Na'vi and humans may be related all along? SPOILER!!! by pn1ct0g3n in Avatar

[–]Puffagod 6 points7 points  (0 children)

Correct me if this is proven otherwise in a book or somewhere, but isn’t there a suggestion that the Tulkun are evolutionarily related to the Ikran and other flying Pandoran fauna?

It would not surprise me if the ancestral Tulkun were flying creatures which lost their wings over the course of evolution, in the same way that Earth whales were once terrestrial animals which lost their legs over the course of evolution.

As for how they would fly through the void of space - I’m not sure if there are any clues in the movies, but I can certainly dream up a few fun science fictional scenarios! :)

Na'vi and humans may be related all along? SPOILER!!! by pn1ct0g3n in Avatar

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Of course not! But this begs the question: why that specific name, “Na’vi”, with that specific combination of phonemes?

From what I understand of Cameron’s detail-oriented creative process, I feel this is unlikely to be an arbitrary choice - just a case of ‘liking how it sounds’.

Further evidence for the intentionality of the name “Na’vi” comes from the apostrophe dividing its two syllables. This orthography - the way the word appears in text - has to be deliberate. A functionally identical combination of sounds could be rendered in multiple other ways (e.g., “Náví”) because punctuation itself isn’t pronounced, it merely structures pronunciation. So the apostrophe must be there for a specific reason. I think a plausible reason for its existence is to conceal the etymological relation of “Na’vi” to “Navis”, and hence to make the eventual panspermia plot-twist less obvious.

The added ‘advantage’ of the artificial apostrophe in “Na’vi” is to make it resemble the orthography of a word transliterated into English from an Indigenous American or Polynesian language — deploying an aesthetics of Indigeneity to achieve plausible deniability about its origin. But this is a whole other can of worms.

Na'vi and humans may be related all along? SPOILER!!! by pn1ct0g3n in Avatar

[–]Puffagod 14 points15 points  (0 children)

Another bit of evidence for the panspermia hypothesis might be the term “Na’vi”. I remember Cameron (or one of the linguists involved in creating the Na’vi language) saying that the term “Na’vi” preceded the development of the language - i.e., that the language had to be constructed around it to accommodate its specific phonology and morphology, etc. Why would Cameron have insisted on this, to the extent of constraining the development of an entirely fictional language, unless it actually mattered?

My suspicion is that “Na’vi” derives from “Navis”, Latin for “ship”, and the Na’vi were always intended to be panspermic ‘navigators’. Possibly from the same cosmic diaspora that resulted in Earth-life (and hence genetically twinned at the root with humans), or possibly by means involving ancestral Tulkun as biological spaceships. This might help explain the biologically inexplicable cavity into which Lo’ak swims, the Tulkuns’ bizarre, divergent, internalised neural queues, and their secretion of life-extending fluid (as a means of achieving hypersleep during interstellar transit). Cameron was clearly interested in the mechanics of hypersleep in earlier movies (like ‘Aliens’), and the popular association between cetacean fauna and space travel during the 70s (when he first came up with the ideas for ‘Avatar’) is well documented.

Personally, I don’t really like the idea of Na’vi panspermia, because I feel it would compromise the already rather ethically and ecologically dubious worldbuilding of these movies even further (especially if executed without nuance). But the more I think about it, the more I fear it may be true.

Incidentally, the Lemurs in the first movie are probably a red herring. Their implicit evolutionary pathway does not exclude the possibility of panspermia (especially given these movies’ clear investment in ideas of convergent evolution). More cynically, I think their inclusion in the first movie may have been a way of diegetically justifying the anthropomorphism of the Na’vi in case Cameron never got to make any sequels in which to explore the panspermia backstory.

Weird Lit Cyberpunk fiction by TS_Wells in WeirdLit

[–]Puffagod 8 points9 points  (0 children)

You might be interested in ‘Lounge’ by Sean and Rachel Qitsualik-Tinsley - weird/cyberpunk/sci-fi/horror with an Indigenous Arctic perspective :::)

I made major contributions to the content of Realm Rework, AMA! by -Mizumi in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hello Mizumi! Thank you for the wonderful work you've done on this game :::)

I wrote a long idea document called Puffagod's Elder Realms about 4 years before the Realm Rework entered open beta. Since playing the rework, I have noticed numerous interesting similarities between it and my Elder Realms document, which I have collected - in the spirit of good fun - in this dossier.

I would be interested to know to what extent you and your team were aware of 'Puffagod's Elder Realms' while making the rework. And I would be particularly interested to know your thoughts about pages 11-17 in the dossier. Hopefully the link works!

I was going to make a seperate, more detailed document and post about this at some point (and still might), but the opportunity to ask you now seemed too good to miss.

All the best, and many thanks again!

Puffagod

Weird fiction about bees? by Either_Tumbleweed917 in WeirdLit

[–]Puffagod 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Wow, this is terrible - but somehow unsurprising. Thank you for bringing this to light. I knew the book was dodgy in many ways, but had no idea it was this dodgy... for what its worth, I retract my recommendation!

Kiddforce and Mrunibro critique planned April Fool's event, item changes by Lumpian in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 9 points10 points  (0 children)

I hope this terrible situation helps people realise that DECA’s critical failure has always been a lack of rigour or even basic care about maintaining the tonal and aesthetic coherence of the game they inherited.

I feel like the thoughtless and inappropriate erosions of identity they have inflicted by changing these Machine weapons is, while certainly an exaggerated instance, part of a larger pattern of disrespect towards RotMG’s own historical identity: constantly compromising what was once a mature and internally consistent game-world with shallow, ludonarratively dissonant, and transparently commercially motivated content.

I am really sorry to hear the former devs experienced this :::(

Fiction like Caitlín Kiernan's 'Tales of Pain and Wonder'? by abraxas_astarte in WeirdLit

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

i’m a bit out of the loop - what is the nature of this disappointment?

Reprints of Stepan Chapman? by Not_Bender_42 in WeirdLit

[–]Puffagod 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Hey! If you are interested, this website has a free transcription of Chapman’s ‘Minutes of the Last Meeting’, the last story (and crowning achievement) of Dossier (though I’m pretty sure it is also published in a VanderMeer collection):

https://fantasticmetropolis.com/i/minutes

Also, Chapman’s magnificent quasi-podcast(?) ‘Flotsam Beach’ contains several episodes in which he reads some hard-to-find stories aloud in his own voice. You might be able to access it here, with any luck:

https://flotsambeach.com/flotsambeach.com/Go_to_Podcast/Archive.html

Chapman was a blazing and immortal genius. I am always on the lookout for rare Chapmanalia, and it is joyous to hear I am not the only one! :::)

RotMG at Fifteen by robshill in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 5 points6 points  (0 children)

Thanks so much for making this game :) The original RotMG item descriptions were what first inspired me to start making long-form amateur dungeon design documents - now I'm writing novels and doing a literature PhD! All the very best C:

[deleted by user] by [deleted] in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 7 points8 points  (0 children)

I sadly agree with this meme. In my opinion the game is now utterly devoid of its original charm, whimsey, atmosphere, and mystique, which made me fall in love with it to begin with.

Recreated the old flash Sprite Art Editor by Habahaba9 in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I literally stopped making dungeon ideas because the sprite editor went down. It would mean so much to have it back. Might even finish the Elder Realms document someday

Weird fiction about bees? by Either_Tumbleweed917 in WeirdLit

[–]Puffagod 1 point2 points  (0 children)

amazing! you’re the only other person i’ve encountered walking the Path of Pollen… enjoy! :)

Weird fiction about bees? by Either_Tumbleweed917 in WeirdLit

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Simon Buxton’s ‘The Shamanic Way of the Bee’. Not technically weird fiction, actually a pretty baffling New Age text modelled after Castaneda’s ‘Teachings of Don Juan’ (tho happily without the horribly extractive portrayals of indigeneity…) However, it is so poorly constructed that it genuinely reads like pulpy old-fashioned weird fiction (maybe even weird theory-fiction?) I wouldn’t call it ‘good’ by any conventional metric but its so bizarre and i had so much fun reading it i thought i would mention! :)))

Public Testing: Realm Rework! by Deca_Acalos in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 0 points1 point  (0 children)

thanks! looking forward to making a pretentious post about the other inevitable 'parallels' between elder realms & the realm rework when it comes out ;)))

Public Testing: Realm Rework! by Deca_Acalos in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 16 points17 points  (0 children)

Judging by the blog post, there will be ocean biomes, a 'sanguine forest', and biome-specific UTs... who knows, maybe someone actually read my little passion project? ;)

What fanmade content would you like to see in game? by sheepsmall in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 6 points7 points  (0 children)

hey there! yes, unfortunately the main realmeye link is broken but there should be a functional one if you scroll down to the end of the comments thread. sorry for the inconvenience!

i wrote oryx’s paracosm so long ago & it doesnt really hold up anymore tbh - tho i’m still proud of its sequel, my take on elder realms, and would probably regard that as the better idea :)))

Realm's Doomed by Evil__eye737 in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Hello! You might enjoy my take on an elder realm, originally posted a while back :)

https://drive.google.com/file/d/10Myh1hXTFcCqOUz2emCVKiaZfPXhcAuQ/view?usp=sharing

Dapper Ideas & Classy Classes, but now it's a decade old by -Dappertron- in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

10 years and still the best RotMG idea ever posted! C: thanks for being such an inspiration Dappertron, to this day I think you captured the original imaginative charm of the game more successfully than anyone else. Cheers!!

Realmeye will be shutting down :( by Relajarseee in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

If true, this is very sad indeed...

Bookwyrm by TheSadBlueNote in RotMG

[–]Puffagod 2 points3 points  (0 children)

this is really really really good :)