🍉They Are Currently At €61,257 Out Of Their €75,000 Goal - Please Consider Donating To Them And

This is Farah's 'GoFundMe' (she's not that far off from her goal :) ) -

gofundme.com

Donate to Stand with Farah for a New Beginning, organized by Farah Ammar

Hello friends This is me, I will tell you my story. My name is Farah. I … Farah Ammar needs your support for Stand with Farah f

You can clips of the situation people are facing in Ghazza that she's uploaded onto her Instagram handle - farah.n.ammar.

The entity delights in taking away these people's limbs, sight and dignity - the football players, the journalists, just every day humans.

Please boost and raise awareness.

Whenever I see someone refer to "Victorian era-" for places outside the UK I'm tempted to start saying shit like "Han Dynasty era Rome", "Soviet era Australia" etc

Happy Out Of Touch Thursday

Jyleek, Nakai and Ty posed at Pride parade in New York city, June 2018. Photo by Stephanie Mei-ling

RICK ASTLEY OFFICIAL COVER OF PINK PONY CLUB BY CHAPPEL ROAN???

Fictional worldbuilding

I have this list I compiled of topics for developing of countries, whether fantasy based or not, and it seems to be a useful resource to share. Feel free to use this list to develop your own lore, but DO NOT claim it as your own or repost. It's pretty long, but I think it covers a lot of relevant topics for worldbuilding.

General

∎ Country name - Etymology if possible - Reasons for the name ∎ Does it take inspiration for a historical time period, aesthetic, or culture ∎ What sort of government is it

Important Places

∎ Main cities - Layout of the city - Economic or historical importance ∎ Other cities and places of importance - Ports - Mine cities - Scholarly cities ∎ Seasonal or turistic places

Climate and Terrain

∎ Important lakes, rivers, mountain chains or other geographically relevant places ∎ Seasons ∎ Climate in general ∎ How does the terrain affect daily habits ∎ Important plants - Agriculture - Crops for export ∎ Important animals - Livestock

Government

∎ System of government - Nobility/aristocracy -- Titles and inheritance/eligibility of titles - Merchant class ∎ Current and past rulers

Social customs

∎ Entertainment - Common forms of entertainment - Games - Cultural/social forms of enterteinment (go to parties/go to the movies/go out to eat/etc) ∎ Seasonal entertainment - Vacations - Seasonal high class customs ∎ Customs regarding reading and books ∎ Customs towards addictive substances - Alcohol - Tobacco - Opioids - Other stuffs ∎ Education and educational system ∎ Houses - Home layouts - Common things in houses ∎ Rites of passage - Age to be presented as adult to the society and customs regarding it ∎ Manners and behaviour in public ∎ Religion - Possible gods - Holidays - Festivals ∎ Customs regarding music - Musical instruments

Notions of family

∎ Inheritance laws ∎ Marriage and concepts of marriage - Marriage rituals - Who is allowed to wed who - Divorce - Customs toward conjugal and domestic violence - Polygamy -- Extraconjugal affairs --- Bastards ∎ Adoption ∎ Division of domestic labor and roles

Economy

∎ Coin and values ∎ Important internal products ∎ Main imports ∎ Main exports ∎ Important commercial relations

Fashion

∎ Common feminine fashion ∎ Common masculine fashion ∎ Concepts about clothing - What is seen as vulgar - What is seen as desirable ∎ Fashion and rites of passage ∎ Hairstyles and adornments

Names and language

∎ Base language ∎ Linguistic influences ∎ Working of names - Family names -- Patronymic and matronymic - Personal names

Magic and technology

∎ Magic - Practice of magic - Permissions within magic - Common and uncommon forms of magic ∎ Magic creatures of importance ∎ Level of technology ∎ Daily uses of technology

Worldbuilding: Religions

Religions have many different aspects that should at least be given thought if not careful consideration. Use these to guide your creative process when developing new religions and deities.

Key Aspects

Deity/Pantheon: Your religion does not need to necessarily have a deity, and it can even have an entire pantheon. I would venture that while a trained priest might perhaps specialize in one deity, a religion can have many.

Dogma: What are the principles and teachings of your religion? What does the deity implore of their worshippers? What is and isn’t allowed? What are the ethics of the religion? Why must we follow these principles?

Symbols: As important as the religion’s dogma are its symbols. How is your religion recognized on flags, tabards, armor, weapons, artwork, and holy symbols? Does your religion have a holy color or color scheme that they could use for their priestly robes?

Temples: Where are the religion’s places of worship? They could be secluded and secret or in/near cities. What do they look like? Are they merely household shrines or grand cathedrals? Do they have any distinguishing features?

Religious Practices

Rites and Rituals: What sorts of special ceremonies do the clerics of your religion practice? Are there any special material components that have meaning for the religion, deity, and ceremony? How long do ceremonies take and what is supposed to come from them? Rituals always serve a purpose, even if that purpose is merely affirming your faith. Rituals are useful as story elements as well as for players to perform.

Affirming Faith: telling your god you’re there and in prayer. It can be as simple as a daily prayer or weekly ceremony or more in-depth like a monthly or yearly ritual.

Proving Devotion: proving your faith to your god, usually meant for those who might be in doubt or who have wavered.

Initiation: rituals for new members to the religion.

Induction: rituals for new clergy members or clergy moving up in hierarchy.

Satiation: your deity demands sacrifice of something valuable to you or to it.

Boon/Blessing: the ritual seeks something of your deity, perhaps a bountiful harvest or victory in battle.

Magic: a ritual might be held to cast certain spells or perhaps to increase the power or scope of a spell. These can also be used in creation of magic items.

Healing: rituals for performing healing magic.

Funerals: ceremonies for the dead.

Marriage: ceremonies for binding individuals together spiritually

Holy Days: Often rituals can coincide with special days or times of the year. Holy days can be predicted and often signify important seasonal or historic events. Harvest, springtime, solstice, and equinox holy days are common, as are those commemorating the deaths of martyrs or important dates in the religion’s history.

Myths/Legends: Are there any stories or parables that your religion teaches? What stories of the gods do they tell? Do they have any specific myths relating to things like the creation of the world, the creation of elements, the invention of everyday things, or perhaps the invention of morality?

Prayers/Sayings: To help you roleplay priests of this religion, you can come up with some common greetings, farewells, and blessings that might be associated with the religion. “Pelor shines upon you” and whatnot.

People

Titles/Hierarchy: What are the ranks of the clergy and do they have any special titles? Are there any notable NPCs in the religion’s hierarchy? For instance, those that worship Mammon, the archdevil of greed are often called Covetors.

Clergy: Do the clergy perform any services for the rest of the population? Usually this involves healing or holding ceremonies, but they could have a broader scope in a theocracy or a narrower scope if secluded or unpopular. What do the clergy look like and wear? Do they favor certain classes other than clerics?

Worshippers: What sort of people are drawn to the religion? Are there certain races, classes, or kingdoms that worship them? What convinces them to follow the religion’s dogma? Is it out of fear, necessity, protection, comfort, or prosperity?

Relations: Does this religion have allies or enemies? These could either be allied or rival churches, deities, or religions. Furthermore, certain kingdoms or people could ally with or oppose the religion. Think of how each faction and religion in your world sees this religion.

Culture

Art: How does your religion express itself? Define your religion’s art, architecture, fashion, and songs and how they compare to other religions and cultures.

Relics: What sorts of holy relics belong to your religion? These can be body parts or objects belonging to important martyrs or high priests or heroes that champion the religion. These might be kept in temples or may have been lost to time. Perhaps some are magic items being used by chosen (or unscrupulous) adventurers.

let's recap what we've learned about the United States in the last few days.

things that are terrorism:

allegedly shooting a healthcare CEO whose company generated more pure profit (not revenue, profit) in a year than the GDP of 94 countries, exclusively by denying coverage to people who pay for it

a 42-year-old mother of 2 using the wrong combination of 7 words during a heated conversation with a call center employee at a health insurance company who was in the process of denying her health coverage.

things that are not terrorism:

mass shooting in a Black church to incite a race war

going to a BLM protest specifically to kill protestors

a neo-nazi running over a crowd of people, killing a woman

targeting and killing 23 latinos in an el paso, texas walmart

killing 12 people in a theatre, shooting 58 others, rigging your apartment with explosives

a QAnon groyper killing 7 and shooting ~50 at a 4th of July parade

killing 3 people and shooting several others at a Planned Parenthood in defense of the unborn

stalking someone relentlessly and then killing them and their child despite months of the victim making police reports

any one of the 1,200 murders committed by US police yearly, the vast majority being minorities

tightening your border while ~100 immigrants (including children) drown every year in the Rio Grande

United Healthcare killing an unnknowable number of elderly people by using faulty AI to deny medically necessary coverage

Aetna killing a woman by refusing to cover her cancer care

Blue Cross killing a 6-year-old by denying her appendicitis surgery

Cigna killing a 17-year-old child by denying her liver transplant

the pharmaceutical industry killing half a million people with opioids in the name of producing revenues in 2023 that rivaled the GDPs of countries like Spain, Mexico, and Australia.

the United States killing 45,000 people a year because they can't access health coverage

make sure you keep this guide handy the next time you find yourself interacting with your insurance company or any other millionaire, billionaire, or an individual who is part of a protected class such as a CEO or president of a corporation.