What's on your mind?

[PK8]

... :(

[Ahzoh]

Yea... whenever I see my kitty I have glancing thoughts about when it's going to die... it's not even 3 years old yet...

But my turtle will definitely outlive me, but I fear I might have to get rid of him before I move to Texas, because of border people between Canada and US... that's like uber depressing, it's like having yo get rid of your 7-year old child!

[Ahzoh]

A portion of Vrkhazhian Culture! This episode is on death!

The Vrkhazh believe that when you die that you are in an eternal rest; oblivion that is.
At least that is as it should be. However, sometimes a person was greatly wronged in life or their corpse becomes disturbed, causing the spirit to become restless and aggressive.
Restless and evil spirits reside in a realm that is called by the Vrkhazh as "The Formless World" because of its formless and chaotic nature. Creatures known as the "Formless Beings" (not really formless, but their forms are often incomprehensible and fear-inducing) also reside in the Formless World. The most feared and well-known is the Formless Being known as Sillhav (who is considered the top dog of them all) who guards the veil between the Formless World and the Formed World.

The Vrkhazh believe that scavenging birds such as ravens and crows (ravens and actual crows are often lumped together as being a kind of "crow") are guardians of the dead that ensure that the spirits are not restless.
The Vrkhazh believe that if a crow is not guarding a body (or a flock of crows, in the case of entire graveyards) then the body and raise up and become a Hollow Man (a Vrkhazhian equivalent to a zombie, "hollow" because it is without sentience).
Times of famine and disease are times where the risk of Hollow Men rising up are the highest.

Often family members will fashion a small statue of a crow to make the spirit of a deceased love one to attain peace by tricking it into believing it is guarded by a real one. Usually the statues are made of onyx with the eyes being studded with turquoise.
Embalming and painting the body is also important in allowing the deceased to attain peace. Organs cannot be removed from the body except for the intestines (which are removed by the embalmer and replaced with preservatives before returning it to the family). This important because the deceased cannot feel like they are not whole. This is the original sense of the meaning of a Hollow Man, who would be literally hollow.

There are four days during the year where the veil between the Formless World and Formed World are thin. These days are the peaks of the Summer Solstice and the Winter Solstice and the Spring Equinox and the Autumn Equinox. Thus these periods are often marked with fear because Formless Beings and evil spirits can gain access to the Formed World to wreak havoc and cause suffering. Because Silhav is the Guardian of the Veil, he is the first one to appear.

Fighting Sillhav is fruitless because he is unaffected by most physicals objects, however the only one known to have been able to successfully defeat Sillhav is the first emperor of Vrkhazh, Arash-Hijunu.

[DerVVulfman]

Crows certainly seem related to the dead, be it your story or folklore on this little blue ball circling a yellow star. I couldn't help but think of 'The Crow' (I have the graphic novel).

I like the touch about the painted Crow Guardian statues. When you mentioned why they're made, it comically it made me think of them as painted up ceramic teddy bears for the dead.

[KasperKalamity]

painted up teddy bears of the dead, you say? these are Scarebears. they're made by some guy in michigan.

womm: let's talk about dreams- do any of you guys (girls too, cmon it's just a pronoun) ever have dreams where you have to do something specific before you're allowed to wake up? i just spent all night in jail, in a third world country, and stuck retaking the 2nd grade as a form of brainwashing.

i wasn't actually allowed to wake up and get up until in-dream, i realized im an adult and everyone else is 7, and i can leave whenever i want, so i did. the school/jail had tall fences with barbed wire, and we were in the remote wilderness, but ive probably been there in another dream. my alarm went off twice before i turned it off instead of snoozing it, and i slept an extra 2 hours, bringing it up to ~11 total. im not sick, but just totally worn out from work and obligations and all that life stuff.

so does anybody else have stuck dreams? nobody i know irl has ever had them.

[Ahzoh]

The Hollow Men are based off of this:
http://fable.wikia.com/wiki/Hollow_Man

[Python Blue]

Well, got back from Thanksgiving "vacation" ahead of schedule. :) That being said, spent much of today making sure one of my synths works before I reconfigure it tomorrow.

[yamina-chan]

Can I just say that there are a lot of good people out there?
With all the bad things and horrible news and drama that you constantly hear everywhere, this is easy to forget. But every once in a while, you'll be reminded that the world is not ony filled with hatefull morons but also with some really kind, awesome people.
And I am including a lot of the people here in that statement ^^

[Ahzoh]

It's called American Media

[yamina-chan]

It's called American Media

...what is?
If that's in response to me somehow, then: no, it is not. No matter which half of my comment is adressed.
Because I was in no way thinking about that.

If you are talking about somehting else unrelated to my post, please do elaborate about what you were talking about instead =)