On Twitter As Of Recent, Vtubers (the Smaller Ones) Seem To Be In A Panic As Certain People Follow Them.

Black cats are lucky. (via leahweissmuller)

Glad to finally know that this guy actually exists and isn’t just some random made up demon to be filler hoping nobody notices.

Don’t know if this is a stupid question, but with the Raidou remaster shown and older demons given new life, I’d like to ask, what is an Enku?

I know it’s a Preta, but I can’t find sources on Enku specifically, and I thought one of the guys that found the myths of obscure demons would find him.

Questions about demons are never stupid!

It is really difficult to find specific info on the Enku. This is about the best I could find in a reasonable timeframe that's also not just repeating SMT compendium info:

Kyoto National Museum

Kyoto National Museum

Welcome to the official website of the Kyoto National Museum. In addition to information about exhibitions, events, and access, the website

The sixth section tells how Ananda (J: Anan), another of Shakyamuni’s ten great disciples, heard about the suffering of a hungry ghost who continuously belched flame (engu gaki) and taught the ghost an incantation from Shakyamuni to achieve salvation. The seventh section recounts how Ananda passed on this method of salvation to the monks, who then began the ceremony of offering food and drink to the spirits of the dead (segaki).

The Enku's definition as a type of Preta that belches flame and exists in the Preta realm really seems to be about it. Essentially, it's a being that exists as a kind of punishment should you be wicked and end up reincarnating in the Preta realm. The idea/formula behind the enku gaki is, in sum:

you hear about the enku gaki

then get frightened of reincarnating as one

thus you become more devoted to following Buddhist teachings

That's how they get ya!

Enter Der Hungergeister:

religion-in-japan.univie.ac.at

Hungergeister – Religion-in-Japan

Monster Hunter Wilds Spoilers below and in tags. You were warned.

Post made around March 2.

With the release of the game and it being out for a bit now, it shows that they were not very willing to hide a few more monsters from us in the trailers, though the few things that wasn’t shown makes a interesting case on fictional biology, with one monster in particular showing how secretly frightening adaption works in the Forbidden Lands.

The one I referred to aren’t the Wylk beasts or the final boss, but Nu Udra's smaller friend who hides much more underneath .

The guy's name is Xu Wu and there is a lot to go off here.

An eyeless octopus with what look to be teeth on its head, something resembling a ponytail behind the “teeth”, markings on it's “face” that either looks like a beard or teeth, tentacles that leak a yellowish fluid that hardens into blade-like crystals, and a mouth less like an octopus beak and more like a very toothy starfish.

It feels less like a monster and more like either a walking fungus, an alien, or something eldritch, something that I adore. I always loved the monsters at actually look like the word monsters and not just big animals like Gigi, Xeno, and Goss.

Even it’s name tells a tale, as while in English it does mean much especially as two words, put it together and you get a Chinese word 虚无 Xūwú (pronounced Shee Wu), which translates to nothingness, emptiness, or just void.

With how the monster is small, speedy, favors ambush and hit & run tactics, it seemingly considering most creatures, even humans in two cases(you & a villager) as prey, how it has a false face and a maw of teeth, and how the armor with a Middle East motif and weapons named after famous assassins, you have a monster that, when It’s in the area you pray it doesn’t “see” you before you do lest you vanish.

But the most weird thing is it’s diet and how it adapted to it’s prey.

For one thing, it’s s prey isn’t even natural, or shouldn’t even exist, though some people suggest that they are attracted to strong bioenergy carrying monsters.

The guardians are artificial monsters born of the living mass knows as the dragontorch, basically gene manipulation by the ancient civilization to create homunculi.

And these guys aren’t random monsters, they’re dangerous in their own ways, Doshaguma may be the easy to make grunts that could have a leader, Rathalos are the eyes in the sky, Ebony the patrolling sentry with speed and violence to act on, Fulgur the brute to deal with big problems, Arkveld the unpredictable due to monsters or problems having no defenses against an extinct monster, and Zoh Shia, who might as well be a man-made god of hate.

All of these guys (an argument for Doshaguma) are basically apex-elder tier threats. Something a foolish person thinks would work well for defense.

And Xu Wu basically wins every “turf war” with the guardians. Calling them turf wars feels wrong as 3/4 of them starts after Xu Wu knocks its prey over and starts eating them until they escape.

Ebony gets at least a fight, but ends up skewered and thrown away.

Arkveld might tie with a few hits from Xu Wu until the chains get him, and he isn’t elder level enough for Zoh Shia, but it’s still an interesting thought.

Think it this way: you are a scientist who created powerful artificial life forms to prove you are a god, but nature outdid you already with a creature that was born to prey on the strong, energy rich monster, which your creation fits the bill.

It then proceeds to turn your work into a snack with the only things that could win one of a kind monsters you aren’t willing to lose.

You tried to play god, but nature one upped you without effort. You can never surpass the natural world because it already found a biological version of what you thought of.

You lost a fight to the natural order before you even got started.

A look at a few mythological beings from 山海经, Classic of Mountain and Sea, compiled beginning around 500 BC with the earliest remaining finished version existing by 200 BC.

Right column graphics created by me, translating the left and adding a few more details.

on this day 11 years ago someone sewed a fried egg to a tshirt

on this day one year ago someone sewed a fried egg to a tshirt

somethin I've noticed

Something, something stones and glass houses.

honestly the discourse on this site is so bad that I have a new hot take: if you use tumblr at all fuck you

Very late response, but I thank you.

Didn’t really understand him until reading this, cleared a few things up.

Hello, I am a person interested in folklore. I wanted to ask if you who Assur or Ashur is and what legends he has and if it isn’t too much of an issue, give some good sources on Mesopotamian myth and folklore as I can’t tell what’s real and what’s bullshit.

Probably the best overviews of Ashur’s character are still Wilfred G. Lambert’s short 1983 article The God Aššur and Grant Frame’s My Neighbour's God: Aššur in Babylonia and Marduk in Assyria.  If you can read German, Wiebke Meinhold’s Die Familie des Gottes Aššur is a must read too. The wikipedia article is actually quite in depth too now, a pleasant surprise - it used to be a nightmare.

Long story short, it is generally agreed Ashur started as a divine representation of the namesake city (or perhaps the hill on which it was built) and with time could become essentially whatever its political interests required; so, for instance, when his cult center turned from a city-state into the capital of an empire interested in military expansion, he gained warlike traits. His early character was fairly indistinct, and he had no signature epithets which would point at a specific sphere of influence, though.

While it’s par the course for ancient Mesopotamia to have gods essentially represent the political interests of their cult centers, this is particularly extreme in Ashur’s case because for a solid chunk of his history it’s hard to even speak of him as a personified deity. For example, the Old Assyrian texts from the trading colony Kanesh essentially make it difficult to tell when the god is meant and when the city. Regarding specific cities as numinous, basically divine, locations are not without parallel either, but rarely to such a degree. It’s possible he was initially depicted in art in non-anthropomorphic form, see here for some discussion. However, anthropomorphic depictions might be present on seals too, see here.

As a result of Ashur’s lack of personhood in early sources, he had very few truly distinct associations with other deities to speak of. Basically the only exception is the minor goddess Sherua, but it was already a matter of heated debate in antiquity how they are related to each other. There are also virtually no references to him having parents; no genealogical speculation centered on him ever developed before the emergence of a Neo-Assyrian trend of referring to him as self created (bānû ramānīšu).

The earliest evidence for a gradual shift towards making Ashur into a more standard deity, as opposed to a semi-personified deified city, are probably theophoric names. Additionally, rulers of the city addressed him as a source of their authority and presented themselves essentially as governors acting on his behalf, similarly to what their counterparts in Eshnunna and Der did with Tishpak and Ishtaran, respectively.

Further important developments occurred in the Middle Assyrian period, some 4-5 centuries later. The idea at this time was to essentially pattern Ashur’s character on Enlil. This is attested to various degrees for the heads of many pantheons on the periphery of Mesopotamia, you can read more about other similar cases here. However, in Ashur’s case this process was nowhere near as straightforward as sometimes claimed, as recently stressed by Spencer J. Allen in Aššur and Enlil in Neo-Assyrian Documents. For the most part, the two were effectively separate, even though Ashur did borrow Enlil’s titles, traits and even some of his relatives and servants.

Ashur generally doesn’t appear in myths. The only exception I can think of is that during the reign of Sennacherib there was an attempt to develop a rewrite of the Enuma Elish with Ashur taking Marduk’s role but it’s… well, an incomplete rewrite and nothing more. A pretty incoherent one at that according to Lambert.  Regarding your other question: I have a recommended reading doc linked in my pinned post, you can find it here.

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Finally, thank you Atlus for directly acknowledging this in his demon haunt dialogue

(Spoilers under cut, but if you're past at least the third area or don't mind spoilers, you can go right ahead to a long and hopefully interesting post!)

Which means that this...

(Above image I found in a Megaten reddit post, though I think it was originally from Pixiv?)

... Is actually acknowledged as a canon part of both Arioch's and Metatron's backstory! (Holy excited screeching)

I know I sound like I'm freaking out, but this is quite significant for a few reasons.

First off, SMTV is the first time both Arioch and Metatron are together in a mainline game, as Arioch was first introduced in SMTI (1992) (unless you count his appearance in Megami Tensei II (1990)), while Metatron was first introduced in SMTII (1994). Arioch has made few appearances afterward, only showing up in spin-off titles such as Devil Survivor 1 and 2, Devil Summoner 2: Raidou Kuzunoha vs. King Abaddon, Shin Megami Tensei: Liberation Dx2, and Devil Children White Book. Metatron, on the other hand, has pretty much become a mainstay in both mainline SMT and spin-off games, including Persona. (And yeah, I was kinda disappointed that Arioch was in the vanilla game and his lore explicitly mentions Enoch, but nothing happens if you bring Arioch to the fight against Metatron in the Temple of Eternity. Either way, I'm just glad their former relationship was mentioned via demon haunt dialogue.)

Related to #1, Vengeance is probably the first time any demon has explicitly said Metatron's name when he was once human - that is, Enoch. Previous characters who have mentioned the name Enoch are Naoya (Devil Survivor) and Mido (SMTIV; this game in particular has Mido give out a quest for Flynn that basically asks "bring me Enoch, a man who fused with an angel"), who are both human.

I've read a bit about the Book of Enoch since I used to be skeptical on the "guardian angel of Enoch" bit in Arioch's lore, and it turns out that it's more or less accurate!

From 2 Enoch 33 (<- is that how you write it?):

•And I will give you, Enoch, my mediator, my archistratig, Michael, on account of your handwritings and the handwritings of your fathers – Adam and Sith and Enos and Kainan and Maleleil and Ared your father. •And they will not be destroyed until the final age. So I have commanded my angels, Ariukh and Pariukh, •whom I have appointed on the earth as their guardians, and I have commanded the seasons, so that they might preserve them so that they might no perish in the future flood which I shall create in your generation.

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The only thing that was slightly different/messed up in Arioch's SMT lore is that he's described as Enoch's guardian angel, whereas in Enoch 2 (or at least the translation in the link) it says that Arioch was one of the guardians for Enoch's and the previous antediluvian patriarchs' writings. Although I guess Arioch was still a guardian angel in that he was guarding a human's property, so maybe I'm just splitting hairs there.

Also, because I've been kinda disappointed with Metatron's Magatsuhi Skill with Sandalphon (I guess guaranteed item drops are cool, but really? I expected something more badass from the lategame Herald), here's my idea of a periapt + Magatsuhi Skill for Metatron and Arioch instead.

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Vengeful Heavenly Swords Periapt: Enables the Magatsuhi Skill Vengeful Heavenly Swords when the saint turned archangel and his former guardian angel are brought together.

Effect: Severe Light and Dark attack to all foes. Ignores affinity resistance and pierces through. Chance of instakill when striking weakness. (Basically deals one combined AOE Light and Dark attack that pierces through Light and Dark resistances, but has the possibility to also instantly kill enemies weak to Light and/or Dark, though the instakill effect doesn't work on bosses.)

Animation description: Arioch holds up his sword Storm Bringer (which is a sword mentioned in his SMTI A-Mode DDS dictionary entry), which charges up with dark lightning. Meanwhile, Metatron holds a hand up to the heavens, and from a ray of light, a gleaming sword imbued with white lightning floats down toward his hand; this is the Sword of Methuselah, a sword once given to his son Methuselah by God to kill demons. The two of them briefly look at each other with a "Let's do this!" attitude before they swing their respective swords toward the enemy. Their sword swings create waves of light and dark lightning, which then combine into a single wave of light and dark lightning. The combined holy and unholy wave slams into the enemy and deals severe, piercing damage.

"But Vulture!" you cry out, "Why would Metatron wield his son's sword and kick serious demon ass with it along with Arioch? Has he ever used a sword before?" And the answer, is yes, he has and he absolutely can! Want proof? See the skills Heaven's Blade (Persona 4), Sword Dance (Persona 5), Sword Dance (Persona 5 Strikers), which are what Metatron could learn in those games. For an even earlier example, see the skill Deathbound, which is a skill that deals heavy Sword damage in games like his debut game SMTII.

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This isn't much, but funnily enough, I wrote an FE support conversation-style fic featuring Arioch and Metatron (bc I absolutely loved the idea of demon haunts and imagined them to explore the demons' lore and backstory; turns out that's pretty much true!) before Vengeance was released, and Arioch does call him Enoch there. It even acknowledges that Metatron used to be human and had children, including Methuselah. You can read it here: The Youth and His Former Guardian

Anyway... that's all I have for this long post. I'm absolutely going to keep pushing towards the endgame so I can have them in my party and kick ass together.

It’s bog day