I'm Ket! I enjoy Inheritance Cycle and write a series called Modern Inheritance over on my side blog modern-inheritance.tumblr.com. Feel free to say hi, I love to chat! 26/F/Aro-Ace as Fuck.
IF YOU HAVE ANY ASKS, PLEASE DIRECT THEM TO THE NEW SIDEBLOG, @modern-inheritance !!! ALL NEW STORIES ARE POSTED THERE NOW!!!
NOTE: THESE LINKS APPARENTLY DO NOT WORK ON THE APP. THE SHIT??
Modern Inheritance is my ongoing AU of Christopher Paolini’s Inheritance Cycle. Many of lore posts explain how MIC is different from IC, but please note that MIC deals frequently with PTSD and also significantly changes the characterization of many of the mains, so it is not something that everyone would likely enjoy. I do my best to put warnings on any posts and stories that might be triggering, so please be aware of those. Also, please note that I write these stories for fun, not to cause problems in the fandom or argue about characters and characterizations. :) Please feel free to ask me questions or suggest prompts if you have a problem or question about things in MIC, as I’m always looking for things to distract me from my actual studies.
NOTE: This masterpost does NOT currently include any of the MIC chats, reblogs, etc. It is mostly for stories, lore and art. I’ll be adding the other stuff later as there is a LOT of other small stuff.
What exactly IS Modern Inheritance/MIC?
*******Story Masterlist*******
Modern Inheritance Stories, Shorts and Snippets Tag
Anything written as a story or word vomit that could later become a story is posted under the above tag!
Modern Inheritance Lore Tag
Anything to do with MIC lore and worldbuilding is posted under the above tag!
Important Lore Posts:
How Modern is everything in MIC?
How closely does MIC follow the plot of the original Inheritance Cycle?
Modern Inheritance Art
Most posts that have to do with my art for Modern Inheritance should be under the above tag, but I may have missed some. Others may be under the MI art tag. I was posting stuff for drawings and the like well before I had established most of Modern Inheritance as something I was writing multiple stories and worldbuilding for, so it’s a bit of a cluster.
Modern Inheritance General Tag
This is the tag that’s linked above on my home page. Anything and everything I consider MIC related will be tagged as such. It’s a lot.
Modern Inheritance on Other Platforms
Some people are more comfortable commenting on fanfiction.net or deviantart. A lot of my MIC stuff is on DA (even pieces never posted to tumblr as they felt too dark? and I didn’t want to push that on anyone without a mature content filter), as it’s where I first started posting, and I do have a collection of many of the larger written pieces on ff.net. Please feel free to comment there if that’s more comfortable! I also have other Inheritance Cycle things like coloring pages on my dA account as well!
"Vanderhorst had been under the influence of MDMA and three litres of vodka she had consumed on the night of the offence last September, her lawyer Michael Hill told the court."
A rusty writer tries a new fandom (Frontiers of Pandora)
....Iunno, I wrote a bit. I do not expect feedback or thoughts but they would be very appreciated. It's been months since I wrote anything I felt really good about posting, and similarly months since I actually like...sat down and wrote things at all. This time I am trying to figure out new characters, setting, and even a new species. So I can't tell if it still feels 'off' because I'm just rusty, or the whole mix of new stuff, or if I'm tripping up/messing up in places and just can't see it or put my finger on it properly. So again, while it is not expected, feedback and critique and questions would be mighty appreciated to help feed the process.
Please note that Le'sohek is not always this bouncy/chaos gremlin. Her adrenaline shot off and she is so, so excited to be out in the world her sister told her about but could never even dream of seeing without being shackled to the RDA's ulterior motives. But she is very affectionate with her clanmates, almost aggressively so, though despite this she is very sure to follow their boundaries when set.
Anyway. enough tell. Attempted show here. Please don't judge too much on the cliche of the first section, I was speed writing at work.
“Ma Sohek.” Le’sohek huffed, nuzzling deeper into the sheets. They felt rough against her cheek, like she had been drooling heavily again. Oh, or maybe the dream was from another concussion. That could explain the stiffness in the fabric, dried blood from another unfortunate round with Harding. “Ma Sohek, tìtxen si.” Mm, maybe she was biting her lip again, that would explain the texture and Ri’nela waking her up early….
Ri’nela was shaking her shoulder now. Le’sohek growled open-mouthed at the contact and yanked the sheet over her head, shooing the elder Na’vi away in the same motion. “Augggh! Hum, ma ‘Nela! I was dreaming!” She hissed in displeasure when the sheet was pulled away, blindly pawing after it. Keeping her eyes closed was a matter of pettiness at this point, but if she could just go back to sleep for a few moments maybe the dream would come again. “Lee’me alone!”
“Sohek–”
“We were on Pandora and outside! And I had a bow and a songcord and blew up an AMP suit!” Abandoning the war for the sheet, Le’sohek grabbed her tail tuft and rolled onto her other side, putting her back to Ri’nela’s protests. “The klaxon isn’t going off yet, let me–”
Her stomach lurched. Le’sohek snapped her eyes open with a yelp just in time to register damp rock rushing to meet her face. She hit with a solid whumph of air exiting tensed lungs, sputtering human curses with the last threads of breath left to her.
Laughter drifted from her left. “You were in a snonivi, skxawng!”
Le’sohek grit her teeth. “Nor, if I get up and do not see Eyweveng in all her glory,” She shoved her limbs under her sprawled body, still clutching tight to the end of her tail. It wouldn’t do to smack it on something if it were all a dream. “Then I am kicking your blue ass, vonvä’.”
~
(After Le’sohek sees they are indeed outside and takes in the nature that stretched out from the entrance of their little dwelling under Resistance HQ, she bounces to her feet and takes Ri’nela by the arms, crowing about how they are outside.)
Ri’nela entwined her forearms with her clan sister with a laugh as bright as the morning sun and followed her movement, dancing with her in the steps they had made up as children as their arms swayed.
At last Le’sohek threw her arms around Ri’nela with breathless giggles. “Ma olo’tsmuke, we are outside!”
Ri’nela pulled back and seized Le’sohek’s cheeks, shaking her gently. “We are!” She laughed aloud again and touched her forehead to her clan sister’s. “We made it. At last!”
“You will wake the whole forest with your noise.” Le’sohek whirled to where Nor was kneeling before an array of clay pots, fingers coated in a dark green pigment. His face scrunched up as he turned to the shard of mirror dangling from the wooden rack the paint pots rested upon, rubbing the paint onto his neck. “And get those Sky People rags off. You looked better yesterday with the scraps Raj cobbled together than in...that.”
Despite the crick halfway down its length, the tufted end of Le’sohek’s tail began to dance. Ri’nela covered her mouth, stifling knowing giggles, as the younger Na’vi slipped easily into a crouch, body coiled.
“Ma Noooorr...” The purr to Le’sohek’s voice had the aforementioned young man rolling his eyes. “You must celebrate too, big brother.”
“I am celebrating, skxawng, I just don’t need to–”
Le’sohek pounced with another wild whoop, arms outstretched. Nor caught the movement out of the corner of his eye and managed to set the paint pot down just before his clan sister slung into him with a clipped laugh. He cursed as she nuzzled into his neck, purring obnoxiously loud as she attacked his sides mercilessly.
“You are messing up my war paint!” Was all he managed to howl between
“Noooo, I am borrowing your war paint!” Le’sohek rolled off at Nor giving a particularly firm push to her shoulder, clear warning that the moment was over. She bared her teeth at him playfully, eyes squinted in unfiltered joy. Green paint was smeared across her face, a familiar Na’vi handprint across her shoulder. “And we are not at war, skxawng! We are free! We are...ah, dammit what’s the word...”
Ri’nela leaned forward, offering, “Kawkxan?”
“No, that...doesn’t sound right....”
“Layro.” Nor grumbled. He was already back to the changing station, surveying the damage done by Le’sohek’s impromptu cuddling.
Le’sohek pointed at him excitedly. “That! Layro.” She rolled the world around in her mouth a few times before giving a firm nod and another wild smile. “Layro. We are layro!”
“What is the difference?” Ri’nela crossed her arms, addressing her elder clan brother as Le’sohek padded a few turns on all fours, murmuring to herself that it felt far better moving when she was layro. “Both mean free, don’t they?”
Nor put back the green once again and retrieved a pot of stark white. “Kawkxan is for something more physical, like if you unblocked a door it would be kawkxan.” He rose up on his knees to put his upper chest in frame of the still slightly swaying mirror shard. His scrunched face seemed more a result of using the object rather than focus. “Layro means free from oppression. Like TAP.”
The sharp spit to the word made Le’sohek pause in her reacquainting of her hands to the earth.
“Where is Teylan?” Her ears flickered back, eyes darting about the cave in search of their baby brother. She remembered he was there last night, but...his hammock was empty.
Ri’nela nodded towards the bare metal rafters further along the little cave that made up their hideaway. Now in the full light of day Le’sohek realized it was not a full-sized cave in truth, but a tiny grotto extended by the undersides of metal foundation prefabs from the modules above. “He is inside. Already working on some of the broken tech the Resistance members have been talking about.”
~
(Le’sohek puts on the Na’vi style Resistance clothes and goes to find Teylan and tell him about how wonderful everything is outside and that she will find them something to eat that is better than RDA rations.)
Nor was shaking his head when Ri’nela turned her attention back to the cave.
“There she goes again. Acting like a hyper child.” His voice carried an edge of displeasure.
“I think it is something we all should do more now that we are free.” Ri’nela retorted, though her tone remained gentle. “We did not get to sing and dance when we were little, so why not now?”
“We need to learn the proper way.”
“And we will, ma Nor.” Ri'nela pushed off of the cave wall and came beside her clan brother. She watched him paint stark white crescents across one pectoral before giving one of his dreads an affectionate tug. "But until we do...I think I will take my chances to play in the rain and sing silly songs. Like Aha'ri used to sing."
Artist Sunday: meet Mortimer Moudry (@webvein), creature designer with a focus on reptiles and a serious eye for paleoart.
His new Pride Collection brings dinosaurs and pterosaurs into the fold. Tupandactylus in progressive flag colors, Non-binary Dilophosaurus, Trans Spinosaurus, Asexual Velociraptor, Bi Amargasaurus, Lesbian Ouranosaurus. Six designs, six flags, one talented illustrator.
Follow Mortimer at @webvein. Collection on 252mya.com.
#paleoart #pride #pride month #lgbtqia #queer artist #queer paleontology #paleo art #paleoartist #dinosaurs #pterosaurs #sci art #science illustration #natural history #mortimer moudry #webvein #252mya
Doedicurus: the glyptodont that came equipped with serious defensive hardware and an attitude to match. This paleoart by Emily Higgs is now on merch over at 252mya.com/doedicurus. If you’re into Ice Age megafauna with actual personality, this one’s for you.
Porcupine-Fish Helmet from Kiribati, c.1800-1880 CE: this helmet was crafted from the carcass of a porcupine-fish
This helmet was made using the skin of a porcupine-fish that was killed and then carefully dried. The front edge is lined with vegetable fiber and human hair, and it's equipped with coconut-fiber ties that were used to fasten the helmet onto the wearer's head.
Above: another porcupine-fish helmet from Kiribati
Helmets with this design are also known as te barantauti, and they were created as part of a traditional costume that was worn by the warriors of Kiribati (an island nation located in the South Pacific). Most of the surviving examples date back to the mid-1800s.
Above: a porcupine-fish helmet displayed with a high-backed cuirass, wrist-guard, and spear, c.1800s CE
Te barantauti were typically worn with body armor that was crafted from coconut-fiber and stingray skin, along with braided wrist-guards covered in shark's teeth, high-backed cuirasses, and wooden swords, spears, and daggers studded with stingray spines and shark's teeth.
Above: wrist-guards and cuirasses from Kiribati, c.1800-1880 CE
In some cases, the warrior's helmet was crafted from coconut-fiber instead. The same material was also used to construct sleeves, belts, and "overalls" that effectively covered the rest of the body.
Above: a coconut-fiber helmet with a full set of armor
The porcupine-fish helmets provided very little protection -- they were primarily created and used as a way to intimidate enemies during ritual combat.
As this article explains:
The men of Kiribati were famed for their fierceness, and when it came time for battle, they dressed the part, in head-to-toe armor made from coconut fiber and stingray skin. Their weapons were wooden swords lined with sharks’ teeth.
The crown jewel of Kiribati armor, though, was a spiky helmet made from the porcupinefish. A member of the blowfish family, a porcupinefish looks like an adorable big-eyed cartoon character—until it’s threatened. Then, it sucks water into a cavity between its body and skin and inflates to several times its normal size, stiffening the spines that usually lie flat.
Porcupinefish helmets, known as te barantauti, were made by capturing one of these agitated, puffed-up porcupinefish, killing it, peeling the skin away from the body, and drying it. The spiny skin that remained was reinforced with coconut-fiber padding and fashioned into a brittle helmet.
Though the helmets offered little in the way of actual protection, they instantly made their wearers appear bigger, taller, and more formidable.
For Kiribati warriors, this intimidation was more important than protection from death. That’s because in traditional Kiribati culture, a person who took someone’s life—even in a fair fight—paid with their most prized resource: their land. So instead of going for the kill, warriors sought to wound and humiliate their enemy. Fish-skin and coconut-fiber offered just the right amount of protection.
Above: a shark-tooth spear from Kiribati, c.1800s CE
Unfortunately, most of the surviving helmets, weapons, and pieces of armor are now housed in Western museums:
Over the years, dozens of these helmets made their way into museums across the globe, while few remain in Kiribati. The Smithsonian actually has three, the British Museum five, and Sweden’s Världskulturmuseerna “at least eight,” according to their digitization curator Magnus Johansson. One te barantauti even wound up at the Fairbanks Museum and Planetarium, in the tiny town of St. Johnsbury, Vermont.
Over the last four decades, since Kiribati gained its independence from the United Kingdom in 1979, the armor has taken on a new meaning—as a potent symbol of local culture. It features on tourist trinkets, but also stamps and school mascots. “The armor is not just a garment to me,” says Rareti Ataniberu, an I-Kiribati craftswoman. “It is a piece of art, a craft.”
Above: an armored warrior from Kiribati, mid-1800s
Sources & More Info:
Haika Magazine: Kiribati’s Porcupine-Fish Helmets were More about Drama than Defense
Atlas Obscura: The Mystery of the Puffer-Fish Helmets of Kiribati
Pacific Presences: Fighting Fibres: Kiribati Armour and Museum Collections
Time Magazine: Why Indigenous Artifacts Should be Returned to Indigenous Communities
The Museum of New Zealand: Te tauti from Kiribati
The Museum of New Zealand: Rere (Knife or Short Sword) from Kiribati
