"Er...Pardon--?"

An old semi-retired Dark Souls RP blog.

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ @keith-the-pardoner || Keith the Pardoner

Indie RP/Ask Blog - Soulsborne/Fromsoft OC || Dark Souls Mainverse || 20+ || OC & Multiverse friendly ]

About & Rules

The Muse

Other Blogs

[ Penned by Sessju || Low activity warning! ]

[folkdevilism]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ more DLC? For us little lucky folks??

I'm not gonna get my hopes up for ghost flame stuff, but maybe...?]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ It's not even DLC??? It's a separate game? By a different director??

Ooooh, that's goofy and exciting. ]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ more DLC? For us little lucky folks??

I'm not gonna get my hopes up for ghost flame stuff, but maybe...?]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ I've been thinking about MtG's influence on Fromsoft again while re-reading old design works interviews & I thought I'd dump some cards I'm pretty sure Fromsoft took inspiration from over the years

I always love looking through MtG cards and finding connections, highly recommend it. It's just so fun to dive into the web of inspiration behind Soulsborne titles.]

[fulgurantfirstborn]

"A suitable replacement it seems!"

[estuschan]

Soulstober Day 18: Gold

[hometoursandotherstuff]

[naniyou]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[Oh shit, my blog turned 10 years old this month!

Holy cow I gotta do something about that.]

[the-punforgiven]

Worldbuilding tip for aspiring fantasy authors! Give that swordsman a bigger ass

[the-punforgiven]

That is the exact reason I made this post, hell yeah

[sea-salted-wolverine]

your archers should also look like they are regularly doing 80lb loads on the fly machine because that's what drawing a bow is. they can skip leg day but all those lithe and willowy elf archers should have tits that could crack a walnut.

[flagellant]

this isnt even accurate to all historical archery. 80lbs was a standard for english longbowmen. mongolian cavalry would regularly be double that at 160lbs draw strength. most indian bamboo bows are around 20lbs draw. japanese yumi mostly have double that at 40lbs.

this is all to say, however: their back and shoulders and arms would be fucking BEEFED and also oftentimes kind of extremely fucked up. and thats sexy as fuck.

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ Finally done my courses for the year. Whaooo~

Might be back on here soon with some sketches 'n stuff now that I have free time.]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ soo, not really relevant to this blog really but...

I have a ...kitty!!

She's so sweet and wonderful.

She loves to bonk nose to nose. ;u; ]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ A little hiatus notice:

I might be picking up a cat from the shelter in the next couple days. If I get them, I'll be absent for a while as I get them settled in.

Then after that I'm going back to school in the fall to get a professional degree, yaaay.

Between those two things I'll be busy for the next while. If you don't see me around too much, everything is good I'm just figuring out my schedule (and maybe playing with a new fuzzball?)

I'll still be active on discord though. So if you want a chat that'll be the place :D ]

[prime-tiktoks]

[keith-the-pardoner]

[ Okay, so. Clerical Necromantic Underground. Expanding on what I was talking about a few weeks ago.

Before the middle ages, magic was typically denounced by Christian thinkers. Usually, it was considered to be illusions or delusions fabricated by demons. However, by the high middle ages, the attitude towards magic shifted. Not only was the belief that magic was real increasing but there were ways humans could employ it. Since we live in the time of the neo-pagan revival, it's tempting to attribute the rise in magical practices to late surviving pre-Christian traditions, however, the archaeological record doesn't support this. Instead, it seems that the medieval interest in magic originates (at least in part) from an unexpected source, the lower orders of the clergy - priests, monks, deacons, university students etc.

So, how? Why?

Esoterica recently released a video on this exact subject if you're looking for an in-depth explanation:

How Exorcism Became Medieval Necromancy & Demonic Conjuration - History of Magic

But if you want the short answer, it's the fault of baptism and exorcism. Essentially, lower orders of the church had access to the resources and knowledge necessary to perform rituals and the means to conduct them. They could produce texts about their practices, meaning their knowledge and methods could be recorded then spread with ease. Lastly, they had experience in compelling demonic entities and forces by invoking the power of Christ to drive them from a host. But, if you could compel a demonic entity to leave a host using this power... What else could they compel demons to do? According to these practitioners; anything from finding buried treasure (a huge fad in the middle ages) to summoning demonic or angelic entities to do a cram session with you (see where the university students are gonna come in?) and everything in between. This practice would eventually be labelled necromantica or, as we know it, black magic. Meanwhile, the underground community spreading and practising these rituals would be named the Clerical Necromantic Underground by Richard Kieckhefer.

Now, that’s all well and good, but we've gotta talk about the university students. During the middle ages, university students had clerical status, meaning they were subject to certain protections and, generally, didn't face the same harsh punishments that others might. Students also had access to the same resources as the lower branches of the clergy, including hot new texts being passed around, like the necromantic manuscripts. And what better hands for texts on the ritual summoning of a demon to do your bidding to fall into than that of a university student, right? As you can imagine, the practice of black magic spread like wildfire through the university student population. This is when the necromancer is increasingly noticed by the church and deemed anti-christian. Their propaganda against the movement would form the roots of our modern version of the necromancer as a shadowy sinister figure. And when you have an outbreak of university students in the basement doing who-knows-what to summon demonic forces to gain Complete Knowledge of Geometry instead of just studying their textbooks for exam tomorrow... You can kinda see where they were coming from.

To be fair, necromantic rituals weren't always the most savoury in practice or goal. But, what I find fascinating is, despite being deemed black magic, these rituals are impossible to separate from the Christian worldview. It's not a movement to undermine the church or continuation of pre-christian practices, it's the logical extension of  commonplace Christian ritual practice.

If you gotta learn more, I highly recommend checking out Esoterica. Especially this one covering the basics. It goes over a lot of what I said here in more detail, plus with some recommended readings if I remember correctly:

Necromancy - Exploring Medieval Necromancers by Exploring a Real Book of Black Magic

Dr. Justin Sledge has quite a few other videos talking about magic and necromancy in the middle ages. Most of which you can find in this playlist:

Demonology - Esoterica 

Anyways, that’s enough for one post. Hope you think medieval necromancers are super neat now! :D ]

[hexenjagd-archive-moved]

Hear my tongue, my heaving lungs Expelling notes, open throat Sing your secrets, I'll be your healer

[hexenjagd-archive-moved]

HELENA IS WIFE MATERIAL

Ab-so-lutely. Sure, one may be laying/loving an entire cemetery on legs but one thing is true-- is that she will remain true to you...