Explore the depths of dark fantasy writing with our all-inclusive guide on enhancing your themes and drawing readers in with symbolism. Discover key strategies, delve into the background of dark fantasy literature, and let your imagination run wild with an enjoyable writing assignment. Regardless of your level of experience as a writer or your level of interest, this guide will assist you in creating dark fantasy stories that are memorable and impactful.
Writing in the dark fantasy genre is a journey into the depths of the human psyche, where symbolism and imagery rule supreme, and it goes beyond simple stories of magic and monsters. We'll look at how to use symbolism to enhance your themes, draw in readers, and craft worlds of dark fantasy that will stick with you in this extensive guide.

Understanding Symbolism in Dark Fantasy Writing

Let's examine the history and development of symbolism in dark fantasy literature before delving into its specific applications. Gothic literature is the source of dark fantasy literature; early works such as Bram Stoker's "Dracula" and Mary Shelley's "Frankenstein" established the themes of terror, mystery, and the paranormal. Dark fantasy has evolved over time as authors like H.P. Lovecraft, Anne Rice, and Clive Barker have explored themes of power, corruption, and the human psyche.

The Power of Symbolism in Dark Fantasy Writing

A powerful tool in the dark fantasy writer's toolbox, symbolism enables you to give your works a deeper resonance and meaning. You can add layers of intricacy and depth that captivate readers and hold their interest throughout by employing symbols and imagery to symbolise abstract ideas, feelings, and themes.

Essential Techniques for Using Symbolism in Dark Fantasy Writing

Let's now examine some crucial methods for enhancing themes in your dark fantasy writing with symbolism:
Pick Your Symbols Wisely: Whether it's a menacing raven perched atop a gravestone, a mysterious amulet with dark powers, or a sinister castle shrouded in mist, pick symbols that speak to your themes and characters.
Establish Symbolic Motifs: To reaffirm themes and provide a feeling of coherence and unity, incorporate reoccurring symbols and motifs into your narrative. Including symbolic elements in your story can enhance its depth and richness. Some examples of such elements are the moon, which denotes mystery and transformation, or a colour like red, which stands for blood and passion.
Employ Symbolic Imagery: To evoke mood and atmosphere, use rich descriptive language to paint vivid pictures with your words. Use imagery to draw readers into the dark fantasy world you've created, whether you're describing a haunted forest shrouded in shadows or a dilapidated mansion full of secrets.
Investigate Archetypes and Myths: Use mythological motifs and archetypal characters as inspiration to give your narrative enduring themes and universal lessons. Using these classic themes, such as the hero's journey, the underworld's descent, or the conflict between light and darkness, can give your dark fantasy story more depth and resonance.

Fun Writing Exercise: Unleash Your Imagination

Select a Theme: Choose a theme or idea that you wish to explore in your dark fantasy story to begin with. Select a theme that appeals to you and piques your interest, such as the nature of power, the duality of human nature, or the quest for salvation.
Determine Your Symbols: The next step is to make a list of images and symbols that are connected to the theme you have selected. These could be places with symbolic meaning, animals, colours, or even objects. For example, you could use symbols like a decaying city, a black rose, or a serpent if you're examining the theme of corruption.
Create Your Story: After deciding on a theme and symbols, begin creating your story by incorporating these components into it to give it depth and resonance. Employ evocative language to create a sense of atmosphere and mood, and allow your symbols to direct the course of your story and the character development.
After writing your story, consider how the symbolism you employed enriched your themes and make any necessary revisions. Seek chances to hone your imagery or add more nuance to your symbolism in order to produce a more compelling and meaningful reading experience. And don't be scared to edit and polish your narrative until the power of symbolism shines through!

Famous Writers and Works in Dark Fantasy Literature

Dark fantasy literature boasts a rich history and a wealth of influential writers and works. From classic tales of Gothic horror to modern masterpieces of dark fantasy, here are a few notable examples:
The Cthulhu Mythos of H.P. Lovecraft: Lovecraft is recognised as one of the pioneers of contemporary horror literature, and the dark fantasy subgenre has been greatly impacted by his Cthulhu Mythos. Lovecraft's stories, replete with cosmic horror.), ancient gods, and secret knowledge, tackle existential dread and humanity's smallness in the face of cosmic forces that are beyond our comprehension.
Neil Gaiman's "The Sandman": This graphic novel series is a masterwork of dark fantasy that masterfully combines dream sequences, mythology, and folklore. With its sophisticated storyline, nuanced characters, and rich, vivid imagery, "The Sandman" has won both praise from critics and a devoted readership, solidifying Gaiman's place as one of the leading authors of contemporary dark fantasy literature.
George R.R. Martin's "A Song of Ice and Fire": George R.R. Martin's epic fantasy series "A Song of Ice and Fire" is a sprawling saga of political intrigue, war, and magic set in the fictional continent of Westeros. With its morally ambiguous characters, intricate plot twists, and gritty, realistic world-building, "A Song of Ice and Fire" has redefined the boundaries of the dark fantasy genre and inspired a cultural phenomenon with its adaptation into the hit HBO series "Game of Thrones".

Embrace the Power of Symbolism

To sum up, symbolism is a powerful tool that can enhance your themes, draw readers in, and help you write darker fantasy fiction to new heights. You can write dark fantasy stories that stick in the reader's mind long after the last page is turned by carefully selecting your symbols, coming up with symbolic motifs, employing vivid imagery, and taking inspiration from myths and archetypes.
So embrace the power of symbolism, let your imagination run wild, and set out on an amazing adventure into the shadowy depths of fantasy literature. Your readers are just waiting to be enthralled with the wonders of your writing!

Elevating Your Writing Experience

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The GC Luxury Quill Set transforms writing into an art form, drawing you into the intricate web of your own invention whether you're creating suspenseful dialogue or narrative twists. It becomes an extension of your will, channelling the raw emotion and atmosphere necessary to creating a genuinely unforgettable dark fantasy tale thanks to its ergonomic form and fluid ink flow.

My Own Dark Fantasy Realm

Hi there, fellow fans of dark fantasy! Thanks to your unflinching support, our blog—which is packed with tales and inspirations of dark fantasy—is making waves on TikTok, Pinterest, and YouTube. Even more thrilling is the fact that we're creating a captivating Trading Card Game to further engross you in Twilight Citadel's eerie mysteries. Explore the depths of the shadows with our website, where you can get eerie yet lovely phone wallpapers and posters. Furthermore, we've got you covered with free resources like desktop wallpapers and profile pictures to make sure your gadgets are brimming with eerie fantasy atmosphere. Come along with us on this surreal adventure, where fears come true and shadows dance. Are you prepared to welcome the gloom?

Watching over some PGL major matches, and noticed that the english broadcast is the only streamed to the crowd audience. What are your thoughts on this? I know valorant got alot of flak once for its istanbul champions tournament for casting in turkish and not having englisb earbuds. Should tournaments cast in language? Would love to hear the perspective of someone whos tournament happened in their own countrh

does anyone else have the problem where you can’t find much media that you enjoy in your target languages? i feel like the stuff i’m actually into mostly ends up being created in english. there are exceptions, mostly with music, but it makes me feel like i don’t actually have a good enough reason to learn them outside of just finding them really fascinating.

I’ve been given a final project for English class which is to create art or poetry based on oppression I’ve experienced. The teacher is Jewish, I’m Jewish, and we just finished reading a halocaust memoir, so I’ll obviously choose antisemitism, but I’m not sure what to paint that meaningfully shows antisemitism. I’m a good artist so I can carry out an idea I just struggle to think of one. (There wouldn’t be a problem if my painting included blood or nudity or anything). I think I want it to say Nie Wieder Ist Jetzt / Never Again is Now / לעולם לא עוד הוא עכשיו in the background in those three languages

Ok, half of my problems is easy to solve, but ok. I love to have a books in colection, but the books stopped to relese in Brazil in first arch. So I have to import, and this is very expensive 🤧. And the inflation and price of dolar don't help so much. And one of part that a lot of fan's can't read Warriors sequences is the language. Like i saw the books stopped to relese in Brazil for a long time, so we don't have more the portuguese translation. And the most part of Brazilians don't speak English. So is very hard be Brazilian and Warriors fan.

A big Thank You to those who gave advice on my last post, it’s been helpful.
My apologies if the following sounds bad, it’s not, but apologies anyway.
So, I’m still working through things. I was going to post this before but then I thought I’d watch the CPTSD stream first. It was an insightful stream, had a lot of information that was useful. I’m planning to get the guide when I can. Probably rewatch the stream too/
However, some of my trauma is “race” based. And I was wondering if people had some thoughts on it?
About me: I’m mixed race. Part European and part South Asian/Southeast Asian. So half white. I want to stress this because no one else seems to care.

• I’ve had death threats due to my skin from 5 years old.
• Constantly judged for my skin, always picked last in school or treated unfairly.
• Had someone in primary school try to “purify” me, like chasing me around with a something? And saying prayers/mantras.
• 4yo, I was left in the rain because my parents were late to pick me up from daycare. (I don’t blame folks as apparently the daycare was investigated later on)
• People on dating sites ignore me, so it’s not an option for me, with some saying they don’t date Indian looking men (why match then, who knows)
• I was born in Australia. Raised Australian. My folks believed if you move somewhere, you join in the culture, so besides food and my relatives, I guess, I’m Aussie. In that it’s my culture. It’s who I am, generally speaking, culturally white for lack of a better term.
• Even if I explain my background, people only focus on my non European half
• The only saving grace I have is that if people hear me speak, they seem to calm down, almost like they don’t hear an accent so it calms them

The racial trauma is obvious, I guess. People only see the skin color and assume things. I think it maybe why I feel some people avoid me. This has led to some misplaced anger towards Indian people, which I have resolved more or less. I love my mum. Dev Patel is great. Dr K is great. Curry and roti paratha is divine, seriously try roti paratha, like a love child of a pie crust and tortilla.
The cognitive dissonance comes from the fact that people keep telling me to stay in my lane. I see myself as more white. I grew up in Australia, I only know English, surrounded primarily by Caucasian people. I’m mixed race but culturally white Australian. I’m generally attracted to Caucasian women, again because it’s what I was around ground up, and it’s not like I’m attracted to any Caucasian gal. And I find women like Risa Naka or Park ShinHye attractive. Rashida Jones.
It’s not a fetish or that I’m hyping up white people. I’m attracted to what I find similar to me. What’s annoying is people setting me up with people simply because they are Indian. Or my sibling who says I’m being racist, even though their partner is white…. creating further cognitive dissonance and a feeling of helplessness. Apparently I can’t be with who I want, but others can.
I hope people can try to understand things. I’m trying to figure out a way to explain it better, but the only example I’ve got is an LGBT example. I think it’s why I understand them. That is, a trans person is born a certain way but doesn’t feel or identify that way, and bigots tell them to stay in their lane. Or a lesbian who keeps being told to date men when they aren’t attracted to them. I’m not LGBT but it’s the best example I can think of, I’m sorry to anyone who is and thinks I’m out of line for comparing.
I don’t know what I’m expecting. I guess it’s partly venting. I’m lonely and stressed and tired. And all I want is someone who is attracted to be attracted to me too. Just one.
I mean there’s probably no real answer for this, other than what my psychologist said “just be the best me I can be, be the best color person that others will meet”. So I guess it’s probably sort of pointless posting this. But I like to get answers from everywhere so I figured I’ll give it a final shot then, ignore the ignorant and do good.

https://www.academia.edu/119041827
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Grimm’s Law with Verner’s Law explain many consonant shifts in Germanic regularly, but some exceptions exist. Thurneysen’s Law concerns, in part, voicing dissimilation of nearby fricatives and has been interpreted as either irregular or due to unknown changes in Gothic, not of PGmc. date. In this framework I will attempt to add another type of dissimilation of fricatives, also at a distance and irregular, and necessarily of PGmc. date. Many, not all, PIE *kVs appear as Gmc. *kVs, likely due to regular *k > *x then optional *xVs > *kVs in PGmc. Also, *kVz might also be included, depending on the timing of *d > *t, *zd > *st, etc. (*kizdno-, below). This would be dissimilation of [+continuant] in fricatives, or similar changes in whatever system is accepted. Examples:
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*kus-ne/ye- ‘kiss’ > H. kuwas-, G. kunéō, Ps. kṣulawul, Gmc. *kusja- > E. kiss, ON kyssa
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*H2ak^- ‘sharp’ (in many names of bladed objects, etc.)
*H2ak^si-() ‘axe’ > G. axī́nē , L. ascia
*H2ak^si-wo-? > *H2ak^wisyo- > Go. aqizi, ON øx, OHG acchus, E. ax(e)
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*kwa(H2)t(h)o- > Skt. kvath- ‘boil’, Go. hvaþō ‘foam’
*kwa(H2)so- > OBg kvasŭ ‘leaven / fermented drink’
*kwa(H2)s(e/i)yo- > L. cāseus ‘cheese’, *kwasja-z > ON Kvasir ‘a wise Van formed from the spit of gods, killed by dwarves who mixed his blood with honey to ferment into Mead of Poetry’
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*kizd- ‘pine (sap) / turpentine pine’ >>
*kizdaH2- > Skt. cīḍā- ‘turpentine pine’
*kizdimo- > *kīḷima- > Skt. kilima-m ‘kind of pine’, A. kíilum ‘turpentine’ (*zd > ḷ after RUKI, as Vedic)
*kizdno- > Gmc. *kizna- > OE cén ‘fipine/spruce’, OHG kén
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*H2ag^sulo- > ON öxull, OHG ahsala ‘shoulder’, NHG Achsel ‘armpit’, OE eaxl, E. axle
*H2ag^su- > *H2ak^su- > *aH2k^us-?, OHG uochisa \ uochsana , OE ócusta \ óxta \ óxn ‘armpit’
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These are likely related to ‘axle’ < *H2ag^- ‘drive’, but the optional metathesis seems likely limited to Gmc., well after *gs > *ks, etc., *k > x, especially since the same type of metathesis produces *H2ak^wisyo- in a word certainly < *H2ak^- ‘sharp’. When several nearly identical roots vary only in having *k > k in Gmc., a specific change there is preferable to looking for several new roots with only evidence from one branch. Removing ‘axe’ from ‘sharp’ also seems misguided, and attempts to explain this in a reasonable manner would surely have found the common *kVs before now, if tried at all. Manaster Ramer’s idea that Go. aqizi comes from a compound with *-k^g- seems less likely due to the other cases with irregular *k > k all occurring before s, which shows that a sound change is responsible, not an individual explanation for each. Previous attempts to separate all these sets of words since *k > k is not regular do not seem needed if the specific environment *k-s is considered for all these. For example, Kloekhorst said, “The formal as well as semantic similarity to Gr. kunéō ‘to kiss’ (*ku-ne-s-) and OHG kussan ‘to kiss’ is striking. Nevertheless, the Hittite verb cannot be cognate to both, since Gr. k- does not regularly correspond to OHG k-.” Once might be coincidence, but with 5 good examples, the support for this change (or lack of change) seems sufficient. Separating nearly identical words because *k seems to become k shows that a search for only what is clearly regular and a dependence on what is already known as regular has hindered the growth of historical linguistics.
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Several other words, less clear, might show that *k-k > k-k could be included:
Li. kaĩras \ kaĩrias \ kairỹs ‘left’, kairė̃ ‘left hand’, Gmc. *kaika- > ON keikr ‘bent backwards’, Dan. kei ‘left hand’
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An even less certain case of *x-x > *k-x might be:
*xux- > *kux- > OE cohhetan ‘blusteriot/cough’, Dutch kuch, E. cough
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Though this seems to be onomatopoeia within Gmc., thus *xux- has no outside evidence, languages with [x] often have words for ‘cough’ start with this, like:
Khw. xaf-, NP xaf-, Os. xuf-
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Though uncertain, such speculation is only possible due to good evidence for *kVs > kVs. The sporadic nature of Thurneysen’s Law seems matched by, at least, this change in all of Gmc., making its nature and scope as PGmc. in age more likely. That these changes were optional need not be evidence they did not exist at all. Any attempt can only lead to absurdities and chaos, all unneeded.
​
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Buck, Carl Darling (1949) A Dictionary of Selected Synonyms in the Principal Indo-European Languages, The University of Chicago Press, Chicago
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Kloekhorst, Alwin (2008) Etymological Dictionary of the Hittite Inherited Lexicon
https://www.academia.edu/345121
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Manaster Ramer, Alexis (2024, draft?) If Not a Perfect Etymology of the Germanic 'Axe', At least A Dead Ringer for One v
https://www.academia.edu/118943826
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Whalen, Sean (2023) Pashto k- entries by Georg Morgenstierne
https://www.reddit.com/Pashtun/comments/128y1hh/pashto_k_entries_by_georg_morgenstierne/
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Whalen, Sean (2024a) Cretan Elements in Linear B, Part Two: *y > z, *o > u, LB *129, LAB *65, Minoan Names (Draft)
https://www.academia.edu/114878588
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Whalen, Sean (2024b) Proto-Indo-European Options for *g^hdh(iy)es ‘yesterday’, Greek i- / e- (Draft)
https://www.academia.edu/115010109
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Whalen, Sean (?) Indo-European Alternation of *H / *s as Widespread and Optional (Draft)
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Woodhouse, Robert (2000) The origin of Thurneysen's law: a detailed analysis of the evidence
https://www.academia.edu/9232685
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[I wrote this article about Macbeth for my college's newspaper, and I thought this subreddit might enjoy reading it!]
I have joked before that Shakespeare’s two favorite subjects–surpassing love, murder, madness, and crossdressing–are botany and birds. If you’ve been to New York City you might be aware of the “Shakespeare Garden” in Central Park, whose theoretical aim (though it proves nigh-impossible in practice) is to house specimens of all the plants which Shakespeare mentions in his plays. As it turns out, Bard quotes make for quite a diverse garden: there are roses which assuredly would smell as sweet by any other name; there are daffodils, that come before the swallow dares, and take the winds of March with beauty; there’s holly, heigh-ho; there’s rosemary, that’s for remembrance, there’s pansies, that’s for thoughts, there’s fennel for you, and columbines–no word on whether or not they could find any violets, though. I suppose there’s no objection to be made against those who complain that Shakespeare’s language is “flowery”; even as vicious a villain as Iago deigns to express his philosophy on life by way of botanical metaphor: “Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardeners.” And, of course, the plot of A Midsummer Night’s Dream revolves around a magical flower which makes people fall in love.
I doubt anyone will object to my claiming of birds as Shakespeare’s other poetical fixation: I suspect that the majority of falconry knowledge which most non-falconers have today comes from reading footnotes in their copies of Shakespeare plays, explaining exactly what Richard II means by “How high a pitch his resolution soars,” or why Hamlet says “Hillo, ho, ho” to Marcellus. But while plants are so common in Shakespeare that I don’t know of one play which we might say is especially densely forested with references to them, there is one play that stands out as particularly full of birds in comparison with the rest of the Shakespearean canon. That play is Macbeth.
This is the sort of thing that one only notices after having read a play so many times that the actual events of the plot become akin to the meter of a poem–beats which must be hit, and which start to feel so natural that one hardly notices them–and one’s attention drifts away from the big, important speeches and toward the more utilitarian words and odd little moments that bridge them. I am not the first to point it out, but it is, all the same, a delightful quirk of the play, and could be a good way for Sophomores to throw their classmates for a loop in seminar [Note: Students at our college study Macbeth during their Sophomore year.]: why are there so many birds in Macbeth?
KING. Dismay’d not this/Our captains, Macbeth and Banquo? SERG. Yes,/As sparrows eagles… -Act I, Scene II
LADY. …The raven himself is hoarse/That croaks the fatal entrance of Duncan… -Act I, Scene V
BAN. This guest of summer,/The temple-haunting martlet, does approve/By his loved mansionry, that the heaven’s breath/Smells wooingly here: no jutty, frieze/Buttress, nor coign of vantage, but this bird/Hath made his pendent bed and procreant cradle… -Act I, Scene VI
LADY. Hark! Peace! It was the owl that shriek’d, the fatal bellman… -Act II, Scene II
LADY. I heard the owl scream and the crickets cry. -Act II, Scene II
PORTER. …come in, tailor; here you may roast your goose… -Act II, Scene III
PORTER. ‘Faith, sir, we were carousing till the second cock… -Act II, Scene III
LENNOX. New hatch’d to the woeful time: the obscure bird/Clamour’d the livelong night… -Act II, Scene III
OLD MAN. …On Tuesday last,/A falcon, towering in her pride of place,/Was by a mousing owl hawk’d at and kill’d. -Act II, Scene IV
MACBETH. …Light thickens; and the crow/Makes wing to the rooky wood… -Act III, Scene II
MACBETH. If charnel-houses and our graves must send/Those that we bury back, our monuments/Shall be the maws of kites. -Act III, Scene IV
MACBETH. Augurs and understood relations have/By magot pies and choughs and rooks brought forth/The secret’st man of blood. -Act III, Scene IV
LADY MACDUFF. …the poor wren,/the most diminutive of birds, will fight,/Her young ones in her nest, against the owl. -Act IV, Scene II
LADY MACDUFF. How will you live? SON. As birds do, mother. LADY MACDUFF. What, with worms and flies? SON. With what I get, I mean; and so do they. LADY MACDUFF. Poor bird! Thou’ldst never fear the net nor lime,/The pitfall nor the gin? SON. Why should I, mother? Poor birds they are not set for. -Act IV, Scene II
FIRST MURDERER. What, you egg! -Act IV, Scene II
MACDUFF. …there cannot be/That vulture in you… -Act IV, Scene III
MACDUFF. …O hell-kite! All?/What, all my pretty chickens and their dam/At one fell swoop? -Act IV, Scene III
MACBETH. The devil damn thee black, thou cream-faced loon!/Where got’st thou that goose look? SERVANT. There is ten thousand– MACBETH. Geese, villain? -Act V, Scene III
Above I have listed every ornithological reference that I’ve found in the Scottish Play; as we peruse them, we certainly cannot conclude that every individual reference is of the same kind, or carries the same import. I will not pretend, for example, that, just because geese and ravens are both birds, the Porter’s invitation for the imagined English tailor to cook his goose in Hell merits as much attention as Lady Macbeth’s ominous declaration that “the raven himself is hoarse”. Nor do I think that any individual reference particularly demands explication; by itself, any one of these bird-invocations seems perfectly natural. Shakespeare’s talent is such that he can repeat a motif in such a way that on the macro level it is obvious yet on the micro level it hardly feels present. But that macro level is what interests me here: what impression is created, on the whole, by the presence of so many birds in this play? I have a theory, which, though it may seem far-fetched, I think merits at least some consideration, and which, at the very least, I have not seen stated elsewhere, and so may make a novel contribution to the conversation.
Macbeth is both Shakespeare’s most supernatural tragedy and his most Sophoclean; these two superlatives are inextricably related. The appellative Weird given to the opening scene’s three Sisters–derived from the Old English wyrd, meaning destiny, and famously given its more familiar connotation by Shakespeare himself in this very play–is, among the Bard’s works, unique to Macbeth; and just as that word appears nowhere else in Shakespeare, so is the concept it represents absent in all tragedies but this one. Though Hamlet may cry out against outrageous fortune, and though Othello may rhetoricize about how no man can control his fate, it is only in Macbeth that we truly feel that the events we see play out before us are fated, predestined, inevitable. [See Note 1.] The ghost in Hamlet commands his son to revenge his foul and most unnatural murder, but does not tell him it is certain that he will succeed; indeed, would not the drama be sapped of its intrigue if that level of certainty were present? Meanwhile, the supernatural interlopers in Macbeth offer the Scottish thane not a mission, but a prophecy: All hail, Macbeth! that shalt be king hereafter! From its mystical opening word–When, not If–the Scottish play makes us aware of the certainty of all that is to befall our tragic antihero. Macbeth is thus a different sort of tragedy than Shakespeare’s others, and it works by an inverted mechanism. While the tragedy of, for example, Desdemona’s death is that it may have been prevented, the tragedy of Macbeth’s destruction is that it represents the fulfilment of fate; and this is the very same mechanism by which Oedipus Rex operates, complete with its own “Weird” character in the form of the seer Tiresias. Though Calvin managed to accept that some men are destined for greatness and others for ruin, this idea is, to Shakespeare and Sophocles, nothing short of agonizing–the stuff of tragedy.
Now: what does all of this have to do with birds? Consider these words from Antigone, spoken by Tiresias to Creon:
You shall learn, when you hear the indications of my art! As I took my place on my ancient seat for observing birds, where I can mark every bird of omen I heard a strange sound among them, since they were screeching with dire, incoherent frenzy and I knew that they were tearing each other with bloody claws, for there was a whirring of wings that made it clear… (Lloyd-Jones translation)
Consider next these words from Oedipus Tyrannus, spoken defensively by Oedipus to Tiresias:
Why, come, tell me, how can you be a true prophet? Why when the versifying hound was here did not you speak some word that could release the citizens? Indeed, her riddle was not one for the first comer to explain! It required prophetic skill, and you were exposed as having no knowledge from the birds or from the gods. No, it was I that came, Oedipus who knew nothing, and put a stop to her; I hit the mark by native wit, not by what I learned from birds. (Lloyd-Jones translation)
The practice of divining the future from birds–be it from their behaviors, their cries, or their innards–was, to Sophocles and his contemporaries, not superstitious hokum, but a practical science at which one could be skilled or unskilled, and it bodes ill for Oedipus that he is so quick to disregard it in favor of his own native wit. [See Note 2] By Shakespeare’s day, the practice had long been relegated to the realm of outdated hocus-pocus, but the Bard still saw some truth in it; in Macbeth, there is a recurring sense that, when the world is sick with some great wrong, its first symptoms manifest in the behavior of birds. When the “fatal bellman” the owl shrieks in the night, Lady Macbeth takes it as a sign that her husband is about his bloody business. The day after the murder of Duncan, as Ross converses with an Old Man about the strange things they’ve seen the previous night, “unnatural/Even as the deed that’s done”, the killing of a falcon by a mousing-owl–an omen straight out of Sophocles–is mentioned before the madness and cannibalism of Duncan’s horses, even though the latter would surely be more immediately noticeable and ghastly than the former.
These are the most obvious examples of birds as ill omens in Macbeth; yet even the more innocuous invocations of birds throughout the rest of the play continually turn our thoughts back to the ancient Greek understanding of fate and prophecy, and thereby remind us that, however savagely he may fight at Dunsinane, Macbeth’s fate is as fixed as that of Oedipus. The birds have already foretold all.
Note 1: The closest thing there is to this kind of fatalness in another Shakespearean tragedy is the several superstitious occurrences in Julius Caesar–both the soothsayer’s message of “Beware the ides of March” and the bestial portents such as the lack of a heart in an offering and the whelping of a lioness in the streets. Still, I will insist that these omens do not convey a sense of fatedness to the audience as strongly as the Weird Sisters in Macbeth by virtue of their being told to Caesar himself, not to Brutus, the play’s true protagonist, and by the fact that Shakespeare elsewhere uses dialogue to throw some doubt upon the idea of predestination: "Men at some times are masters of their fates:/The fault, dear Brutus, is not in our stars,/But in ourselves, that we are underlings." -I.ii
Note 2: The Liddell-Scott Greek Lexicon identifies at least two separate verbs referring to bird-based divination, both of which are present in the quoted passages: Tiresias uses ορνϊθοσκοπέομαι, observe birds, interpret their flight and cries, while Oedipus uses οιωνίζομαι, take omens from the flight and cries of birds. The latter term comes from οιωνος, a large bird, bird of prey, such as a vulture or eagle, and so distinguished from a common bird, while the former comes from ορνις, which more generally refers to a bird, including birds of prey and domestic fowls. Birds of both kinds are present in Macbeth; there are οιωναι, such as the “falcon, towering in her pride of place”, as well as ορνες, like the Porter’s goose and cock. I therefore see little value in interrogating the kinds of birds invoked by Shakespeare, the specific cultural associations and significance of the owl, the raven, or the wren; rather, if we reduce them down to their barest existence as birds, animals of the class Aves, and consider them in an ancient Greek light, then things become a bit clearer.

Okay, I know nothing about Cantonese other than: it is the second official Chinese language of the Han natives (I think?); it was once one of the "prestigious" of the Chinese languages at one point in time before standard mandarin; it uses the same script as Modern Chinese standard Mandarin (afaik); and it like most languages in china, besides mandarin, are dying out there from what I have read and a few posts here imply.
My first question is this:

• In Jyut[-]ping, it shows all words are cut up into sort of choppy things in romanization, and have a small number behind them. What is this for and can a word Romanized in Cantonese removed the numbers and shoved together (if it is being used for one word) and a Cantonese person who speaks & reads English get the general idea or know what the person is trying to say with it?

My second question is this:

• Since I don't know whether wiki info is accurate or not, I want to make sure; but how would you write the Jyutping spelling of this 遊俠, and in English (as that is one language I know) how would a English speaker know how to pronounce it in Cantonese perfectly? Like, if I showed someone, and they asked "how do you pronounce this word?" I would answer by saying "[insert what I would say to them]" and that's what I need to know.

My third question ^{(and final in this particular post, minus comments and responses to comments}) is this:

• What does the word "遊俠" actually mean? Like in a tdlr one "simple" sentence [basically simple sentence structure for those who know English grammar & syntax] description, can someone tell me what it means? I don't trust non-Chinese websites, and most of those non-Chinese seem to either sort of get something similar in a long winded def, or very different in a short winded breath.

It would be great if I could get these answered to the best of their ability.

Album first: https://imgur.com/a/wj9xMdd (I've got no idea why you need to verify your age, I swear it's just boots)
Pics from the manufacturer: Pics
Why Mexican boots? Because I live in Mexico, and they are more affordable and easy to find than other options. Besides, I get to support local business, and that is a big plus for me. Obviously, English is not my first language, so bear with me.
Disclaimer: This review has been completely sponsored by my compulsive shopping. I have not received any free boots or discounts, but if someone wants to give a free pair of boots, my feet are ready.

Brand: Varonte

Varonte is a Mexican brand of shoes/boots with a made to order model. As far as I know, they don't ship outside of Mexico, but you can always ask. One of the advantage of these small brands is that they are really flexible.
These were my first boots and in general my first pair of goodyear welted shoes. I paid around $100 USD for these boots. Most of the shoes/boots they sell go for $100-$130 which is really cheap for a goodyear welted shoe.
Website: https://www.varonte.com/collections/catalogo
Social media: https://www.instagram.com/varonte_shoes/

The good:

These boots are made almost entirely of leather. Leather uppers, leather lining, leather sole with a half rubber sole. There seems to be a foam layer underneath the insole. They were comfortable right out of the box, no break in required. I liked the folded leather edges. The QC seems wonderful for the price point. Overall seems like really good value for the money.

The could-be-better:

The upper's leather seems really thin. I didn't find any information about the leather, but chrome-tanned for sure. There's no gusseted tongue, so It slips to the side. I'm sure that's not an issue with the boot per se, but I wish it had a gusseted tongue to avoid that. They had a hand painted patina that I wasn't a fan of, but I used a burgundy shoe cream and is much less noticeable now. The laces they came with seemed really cheap, I changed them for some waxed flat cotton laces from Amazon.

Would I buy from Varonte again:

Sure, great value for the price and several different models to choose from. If I had to buy from them today, I would contact them to ask for a custom shoe with thicker leather, no hand-painted patina, contrasting-color stitching and gusseted tongue.

The important questions:

Are they better than Thursday? No idea, I don't own a pair of Thursday boots but I will update the post once Thursday sponsors me.
What about sizing?>! These were my first boots, so I kind of screwed up and orderer my sneaker size. They are slightly big for me (maybe half size) but that's my fault. It's a D last for sure.!<
Would you say these boots are perfect for getting black-out drunk while drinking red wine? Yes, I think they would hide a red wine stain perfectly. Just wear them with some burgundy pants, bugundy socks and a burgundy shirt and you're good to go.

Hello, halifax. I have been coming to this subreddit for quite a while now and it's been startling to watch the nature of posts regarding immigrants and international students drastically change over the last few years. I remember people seemed to share mostly positive views towards immigrants, which later changed to concern regarding the pressure immigration was putting on the housing market, and now there's open derision regarding immigrants, particularly, Indians. Anything that people seem to dislike about Indian immigrants or temporary residents, such as those who live in cramped, overcrowded apartments, is ascribed to their culture.
My experience in Halifax as an international student has been nothing but positive so far. There have been several instances where I have been moved by the decency and unassuming kindness of strangers who I've met here. Even though there are things that worry me such as the problems with healthcare and housing, they don't matter as much when I realize just how much I love being part of this community. It has thus been with dismay that I have seen the opinion of people turn against Indians on this forum, and it's also what my Canadian friends have told me about how their friends and family think.
This is why I decided to make this post. Not to point fingers at people for not being nice or making them feel sad for me; I guess, I just want to give my perspective on things and have people decide for themselves. I apologize if the post ends up being too long, I don't know exactly what I'll be writing.
India along with China has nearly a third of the human race living in it. India alone has nearly forty times more people than Canada. However, unlike China with its Han majority, India isn't largely homogeneous, it holds several nations within it. The country is comprised of myriad ethnic, linguistic, and religious communities that usually have little in common with each other. There is no such thing as Indian culture, food, dress, language, or race; these terms are just used by businesses and Indians in Canada to make it easier for them to be identified by others. The things most Indians value are the same as those valued by all people - integrity, honesty, generosity, humility, and fairness. I talk to most Indians I meet in Halifax in English since we don't have a language in common.
I know times are hard for people with the housing crisis, struggling healthcare, inflation and low wages. People in Halifax have experienced rapid changes in a short time, they've suddenly found themselves surrounded by a lot of people who look different, speak a different language, and have different lifestyles. I can understand why a person who grew up in Halifax would think that this is no longer the city they grew up in, with people they no longer recognize, and end up feeling like an outsider in their hometown. This feeling of wanting things to go back to how they used to be does not make people bigots, just humans. Indians of course stick out the most since they form the biggest chunks of immigrants. Colonization by England during the 18th and 19th centuries means that a lot of schools use English as a medium of instruction. Languages spoken in Northern India (also Pakistan/Afghanistan) belong to the Indo-Aryan family which use sentence structures and grammar similar to that of European languages, making it easier for people from these regions to pick up the language even if they didn't speak any to begin with. The annual emigration from India to Canada is about 200000 people, which is nearly 0.01% of the population, the equivalent figure for Canada would be 5000 per year. There is no flood of Indians leaving the country en masse to get into Canada, though I of course understand why it would feel that way from a Canadian's perspective.
A lot of Canadians feel that there is a lot of fraud involved in Indian applications for Canadian study or work permits, but they are also the most scrutinized. My application had 125 pages, I just checked, because I had to provide proof for everything. It's difficult to get away with using fake educational credentials, though people do borrow money to show they have more funds to sustain themselves in Canada than they have. People might wonder how bad actors can then get into Canada on study permits, that's because the requirements for getting a diploma are somewhat low.
It is also true that most people go to the diploma mills in Ontario not for an education, but to earn as much as they can working for as long as possible. Students who are serious about getting a decent education tend to go to universities. I know people chafe at the fact that international students come here for the implicit purpose of getting a PR or citizenship. Still, temporary residents do not even understand that this is considered 'wrong' since that is how these schools and the Canadian government market themselves in the developing world. If getting a PR wasn't an option, you wouldn't see any students from South America, the Caribbeans, Africa, Iran or South Asia.
I have a similar reason for coming here. I felt out of place in India, as if the country was going in a different direction and I was in another. I wanted to see more of the world and experience a different way of life. While I feel like I belong in Canada, and identify more with the culture here, it's darkly amusing to realize that now it's the country that feels that I don't belong.
A lot of people also seem to allege that the Liberal government is importing these people to build its voter base. South Asian (Indian, Pakistani, Afghan, Nepali, Bangladeshi) societies are ultra-conservative, and most people have views on immigration that are far to the right of the Canadian Conservatives. Canadian citizens from India, China and Lebanon that I've met all support a stronger curbing of immigration numbers (even from their home countries) and are supporters of Pierre Poilievre. Whether this is a good or a bad thing is something I leave to you to decide. The actual reason for mass immigration seems to be economic and mundane rather than ideologically driven and nefarious. Immigration-driven population growth in 2022 and 2023 helped the Canadian economy stave off a recession by sustaining consumption levels. The Canadian government probably gambled that a housing crisis and inflation were lesser evils for the country compared to a full-blown recession.
There are students and Indian immigrants who are abusing the trust and kindness of the communities they reside in by abusing food banks, cheating in tests or plagiarizing, being unprofessional at work or lacking civic sense in public. But I wonder if Canadians wouldn't have such problems, maybe of a different kind, if as large a group of immigrants arrived from a different country. I have personally not met any Indian student who shared their room with another person let alone several. If I had to guess, it is probably the folks from the Ontario diploma mills who are coming here to work minimum wage jobs in the hopes of a PR (I haven't interacted with any though, it's just a guess). Indians in Canada suffer from inflation and housing the same as anywhere else. It's just that they prefer choosing to stay together in cramped apartments since which they feel is better than the terror of becoming homeless in a foreign land.
There are also things Indians do for white Canadians that they wouldn't do for other Indians. For example, they are more likely to tip if the server or cab driver is white than if they're Indian. Indians also tend to be more courteous to white Canadians than to other Indians. It's from the fear of being judged or having their culture/country be judged by others. I have not cooked any Indian food ever since I came to Halifax after reading that the odour tends to stick to your clothes because of how enclosed Canadian houses are.
It's perfectly reasonable for citizens to demand curbs on immigration, for immigration from each country to be capped, and for requirements for international students to be increased. However, to despise people just because it's been realized that they weren't really needed after all seems a bit excessive. Indians want the same things that Canadians or people anywhere do, the happiness of the people they love. Even if Indians aren't all good, they aren't one big collective, indistinguishable from each other, and bereft of any goodness.

Hi guys! I feel like this question has probably been asked before, but I couldn't find it anywhere, so I figured that I would ask. If I included elvish in a book, translated into english script as opposed to elvish script (forgive me if I'm using those words wrong, I'm not very knowledgeable in linguistics) would that be subject to copyright? I assume that since Tolkien invented the language there would be some copyright over the "alphabet", but would a translation of the words into english text be considered copywritten as well? Thank you for your help! :)

What’s up guys! Gonna share some insights, especially for the younger guys.
Stats: 20y- 6’0 - Handsome/Cute (6-7/10) - Nice Build Mediterranean looking + Mixes (🇻🇪 fam)
Context: Well travelled since youth, not rich but was a family thing to do. By default became a passport bro haha. Difficult kid, intelligent odd ball, not bad with girls but bad with girls lmao. Good but weird upbringing. Chaotic and a bit of a demon, impulsive, low self control. (Much more mature now)
Mexico 🇲🇽 Ok let’s get into it. My first real experience and love was at 19. I was in a bad place for many years prior and didn’t let people in. Anyways so yeah I met a 🇲🇽 girl who I found really cute through mutuals in the capital. I rarely found any Mexicans cute, so she was special in that point of view. We also had many similarities and I loved how feminine she was compared to girls back home. Beautiful country and culture I thoroughly recommend CDMX as a beginner location. I quickly began solo traveling to 🇲🇽 to see my “friend” and it quickly got out of hand and ended abruptly in a moment of my immaturity. I learned many things though: Long distance is not my style- too complicated and heart wrenching- I quickly made a mental note to not take any relationships serious. Also noted to be weary of girls who approach you haha. Here is where I noticed how insane I pulled outside of the country. I live in a city which has the most hyper-competitive sexual market in the United States (world) and I still do surprisingly well (especially at night lol). But nothing compares. Also I’m a Latino by blood so the dating culture just feels better.
Venezuela 🇻🇪 Anyways after the Mexico era I went on a family trip to Venezuela which I basically haven’t been there since my balls dropped. Wow. The natural beauty of Venezuelans is striking. Beautiful girls everywhere. The country itself is a mess. Everything is slow, expensive, and inconvenient. Had some fun there with a local girl but was not able to enjoy as much as I wanted to as I was with family the entire time. I don’t use tinder- all IRL into instagram as a funnel. Maybe I’ll explore more with dating apps as I get many matches especially overseas but the quality seems shitty and it can be a waste of time also a lame way to meet people. Never got to go out or party solo-dolo so that was a bummer. Will be back soon enough though so I’ll update you guys on Venezuela Nightlife experience. All I can say is it’s the second most beautiful place when it comes women I’ve been to. The country itself is by far the most beautiful place I’ve ever been. Terrible government- felt surprisingly safe though.
Europe 🇪🇺 Ok here’s were it gets weird haha. So Europe is definitely a place with more nuance. With that said I went to both western and eastern locations. It’s much easier to have casual sex in Western Europe due to the culture. Many American and European solo traveling girls as well… they are rather promiscuous. Eastern Europe was by far a beauty haven. From Romania to Russia you will find some of the most beautiful women on earth just walking on the street. The culture shock is large though and dating becomes a bit more “serious” which for me doesn’t work. I would recommend Europe as a traveling destination if you think you’re up for it. I did well and met, partied with, and traveled with girls but I felt like it the more east I went it just wasn’t the right vibe for that. Which is a bummer because Western European girls don’t compare to for example Ukrainians and Moldova. The farthest east I went was Turkey and the girl I was with had to sneak out everyday out of fear of being basically ostracized. Turkish people are very nice though. Spain was the most degenerate place I was in, if I wanted to party everyday I pretty much could. Great food, pricing varies widely based on economy, girls get hotter the more you go east but also more tricky. Great location to party hard, techno, etc.
So when it comes to Europe results may vary on many things. Your relative attractiveness, your ability to adapt and be outgoing even in “colder” nations, and how you carry yourself + where you stay. Staying in good locations is key. As an American you either get a buff or a de-buff and “wealth” is the main factor. European girls are very direct. Which I found off putting. Latin culture can be hyper sexual but I find it more classy.
Pro tips 🧠: - Don’t drink too much- you’ll get robbed or worse - Don’t get attached to anyone if you’re solo traveling it’s “solo” for a reason. Explore man. - Have travel cards with 0 international/atm fees - Learn how to say “hi” “nice to meet you” “my name is” “you’re gorgeous” in whatever language it shows you’re somewhat cultured. - If you’re young fuck the clubs! Go to raves, underground events, concerts, festivals. The young person and pretty girl ratio is 100x better. - Party hostels are a great way to meet “fun” people - Be careful with drug use, have been fine but honestly most of it is just unnecessary lmao. - Pub crawls are the easiest way to get laid in Europe lmao. Everyone is there for a reason. Just don’t do it if the ratio is completely busted as it’s not good for meeting local girls and stay away from the girl guides- trust.
Future travels 🌎 Peru 🇵🇪 - Machu Pichu + Lima Brazil 🇧🇷 - 🤤 nuff said Colombia 🇨🇴 - Venezuela lite more dangerous imo Argentina 🇦🇷 - seems fun
Asia as well- China 🇨🇳 would be crazy. Rarely find Asians cute but some are gorgeous.
Please share your thoughts / tips on these locations as I will be there shortly.

AITA for ruining my client's tools?
For context, i was hired by a US based indian client in January. She hired another 2 and had me paused for 2 weeks when she visited India. When She asked me to come back, the 2 newly hired is gone. She is a micromanager and we always have an everyday meetings. We used Whatsapp for meetings on video while they only used 1 cellphone for the meeting. I always complained about the background noise and when they speak away from the cellphone, i could barely understand what they were talking about. She will brush me off like there was a language barrier. I finally asked her to go back to zoom and we did. It was a lot better! I had an american colleague and she was the one who was training me so we chat a lot. I never started a convo with her with personal agenda but she did! She told me that it looked like my indian client is firing her. Although she wanted to leave in the beginning of my tenure, she decided to continue working for the same client for awhile. One day, this indian client talked to me and making herself clear of her goal to remove this american colleague for some reasons i dont understand. I even told her she should keep her and make me leave. As a new hire, i made some mistakes because I wanted to do more in a fast phase. This american colleague is good at training and she has the longest employment (for a year!). That made me think how was she as an employer. Her business was just 5 years old. So go figure. One day, i have decided not to go to work. Me and this client was chatting and I was hoping to go back to work the next day. But this indian client started acting up and she pushed the american colleague to the wall. I wasnt sure if this colleague threw me out of the bus but she spew our personal chats that made me look like I was stabbing the indian client in the back! This client even chatting with me with all those bad comments so i just blocked her. My american colleague even told me what the indian client has told her about how my english is broken which is fine by me because it is true. But coming from her? Duh, I could shake my head left and right (like how the indians do) everytime she speaks. Until, this indian client went to onlinejobs.ph platform and left a negative feedback on me. So, I immediately logged on to the tools that we were using (not sure if she just forgot to remove me - but I can no longer access my work email after the incident). I deleted some important information, and added charges to her customers! I never want to burn bridges but it was no longer my choice. In my 7 years working as a freelancer, never did I do something like this and could not imagine i have done so. My american colleague finally resigned 2 weeks after me. Oh by the way, we were total of 5 including the indian client. I know we are replaceable but thinking how she has no tenured employees make me cringe. I am still working for a company of 4 years and counting.

Hello, it’s actually about B&S2 so sorry if this is not the right place to be asking, but I don’t know where to go
I’ve been having problems with validating my number in game and even if I do insert my own number correctly, it says it’s invalid. Anyone know any way to fix this? Or maybe send an email to them regarding this, or just pointing me to where I should go to ask about this
Funny footnote: my number is working correctly in “global” version of purple but the “Japan” version with the English language game it is not OTL

Good evening y'all (it's 11 pm EST)
I'm currently a college student pursuing an IT degree and I was speaking with my father in law about an idea for a writing skills development program. The basis of the program/website is to teach students from Elementary school to the highschool and collegiate level on how to write essays. He posits that his students he has worked with do not have a good grasp on how to format their essays and papers, which then falls short in their future academic courses and he wants to make a program that will help them step by step.
My general layout right now is that it will be split into different levels of writing. From Levels 1 through 5: Elementary, Middle School, High School, College Prep, and Collegiate level writing skills. Within each level, I'll have writing tips and exercises to help the students learn the proper way to write their essays, with the Five Paragraph Essay as the format they will be learning.
Level 1: Sentence Structure, Formatting, and Composition. This includes things like spelling, capitalization, punctuation, etc.
Level 2: Adding in proper grammar, sentence continuation, paragraph structure, readability and comprehension, editing skills (rereading to make sure it is grammatically correct, has proper punctuation, sounds academically thought out, etc). We'll introduce how to write and connect multiple paragraphs as well as intro, body, and conclusion.
Level 3: Here we'll reinforce sentence structure for Intro, body, and conclusion paragraphs as well as citation and source material research. We'll start on how to properly write a Five paragraph essay with the hourglass/pyramid format (Broad introduction that gets more specific when it gets to the thesis sentence, body paragraphs with point evidence and example sentences, and then specific reintroduction of main points to a broad conclusion of the thesis). [I may have this in the Middle school Level 2 section as this is something I learned in middle school] We will also introduce different types of essays such as Argumentative, Systhesis, Compare and Contrast, Narrative, Persuasive, etc.
Level 4: In this level we will introduce the importance of rough draft, revise and polish, editing and formatting, and college entrance essays and college application questions. This section will mostly be open to Junior (11th) and Senior (12th) grade students who are preparing for their academic life outside of Highschool. We will also be introducing how to write cover letters, resumes, and exploring the other side of life outside of High school.
Level 5: Collegiate level writing will focus on precision writing, using the fewest words necessary to accurately convey an idea. Objectivity, using accurate, clear and relevant information. Logical Structure, using precise word choice and structure. Researching, Formatting, time management, and consistence and conciseness. We will also go back to resume and cover letter writing for those who are looking for a career after a degree. We will be adding a section to help students with term paper writing as well as advancement (Masters and Doctorate level) writing.
I wanted to reach out to former, current, and aspiring English Teachers to ask for feedback on this idea. Is this something that you would use in your class as a teaching tool for your students? What can be done for this to be implemented in your classes if this website/program gets published? What things should be added, removed, improved, or changed in the current idea to make it go alongside the current English course curriculum in your school district? What else should be included to facilitate user interaction with this website?
Please give me as much feedback as you can think of, whether that is directly on this post or in a direct message. My hope and goal is to be able to develop the future generation and to move away from using AI as a writing tool because it takes away the practical skills that is severely lacking in some, if not most, of the students today.

Hello, I'm a student taking a Bachelor's degree in Electrical Engineering and I have a minor subject in professional communication. Our professor is asking us for Professional Writing and Communication (like misunderstandings and such concerning interactions involving writing and communication with colleagues) ISSUES commonly encountered in THE FIELD of Electrical Engineering.
Can you share some insights regarding this topic?
Thank you and appreciate all the help I receive! Sorry if it's confusing, English is not my first language.

What other magic elements are there?
I'm working on making a world for a ttrpg with lots of base elements. I got inspired by a work that said It had 30 base elements. Sadly, It didn't go into details about what they were and I have been trying to do something similar.
I currently have 24 base elements that have their little groups.
Fire, water, earth and wind as the upper side of matter. Electricity, nature(or life), metal and ice as the bottom side of matter. Space, void, nothingness and time as three of the four principles of existence Light and darkness. Holy and cursed. Blood, flesh and bone. Mind, body and soul. Spirit. Sound.
Void Is the absence of energy. Nothingness Is the absence of "matter", more like there are atoms but they aren't forming anything.
Spirit doesn't refer to one self, it's more like Will-o-wisps, familiars, fairies, etc., beings whom you can summon or make contracts with. I made It this way to make summoners special and not just an earth mage making a golem or a nature mage combining vines and controlling them.
Body refers more to connecting one with oneself, gaining enlightenment and "upgrading" the capabilities of their bodies, meanwhile blood, flesh, and bone make unnatural changes to the body and force It to become something It Isn't.
I'm having trouble making a group or pairing for the Spirit and Sound ones.
Please keep in mind that these are base elements, so for example mud Is a combination of water and earth. Now, I know the group of the bottom side of matter can count as sub elements to the upper side, but I consider them different enough to warrant a spot, feel free to share why not though!
If you have ideas of why an element should be added or deleted feel free to share, as I will certainly be glad for It.
My native language isn't English, so I'm sorry If I take a little while to understand.

Hello, I'm new to reddit, but decided to post this on a throwaway anyway just in case my boyfriend finds this post. I am neuro-divergent(diagnosed ADHD and I might have autism. I am seeing a doctor for that for a diagnosis) I feel like it has an effect on how I process this so I felt like I should mention it. I'm not really sure how to put this so I'm going to try and be as clear as I can, please excuse my grammar. English is my second language.
I(Female, almost 30) and my boyfriend(Male, a bit over 30) have been together for 2 years. He is the best, most understanding and most loving person I've ever met. He has shown me support in so many different ways and has helped accept myself as who I am.
The thing I have a problem with, is his ex. They broke up almost a year before he and I even me. She tried to remain in contact and he did his best to not have anything to do with her. It wasn't always possible, because they shared a friend group. I am now friends with his friends as well and I have met her, but I don't really know her. I do know that some people in the friend group don't really like her, because she seems very shallow and self-absorbed. Their relationship was long distance and they broke up because she cheated on him twice. The first time she cheated was with her "ex". She apparently never broke up with him after all and she was was just two timing them and lied to everyone in the friend group. The second time she found someone new closer to where she lives and after ignoring my boyfriend for a while she told him that she has someone else. The only reason he even took her back was because someone close to her had died and he felt obligated to help her. He doesn't have any feelings towards her anymore and I can see that. I am not jealous of them at all and even when she was still part of the friend group, I didn't feel threatened because of her. She did contact him this year apologizing for everything(before she was just denying that she ever cheated on him), saying that she never meant for any of it to happen and blahblahblah. He told her that he does not want anything to do with her. She tried to play the victim but no one really went along with it and she disappeared from the friend group.
My issue is the extremely strong anger I feel towards her. When I heard about it for the first time, I felt this massive ball of strong emotions and I wanted to call her every name in the book. I didn't contact her as I felt it wasn't my place to say anything and it was some time ago. I did draft a message that was never meant to be sent and I showed it to him. I did tell him about my feelings towards her and he did understand, though he said he doesn't really care about her or the situation anymore. I just sometimes feel like I can't let go of the anger and pain I feel. I know he was hurting back then and he had to go through it all alone, since he didn't feel like he could tell our friend group. It just hurts me and makes me want to cry sometimes if I happen to remember it. It even keeps me up at night sometimes(this isn't common though). I just hate her so much for what she did. Like, HOW could she do that to him???? How can I process these emotions?
I've always had a strong reaction to cheating in a relationship. It's a hard thing for me to handle even when it's in a movie or something. I feel like the feeling is even stronger now because of the fact that I care so much about him and I don't even want to think about him hurting. I don't even know how to bring this up with him even though I know I probably should. It just feels like it's too late to say anything about this. He told me about her over a year ago and I feel awkward bringing it up now.
Thank you for reading... Any help/support/anything is welcome. I just felt like I wanted to get this out and not hold it inside me anymore.

English: victim

1. a living being sacrificed to some deity, or in the performance of a religious rite
   
2. a person or thing destroyed or sacrificed in the pursuit of an object, or in gratification of a passion
   
3. a creature immolated, or made an offering of
   

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Translations

• Catalan: víctima
  
• Esperanto: viktimo
  
• French: victime
  
• Galician: vítima
  
• German: das Opfer
  
• Hindi: बलि
  
• Italian: vittima
  
• Japanese: 被害者 / ひがいしゃ
  
• Portuguese: vítima
  
• Romanian: victimă
  
• Spanish: víctima
  
• Swedish: offer
  
• Welsh: dioddefwr
  

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I’m starting a new class this upcoming school year and I was hoping for some advice. It’s been a while since I taught ESL and I’m trying to create a new curriculum for ELL newcomers learning language arts skills (for reference, this is 7th/8th grade). Students are already in a class to gain the majority of their English language skills, but my focus would be on language arts skills while still teaching the English language. What would be the best route to structure this kind of class?

Hello again! I’m not sure if you’ve seen my other posts about a fandom roleplay but this one is gonna be about any roleplay in general, fandoms included. This’ll be pretty detailed and I’ll let you know the parts if you want to skip ahead (I suggest you don’t). If you don’t wanna read all of this, then don’t. This was made for people willing to read blocks of paragraphs and maybe even respond with their own.
INTRODUCTION
My name is Hina. To know more about me, I hail from Japan and I have been an avid writer ever since I moved to the States when I was 11. My second language is English but I believe it’s been pretty good. I recently turned 22 years old and I'm female. Talking about age, I would be comfortable with you being 17+ and preferably at least 20. Roleplaying with minors isn’t a big thing for me, I apologize. I’m in the west coast, PST timezone. Let’s see.. What other information can I give you? I would say I enjoy skating, basketball, watching tv shows and anime, and reading. My favorite anime is Nana and Death Note.
GENRES + FANDOM
I am not looking for a specific roleplay. I would say i’m skilled in all genres. Sci-fi, fantasy, horror, apocalypse. All of that. Even slice of life, though that depends on what type of plot exactly. To be more specific on each genre, starting off with fantasy, I'm more used to high fantasy and mythology. I’m not that great with medieval, unfortunately. DnD based role plays aren’t really fit for me and I struggle playing with species like ogres. Just putting that out here. For fantasy, I don’t have any specific ideas.
Sci-fi is the genre I have more skill in. Most of my roleplays are based off of them! Specifically, I’m fine with all subgenres of that.
For other genres like horror and apocalypse, I do have some taste. I really like monsters and creepy things from the horror genre like vampires and all of that and I even have my own idea set up in older times dealing with vampire lords and hunters and all of that. I also enjoy eldritch type horror. I also like that one sun genre of it, like video game horror? I’m not sure how to describe it. I also forgot if it even has an official name or if it’s just something used to describe the horror genre. I like Resident Evil, so maybe that’ll tell you the type of horror I usually enjoy. I do have a developed idea of something more eldritch horror.
More on fandoms! To get some other things down, I usually only play OC unless the character you want me to play is one I know more about and I'm more comfortable playing. The fandoms I like in the more anime way are Jojo’s, Nana, Death Note, JJK, AOT, Haikyuu, and probably more. I’m well versed in the Jojo’s, Aot, and JJK fandoms but less knowledgeable on Death Note since i’ve only seen it once. Other fandoms i’m in include ATLA, TLOK, Harry Potter, Resident Evil, Marvel, DC, and many more.
CHARACTERS
I tend to use character sheets to describe my character, these usually consist of names, background, and personality. More so on appearances, I prefer using animated or drawn references than real life people. I enjoy good enough references where I get the idea of how the character would look like.
The types of characters I write are either the lone wolf type that has some sad past which leads them to want to join someone for a redemption arc or the bubbly character who is the one that brings the mood up and is usually seen as trustworthy and of that kind.
I like all types of tropes, especially enemies to lovers or rivalry. I also really enjoy opposites attract as a whole from either opposite personality or something else they would be opposites in. Enemies to lovers takes my heart, though. I love seeing the characters go past the urge to ultimately hate each other and/or go past their usual way of disliking the others lineage or upcoming.
REQUIREMENT
I think this is my last paragraph on the roleplay. It’s the most important, at least. Requirements. All roleplay searches come with them. Or at least that’s what I heard! But don’t fret, there isn’t much.
I’ve seen this as one of the most used requirements, and I agree with it. As someone who’s first language wasn’t English, I understand that you may not be great at it. But please, I do require a partner that at least has proper use of grammar and punctuation. You don’t even have to use big words or anything, just at least know where to put your periods and the placement of your words.
My second requirement is for you to be LITERATE! Please. I’m a big writer, I tend to ramble on and tend to write more than what I thought I would. (like i’m doing right now) I write multiple paragraphs from the starter until the scene relaxes. I also understand that sometimes writing big blocks of words every response is tiring or boring so I don’t expect it all the time, at least after the starter has been made and in more important scenes. Dialogue also cuts my replies shorter.
Please please please be polite in OOC! We may just be role playing together but kindness goes all ways. If we do include OOC, I enjoy talking about many things. My day, movies, games, funny moments and stories, all of that!
I think that’s the end to this wonderful journey of an ad about my search. I hope you are still here, fellow writer! I would LOVE it if you reached out to me! This wasn’t all for nothing, right!
But don’t leave yet! I do have a passcode. I know this was a jumble of words and rambling but I still have to put one in. I heard that there’s a lot of people on here that don’t read things fully and miss out on rules or information! But.. Just because you read through this all, I’ll gladly give you options on the passcode! Also please put in an introduction of yourself! Don’t think “Oh maybe I shouldn’t bother this person with too much to read”! I like seeing big blocks.
PASSCODE:
What’s your dream country to travel to and why?
OR
Who’s your favorite TV show / Cartoon / Game / Anime character?
Feel free to pick both! Now, that’s all from me. Please don’t put your request as just “Wanna rp”!

• H 💕