#jaymictheunyielding

[akhonography]

Alright, so with Titus Lunter's Cinder Barrens showing us the Scarab God's pre-Bolas Seth-animal head, I believe the Scorpion and Locust gods must have had ram and hawk heads, respectively. The Locust God would have needed a flight-capable body, and Scorpion's stature and head-smashing through the Gate recall minotaurs. The Scarab God was the only one that had me stumped, but now we have official unofficial confirmation. : )

I don’t know how to feel about it, to be honest! I wanted my precious Seth-god alive and kicking (Bolas’ ass), not all scarab-y and - well, dead. :’)

Personally I would’ve pinned the Scarab god as the originally hawk-headed one, considering the solar imagery both have in Egyptian mythological traditions. Just goes to show that a knowledge of Egypt doesn’t always equal correct vorthosian predictions, heh. 

Anyway, hey, at least there was some Seth-like divinity going on on Amonkhet. Now I do wonder if there originally was a race of fantasy animal-headed creatures populating the plane, as per the theory that each god corresponded to a race on Amonkhet. And, if this was the case, I’d be disappointed because I’d have so much preferred a race of fantasy animal-headed beings over, say, minotaurs.

[markrosewater]

Maro, you announced Spider Pirate Lava world years ago, but we still haven't gotten a release date. Could you at least let us know when spoiler season starts?

It's the secret 2017 summer block.

[akhonography]

So what are your opinions on the three new gods? The locust seems out of place, but at least we get a Serqet and a Khepri, even if they are in odd colors.

I’m pretty sure the locust is a reference to the Biblical plagues of Egypt, which, to be fair, is very much adhering to the “public perception of ancient Egypt” shtick. (I don’t know if this was confirmed or denied by anyone yet - I’ve been out of the loop because I’m frightfully busy with my internship.) Despite, or possibly because of that, I’m not a big fan of the locust god.

I do like the Serqet and Khepri idea; but I’m iffy about using protective and solar symbolism respectively for gods who are destructive forces. I am not, however, entirely sure the scorpion god is indeed based off Serqet - would it not make more sense for it to be a reference to actual scorpions, which were a pest and a source of danger in ancient Egypt?

The latter idea applies to the locust god as well, which only leaves us with the scarab god. The scarab is one of the quintessential symbols evoking Egypt and it wasn’t exactly a dangerous creature/insect, so either above logic doesn’t apply to all three of these new gods or I’m wrong in my assumption about destructiveness being the driving force behind the design of these gods.

[akhonography]

If the Scarab God is the one bringing back the Eternals, maybe he used to be the Osiris equivalent?

If he was, I’d be conflicted about that because while scarabs were a symbol of the cyclical nature of the world and the continuous rebirth of the sun, the scarab-headed god Khepri was not, to my knowledge, ever syncretised with Osiris.

[akhonography]

Oh, that would make a lot of sense actually. If there used to be a god for each race and a race for each god. We have Hazoret - Jackals, Rhonas - Naga, and Kefnet - Aven, which would mean Bolas wiped out a race of catfolk, crocodile-head-folk, and something else, and killed a human-head god, a ram-head god, and something else. I really hope we get a prequel set someday to show Bolas invading in the first place.

It doesn’t wash completely, though, because there’s specific mention in (I can’t remember which) Magic Story of a relief that depicts eight animal-headed gods.

So the human-headed god seems to be out, unless, like actual Egyptian religion, that god had multiple forms (which I doubt, considering Magic’s necessarily linear worldbuilding). A ram-headed god I consider a definite possibility, if not a given. Perhaps there was a falcon-headed god to cover the falcon-like Aven on Amonkhet - and considering the amount of birds in the Amonkhet art I wouldn’t even consider it odd for them to have two bird-headed gods. 

The third - I would still really like to see it as human, just for the symmetry with the races on Amonkhet, but again, that damned relief is quite clear evidence of the contrary. 

[akhonography]

I was the kid who built my own senet game out of clay and cardboard when I was like eight... seeing it mentioned in the story brings back memories.

Aaaw that’s awesome <3 When I was in elementary school they’d often “lose” me. Inevitably I’d be found in the Egyptian section of the library, trying to teach myself hieroglyphs. Of course I didn’t get a lot further than the single consonant alphabet, because an elementary school library doesn’t exactly carry Gardiner. :’)

[markrosewater]

Elspeth and Liliana watching TV is my favorite TftP miniseries, just to let you know. : )

I did it as a single comic and I (and the audience) liked it so much it's become a running thing.

[markrosewater]

Today is my stop on the birthday hype train! Since it's probably a bit early for trivia on the Amonkhet gods, can I ask for trivia on the Theran gods instead?

The fact that the block was going to have fifteen Gods, five monocolor and ten two-color (spread evenly over the three sets) was figured out in very early design.

Happy Birthday!