Hello! I'm looking for a norse mythology inspired or retelling story I read in middle school about 10 years ago. The intended audience was probably about 13. The main character was a girl who was visited by a disguised Odin every year (?). There was something about a giant white horse picture on a hillside made out of rocks. And she's tricked into finding Mimir's head by Loki in a labyrinth. Im sorry to say that's really all I remember about the plot. I remember it had a red cover and I think a one word title starting with "f." Thanks in advance!

The mythical references within tarot cards provide a rich tapestry of symbolism, drawing upon ancient myths to convey universal archetypes and timeless themes. Here are a few examples of how mythology influences the symbolism in the tarot deck:

1. The Fool:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Fool is reminiscent of the archetypal "wise fool" found in various mythologies, symbolizing innocence, spontaneity, and the journey into the unknown.
   • Connection: Similar to the trickster figures in mythology, The Fool embodies the idea of embracing unconventional paths and unexpected adventures.
2. The High Priestess:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The High Priestess reflects the archetype of the mysterious and wise female figure found in many ancient myths and religious traditions, such as the Greek goddess Persephone or the Egyptian goddess Isis.
   • Connection: Like these mythical figures, The High Priestess embodies intuition, hidden knowledge, and the link between the conscious and unconscious realms.
3. The Emperor:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Emperor draws on the archetype of powerful rulers in myths, like King Arthur or Zeus, symbolizing authority, structure, and leadership.
   • Connection: Reflects the mythic theme of order and governance, emphasizing the need for structure and discipline in achieving goals.
4. The Lovers:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Lovers card resonates with mythical love stories such as the tales of Eros and Psyche or Tristan and Isolde, symbolizing profound connections, choices, and the merging of opposites.
   • Connection: Like these myths, The Lovers card explores the transformative power of love and the decisions that shape one's relationships.
5. The Wheel of Fortune:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The concept of the wheel of fate or fortune is rooted in ancient mythology, such as the Moirai or Fates in Greek mythology, who spin the thread of destiny.
   • Connection: The Wheel of Fortune embodies the cyclical nature of life, the inevitability of change, and the interconnectedness of events.
6. The Tower:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Tower's destructive force echoes myths of divine punishment, like the story of the Tower of Babel or the fall of Icarus, highlighting the consequences of hubris.
   • Connection: Represents the mythic theme of downfall and rebirth, emphasizing the transformative power of destruction and rebuilding.

By incorporating these mythical references, tarot cards tap into the collective unconscious, allowing individuals to connect with archetypal energies and universal narratives that resonate across cultures and time periods.

1. The Hermit:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The archetype of the wise hermit is seen in myths like the journey of Odysseus or the quest for enlightenment in Eastern philosophies.
   • Connection: The Hermit reflects the introspective journey of self-discovery, seeking wisdom through solitude and inner reflection, much like mythical hermits on spiritual quests.
2. The Chariot:
   
   • Mythical Reference: Draws inspiration from heroic charioteers in myths, such as the sun god Apollo driving his chariot across the sky or heroic figures like Achilles in battle chariots.
   • Connection: Symbolizes the triumphant journey, willpower, and the harnessing of opposing forces to achieve victory, akin to mythical heroes overcoming challenges.
3. The Star:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Star card echoes the concept of guiding celestial lights found in myths, like the North Star guiding sailors or the myth of the Star of Bethlehem.
   • Connection: Represents hope, inspiration, and divine guidance, mirroring the mythic idea of celestial symbols leading the way through darkness.
4. The Moon:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Moon card reflects lunar symbolism found in myths, such as the various lunar deities like Selene in Greek mythology or the werewolf tales associated with lunar cycles.
   • Connection: Symbolizes the subconscious, intuition, and the mysterious aspects of the psyche, akin to the mystical and transformative elements linked to lunar myths.
5. The Sun:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Sun card embodies solar deities in myths, like the Egyptian god Ra or the Greek god Apollo, symbolizing vitality, enlightenment, and life force.
   • Connection: Represents the joyous, life-affirming energy associated with solar myths, bringing clarity, positivity, and the promise of a new day.
6. Judgement:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The theme of judgment and resurrection is prevalent in various religious and mythological narratives, such as the concept of divine judgment in Christianity or the Egyptian myth of Osiris being judged in the afterlife.
   • Connection: Signifies a spiritual awakening, self-evaluation, and the potential for rebirth, aligning with the transformative judgments seen in mythic tales.

Incorporating these mythical elements deepens the layers of meaning within tarot cards, allowing users to explore profound archetypes, cultural narratives, and universal themes that resonate across human experiences.

1. The Devil:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Devil card draws inspiration from various depictions of demonic figures in religious and mythological traditions, representing temptation, bondage, and the shadow aspects of human nature.
   • Connection: Reflects the mythic idea of confronting inner demons, acknowledging desires, and breaking free from self-imposed limitations.
2. The Empress and The Emperor (Pair):
   
   • Mythical Reference: These cards can be linked to archetypal figures in mythology, such as Earth Mother goddesses like Demeter or nurturing kings like Gilgamesh, symbolizing fertility, abundance, and earthly authority.
   • Connection: Together, they represent the balance of masculine and feminine energies, highlighting the harmonious interplay between creative and structured forces in the universe.
3. The Magician:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Magician card echoes the archetype of the alchemist or sorcerer in myths, embodying the transformative power of magic and the manipulation of elements.
   • Connection: Symbolizes personal empowerment, manifestation, and the ability to channel one's inner resources to create change, akin to mythical figures wielding magical abilities.
4. Death:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Death card is reminiscent of transformative figures in myths, like the phoenix rising from its ashes or the Hindu god Shiva, symbolizing destruction as a precursor to renewal.
   • Connection: Represents profound change, letting go of the old, and embracing transformation, aligning with the cyclical nature of death and rebirth in mythical narratives.
5. Justice:
   
   • Mythical Reference: Justice is often associated with mythic representations of divine or cosmic balance, such as the Greek goddess Themis or the concept of Ma'at in Egyptian mythology.
   • Connection: Symbolizes fairness, accountability, and the cosmic order, reflecting the mythic theme of moral equilibrium and the consequences of actions.
6. Strength:
   
   • Mythical Reference: Strength draws from mythical tales of heroes demonstrating inner strength and courage, like Hercules or the Norse god Thor.
   • Connection: Symbolizes resilience, fortitude, and the ability to overcome challenges through inner strength, akin to the heroic feats in mythical stories.

These mythical connections deepen the layers of symbolism in tarot cards, allowing users to tap into archetypal energies and narratives that have resonated across cultures and centuries. Each card becomes a gateway to timeless themes and universal truths found in the rich tapestry of mythology.

1. The Hierophant:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Hierophant can be associated with mythic figures representing wisdom and spiritual guidance, such as the ancient Greek philosopher-sage Pythagoras or the biblical high priest Melchizedek.
   • Connection: Symbolizes spiritual teachings, tradition, and the transmission of sacred knowledge, aligning with the mythical archetype of wise mentors who pass on profound wisdom.
2. The Hanged Man:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Hanged Man card reflects the concept of voluntary sacrifice found in various myths, such as the Norse god Odin hanging from the World Tree Yggdrasil to gain wisdom.
   • Connection: Signifies surrender, letting go, and gaining new perspectives through sacrifice, mirroring the transformative nature of voluntary sacrifice in mythic narratives.
3. The World:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The World card draws from cosmological myths, representing the completion of a cycle and the attainment of enlightenment, similar to the Hindu concept of Moksha or the Norse myth of the World Tree Yggdrasil.
   • Connection: Symbolizes cosmic harmony, integration, and the culmination of a journey, resonating with the mythical themes of cosmic order and spiritual fulfillment.
4. The Fool's Journey:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Fool's Journey through the tarot deck can be compared to the archetypal hero's journey found in mythologies worldwide, where the hero undergoes trials, encounters mentors, and ultimately achieves personal transformation.
   • Connection: Mirrors the universal mythic narrative of self-discovery, challenges, and growth, illustrating that each individual's journey aligns with the archetypal hero's quest seen in myths across cultures.

These mythical associations with tarot cards contribute to the depth and universality of their symbolism. They enable users to connect with ancient wisdom, archetypal stories, and cultural narratives that transcend time, offering a rich and meaningful framework for personal introspection and spiritual exploration within the tarot.

1. The Suit of Cups:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Suit of Cups, representing emotions and relationships, echoes the theme of sacred vessels or grails in mythology, such as the Holy Grail in Arthurian legends or the Cup of Jamshid in Persian mythology.
   • Connection: Reflects the idea of emotional fulfillment, spiritual connection, and the quest for inner nourishment akin to the mythical pursuit of sacred vessels symbolizing divine presence.
2. The Suit of Swords:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Suit of Swords, associated with intellect and challenges, can be likened to mythic tales of powerful swords like Excalibur in Arthurian legend or the celestial sword Kusanagi in Japanese mythology.
   • Connection: Symbolizes the power of thought, truth, and the ability to cut through illusions, aligning with the mythical theme of legendary swords representing clarity and decisive action.
3. The Suit of Wands:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Suit of Wands, embodying creativity and passion, resonates with mythical symbols of magical staffs or wands, like the staff of Hermes or the Celtic druid's wand.
   • Connection: Represents the creative spark, inspiration, and the transformative power of passion, akin to mythical symbols of magical wands as conduits for creative energy.
4. The Suit of Pentacles:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The Suit of Pentacles, associated with material aspects and prosperity, draws inspiration from mythical symbols of earthly treasures, such as the legendary city of El Dorado or the philosopher's stone in alchemical myths.
   • Connection: Symbolizes material stability, abundance, and the tangible rewards of one's efforts, mirroring the mythical pursuit of wealth and the alchemical quest for transformative treasures.
5. Tarot and Alchemy:
   
   • Mythical Reference: The connection between tarot and alchemy reflects the mythical pursuit of the philosopher's stone—an elusive substance believed to transform base metals into gold and grant immortality.
   • Connection: Mirrors the transformative journey within tarot, where users seek self-discovery, personal growth, and the alchemical process of inner refinement.

In exploring these connections, tarot cards become a bridge between personal introspection and the collective wisdom embedded in ancient myths. The intertwining of mythical references within the tarot deck adds layers of meaning, providing a profound and universal language for individuals to navigate their inner landscapes and spiritual journeys.

Mythology mash
Main question: ideas, concerns, interest, and additions
Lore: two religions are trying to take over an area by their gods, heroes, monsters, and artifacts battling it out. (Religions being non modern major religions for obvious reasons)
Deckbuilding: you choose any number of god cards you want involved in your deck building. Each god as an associated religion. (Norse, Greek, Roman, Egyptian, aztec) reveal your chosen god (only 1 of each religion). Your deck has cards of those religions or neutral. (Bountiful harvest is neutral but trip through the duat is Egyptian). Deck size between 40 - 60 cards.
Types of cards/mechanics: Resource: devotion. Start with 5 devotion and gain 1 every turn. Devotion has 2 states. Praying and defending. Praying devotion is used up for that turn only. Going back to defending the next turn. Defending devotion is your health total. If your defending devotion hits 0 you lose 2 Praying devotion per damage. This is your lifetotal and your resource throughout the game.
God cards: give a set amount of devotion every turn and allows for powerful effects gaining or losing devotion.
Creatures: heroes, monsters, or unaffiliated parts of the religion. Act as a wall for health. Each turn a creature can attack or use an ability. Abilities vary by religion and creature. When a creature attacks it deals it's damage from left to right to all creatures the defending player controls. Placing is important.
Artifacts/locations: these are items or places that are associated with the religion. Items, weapons, temples, divine areas. They last for a stated number of turns before going to the underworld.
Events: these are one and done effects that change the game state. Draw 2 cards. Destroy 1 creature etc.
Each religion has a main focus. Norse: shuffle. Returning cards to and searching for cards from decks. (Shuffle one creature into it's owners deck. Reveal the top cards until a new creature is shown. Put that onto the field in the same spot as the old creature.)
Roman: theft. Choosing target cards in hand, deck, field, or grave and using them or their effects for yourself. (Target 1 event your opponent has played. Copy it's effects)
Greek: creatures. Draw, play, buff, switch, and kill creatures. Very board focused but little card Draw or interaction with non board
Egyptian: underworld. Send and recover cards from the grave. Mill, instant kill, resurrect, etc
Aztec: sacrifice. Killing your creatures and permanently lowering your devotion for huge effects. Higher cost cards use your opponents devotion and cards too.

This post is part of a series of reviews. To see them all, click here.

Season Information

• Airdates: 30th August 1980 - 21st March 1981
• Doctor: 4th (Tom Baker)
• Companions: K-9 (V/A: John Leeson, S18E01-20), Romana II (Lalla Ward, S18E01-20), Adric (Matthew Waterhouse, S18E09-28), Nyssa (Sarah Sutton, S18E21-28), Tegan (Janet Fielding, S18E25-28)
• Other Notable Characters: The Decayed Master (Geoffrey Beevers, S18E21-24), The Tremas Master (Anthony Ainley, S18E24-28)
• Producer: John Nathan-Turner
• Script Editors: Christopher H. Bidmead

Review

In retrospect I really shouldn't have called Season 15 "The Transitional Season". Because, well, Season 18 is obviously the Doctor Who season most clearly transitioning between eras. So much so that by the end of the season the only thing left of the 4th Doctor era is the 4th Doctor himself. Through this season, the 4th Doctor, Romana and K-9 become the 5th Doctor, Adric, Nyssa and Tegan. And it leads to kind of an odd feeling.
It's also notable that there's a serious tonal change that happens this season. While Graham Williams never quite got to make the comedy era of Doctor Who that he wanted to, he did give it a more relaxed and free-flowing atmosphere. Under new Producer John Nathan-Turner, as well as new Script Editor Christopher H. Bidmead, the story veers right back into being a more serious show. And for the first time, there was real effort being put into grounding a lot of the stories in real science. And while the actual science involved isn't really accurate, I do think it has a positive impact on the season as a whole. The science on Doctor Who is always made up, but at least this way it feels like we're pointing in the vague direction of something real.
It's certainly a refreshing change of pace from the rest of the 4th Doctor era. The 4th Doctor era, at least from Season 13 onwards had a tendency to feel very gimmicky. During the Hinchcliffe era it was taking popular horror stories like Frankenstein or The Mummy and adapting them for Doctor Who. During the Williams era, that shifted more towards genre parodies, with some journeys in to Greek mythology. Season 18 feels kind of refreshing in large part because…there's not really any obvious influences. Sure we're pulling from real science, both in individual episodes and in a more general sense with the broad theme of entropy, but that feels a lot less invasive than pulling from more famous media.
Which leads us nicely to the entropy thing. Season 18, at least in theory, has an overarching theme of "entropy". Or more accurately it has an overarching theme of "decay" that sometimes takes on the form of entropy. Because look, there's nothing especially entropic about the vampires in State of Decay or the way the Argolins are dying out in The Leisure Hive, but it still falls into the larger umbrella of decay. Which gives this season a fairly melancholic tone to it on the whole. Throughout the entire season, things seem to be falling apart, especially once we get to E-Space. Warriors' Gate is full of all of this imagery of past riches fading into nothing, Keeper of Traken is literally about an entirely way of life nearly falling apart, and Logopolis is where we, really and truly, get the entropy theme, for real this time. But also…
Logopolis, in which the Doctor dies, briefly turns into a man with white cracked skin only to sit up looking about a decade younger, is probably the best indication of the other half of our decay theme. Because Doctor Who is a show where things generally work out for the best, this is a season that is as much about rebirth as it is about decay. The Argolins from Leisure Hive are given a chance at new life for their civilization. The peoples with meet in the E-Space Trilogy all ultimately get delivered from their decaying societies and given a chance to build back up to something new. In Meglos…I guess at the end there the people of Tigella do ultimately get to live on the surface of their planet…somehow. Even in Keeper of Traken the story leaves the Trakenite people on something of a hopeful note, with a new Keeper installed to look after it. Sure, in Logopolis we learn that the Master apparently blew up Traken off screen (if I had a nickel for every time the Master blew up a planet off screen…) along with its entire solar system, but at least at the end of Keeper things are looking hopeful.
And that idea of renewal kind of extends to the show itself right? Like this is clearly a season that's transitioning into a new, renewed version of itself, at least in theory. That's why we lose Romana and the robot dog, and replace them with a couple of kids and a fairly young flight attendant. John Nathan-Turner felt that the trio of Romana, K-9 and the Doctor were too invulnerable, which is why he decided to write out the two surplus geniuses. You can see this in how stories are structured. Generally speaking in the five stories that Romana and K-9 are in this season, Romana is either confined to her own subplot or taken out of commission, while K-9 is so constantly dismantled or on very low power, it begins to feel like a running gag by the time he leaves.
And at the same time, this season shows us Romana at the absolute height of her competence. She's basically the Doctor's equal by the time we enter E-Space. I think that's why I feel like it was the right time for Romana to leave: she'd done all the developing she needed to. There was nowhere to take the character without making the show just as much about her as it was about the Doctor. So while losing Romana, and Lalla Ward with her, is a shame, it was the right time to drop her. Losing K-9 on the other hand…look the TARDIS is already about to get exceptionally crowded and unless you don't bring Nyssa back in Logopolis there really isn't time for the robot dog, but I'd argue that there was no need to drop K-9 from the show. His presence making the TARDIS team "unassailable" just doesn't hold up, as him continually being dismantled throughout this season proves. And, as Tom Baker once observed in one of the funniest outtakes in Doctor Who history "you [K-9] never fucking know the answer when it's important".
But we do eventually have to introduce the younger folks. It starts out with Alzarian teenager turned TARDIS stowaway Adric. Adric has a reputation as an awful companion, though personally I've never been that down on him. I don't love the character, but he's perfectly acceptable in small doses. The biggest issue I take with him is that he plays into the sullen teenager a bit too much. The moody teenage genius is just not an enjoyable character to follow along with, and it's only going to get worse next season. However, there are moments, particularly in Keeper of Traken where the student/pupil dynamic with the Doctor makes him genuinely likable. Also, his obvious crush on Nyssa, more seen in Logopolis is fairly endearing. But a lot of the time he's just, and I've used this phrase before, an arrogant little shit. And I think it is fair to point out that Matthew Waterhouse, inexperienced as he was, often gives a very wooden performance.
Nyssa is introduced in Keeper of Traken. There we see her interacting on her own homeworld. She takes initiative a number of times in that story, mostly during the jailbreak section which she organizes. In Logopolis she's out searching for her father and that's when she has the rug pulled out from under her. She learns that, in short order, the Master killed her father and then that he destroyed her home system. Between the two stories we get a really solid setup for Nyssa, and Sarah Sutton is really solid in the role, though whether the show will follow through on any of this in the next couple seasons…is a story for another time. And speaking of characters whose somewhat tragic first couple stories often get overlooked, in her first story Tegan learns that the Master has killed her aunt, who she was clearly quite close to. Sure, it's not on the level of Nyssa's loss, but it's not a competition. Tegan, like Nyssa, gets a strong introduction, and like Nyssa we'll see in the future how successful the followup to that introduction is.
And then, there's the Doctor. Amidst all of this change, he's the one thing that stays constant from the prior era, and he ends up feeling a bit out of place by the end of season as a result. Some of this is in retrospect of course. It's only weird seeing the 4th Doctor with Nyssa and Tegan because we think of these two as 5th Doctor companions. But I do think that there's something to the idea that the 4th Doctor belonged to the 1970s. We've now reached the 1980s and the scarf man has somewhat been left behind. Or that may be because Tom Baker just seems tired this season. He's not putting in bad work, because he knows the character too well to do that, but he does seem more disconnected than ever. Of course if I'm going to mention this, I should mention that Baker was getting over an illness during the filming of the E-Space trilogy. And he has his moments of higher energy, particularly in Keeper of Traken for whatever reason. But there are also times, even before the illness, where Tom looks like he's sleepwalking through all of this. I think it's fair to say it was time for him to leave.
On a technical level there are some changes. The Doctor's costume changed substantially, and the rest of the cast will be wearing the same clothes they were introduced in for the rest of next season (well okay, Nyssa's outfit will undergo some minor alterations). It's one of the less well-handled elements of the JNT era: people stop dressing like people, but end up stuck in costumes. This will somewhat ameliorate as time goes on, but it's something worth noting: it starts early, and was very intentional. JNT explicitly wanted all of his main cast to be wearing "uniforms". Musically we've undergone a big change as well. Dudley Simpson is gone and he's been replaced by a rotating cast of composers from the BBC Radiophonics workshop. These are all solid at bare minimum, with my favorite probably being Paddy Kingsland. As a result of this change, the style has changed considerably. Over the course of Simpson's time as composer, the show became more and more orchestral, whereas under the Radiophonics composers we've gone in a more electronic direction. It's a big shift, but by the end of the season it feels natural, and I think Doctor Who does well with a synth sound.
Season 18 begins the reign of Doctor Who's final producer. Eventually JNT will stay on too long, as even he would admit, but at this point all of his ideas feel new and fresh. They aren't all improvements, though some are, but Season 18 does feel entirely different from what came before it, and there's value in that. More than that though, other than enforcing a more serious tone than the Graham Williams era, Season 18 ends up feeling like it's going back to basics. Sure it's got an arc (two of them in fact) but all of the stories feel a lot less constrained by a style than earlier 4th Doctor era stories, which works to it's advantage. Genuinely, this is a strong season, a strong start to John Nathan-Turner's run as producer, and a strong end to the 4th Doctor era.
Even if, you know, it already felt like the show had left him behind well before he regenerated.

Awards

Best Story: State of Decay
What can I say, I like it when old Uncle Terry does horror. It's odd, I'll admit, to have talked up so much how refreshing it felt to have a season that didn't rely so much on gimmicks and then to say that my favorite story from said season to be the vampire pastiche but…I'm allowed to be self contradictory if I like. And genuinely, State of Decay works so well that it's worth highlighting my own inconsistency to highlight the story.
Worst Story: Meglos
Meglos (the character) has no motivation, the stuff on Tigella is the most boring version of a conflict we've done…probably dozens of times at this point, none of the characters are at all memorable…what a waste of the return of Jacqueline Hill.
Most Important: The Keeper of Traken
Logopolis has the regeneration and introduction of block-transfer computation, so this was a closely run thing. But Keeper introduces the version of the Master that will be sticking around for the remainder of the show, sets up a lot about Logopolis, and introduces a new companion. Like I said it's close, but this feels like the right call to me. I also could have gone with Warriors' Gate, but Keeper and Logopolis both feel much more significant to me.
Funniest Story: N/A
Often times when there's not really a comedy in a season, I go for the strangest story as a sort of proxy for the funniest story. But the strangest story this season was Warriors' Gate, and it's not the right kind of strange to qualify for this award. So we're leaving this space blank, as JNT intentionally tries to move the show away from what Graham Williams was doing with it.
Scariest Story: State of Decay
I had to chose which was scarier between the destruction of the universe via entropy or vampires and went with vampires. I think my sense of scale might be borked.

Rankings

1. State of Decay (8/10)
2. Warriors' Gate (8/10)
3. The Leisure Hive (7/10)
4. The Keeper of Traken (7/10)
5. Logopolis (7/10)
6. Full Circle (7/10)
7. Meglos (1/10)

Season Rankings
These are based on weighted averages that take into account the length of each story. Take this ranking with a grain of salt however. No average can properly reflect a full season's quality and nuance, and the scores for each story are, ultimately, highly subjective and a bit arbitrary.

1. Season 7 (8.1/10)
2. Season 10 (7.5/10)
3. Season 4 (7.0/10)
4. Season 11 (6.5/10)
5. Season 18 (6.4/10)
6. Season 12 (6.3/10)
7. Season 6 (6.3/10)
8. Season 1 (6.2/10)
9. Season 14 (6.2/10)
10. Season 13 (6.1/10)
11. Season 3 (6.0/10)
12. Season 5 (6.0/10)
13. Season 15 (5.9/10)
14. Season 2 (5.8/10)
15. Season 9 (5.8/10)
16. Season 8 (5.8/10)
17. Season 17 (5.8/10) *
18. Season 16 – The Key to Time (5.6/10)

* Includes originally unmade serial Shada
I'm genuinely considering abandoning the season/doctor era rankings portion of these posts. Do I think that Season 18 was good…absolutely. The 5th best season of the first 18 though?
What's happened here is that a lot of very solid scores (4 sevens…) have skewed the results up higher than they would otherwise have gone to the point that, even me giving Meglos a 1/10 hasn't affected it that much. The end result is a season going much higher than I would otherwise put it. Granted if I were as high on Warriors' Gate as some, I'd probably feel better about this, but if I were as high on that story as some it probably gets a perfect score and borks these rankings even further. I don't know, I guess the rankings serve their purpose as a snapshot of how good I felt any given season was on average, but I less and less feel like they're a reflection of my actual rankings of the seasons
Next Time: Somehow, I've reached the end of the 4th Doctor era. Now I just have to write about him. That's…going to be a lot.

Yesterday someone made just a great post about the mythological icon Lilith and someone commented about being caught off guard it didn't end up being about Diablo to which someone replied stating that no one makes rants about Diablo 4. Well get dunked on because I'm making a rant about Diablo 4. (mods this is meant as a joke, please do not interpret as a violation of the rules for being a response rant or a repeat rant).
Diablo as a series is pretty classically grim dark. Things are basically always exclusively getting worse for everyone all the time and every time something gets better there is some major caveat that makes something else worse. Stuff like being forced to ally ourselves with entities who most definitely do not have our best interests at heart (or quite frequently openly have our best disinterests at heart like making a deal with the literal embodiment of hatred). Diablo 4 asks us to make such choice and presents us with two, let's say not great options.
Lilith a demon who claims to have humanities best interests at heart. She is humanities ancient mother after all. She says this while leaving a trail of destruction in her wake. The main gist of her plan is to absorb the fragmented remains of her father's power. Mephisto one of the prime evils and Lord of Hatred. She claims that with this power she will be strong enough to empower humanity enough that they will be able to stand against the Burning Hells and High Heaven and escape from the Eternal Conflict. Doesn't sound so bad, but I'll reiterate that everyone she interacts and bestows her particular brand of blessing on -- the Wanderer notwithstanding -- goes violently insane.
Inarius an angel who couldn't more clearly not give a single fuck about humanity if he tried. His "plan" is to kill Lilith in hopes that will redeem him enough that his exile will be rescinded and he can go back to High Heaven.
There you have it. Mom and Dad have formed cults and using them to wage proxy wars with one another and their extended families. This of course mirrors the same Eternal Conflict bullshit that has been ruining humanity's collective day since Lilith and Inarius originally got it on and made Sanctuary. Now pick a team.
Except, there is a third option. The immortal factions on opposing sides of the Eternal Conflict see only themselves. Mortals are fundamentally weaker than them and all we're good for are hunting for sport, being pitied for the whole hunted for sport thing, being cleansed as the unholy half-demon abominations we are, and waging proxy wars. They're super wrong though. Humanity collectively is more than capable of competing. Between the scholarship of the Horadrim and occasional very gifted human humanity does a more of the leg work for solving the whole Prime Evil problem than the angels do.
"Gifted human" is also me really understating things. Most Diablo player characters are incredibly strong. Regularly beating champions on both sides of the Eternal Conflict. I say most because the Diablo 3 protagonist, the Nephalem, scales so high that they're kind of a writing problem. "Incredibly strong" doesn't cut it. They beat Diablo after he absorbed the other lords of hell becoming the Prime Evil. Later the Nephalem beats Malthael, the archangel of death who himself absorbed the evils trapped in the Black Soulstone to try and level the playing field. Hell, depending on how canon you consider Adventure Mode in Diablo 3 is the Nephalem (the collective people, not just the player character) are so powerful the best way they could challenge themselves was to create the Nephalem Rifts which are basically pocket dimensions of pure violence because angels and demons just can't keep up. Greater Rifts are basically what would happen if in his boredom Saitama from One Punch Man developed expressly to be able to create things strong enough to give him a real fight.
With this all said if humanity ever buckles down, unites into a cohesive whole and puts all their combined effort into fighting both the Burning Hells and High Heaven they could probably finally end the Eternal Conflict with both sides losing leading to Sanctuary exiting stage left as a grim dark setting.
Demons and Angels both suck for humans (though clearly demons are consistently a lot worse). Humanity's salvation will only come when it is taken by force. It will never be granted to us in a magnanimous act by our immortal ancestors. Fuck Team Lilith. Fuck Team Inarius. Team Humanity? Fuck Yeah!

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⚠️ WARNING: Maasverse Spoilers—Proceed with Caution ⚠️

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Part 1: Characters and Courts (sorry for those who already saw this post and now it's gone. I realized after publishing that Reddit formatting deleted a solid CHUNK of detail after the fact. Gimme a few days and I'll get it back up and published)
Part 2: World Map, Items, Terms & Other - YOU ARE HERE
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If this is the first post you've landed on, see Part 1 above for an introductory explanation to this two part post.

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UK + IRELAND

PRYTHIAN

A combination of Prydain, the old Welsh name for Britain, and Brython, which translates to “Ancient Britons” from Welsh.

HYBERN

A riff of Hibernia, the Classical Latin name for Ireland.

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Artist of Prythian map: P-dulcis on redbubble

ADDITIONAL EUROPEAN-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

ILLYRIA

The Ancient Greeks used the term Illyria to define a region in the western part of the Balkan Peninsula. The numerous peoples who populated those areas were known collectively as the Illyrians. The region itself is quite mountainous.

THE MIDDLE

May refer to the Midlands, the central part of England, though geographically the Prythian map places the Middle central to Prythian, not central to England; with the Prythian inclusion of Scotland, the Middle on Prythian maps is located further north than the actual Midlands of England.

UNDER THE MOUNTAIN

A potential nod to the Schiehallion, a cone-shaped mountain often referred to as the center of Scotland. It's name comes from the Gaelic Sìth Chailleann, meaning "fairy hill of the Caledonians." On the southwestern side of the mountain is said to lie the well-concealed Uamh Tom a' Mhòr-fhir, a cave serving as an entrance to the underworld.
As the Schiehallion lies in the middle of Scotland (the Night Court) and not the middle of mainland UK (Prythian), the Sciehallion could instead be representative of Ramiel.

THE WESTERN ISLES

May refer to the Outer Hebrides, also known as the Western Isles, which is an island chain off the west coast of mainland Scotland. They are also sometimes known as Innse Gall, a Gaelic term meaning "islands of the foreigners/strangers" which was originally used by mainland Highlanders when the islands were ruled by the Norse.
ACOTAR role: The Prison is located in the Western Isles.

THE PRISON

Though located in the Inner Hebrides of Scotland rather than the Outer, the Prison may be a nod to Beinn Shiantaidh, which is Scottish Gaelic for "holy mountain." It is located on the western side of the Island of Jura and is the second highest peak of the Paps of Jura.
Fun fact: Pap is of Old Norse origin and means breast.

VALLAHAN

Valhalla is the hall of slain warriors in Norse mythology, located in Asgard, where those who die in combat live in peace under the leadership of the god, Odin. They are said to dwell in Valhalla until the events of Ragnarök, where they will then march out to fight in aid of Odin against the jötnar, a type of being in Germanic mythology.
ACOTAR role: Vallahan is a faerie territory located in the northwest portion of the Continent.

ADRIATA

The Adriatic Sea is located in Southern Europe and separates the Italian Peninsula from the Balkan Peninsula. It contains more than 1,300 islands.

BOG OF OORID

The Oorid Lough is a freshwater lake in the west of Ireland.

CRETEA

Crete is the largest and southernmost island in Greece.
ACOTAR role: Cretea is where Miryam and Drakon's people lived following the War.

LAPPLUND

Lapland is a geographic region in Northern Fennoscandia which covers much of the Nordic countries. It is also a province of Sweden and the largest region of Finland.
ACOTAR role: Lapplund is where the Cauldron was hidden.

ITICA

Ithaca is an island featured in the Odyssey and was the island home of Odysseus. It is also a real island in Greece. The Kathara Monastery is located in Ithaca.
ACOTAR role: Itica is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

MONTESERE

Montserrat is a mountain range near Barcelona.
ACOTAR role: Montesere is a fae territory located in the Continent's NW and is considered generally wealthy. They allied with the loyalists in the War.

RAVENNIA

Ravenna is located in Northern Italy and was the capital of the Western Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: Ravenna is a fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

DUNMERE

Dunmere is a hamlet in Cornwall, England.
ACOTAR role: Dunmere is a town located within the Night Court, between Velaris and the sea.

NEVA

The Neva is the fourth-largest river in Europe and is located in northwestern Russia.
ACOTAR role: Neva is one of the largest human cities on the Continent and is where the Archeron sisters' father travels to trade.

SCYTHIA

The Scythians were an ancient Eastern Iranic equestrian nomadic people who migrated from Central Asia to the steppes of modern-day Ukraine and Southern Russia.
ACOTAR role: Scythia is one of the territories of the human lands on the Continent, ruled by Queen Vassa. They are said to be a horse loving people.

ROSEHALL

Rosehall is the name of a remote hamlet in the Scottish Highlands.
Fun fact: The 2nd Duke of Westminster acquired the Rosehall estate and his mistress at the time, Coco Chanel, redecorated the interior to her own liking. Winston Churchill, a close friend of the Duke, also visited the estate.
ACOTAR role: Rosehall is mentioned in ACOFAS and is theorized to be the place where Azriel's mother resides.

AFRICA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

THE BLACK LAND

Black Land translates from Kemet, a popular ancient name for Egypt, which is derived from the color of the fertile black soil along the cultivated area of the Nile valley.
ACOTAR role: The Black Land is a region of the continent where human slaves were ruled over by a High Fae queen. Miryam and Drakon joined the mortals in the War and freed Miryam's people by crossing the desert and eventually the sea.

THE ERYTHRIAN SEA

The Erythraean Sea, originally an Ancient Greek geographical designation, has been used as a name for the Red Sea which lies between Africa and Asia.
ACOTAR role: Drakon used his magic to split the Erythian Sea.

ASIA-PARALLEL LOCATIONS

XIAN

Xi'an is the the most populous city in Northwest China snd the second most popular tourist destination in China.
ACOTAR role: Xian is a Fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War. A large majority of the Dawn Court is made of Fae from Xian, including Thesan's mother. Feyre remarks that Amren may have molded her mortal body after their peoples.

BHARAT

Bhārat is one of the two principal official short names for the Republic of India.
ACOTAR role: The Archerons lost their fortune when their father's ships sank on the way to Bharat.

RASK

May refer to Rask, a city in Iran, that serves as both capital of its county and district.
ACOTAR role: Rask is a Fae territory on the Continent and allied with the Loyalists during the War.

ADDITIONAL LOCATIONS

VELARIS

Possibly derived from the Latin vēlo*,* meaning "to veil, cover, wrap" along with "to hide, conceal" and "to clothe in." Could also derive from the Latin vēlum, meaning "to veil, curtain" and also indicates a tarpaulin acting as cover for outdoor spaces.

THE WALL

No singular reference, but the presence of a wall separating one race from another, often humans from mythical beings, is rife throughout history, mythology, and fantasy.
One from each category that has loose ties to ACOTAR: (1) Hadrian's Wall, ie the Roman Wall, a defensive fortification of the Roman province of Britannia. It spanned from coast to coast, cutting across the entire width of Northern England. (2) In Norse mythology, the Master Builder asking for the hand of the goddess Freyja as payment for constructing a wall around Asgard to defend the gods. (3) The English village of Wall in Neil Gaiman's Stardust, named after the wall separating the land of Faerie from the mortal realm, highly guarded and cautioned against for mortals seeking to pass through.

THE MOONSTONE PALACE

Romans linked moonstone to the moon goddess Diana (goddess of wild animals and the hunt) and Ancient Greeks linked it to their lunar deities Artemis, Hecate, and Selene.

SIDRA RIVER

Sidra is a name of Latin origin and means "Goddess of the stars" or "like a star."

RAMIEL

Ramiel is a fallen Watcher, a type of Biblical angel, one of the 20 Watchers that rebelled against God by mating with mortal women, therefore creating the Nephilim (Shadowhunters, anyone?). Ramiel means "God has thundered." Ramiel is sometimes conflated with Remiel, also known as Jeremiel, meaning "God shall have mercy," as is listed as one of the seven Holy Angels. He is the archangel of hope and is responsible for divine visions and guiding the souls of the faithful into Heaven.

POOL OF STARLIGHT

No plausible connection found, though there is a famous pool in Greek mythology—a pool Mnemosyne presided over in Hades, counterpart to the river Lethe. Dead souls would drink from Lethe to wipe their past lives from remembrance when reincarnated. Those who drank from Mnemosyne's pool remembered and halted their transmigration of the soul.

ATHELWOOD

Ethel (also aethel) is an Old English word meaning "noble." Athelwood can mean "noblewood."
ACOTAR role: Athelwood is Morrigan's estate located in the Night Court.

GOLLIAN MOUNTAINS

Göll is one of the named Valkyries from Norse mythology. Her name means "tumult," or "noise, battle."
ACOTAR role: The Gollian Mountains are where the Valkyries were slain during the War.

MYRMIDONS

In Ancient Greek mythology, the Myrmidons were an Ancient Greek tribe. In the Iliad, they are the soldiers commanded by Achilles. Myrmidon has also come to mean "a follower or subordinate of a powerful person, typically one who is unscrupulous or carries out orders unquestioningly."
ACOTAR role: The Myrmidons are a set of mountains serving as the border between the Day Court and the Night Court from which the Illyrians migrated.

CESERA

No direct reference found, but may allude to Caesarea, the name of numerous cities and locations throughout the Roman Empire.
ACOTAR role: Cesera is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

SANGRAVAH

No direct reference found (and I lost my mind searching for one). Closest I came to was the similarly sounding Angharad, a feminine Welsh name, long associated with Welsh royalty, history, and myth, including Arthurian legend.
ACOTAR role: Sangravah is one of three temples where the feet of the Cauldron were hidden.

GREENFIELD VILLAGE

No direct connection found, though Greenfield is the name of several villages of England.
ACOTAR role: Greenfield village is a neighboring village to where Feyre grew up and where Isaac Hale's wife is from.

WINDHAVEN CAMP

No connection found, though a separate Windhaven also appears in Tower of Dawn in the TOG series. Altun—Windhaven being the rough translation—is located in a three-peaked mountain range and is the home of Sartaq's hearth-mother and family.
Fun fact: Windhaven is the name of a science-fiction novel by George R. R. Martin and Lisa Tuttle following a group of humans who crash-landed on a foreign planet and learned to craft their own wings out of the spaceship wreckage.

THE WOLF'S DEN

No connection found, BUT fun fact: there is a named Wolf's Den castle in George R. R. Martin's A Song of Ice and Fire series (aka Game of Thrones) that now serves as a prison. "All the days were much the same inside the Wolf's Den, and any change was usually for the worse." A Dance with Dragons, Ch 29
ACOTAR role: The Wolf's Den is the name of the worst tavern in Velaris that Nesta is known to frequent.

SILVERSPRING CREEK

No plausible connection found, BUT fun fact: "Silver Springs" is a song written by Stevie Nicks, performed by Fleetwood Mac, and is so strongly ACOTAR-coded even my non-loving playlist-to-book self can't deny it. If you want more bread crumbles that SJM is a Stevie Nicks fan, "Rhiannon" and it's lyric origins have potential ties to the Rhiannon of TOG.
You could be my silver springBlue-green colors flashin'I would be your only dreamYour shinin' autumn ocean crashin'
Time cas t a spell on you*, but you won't forget me*I know I could have loved youBut you would not let me
ACOTAR role: Silverspring Creek is a stream running through Feyre's human village, near where she hunted rabbits.

STRYGA'S CASTLE

No direct reference found, but due to Stryga/the Weaver resembling a female demon akin to a vampire in Slavic mythology (see the Monster section above), it is possible Stryga's former home, before she was confined to her cottage, is reminiscent of Bram Stoker's 1897 Dracula and the Transylvanian Castle complete with three vampiric sister brides who entice men with their beauty and charm before proceeding to feed upon them.

The Night Sky

ARKTOS

Arktos, also written Arctus, means "bear" in Ancient Greek. Arktos was a centaur who fought against the Lapith spearmen. The Arktos Megale (aka Ursa Major, the Great Bear) is one of the original 48 constellations listed by Ptolemy who drew on earlier works by Greek, Egyptian, Babylonian, and Assyrian astronomers.
ACOTAR role: Arktos is one of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest left star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Arktosian is reserved for Illyrians who survive the Blood Right but fail to reach Ramiel.

CARYNTH

May refer to Corinth, an ancient city that was one of the largest and most important of Greece, or Carinthia, the southernmost Austrian state in the Eastern Alps, noted for its mountains and lakes.
ACOTAR role: Carynth is one of the three regarded holy stars (the middle star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Carynthian is reserved for Illyrians who scale the summit of Ramiel during the Blood Rite and are considered elite warriors.

ORISTES

Orestes (also spelled Orestes) means "stands on a mountain" and he is the subject of several Ancient Greek plays and myths concerning his madness and purification.
ACOTAR role: Orestes is one of the three regarded holy stars (the furthest right star) of the Illyrians and serves as part of the symbol for the Night Court. The echelon of Oristian is reserved for Illyrians who make it to the Ramiel during the Blood Rite but don't reach the top.

Locations not listed: A slew of various more minor locations have not been listed, including the Four Market Squares of Velaris, certain cottages and houses, and even the Ironcrest Illyrian war-camp.
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THE CAULDRON

There are many magical cauldrons present in various mythologies, one being the Pair Dadeni in Welsh mythology, a magical cauldron able to resurrect the dead, and the coire ansic of Irish mythology, the cauldron of the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann, which never ran empty.

TRUTH-TELLER

Possibly inspired by Fragarach, an Irish mythological sword known as "The Whisperer" or "The Answerer." It was the sword of Nuada, the first high king; it was said that no one could tell a lie with Fragarach at their throat and that the sword inflicting wounds from which no one could recover.

THE HARP

May refer to the uaithne, the magical harp of the Dagda, the chief god of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology. It could control men's emotions and change the seasons.

THE MASK

In Egyptian culture, death masks were designed to guide the spirits of those mummified into the next world.

THE UNKNOWN 4th TROVE ITEM

Seen in a vision by Nesta via Lathys, which we now know to be the Horn, and may refer to the Gjallarhorn of Norse mythology, the sound of which is said to herald the beginning of Ragnarok.

ATARAXIA

Ataraxia, in Ancient Greek philosophy, was a state of calmness untroubled by mental or emotional disquiet, ie tranquility of the mind. It was considered the ideal mental state for soldiers entering battle.
ACOTAR Role: Nesta's Made sword.

GWYDION

Gwydion is a name meaning "born of the trees" and is the given name of Gwydion fab Dôn, a magician, hero, and trickster of Welsh mythology. Caer Wydion, the castle of Gwydion, was the traditional Welsh name for the Milky Way.
ACOTAR role: The Starsword and twin to Truth-Teller.

NARBEN

No direct reference found, though narben in German means "scar."
ACOTAR role: Narben is a lost sword from the Dread Trove.

OUROBOROS MIRROR

The ouroboros is an ancient symbol of a serpent or a dragon eating its own tale, first present in ancient Egyptian iconography and the Greek magical tradition, the term itself deriving from Ancient Greek. It has been used frequently and extensively throughout fantasy literature. It often symbolizes the cycle of life, death, and rebirth.

BOOK OF BREATHINGS

The Books of Breathing are a set of ancient Egyptian funerary texts that are intended to enable those deceased to continue their existence in the afterlife. It is a simplified form of the Book of the Dead.

VERITAS ORB

Veritas is of Latin origin meaning "truth." It is the name for the Roman virtue of truthfulness and in Roman mythology, Veritas is the Goddess of Truth. Universities and colleges such as Harvard use the term veritas as their motto.

SYMPHONIA

Symphonia is Greek in origin and was used to denote a variety of musical instruments.

AMARANTHA'S NECKLACE AND RING (JURIAN'S FINGER AND EYE)

Jurian's finger bone and eye, kept by Amarantha, are reminiscent of relics and reliquaries, often religious in nature. Relics typically consist of the physical remains or personal affects of a saint and the reliquary is the container that holds them.

FAEBANE

Possibly inspired by wolfsbane (aka aconite or monkshood), a poisonous flower ancient Greeks would poison arrows and bait with to hunt wolves. It is lethal and often fatal and is an oft-used plant and poison within the fantasy genre.
Fun fact: In Shakespeare's Hamlet, Hamlet himself was killed with an aconite-laced blade.

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DAEMATI

Potentially a combination of the Greek word dae (to give) and the concept of mati, labeled as "the evil eye" in Greek classical antiquity. Daemati may effectively mean "to give the evil eye."

THE WEAVER'S SONG

The Weaver's song, sung when Feyre was stealing Rhysand's ring from her cottage, is similar to "The Twa Sisters," a traditional murder ballad dating back to mid 17th century England. It tells of two sisters who travel down to a body of water where the older one pushes the younger one in. A harp or a fiddle is then made out of the murdered sister's body, which plays itself and sings about her murder.

May 13, 2024
UK submission for national MAA review follows recently received positive opinion from Committee for Medicinal Products for Human Use (CHMP) of the European Medicines Agency (EMA) concerning the authorization of ONS-5010/LYTENAVA™ (bevacizumab gamma)
ISELIN, N.J., May 13, 2024 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Outlook Therapeutics, Inc. (Nasdaq: OTLK), a biopharmaceutical company working to achieve regulatory approval for the first authorized use of an ophthalmic formulation of bevacizumab for the treatment of retinal diseases in the US and Europe, today announced the submission of its Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) to the Medicines and Healthcare products Regulatory Agency (MHRA) in the United Kingdom (UK) seeking authorization of ONS-5010/LYTENAVA™ (bevacizumab gamma) for the treatment of wet age-related macular degeneration (wet AMD).
The submission was completed under the new International Recognition Procedure (IRP), which allows the MHRA to rely on a positive opinion by the European Medicines Agency’s CHMP concerning an application for grant of marketing authorization for the same product in the EU.
The IRP is available for new UK MAAs of a medicinal product (having the same qualitative and quantitative composition, and the same pharmaceutical form) that has previously been authorized by a Reference Regulator (RR). In this case this is the EMA.
“The submission of our MAA to the MHRA is another step closer to the possibility of offering clinicians and their patients in the UK market the only on-label, ophthalmic bevacizumab to treat wet AMD,” said Russell Trenary, President and CEO of Outlook Therapeutics.
“On the heels of the recent positive opinion by the CHMP in the EU, we continue to make noteworthy progress toward the potential authorization of ONS-5010/LYTENAVA™ in the UK.”
The MAA submission is supported by results from Outlook Therapeutics’ wet AMD clinical program for ONS-5010, which consists of three completed registration clinical trials – NORSE ONE, NORSE TWO and NORSE THREE.
As previously announced, Outlook Therapeutics received a CHMP positive opinion on March 22, 2024 concerning an application for grant of marketing authorization for ONS-5010/LYTENAVA ™ in the EU. The European Commission is expected to make a decision within approximately 67 days following the CHMP opinion. The decision will apply automatically in all 27 EU Member States, and, within 30 days, also to Iceland, Norway and Liechtenstein.
SOURCE:
Outlook Therapeutics® Announces UK Submission of Marketing Authorization Application (MAA) for ONS-5010 as a Treatment for Wet AMD

I hope this is an ok post, this community has been so supportive and creative and I didn’t know where else to ask this.
My partner and I are both Pagans (I’m a Modern Witchcraft person, he’s more Brujeria/Norse) and all the handfasting ceremonies I’m finding have a distinct Wiccan flavor and that’s just not us (no shade to Wicca, but we are much more fluid/eclectic and far less structured). We are also going to be the first non-Christian wedding in both our families, so I’m hoping to find something that both unites us in the eyes of our Gods while also not being so weirdly different/esoteric that our mostly Christian family will be uncomfortable.
I thought a nice evocation of the Gods and welcoming them into the space would be a good opener, but for the actual handfasting part I’m coming up short. Anyone have wisdom for me or suggestions of where to look for inspiration?
Thank you all for your kind attention!

Hello!
First time DM looking for a TTRPG to pick for my first campaign.
I would like to run a campaign for 6 people and set in the world of Greek mythology.
A really important thing for me is having a sort of "preset" long campaign that I can follow, as I don't feel I have the storytelling skills to accomplish this on my own. From what I can gather most TTRPGs have individual side quest stories and one shots, but leaves the task of uniting them into the hands of a DM.
Another important note is ideally the campaign has easily accessible VTT options, as I am not super experienced with Roll20 or Foundry.
The closest thing I have been able to find is Odyssey of the Dragonlords. It has a paid integration with Roll20 as well as a long "preset" campaign that integrates PC backgrounds really well. The only downside is that I'm not the biggest fan of how it integrates high fantasy into the greek setting.
The emphasis on dragons and the total restructure of the greek pantheon isn't ideal. I've considered maybe renaming some of the characters and locations so it feels more inline with greek mythology but that seems more trouble than its worth.
So my question is, are there any existing TTRPGs that might meet the needs I've outlined above?
I know the same group also created Raiders of the Serpent Sea, which also seems like a neat campaign, but I'm having trouble finding out much about it.
Thanks!

I’m starting my obsession with Vikings, the series and the people themselves. And I’d like to read a novel about it. Don’t have any preference, bonus if the main character is a female, and nothing too dark.
Thank you in advance, happy reading :)

So my inside Altar is set up in my bedroom closet by the window....it allows me to open the window for fresh outside air. I often times will sit on the floor under the window and read my norse books whether it's the eddas or just the stories of the gods (currently finishing Norse Mythology by Neil Gaiman) as it is tge most peaceful place in my home to me and makes me feel like im hanging out with the God's. I was wondering if any of you all read by your altars as well, and if not where is your go to place?

A tattoo from each episode of the IM series
Episode title: Ink Master Live
These are Sarah’s Norse mythology finale tattoos

I don't have a lot of details on this one i just remember the game similar in graphics to rise of nations. There was at least a Roman and Egyptian civilizations, and the Roman's had a special unit with a big square shield (like Age of Mythology atlantean destroyer) that had an "Absorption" stat that was some sort of health steal with a blue teeth with fangs icon, and egyptians had a cool anubis soldier

Those who have seen the Terrifier movies know Art is a demonic clown with supernatural abilities. Loki is the trickster god from Norse mythology. Could they be the same?
Both of them are smart and cunning. Both have supernatural abilities. Both mostly use their powers for evil. Most importantly, Loki is usually depicted as a jester (or a clown).
To further support this theory, we have to observe the other characters.
In Terrifier 2, a girl named Sienna slays Art, temporarily killing him. At the time, she’s wearing a Valkyrie-like costume while wielding a mystical sword. In Norse mythology, valkyries are angel-like women who slay those who die battle, guiding them to the afterlife. Typically those who are worthy of going to Valhalla (Norse equivalent of heaven). Obviously, Art isn’t worthy of going to a place like that. So Sienna was likely destined to send him the underworld (or maybe The Clown Cafe in this instance).
Sienna’s unseen father was aware of Art’s existence and how dangerous he is. I do not believe he was a god himself (considering that he seemed to be a normal man with a relatively normal family), but rather a researcher or expert on the topic. He somehow obtained or forged an authentic Valkyrie sword, knowing that was the only thing that could kill Art if he came into our world. He likely created the Valkyrie character to inspire Sienna to become in this instance. The horrors of Art and his world drove him to madness and eventually suicide.
The Little Pale Girl was Art’s first victim upon coming to our world. The reason he kept her around as a accomplice was because she liked him at first. As she saw him as nothing but a friendly clown at a carnival. Bloodlusted, Art killed her anyway. Still flattered that she wasn’t afraid of him, he brought her back as a clown.
In the upcoming Terrifier 3, it has been announced that the “real” Santa Claus will appear. If this is true, I’d go far enough to say that he’s the Norse god Odin. Odin is arguably the inspiration for Santa Claus. So, I predict that he will be summoned to Earth upon hearing of Art’s persistence, despite multiple attempts to kill him, knowing that it will take make more effort than usual this time. Also in mythology, Valkyries serve Odin. So maybe he’s going to try to help Sienna defeat Art in the amount of time he’s in the film (we all know he’s going to get massacred). He must at least acknowledge Sienna if he is Odin.
To further speculate Terrifier 3, it’s possible that Sienna will wear an elf costume. Likely as a part-time job at the mall. This is a nod to how elves help Santa like how Valkyries help Odin. Maybe she’ll meet Santa at the mall, not realizing he’s the real one. Of course, he’d want to be under the guise of someone impersonating him, which is expected.
To summarize, Art The Clown is really Loki from Norse mythology. Sienna was destined to become a Valkyrie to deafeat him. Sienna’s deceased father was aware of Art, and was the one who destined her. The Little Pale Girl was Art’s first victim. Santa Claus is really Odin, who is determined to stop Art too.

The number twelve holds significant cultural, historical, and religious importance across various civilizations and contexts. In many ancient cultures, such as those of the Greeks, Romans, and Babylonians, the number twelve was often associated with completeness and cosmic order. The twelve months in a year, the twelve zodiac signs, and the twelve hours on a clock reflect the pervasive influence of this number in organizing various aspects of human life. Religiously, the significance of twelve is evident in traditions like Christianity, where there are twelve apostles, and Judaism, with the twelve tribes of Israel. The importance of twelve extends to Norse mythology, where twelve gods gathered in a council, and Hinduism, with the twelve Adityas. The enduring prominence of this number underscores its role as a symbol of completeness, balance, and divine order throughout history.
What do you think? Watch and comment.
https://youtu.be/kvZpbIK8qOs

I write a lot about how the Biden-Harris administration is working to restore the principles of the period between 1933 and 1981, when members of both political parties widely shared the belief that the government should regulate business, provide a basic social safety net, promote infrastructure, and protect civil rights. And I write about how that so-called liberal consensus broke down as extremists used the Reconstruction-era image of the American cowboy—who, according to myth, wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone—to stand against what they insisted was creeping socialism that stole tax dollars from hardworking white men in order to give handouts to lazy minorities and women.
But five major stories over the past several days made me realize that I’ve never written about how Trump and his loyalists have distorted the cowboy image until it has become a poisonous caricature of the values its recent defenders have claimed to champion.
The cowboy myth originated during the Reconstruction era as a response to the idea that a government that defended Black rights was “socialist” and that the tax dollars required to pay bureaucrats and army officers would break hardworking white men.
This weekend, on Saturday, May 11, Paul Kiel of ProPublica and Russ Buettner of the New York Times teamed up to deliver a deep investigation into what Trump was talking about when he insisted that he must break tradition and refuse to release his tax returns when he ran for office in 2016 and 2020, citing an audit.
The New York Times had already reported that one of the reasons the Internal Revenue Service was auditing Trump’s taxes was that, beginning in 2010, he began to claim a $72.9 million tax refund because of huge losses from his failing casinos.
Kiel and Buettner followed the convoluted web of Trump’s finances to find another issue with his tax history. They concluded that Trump’s Chicago skyscraper, his last major construction project, was “a vast money loser.” He claimed losses as high as $651 million on it in 2008. But then he appears to have moved ownership of the building in 2010 from one entity to a new one—the authors describe it as “like moving coins from one pocket to another”—and used that move to claim another $168 million in losses, thereby double-dipping.
The experts the authors consulted said that if he loses the audit battle, Trump could owe the IRS more than $100 million. University of Baltimore law professor Walter Schwidetzky, who is an expert on partnership taxation, told the authors: “I think he ripped off the tax system.”
The cowboy myth emphasized dominance over the Indigenous Americans and Mexicans allegedly attacking white settlers from the East. On Friday an impressive piece of reporting from Jude Joffe-Block at NPR untangled the origins of a story pushed by Republicans that Democrats were encouraging asylum seekers to vote illegally for President Joe Biden in 2024, revealing that the story was entirely made up.
The story broke on X, formerly Twitter, on April 15, when the investigative arm of the right-wing Heritage Foundation, which promises to provide “aggressive oversight” of the Biden administration, posted photos of what it claimed were flyers from inside portable toilets at a migrant camp in Matamoros, Mexico, that said in broken Spanish: “Reminder to vote for President Biden when you are in the United States. We need another four years of his term to stay open.” The tweet thread got more than 9 million views and was boosted by Elon Musk, X’s owner.
But the story was fabricated. The flyer used the name of a small organization that helps asylum seekers, along with the name of the woman who runs the organization. She is a U.S. citizen and told Joffe-Block that her organization has “never encouraged people to vote for anyone.” Indeed, it has never come up because everyone knows noncitizens are not eligible to vote. The flyer had outdated phone numbers and addresses, and its Spanish was full of errors. Migrants who are staying at the encampment as they wait for their appointments to enter the U.S. say they have never seen such flyers, and no one has urged them to vote for Biden.
Digging showed that the flyer was “discovered” by the right-wing video site Muckraker, which specializes in “undercover” escapades. The founder of Muckraker, Anthony Rubin, and his brother, Joshua Rubin, had shown up at the organization’s headquarters in Matamoros asking to become volunteers for the organization; they and their conversation were captured on video, and signs point to the conclusion that they planted the flyers.
Nonetheless, Republicans ran with the story. Within 12 hours after the fake flyer appeared on X, Republican representatives Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-GA) and Dan Bishop (R-NC) brought posters of it to Congress, and Republicans made it a centerpiece of their insistence that Congress must pass a new law against noncitizen voting. Rather than being protected by modern-day cowboys, the woman who ran the organization that helps asylum seekers got death threats.
The cowboy image emphasized the masculinity of the independent men it championed, but the testimony of Stephanie Clifford, the adult film actress also known as Stormy Daniels, in Trump’s criminal trial for falsifying business records to cover up his payments to Clifford to keep her story of their sexual encounter secret before the 2016 election, turns Trump’s aggressive dominance into sad weakness. Covering Clifford’s testimony, Maureen Dowd of the New York Times yesterday wrote that “Trump came across as a loser in her account—a narcissist, cheater, sad Hugh Hefner wannabe, trading his satin pajamas for a dress shirt and trousers (and, later, boxers) as soon as Stormy mocked him.”
In the literature of the cowboy myth, the young champion of the underdog is eventually supposed to settle down and take care of his family, who adore him. But the news of the past week has caricatured that shift, too. On Wednesday, May 8, the Republican Party of Florida announced that it had picked Trump’s youngest son, 18-year-old Barron, as one of the state’s at-large delegates to the Republican National Convention, along with Trump’s other sons, Eric and Donald Jr.; Don Jr.’s fiancée, Kimberly Guilfoyle; and Trump’s second daughter, Tiffany, and her husband.
On Friday, May 10, Trump’s current wife and Barron’s mother, former first lady Melania Trump, issued a statement saying: “While Barron is honored to have been chosen as a delegate by the Florida Republican Party, he regretfully declines to participate due to prior commitments.” It is hard not to interpret this extraordinary snub from his own wife and son as a chilly response to the past month of testimony about his extramarital escapades while Barron was an infant.
Finally, there was the eye-popping story broken by Josh Dawsey and Maxine Joselow in the Washington Post on Thursday, revealing that last month, at a private meeting with about two dozen top oil executives at Mar-a-Lago, Trump offered to reverse President Joe Biden’s environmental rules designed to combat climate change and to stop any new ones from being enacted in exchange for a $1 billion donation.
Trump has promised his supporters that he would be an outsider, using his knowledge of business to defend ordinary Americans against those elites who don’t care about them. Now he has been revealed as being willing to sell us out—to sell humanity out—for the bargain basement price of $1 billion (with about 8 billion people in the world, this would make us each worth about 12 and a half cents).
Chief White House ethics lawyer in the George W. Bush administration Richard Painter wrote: “This is called bribery. It’s a felony.” He followed up with “Even a candidate who loses can be prosecuted for bribery. That includes the former guy asking for a billion dollars in campaign cash from oil companies in exchange for rolling back environmental laws.”
The cowboy myth was always a political image, designed to undermine the idea of a government that worked for ordinary Americans. It was powerful after the Civil War but faded into the past in the 1920s, 1930s, and 1940s as Americans realized that their lives depended on government regulation and a basic social safety net. The American cowboy burst back into prominence with the advent of the Marlboro Man in 1954, the year of the Supreme Court’s Brown v. Board of Education decision, and the idea of an individual white man who worked hard, wanted nothing from the government but to be left alone, was a sex symbol, and protected his women became a central myth in the rise of politicians determined to overturn the liberal consensus.
Now it seems the myth has come full circle, with the party led by a man whose wife rejects him and whose lovers ridicule him, who makes up stories about dangerous “others,” cheats on his taxes, solicits bribes, and tries to sell out his followers for cash—the very caricature the mythological cowboy was invented to fight.
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Notes:
https://www.propublica.org/article/trump-irs-audit-chicago-hotel-taxes
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10
/1248599505/migrants-vote-biden-conspiracy-theory-social-media
https://www.npr.org/2024/05/10/1250585392/takeaways-migration-biden-flyer-matamoros
https://www.nytimes.com/2024/05/11/opinion/trump-stormy-daniels-trial.html
https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/05/09/trump-oil-industry-campaign-money/
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/barron-trump-florida-delegate-republican-national-convention-rcna151388
https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/donald-trump/barron-trump-declines-invitation-delegate-republican-convention-rcna151761
Twitter (X):
rwpusa/status/1789632040054165516
https://heathercoxrichardson.substack.com/p/may-12-2024

In Norse Mythology, Fafnir was the son of a powerful and wealthy dwarf king that murdered his father out of greed to steal his treasures including a prized ring that was compensation from the Gods for accidentally killing Otr who was a ferret at the time, one of his brothers. However he didn't realize the ring was cursed and subsequently transformed into a dragon due to his greed. There are many interpretations but the common theme and idea is the dwarf's greed transformed him into monster.
If Fafnir existed in the Potterverse what would be his reputation in the Wizarding World by First Wizarding War during Voldemort's reign to 1991 onwards?

Aventuris Academia gang, turn away.
I’m currently running a homebrew campaign set in the Forgotten Realms, and a lot of the campaign is themed around life and death. I’m planning for homebrewed psychopomps serving under Kelemvor to guide souls safely to the Fugue Plane, and prevent them from returning as undead (of course this doesn’t always succeed). If a soul is restless enough, they might refuse and end up as a ghost/spectre/poltergeist.
The Greek mythology had Charon, the Irish had the Morrigan, and the Norse equivalent were the Valkyrie. I’m planning for such creatures to be previous mortals (clerics?) serving Kelemvor who eventually take up the role, but I’m trying to come up with what kind of flavour to give them other than the classic “reaper”-style.
Any ideas of how to flavour these?