#lasats

[juliander]

the child, Ashla: our lady of light

[mymblesbuir]

I understand the common urge to give lasats bigger dicks than humans due to their overall large size, and obviously since they're a completely alien species you can do whatever you like (and a lot of monster/alien-fuckers have size kinks!)

— but I can't help thinking of the fact that, among Earth animals, humans have unusually large penises for our size.

The Earth animals that aspects of lasat physiology are most often compared to, cats and (non-human) great apes, certainly have much, much smaller penises relative to body size.

So, especially as someone who is very very attracted to Zeb and is not into huge cocks, I'm tempted to give him something rather smaller — and perhaps he has the size kink instead and is all AWOOGA at the size of Kallus' human cock...

[piratesandcobras]

Tryna avoid a hyperfixation rn, but I yearn to draw lasats

[rowanhorserider]

You know, this is kind of a little thing, but it annoys me a bit when people are trying to represent Lasats in a more realistic way (like in Jedi: Fallen Order with Jaro) and they make them have more human-like eyes. Going off of Rebels, Lasats look a bit more like they've got big lemur eyes (notably not with visible white sclera!), and also I just think for a number of reasons that it's more interesting if they don't have human-like eyes.

[solrika]

@nicki0kaye brought up that lasats left Lira San about a millennium ago, which I at first took to mean a million years ago... Internet tells me that a millennium is a thousand years, so ten centuries, so... Think back to the 1000s, that's the same time scale.

That would not mean that the Lira Sani lasats would be a new species (humans are not a new species in that same time scale), but they still might have changed somewhat from the Lasani lasats. Think of how modern humans are, as a whole, taller and more ethnically mixed than our 1000s counterparts.

Diet would have drifted significantly, particularly because Lira San has different foodstuffs entirely. Lira Sani food might actually contain less allergens because it's from the biome that lasats evolved for. That said, if we view the lasats like Polynesians, they probably brought staples with them to Lasan and grew them there. So just like modern humans still use wheat, but a different species of wheat than in the 1000s.

There is probably a big cultural drift, too. And a language one. I don't know if Lasani and Lira Sani lasats would be able to easily understand each other. Shakespearan English is difficult for me to understand (written, at least) and it's not a whole millennium old. Editing to mention that I've heard most Polynesians can puzzle out each other's languages despite them being separate because they came from the same root, so... perhaps it would be possible? The archivists might need to get involved.

If you have proof of your deities, that might prevent some religious drifting, but... I'm sure even then there would be a drift in how worship functions. Tbh I do like the idea that the deities exist but not in a way that is proof-able to the entire population. I like deities and societies that allow doubt.

[emperorkenobi]

When Ezra comes back

Zeb: Can't believe I'm saying this, but I really missed ya, kid Ezra: I- *is immediately bombarded by five tiny Lasats* ...hello?? Where did all these children come from- Kallus, walking in with eye bags, a huge cup of caf, and no sanity: I ask myself that everyday

[ahsoka-its-all-of-us]

Random Lasat headcanons for reasons

Lasan has always mostly kept to itself. They never joined the Republic or the Separatists, keeping a more lowkey contact with other systems through trade and occasional tourism. When the Empire took over, the Lasats thought their millenia old neutrality would remain respected. They were wrong.

Despite their neutrality, they weren't isolated. Lasan had an old and tight alliance with the Wookiees of Kashyyyk, and most young Lasats learned Basic next to Lasati and Wookiee in school, to be able to communicate with the rest of the galaxy. Some went on to get interplanetary jobs, travelling the galaxy outside of their own homeworld, though the majority chose to live their lives on Lasan.

Because of this, Lasat technology is quite different from most in the galaxy, despite the occasional import. Droids, though not unheard of, were uncommon, as were spaceships, with speeders and hovercrafts being the preferred method of transport for the average Lasat.

With the Lasat being a warrior species, combat technology was extremely advanced, with the bo-rifle being the culture's point of pride. An honour-bound culture, combat was still seen as something between people, not technology, and therefore all of it is meant to enhance a warrior's performance, not replace it. Tanks, fighters and the like did not exist on Lasan; instead they relied on heavy shields to force the opposition to take the fight up close into a direct confrontation; long distance weapons covering a bigger range than a rifle were seen as a war crime.

This is why the Empire was forced to send armies down there instead of bombing the planet from orbit, which they could only do after having disabled the shield generators from within. By doing so, they committed a war crime in the eyes of the Lasat even before the actual genocide.

Gender works differently for Lasat than it does for humans and many other species. All Lasat are born agender; as they start maturing, secondary sex characteristics appear corresponding to the gender they choose to exhibit the most characteristics of: male, female, a blend of both, or neither. These characteristics are purely cosmetic, like growing out hair in a human: any Lasat gender expression is equally capable of siring, bearing and weening children. As such, gender expressions and their associated secondary sex characteristics are flexible and capable of changing if a Lasat chooses to express their gender differently. Pronouns are similarly in flux; Lasats who work with other species tend to pick one so as not to confuse others, but most Lasats will respond to any pronoun.

Therefore, there are no traditional gender roles on Lasan. The head of the royal family is referred to as the Crown of Lasan instead of a gendered term like king or queen, no matter what their gender expression is. Their children aren't princes or princesses, but simply the Children of the Crown.

Lasats tend to mate for life. Dating around is not uncommon, but in general the end goal is to find someone to settle down with. This mostly happens in pairs, although throuples are common enough to not be seen as outside of the norm.

[mydogatemymotivation]

So much for not posting a wall of text… long post. Sorry.

These are some of my thoughts on a Lasat religion. Musings. Ramblings, if you will. This is fun for me. This is how I have fun. But it might read a little bit like homework so. sorry about that. I'll at least be posting one more part to this. Maybe two. But for now here's whatever this is

So first of all, I don't think there's one universal religion that all Lasat follow. There are, like, six different types of Christianity with double digit subcategories from there. Protestants break down further into Reformed, Anglican, Baptist, and every one of those breaks down further too. And that's only one religion of thousands here on one planet. If we're talking about two densely populated planets there could be any number of interpretations of religion, so trying to narrow down one core belief system is inherently flawed. Though there does seem to be one general belief in the Ashla, I would argue it's maybe in the same way many different human religions all seem to have some sort of king-god; Zeus, Jupiter, Amun, Baal, Indra, Odin, etc. There may even be groups of people who don't believe in the Ashla at all but rather have an entirely separately developed belief system.

Ashla/Bendu/Bogan

Trinities are really, really common in religions across the world. They represent a three-fold nature of religion, though the specific meanings of each trinity can change religion to religion. But most trinities are seen as a unifier of dualities. The trinity is separate from each other but form a whole. All is one, one is all (if I rewatch FMA soon mind your business). Some examples: [Greek] Zeus (sky), Poseidon (Earth), Hades (underworld); the three fates; the three gorgons (Stheno, Euryale, and Medusa); Cerberus; Hekate; [Christianity] The Father, The Son, The Holy Spirit; [Tao Te Ching and Buddhism] Buddha, Dharma (law or action), Sangha (community); [Jainism] Samyag-Darsana (correct insight), Samyag-Jnana (correct knowledge), Samyag-Charitra (correct conduct); [Hinduism] Brahma (Creator), Vishnu (Sustainer), and Krishna (Destroyer); [Zurvanism (a branch of Zoroastrianism)] Zurvan, Ahura Mazda, and Ahriman (I'm going to get more into this later). These are just examples of how present trinities are in religion (even if they’re not all capital-T Trinities). Trinities represent balance and the process of knowing the divine. The trinity is a human construct to help explain divinity, it's not inherently divine. With this interpretation the Ashla/Bendu/Bogan is the trinity of Lasat religion.

As a trinity, each of the three points has to represent something, and one is usually going to be physical somehow. Poseidon representing the Earth and Sea; Vishnu being the Sustainer; Samyag-Charitra, correct conduct, as in how you treat living people now; the Body of Mind, Body, and Soul; the Present of Past, Present, Future, and so on. This isn't a hard and fast rule, just something that I've noticed. In this case, The Bendu would best represent the Body. He's the only physical manifestation of this religion that we actually see, the other two are faith based. He also lives in a desert. I've always envisioned the desert as the bones of the Earth, almost. Like a peak behind the curtain. The trees and grass and forests are all still part of nature but they hide the Earth itself. But in a desert you can see the actual body of the Earth. Of the Warrior, the Fool, and the Child, the Bendu best represents the Child. Both the warrior and the fool were children once, making it the unifying/balancing factor of the trinity. They're also quite childish, throwing a full-on tantrum when asked to help - which isn't an unreasonable thing for a human to ask a god, btw. I'm torn about who's the Fool and who's the Warrior. If the Bogan is the Warrior it's because they're bold and bloodthirsty. If the Bogan in the Fool it's because they're selfish and simple, unable to see potential. If the Ashla is the Warrior is because they're honorable and protective, but if the Ashla is the Fool it's because they're also simple, blindly optimistic, unable to see danger.

I feel like this alone could be a religious schism, actually. (And in fact it kind of is. This is often the logic Satanists use about Christianity. The roles flip the Christian God goes from protector to jailer and Satan goes from opponent to liberator). I do believe they're some kind of family though, whatever their roles may be. Not being able to tell who is the fool and who is the warrior lines up with what Chava said. That everybody may be all three throughout their life. It also makes sense for a trinity, where all is one, one is all. (Also if the Ashla is the Warrior, then the Honor Guard could be seen as a direct manifestation of her will. So maybe someone like Chava, a spiritual leader, was the true leader of the Honor Guard and the Captain was chosen by her to oversee her orders, kind of like the Oracle in Ancient Greece.)

Then there's dualism. Which is two opposing forces feeding off of each other. This does exist, but, to my knowledge, I don't think it's nearly as present as trinities. There are some old heretical sects of Christianity that subscribe to a dualist ideology like the Bogomils. The Egyptian pantheon, despite being polytheistic, have an implied duality between Osiris and Seth. And Orthodox Zoroastrianism, with the balance between the Ahura Mazda and the Angra Mainyu. With this interpretation, the Ashla and the Bogan are opposing dualistic forces. This leaves the Bendu out, but 1) I actually don't know if the Bendu is a part of the Lasat religious system at all or if we just assume that it is (I assume it is, I like that, but I don't know if it was ever stated in the show. Or maybe it was and I just don't remember). And 2) It's also possible that the Bendu is still a mythological figure just not necessarily a deified figure, or a lower-level figure (like how the Virgin Mary is a mythological figure in Christianity but isn't a 'god' in the same way God, Jesus, or the Devil are).

For the focus on dualism, I want to focus on the Ashla and the Bogan. I like the connection of a dualistic reading to the jedi because they have a very dualistic view of the universe. Light side vs Dark side. This also kind of ties into what Kanan said about the force having many different names. Full disclosure: I hate that line and that line of thought. I think it's part of the reason why some people joke about the Jedi feeling very Christian. Like, no, your beliefs are not the secret true beliefs of all religions. Very icky line. For me, at least. Very dismissive of Zeb's entire belief system. And in front of a whole ass spiritual leader, too. But similar themes across religions are to be expected, which is what I think they were trying to get at, even if they missed a little. The interconnection with the rest of the galaxy and the mirroring of the way the jedi view the force is something I like about looking at a dualistic view of Lasat religion but, the problem is the Bendu. But maybe there are heretical denominations that deliberately leave him out. (Heresy is generally a Christian term but it means that someone is teaching religion in a way that is different to the official position of the church.) (Blasphemy is speaking sacrilegiously and showing a lack of respect for God, and Apostasy is renouncing God altogether. These words get mixed up a lot and it’s a pet peeve of mine. Anyway.)

Lastly there's Monotheism. I feel like I don't really need to go into detail for this one. Christianity, Judaism, Islam are the most famous monotheistic religions. And Zoroastrianism pops up again here with Gathic Monotheism which is one of the oldest monotheistic religions in the world, older than Judaism (and subsequently Christianity and Islam), and many historians argue that all three religions took at least some inspiration from Zoroastrianism. This would place the Ashla as the singular divine and the Bogan more like the Devil. Subservient and powerful, but not all powerful. The Bendu in this case could be something more like an Angel. Or the Bendu is the Satanic figure of a monotheistic view because he’s the one that actually lives in a physical body – as in fell from grace. This is an interesting look at the three of them and the Bendu and Bogan can both still exist; this just makes the Ashla the most powerful of the three. But I also don't feel particularly strongly about it.

I have nothing against it necessarily, but, and maybe this is a me issue, I feel like monotheism is really unbalanced in general. It’s all about looking up toward the godhead of the religion without a lot of connection to the real world you live in with real people and that bothers me. You have to make a conscious decision to connect to the world around you rather than having a built-in reverence for the world as it is. However, if Lasan specifically has a legend about leaving their world and going home to the rest of their people, looking up toward a singular god rather than forging a strong spiritual connection to the planet they’re on makes some sense. I think it would be really interesting if Lira San had been seen, by some, as more of a Heaven, rather than an actual, physical place, which would be why Zeb was so irritated with Chava at first. Monotheism also lends itself to monarchy well. Yes, other religions have monarchies attached to them but something about a singular god and a singular monarch, and the divine right of kings just sits well together narratively. I think so, at least. So maybe there are monotheistic views that are exclusive to Lasan.

Ok. I’m going to leave that there for now. I didn’t even get to Zoroastrianism yet which is what I wanted to talk about, but I’m writing that now (posted here!). Sorry for the wait. Hope it wasn’t anticlimactic. I just. In order to build a religion, you have to understand the building blocks of religion and what kind of society will mesh with what kind of religion you want your characters to have.