was
by far the most frequently found in that study.
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In closing, we should reiterate that Clan MacLeod is not a Clan with only R1b subclade
L165/S68 positive individuals. As noted above, there are several other haplogroups represented:
non-L165/S68 positive R1b individuals, R1a individuals, E individuals, I individuals and others.
All of these are true and valued members of Clan MacLeod.
"



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@LissaDIY
7 months ago
a true scientist will not mind someone challenging his idea. he will never see himself as the authority over knowledge. he understands his idea is based on data and with new data his idea can fall or ideally be expanded. pride is unscientific. curiosity is.

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@websurfer5772
7 months ago
Well said. I had no idea Chomsky had such an authoritarian complex.
"

Of course he does.

Added in 12 minutes 28 seconds:


A people obsessed with being dominant in controlling minds by force, controlling opinions by force, with being the authority on "truth".



Added in 1 minute :
"
@naturefreak799
12 years ago
"Don't Sleep, There are Snakes" is an incredible book, though the lingustics part will probably intimidate many in the general public. Everett is almost fearless (I have way to much anxiety to live like he did in the Amazon). The only thing he really seemed to fear (at least to me) was coming out to his family regarding his loss of religion. That says a lot about our culture.
"

Added in 1 minute 24 seconds:
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@BulletMagnetOWI
16 years ago
He did. He provided them with a wind-up tape player which was essentially an audio-book in their language. The entire village congregated around it night after night with the children winding it up. They spent most of the time listening to the part where John the Baptist gets beheaded, over and over again, laughing at the absurdity of the action of decapitation. Why would anyone cut somebody's head off? They found the book to be very entertaining, but the entire message utterly absurd.
"

Added in 1 day 18 hours 45 minutes 24 seconds:


Added in 6 hours 37 minutes 2 seconds:


This guy, after eating a few snacks, says "if you can control terminology, you can control ideology.

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@aFoxyFox.
8 minutes ago
He didn't notice you were Chinese because they look Chinese lol.
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@misterbig9025.
2 weeks ago (edited)
Tom is way less racist than the average chinese

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@zlxjry42825
2 weeks ago
True

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@odlfmariner470
2 weeks ago
yup unironically true
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@aFoxyFox.
0 seconds ago
Did you all notice that his food and taste preferences correspond to the "flavor" of how he also likes to act and be perceived? So he likes being "spicy" in a wasabi snack kind of way, including the pea texture and flavor element possibly. He was even dressed like the snack before ever eating it. If someone could match it up even more to who he wants to be and likes being, he would rate it even higher.
"



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@DoingNTG
2 years ago
Reality is modern china is one of the strongest and most beautiful civilization in the history of mankind
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@aFoxyFox.
0 seconds ago
Shame to see the adoption of so many Western elements, which are surely everything poisonous in comparison to the best from before the European contributions.
"

Added in 24 minutes 47 seconds:
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@4teenEivoi
1 year ago
Uniform- same
Face - Same
Skills - Same
10/10

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@louishe2124
1 year ago
Face? uhh

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@4teenEivoi
1 year ago (edited)
@louishe2124 Their face is same

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@louishe2124
1 year ago (edited)
@4teenEivoi I don't think so but okay

@ELNIPLO
1 year ago
@louishe2124 he's saying same faces because he sees them as such, we in different cultures tend to not note subtle differences in different races from ours simply because we are not exposed as much.

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@vincentxu4709
1 year ago
@ELNIPLONah, he stuck in 2022 where Chinese stereotypes existed, so he wants to say that Asians look the same

I mean they kind of do but that’s because of the military which makes face is the same

2



@Nel33147
9 months ago
I’m sure we all look alike to them as well.
I don’t think he was being rude.

@sector_lords
3 months ago
The faces wouldn't be the same if you zoomed it in




@aFoxyFox.
1 second ago
Lets be real children, most human beings look Chinese.
"

https://www.nbcnews.com/science/cosmic- ... 6c10403321

"
Based on the world's demographics, the typical human is a 28-year-old Chinese man — but humanity's most common face could be radically different in just 20 years' time.
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"
The population of East Asia is approximately 1.65 to 1.7 billion people, representing about 20-21% of the world's total population, according to Worldometer and Wikipedia. This region includes countries such as China, Japan, and the Korean Peninsula, and it is home to some of the world's most populous cities.
"

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The current population of Southeast Asia is estimated to be around 701 million people as of late 2025, representing about 8.5% of the world's total population and making it the third most populous subregion in Asia.
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The population of Siberia is estimated to be around 33-37 million people, with the most recent figures around 36.8 million in 2023. This relatively sparse population is concentrated in major cities and is composed of both Slavic-origin settlers, known as Siberiaki, and various native indigenous groups, such as the Buryats and Yakuts.
"

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The population of Assamese-speaking people in India, as per the 2011 Census, is 15,311,351
"

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The total population of the Central Asian region is over 83 million people as of 2025, but the steppe areas, particularly the Kazakh Steppe, have very low population densities, with some parts having only 2-3 people per square kilometer. While the overall region is sparsely populated compared to its size, population density varies, with the western parts of the Kazakh Steppe being much more sparsely populated than the eastern plains.
"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indigen ... e_Americas

"
c. 56 million
5.5% of the population (2020)
"

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Khoekhoe

https://encrypted-tbn0.gstatic.com/imag ... kiZrU&s=10



22,000 years ago, one of the largest groups of people on Earth according to that page.

The joke was that most Chinese look like human beings in general, with two eyes, a nose with two nostrils, a mouth with two lips, and most human beings overall look relatively similar.

The "Chinese" are known for their eyes as a major factor, and their skin colors range from very fair to very darkly pigmented, but most people see them as fair skinned or "sallow", which is how someone making fun of a Chinese accent might also say "yellow, hello, and apologize for either of those or whatever they are about to say next".

Eyes that look "Chinese" are widespread among the whole world, existing everywhere.

https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/ ... c1890s.jpg

https://offtoborabora.com/wp-content/up ... 3x1024.jpg

[kFoyauextlH]

https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Besmara

Added in 8 minutes 12 seconds:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen_of_the_Black_Coast

Added in 51 seconds:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tayt

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Neith

"
As the goddess of creation and weaving, she was said to reweave the world on her loom daily.[40] An interior wall of the temple at Esna records an account of creation in which Neith brings forth the first land, from the primeval waters, the Nun. All that she conceived in her heart comes into being, including all thirty deities. Having no husband she has been described as "Virgin Mother Goddess":

Unique Goddess, mysterious and great who came to be in the beginning and caused everything to come to be. The divine mother of Ra, who shines on the horizon...[4]
"

"
Plutarch described the statue of a seated and veiled goddess in the Egyptian city of Sais.[44][45] He identified the goddess as "Athena, whom [the Egyptians] consider to be Isis."[44] However, Sais was the cult center of the goddess Neith, whom the Greeks compared to their goddess Athena, and could have been the goddess that Plutarch spoke of.[46]
"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Athena

"
In his dialogue Cratylus, the ancient Greek philosopher Plato (428–347 BC) gives some rather imaginative etymologies of Athena's name, based on the theories of the ancient Athenians and his etymological speculations:

That is a graver matter, and there, my friend, the modern interpreters of Homer may, I think, assist in explaining the view of the ancients. Most of these in their explanations of the poet, assert that he meant by Athena "mind" [νοῦς, noũs] and "intelligence" [διάνοια, diánoia], and the maker of names appears to have had a singular notion about her; and indeed calls her by a still higher title, "divine intelligence" [θεοῦ νόησις, theoũ nóēsis], as though he would say: This is she who has the mind of God [ἁ θεονόα, a theonóa]. Perhaps, however, the name Theonoe may mean "she who knows divine things" [τὰ θεῖα νοοῦσα, ta theia noousa] better than others. Nor shall we be far wrong in supposing that the author of it wished to identify this Goddess with moral intelligence [εν έθει νόεσιν, en éthei nóesin], and therefore gave her the name Etheonoe; which, however, either he or his successors have altered into what they thought a nicer form, and called her Athena.

— Plato, Cratylus 407b
Thus, Plato believed that Athena's name was derived from Greek Ἀθεονόα, Atheonóa—which the later Greeks rationalised as from the deity's (θεός, theós) mind (νοῦς, noũs). The second-century AD orator Aelius Aristides attempted to derive natural symbols from the etymological roots of Athena's names to be aether, air, earth, and moon.[10]
"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thriae

"
These three bee maidens with the power of divination and thus speaking truth are described in the Homeric Hymn to Hermes, and the food of the gods is "identified as honey";[7] the bee maidens were originally associated with Apollo, and are probably not correctly identified with the Thriae. Both the Thriae and the Bee Maidens are credited with assisting Apollo in developing his adult powers, but the divination that Apollo learned from the Thriae differs from that of the Bee Maidens. The type of divination taught by the Thriae to Apollo was that of mantic pebbles, the throwing of stones, rather than the type of divination associated with the Bee Maidens and Hermes: cleromancy, the casting of lots.[8] Honey, according to a Greek myth, was discovered by a nymph called Melissa ("Bee"); and honey was offered to the Greek gods from Mycenean times. Bees were associated, too, with the Delphic oracle and the prophetess was sometimes called a bee.[9]
"

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cleromancy

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thyia_(naiad)

https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Thriae

"
Thriae live in hillside hives on the edges of civilization. Their society is split into several roles: the queen, who breeds and directs the colony; seers, who use their powers of divination to guide the colony; dancers, who entertain the colony; soldiers, who labor for and defend the colony;24 and constructors, who design and build the hives.5citation needed

Thriae have a particular fondness for rare metals, such as gold and jewels. While they rarely trade wares with outsiders, they are often willing to share their prophetic abilities in exchange for treasure—including willing male consorts. Their average lifespan is about 200 years.2
"

https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Calistria

http://goddessschool.com/magickalbee.html

https://horusrising.com/blog/neith-as-t ... r-reality/

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https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Euterpe

https://pathfinderwiki.com/wiki/Shelyn