#indigenous lore

[melestasflight]

I wish I had more time this week to create something more for @aspecardaweek, but here's my recent attempt to explicitly write aromantic characters.

Keep my heart warm while I’m gone dives into life on Helcaraxë and intimacy between friends - Aredhel and Ecthelion. They march on, they love (in their own way), and they survive together.

Appropriate for the Day 4 theme of 'worldbuilding,' this was inspired by Lakota traditions and Cherokee astrology.

Fic snippet below the cut.

~

The winds are still, and the camp outside falls deadly silent. Ehtelë traces idly the notches down Írissë’s forearm. Some match his own for Elves dear to them both, but not all, and she carries many more. He draws the pattern in his mind like memorizing a celestial map; he would recognize Írissë anywhere.

His friend’s heartbeat drums against his ribs. Its rhythm hastens right before she asks, ‘Do you remember the day we sneaked into grandmother’s orchards and fell upon the bushes of chokeberries? I would march barefoot in the snow right now for a single berry.’

Ehtelë fails to recall the taste of the small fruits, although they used to be his favorite. A bitterness of hunger lingers on his tongue. Írissë need not be burdened with this.

‘How could I forget?’ He smiles at the memory nonetheless. ‘Mother ensured I remember exactly what would happen the next time I decided to steal from Queen Indis’ gardens, be it with her kin or not.’ 

‘Do you remember what happened after?’

‘We shamelessly acted a belly ache to avoid supper, and Anairë saw right through us.’

‘No, before that.’ Írissë’s heartbeat now clops like the hooves of galloping horses.

He knows exactly what she’s asking. That moment he can envision as clearly as the shadows of the lard lamp dancing against the wall of their tent. The flames of their hearts were young, then, and the yearning pulsed through Ehtelë’s body. Not for love letters with feverish confessions nor for muffled whispers between the garden mazes.

But touch he had craved, to hold a hand longer, for a kiss to linger. He remembers how he claimed Írissë’s berry-stained lips shyly and clumsily. His friend giving in to her own curiosity, savoring the trust between them before she ended the kiss and escaped, leaving him to chase after her through the woods. Írissë was and still is the faster runner between them.

Her lips trace the line of his jaw with intent, and this is not a memory.

From Keep my heart warm while I’m gone

#writing aro characters felt so right #so organic #I didn't know how much that resonates with me #aredhel #ecthelion #aspecardaweek #day 4 #my writing #the silmarillion #tolkien #indigenous lore

[its-ticsticstics]

The Wend*go is Not Your Cryptid

I'm Algonquin/Ojibwe and this is a spirit that comes from our teachings.

As a young child, the elders taught me to never even SPEAK its name, to not even sing its songs. When we sang a song about it during drumming group one year, we all got in trouble.

You do not spell the word or speak the word.

It's NOT a "cryptid" or a "spooky story" for white people to appropriate.

Its bearly spoken about in our own communities, and even then, only very carefully.

Again, not because its "creepy" but because its respected and something in our traditions that is not played around with; so its certainly not for non-ojibwe/algonquin people to speak about whatsoever. Period.

#ndn #indigenous #appropriation #ojibwe #algonquin #first nations #wendigo #cryptid #folk lore

[tenth-sentence]

What I didn't understand was why the sisters had plant names.

"Design: Building on Country" - Alison Page and Paul Memmott

#book quote #design #building on country #nonfiction #alison page #paul memmott #understanding #indigenous lore #dreaming #wadi wadi people #mount keira

[palipunk]

Some DA blorbo introductions using this template - all menaces to Thedas 

#dragon age #dragon age inquisition #dai #da2 #dragon age 2 #dragon age origins #dao #my art #and theyre all indigenous and queer we love this #also hachi used to be a duel wielding rogue but i saw a pretty bow holder on pinterest and now my entire lore is changed #i am easily swayed #hasna hawke #mage hawke #red hawke #asma lavellan #lavellan #inqusitor lavellan #hachi tabris #grey warden #warden tabris #digital art #artists on tumblr

[incorrect-anatomy]

Bring Her Back

This piece is particularly about Ashley Loring Heavyrunner, a member of the Blackfeet Tribe, who has been missing since 2017. Her family is still looking for her and we cannot let cases like hers die. Here is the fbi page if anyone can provide any information in helping find her

She is not the only one. Native women experience the highest rates of violence in the United States. We need to keep fighting for these women because their lives matter. They are living breathing humans and deserve to be more than a statistic

#mmiw #mmiwawareness #ashley loring heavyruner #missing and murdered indigenous women #art #watercolor art #watercolour #activist art

[maplewozapi]

would you ever be interested in redesigning the native hero from miraculous? i think she's sioux(? i think i heard that's not the right name for that tribe)

(She’s Oglala Lakota) Sioux is kind of slur so please do know the group you’re referring to and use the correct name. Or research what groups fall under the Sioux term because there’s several.

I have no interest in lady bug whatsoever and it isn’t the first time I’ve been ask about this character and I’ve heard about the creator of the show being weird anyways but overall I think this character is actually super cute. If I were to redesign her I’d probably just change her weird eyebrows and the hair wraps like just 3D model some braids please

Has for her transformation I’m really sick of native characters being stuck with brown color pallets like where’s the color. But it is cute I won’t lie, I’d just switch it with something more like a fancy shawl or hoop dance outfit/regalia (don’t call them costumes) there is eagle dances but those are strictly for other tribes. lakotas don’t have eagle dances.

But whatever this is, IS OVER STEPPING ‼️😭 please don’t step foot in anything relating to native spirituality because you will not do it right. Don’t touch the medicine wheel please.

Overall though she could have been worse, I love her detransformation design it’s so cute, but her transformation could be better.

**Please don’t use my opinion to justify her being a good design or speak for me. Wops** 😊

#miraculous ladybug #ladybug #native artist #indigenous artist #native american #btw I am Lakota and Arikara #character design #I don’t care about ladybug lore or the plot please don’t explain it to me #jessica keynes #eagle miraculous #ask

[karamazovposting]

Considering tattoos became fashionable between European aristocrats in the late 19th century and Tsar Nicholas II himself had a massive dragon tattoo on his right arm (that he got done during a trip in Nagasaki in the early 1890s), it's not completely anachronistic to imagine Dmitri Karamazov as having one or multiple tattoos.

Do whatever you want with this information, I'm just saying.

#I feel the need to justify this knowledge of mine because I do hate monarchies but #I have many tattoos and I find the history of tattooing very interesting #many people think that back in the day in non-indigenous cultures tattoos were only a prisoners and sailors thing but no! #tattoos have always had artistic/spiritual/cultural value across the world and regardless of the time period #we have direct proof that humans have been getting tattoos since the Bronze Age how cool is that #anyway as for the tsar there are pictures of him with his sleeve rolled up where you can see the tattoo #and he talks about it in a diary of his #he said the tattooing session lasted from 9 pm to 4 am and while he liked the tattoo #he said going through that experience once discouraged him from ever getting tattooed again (lmao) #he wasn't the only tattooed member of the Russian royal family either #for some reason this piece of lore popped up in my mind again after years so here it is #the brothers karamazov #dmitri karamazov #mine

[archivist-the-knight]

also a good way to go into fantasy society worldbuilding or just worldbuilding in general is just to remember "no animal is inheritly evil, no human is inheritly cruel and deserving of punishment for being alive, and no species is deserving of a death penalty simply for how they look. no matter what."

like. if you have a species that say. is being ruled by an evil overlord and as such rules under a very violent society. however if person of that species is taken outside of this society, they can become a better person and learn from their misdeeds. if a member of the species isn't raised inside the walls of this violent society, they'll turn out just how their parents raise them, not how the society expects them to act.

but if you have a society where the species inside of it is "inheritly" seen as evil or stupid, where even raising a child out of this environment they are still mean no matter what. stop. that does not make sense. that gives off a very weird message. it's way more compelling and thoughtful if you state that its an upbringing, or a society, that makes someone who they are, not that its "inherit." holds up hands. back away from the stage a little. no one is inherently evil no matter what even if you dont like them. and especially even if you dont find them pretty or "cool."

#eden mrraps. #it is all about the upbringing about the society and about the culture!!!! #thats why goblins and orcs are so weird. why is an entire culture of people seen as ugly dumb and brutish huh??? #yes i understand they're supposed to be seen as just something you can pit your party against if you need a fight #but... why? why couldn't it be beastly hounds. why did they have to put into the lore that they're inheritly evil so its okay #when even with magic involved that makes zero sense!!! nothing is inheritly terrible dude!!! #there is also the fact that goblins and orcs more often than not are depicted with garb and outfits similar to indigenous especially native #american tribes in a distinct “racist all indigenous people are brutish” way. which i need to bring up because thats why its so fucking #weird. its because it usually kinda reads as racist. #racism cw #ask to tag

[glitterblossom]

Note: We’re Arab, not Native American, so listen to their opinions on this before ours.

I wanted to have hope that Outlaws of Thunder Junction would be handled well, or even just not awfully. But the evidence is starting to rack up, folks, and it aint pretty:

At MagicCon, Blake Rasmussen (mtg’s Senior Communications Manager) said that, “everyone’s a newcomer to Thunder Junction.”

Also at that MagicCon panel, Aaron Forsythe (VP of Magic Design) called it an “unspoiled land.”

Mark Rosewater (mtg Head Designer) says that, “prior to omen paths [sic], it was uninhabited.”

Could this just be three white guys saying White Guy Things? Sure. Especially since they’ve all shown themselves in the past to be kinda uninformed on the particulars of their product’s storyline. But it’s not a great look.

The narrative that lands are uninhabited and ripe for plunder is inextricable from the American colonial genocide of indigenous nations (which has never stopped). This is especially the case in a setting based on the American West, rife with the trappings of the imperialist genre of American Westerns, and fraught with the colonialist propaganda of “frontier fantasy.” For this world, they’ve even created an ethnic group explicitly based on the Diné nation, per the official MTG Twitter account. Yet they still chose to center the set’s story around the genocidal selling point of “exploring uninhabited lands to find untold treasure and fortune.”

Yes, they’ve said they used cultural consultants. And, sure, that’s gone well-ish (though not without great flaws) for NEO and LCI. But whatever influence those consultants were allowed to have on OTJ, it was clearly not enough. Because holy shit, even the (otherwise amazing) side story, No Tells, says, “Thunder Junction’s a new plane, one that’s still beginning.” (Do NOT go hating on the author; I doubt he had control over that level of worldbuilding.)

All of this has shattered my hope in the set being respectful, or even not actively harmful. You can say, “wait and see,” and we will, but we’ve seen a lot already—and gang, it has not looked good.

#Glittancy #Yasmin #Fifi #mtg #magic the gathering #outlaws of thunder junction #mtg community #mtg lore #vorthos #mtg spoilers #mtgcommunity #mtgotj #colonialism #indigenous #genocide #america is committing genocide #racism #imperialism #magic the card game

[ganonfan1995]

not to vague post, but the fact that the loz lore community is made up of mostly white american men (not on tumblr) makes me wanna scream

I swear to god they'll see some random detail about these games and then write an 80 page dissertation on race theory or some lore about savage and barbaric tribes who regressed from their advanced society of godly superiors.

please can u at least pretend to be able to think of anything creative and nice? worlds ur oyster, hyperfocus on something constructive.

#turning reblogs off b/c i don't like to make posts like this #but man i really get frustrated w/ the lore side of the fandom #idk they just irk me so bad #its mainly the zonai ppl #i cannot stand the zonai dudes #shut up about the zonai #at the very least can u pretend to have any respect for like idk the ancient human cultures instead of reducing them to fucking #indigenous stereotypes circa 1700 PLEASE #you could weave a pretty interesting story about imperialism or colonialism (well they couldn't) that doesn't reduce it to like #a LITERALLY nordic ass fucking racist conspiracy theory for peabrains #sorry im going off here #im probably gonna delete this #but ahhhh

[piyesis-art]

My oc's Solar & Chip!

They're a bounty hunter in a wasteland just trying to catch people for living. Solar almost dies but Chip saves her life after being begged by her adoptive son to do so. Now they're two beings into one 👍🏽

Solar: is the opposite of Chip since she's more reserved and intimidating but she's very shy with people because she's introverted. She has mommy issues and hates seeing Chip take care of children.

Chip: opposite of Solar. She's extroverted, borderline crazy but she likes taking care of kids. Sure it's mostly because she sees them as pets, but mostly because they treat her more nicely than adults do.

Another detail about them! They're native american (cree) and they use she/they!

#their lore may change up as time goes on but for now I'm happy with their designs! #oc art #original character #artwork #digital art #monster oc #hybrid oc #native oc #indigenous artist

[cassandragemini]

okay people are following me based off a popular post again so before that happens im pulling out the “Literally about 30% of all posts i make these days are about fairy worldbuilding and legitimate commentary only happens sometimes” disclaimer again

#hi do you like reading about indigenous history and giant butch lesbians [not concurrently] because boy do i have a blog for you #crow.txt #the indigenous history stuff is related to the fairy lore but the giant butches are other ocs who i love dearly #Anyway the fairy worldbuilding isnt like. exciting its shit like textile production

[termagax]

seeing some people's reaction to weird gamer men oversexualizing kiriko is "mauga is right there, half naked, with serveral pin-up sprays" and while i do agree to an extent, i do feel like alot of people are kind of ignoring like. the racial element of mauga's sexualization, like i like mauga, he's hot, but the second i saw him in the short story, i wasn't a big fan of the whole "big savage brown indigenious guy" and it feels like very few people are pointing that out.

RIGHT LIKE. we cannot fix "gamer men fixate on fictional asian girls to a violent degree, usually in a racist way or enabling racist tropes already present in the character" with "gamer girls fixate on fictional brown men to a violent degree in a racist way or enabling racist tropes present in the character" like you guys are part of the same problemmmmmmm youre doing the same thinggg its not better because youre doing it to men like.

i think some people only want to see the kiriko problem as misogyny and while im not going to even pretend that ISNT a massive part of it, theres still like. a reason kiriko and d.va and mei are fascinations for these dudes. there is a pointed difference between the way these three get spoken about compared to their white counterparts (and their dark-skinned counterparts too - look at the responses to illari for a really easy comparison to how kiriko is treated). their ~exoticism~ as asian women is part of the appeal. even if you dont just wanna take the way dudes online treat them (like making a joke that shes "obvious pornbait" for speaking japanese and using JSL) as evidence of that, look at their marketing. kirikos whole thing is atheleisure traditional, shes got her Mystical Japanese Spiritualism Ninja Powers and her magic doggy and they constantly put her in japanese and korean fashion, and dva has been constantly crossing over with korean merch companies. i cant help but notice theres no brazilian IP crossovers or merch launches for lucio, or any attempt to Sell Peru To Gamers for illari. they couldnt even pick a town in Samoa to name maugas map after. these people wouldn't buy that stuff because it's not fetishized in the same way asia is.

but like. a lot of the people trying to Gotcha these racist dudes with an asian fetish just whip out their favourite racist tropes instead and its a really bad look. like you guys dont wanna examine how your examples of The Characters Its Okay To Hypersexualize are all brown? even the people who wanna fuck cassidy dont talk about him like this. or like. fuck if you want a good comparison for mauga lets look at roadhog. big half-naked tank who theyve been playing up a sexual energy/comic relief duology on since day one with racially insensitive cosmetic options. nobody treats it like its completely normal to talk about him that way. the dev team isnt pushing pinups of him out. he isnt flexing his boobs in trailers. hes a white dude*, so he gets the bare minimum dignity of being treated normally. incidentially hot, maybe, but for the most part his character is sold on being cool , funny and scary. mauga is being sold 50% on being a Sexy Rogue Love Interest and 50% on. releasing late. they put in so little effort for him to be anything else despite hyping him up as suuuper significant to the lore and a major gamechanger its almost embarrassing to watch. (this is why that short annoyed me so much for anyone keeping track).

#*im awareeeee theyre doing bait with him and i refuse to acknowledge it until they put it in the fucking game #im not settling for those scraps especially as the game triples down on its anti-indigenous aesthetics and lore and everything #if you genuinely want to argue with me that roadhog counts as maori representation youre gonna have to take me to court over it idgaf #anyways. we jest here about my sexy wife but i think its worth pointing out now that mauga is here #and how mauga has been treated by devs and fans. that there is a tangible difference between the two #roadhog is niche hot and they barely if ever play into it its just kind of a side effect of the kind of character he is #if anything they try to make him grosser and less appealing most of the time #meanwhile mauga has pinups in game and in press material and is being sold as Sexy #in conjunction with a lot of unfortunate fucking circumstances that combine to feel extremely anti-indigenous #also illari as a comparison to kiriko bcz theyre a similar age bracket w similar builds and have a superficially similar gimmick #but kiriko is 9000 gamer boys favourite sex object while illari gets boredom at best or rage at worst #like. neither option is GOOD but its definetly DIFFERENT how theyre treated

[valravn72]

Okay, I’m not getting into this whole debate overall. But YES you are literally obligated to draw Knuckles as Black and/or indigenous. I don’t care if it’s a gjinka, he’s literally a POC character. He is a native Australian animal, his clan is based on Mesoamerican cultures and the series refers to his quills as being dreadlocks. Whether or not you want to draw Black/indigenous characters is besides the point. If you draw Knuckles as white, you are inherently white washing him. If you don’t want to draw a POC character then DON’T draw a gjinka of Knuckles the Echidna. It has nothing to do with the obligation conversation overall it’s just being a decent fucking person. Thank you for your time.

#sonic the hedgehog #knuckles the echidna #indigenous character #whitewashing #art lore tik tok bullshit #representation in art #gjinka #I’m serious. #I don’t care if he’s an anthro character denying his coding is part of whitewashing him #I’m a White blogger so this isn’t my conversation obviously #I just saw this shit and I was like come on we need to talk about this

[meirimerens]

Consider re: herb brides, because of the rituals and nature around ripping and tearing seams and fabric what if like “very nice” or formal ware was styled around clothing that CAN’T rip? Either very very thick and sturdy material OR like loophole designs…. Dresses and tunics woven out of like layers of cords draped over the body?

the whole of the herb brides' Things is that the uncovering of the body is the point, you have this line in p1 of a dancer saying "The body is sacred. The naked body is the most accurate image of the world." so the uncovering/the tearing/the ripping appears as like the point [one of the points] of the capital-d-Dance ("Why do you strip your sacred body naked?"/"Because I know the Dance and have the right to do so."). it's interesting thinking about material that Can't rip because it'd be like... a test of strength and of fortitude, almost. "how passionately are you willing to dance in order to make this un-rippable material, rip?" type of thing. in the same way they are forbidden from wearing shoes because the tippytapping of their steps/connection of their bare footsies to the earth is thought to be the one thing that brings the harvest i wonder what would be the #consensus on what they can wear. but also a sturdier/thicker material would make it harder for them to dance, and their whole point is that they dance, but referring to what i mentioned above maybe it's a test of sorts... it's kinda how i see the herb maidens [lore i made the fuck up] the many layers is a burden for them to prove they Can dance but they shed them during adulthood. many things to consider!

#it is inchresting to think abt HB's fits & approach to clothing as there is not really any ''we need to respect their cultures'' argument #considering there is like. No People Of Central Asia that has a caste of dancing and naked earth-priestesses it's not a matter of because #on the herb brides' nakedness not as women who like. chose this. or a factual representation of an indigenous culture #because that's fully some guy's invention. have talked about it at length. #i'm never as bothered by their flimsy clothing and nudity as i am by their treatment as women; naked women; naked indigenous women #so i'm not bothered by the ripping and tearing. & i think within the fictional Kin culture it makes sense they'd wear clothes that #rip and tear because they're proof of the passion of the capital d Dance. but also. it's fun + makes you hashtag Think that some would wear #would want to wear/would be made to wear heavier garments as like. a test. because imo that's all it could be. #i have heavier garments within my Made The Fuck Up herb brides lore for the herb maidens [mentioned in the reply] & for the herb crones #maidens because they're in a initiation/proof period & crones because they get old & chilly. much to think about. #herb brides lore #herb fledglings #herb maidens #herb crones #<- i've discussed it

[ademella]

currently reading

#books #indigenous #new mexico #native american lore #reading #ray john de aragon