Wizard name: Moira Crow| 24 | ace| I like to point out the religious undertones of a 2008 children's MMORPG. Here for lore, head cannons, theories, art, and general W101 brainrot. (pfp by crawdaddiie)
(I was encouraged to write this bc of this user @ambivalentchickadee btw)
For those who don't know, mysticism is a religious and spiritual practice where a person becomes "nothing." One dissolves all sense perceptions, notions, and their sense of self (ego), realizing that they are, at their very core- nothing. We are nothing but an infinite awareness, and infinite awareness is all there is. Its also called many things throughout history but in modern spiritual practice its called the "void state/I am State". In Greek philosophy and Neoplatonism, they called it: the One/the Good/the Beautiful/the Absolute Principle (This is one of the OGs for this school of thought.)
In Christian Mysticism they called it: the Divine Darkness/the Abyss/the Divine/the Godhead/the Cloud of Unknown/Unknowable Darkness/Ousia In Islamic Mysticism its called: al-Wahid (the One)/Necessary Existence. Reached via annihilation of the self (fana).
KingIsle loves to personify concepts, and they chose Dasien to be, the very personification of this concept - the void/nothingness.
The first thing, The Nothing decided to do, was copy and imitate the wizard - the wizard being the first thing he became aware of besides himself. When the wizard became the Divine Paradox, uniting shadow and light, it was like adding 1 + - 1 to get 0. Nothing. When one enters the void, you ARE the void. There is no seperation. When a drop of water enters the ocean, it becomes the ocean. So, when The Wizard "entered the void state", for a moment the Wizard and the Nothing were the same. This portrayed this by having The Nothing imitate the wizard's Paradox self. He wasn't just imitating, for a moment, they were literally the same.
Both Arc 3 and 4 explores the concept of ego. One of the major themes of Arc 3 was learning to let go our sense of self importance. Grandmother Raven, Grandfather Spider being the prime examples of this, by forgetting they loved each other once, they were willing to destroy an entire universe just beat the other.
This lesson of dissolving ego also explored using our friends Bat and Mellori too. For example, Bat almost killing Mellori, which would've invoked Raven's wrath bringing a quicker end to the Spiral. And Mellori, developing a sense of self importance after finding out she was the child of Raven, attempted to kill Spider which also would have ended the Spiral.
Both had the noble goal of wanting to Save the Spiral, but believed their way to be the best way. Vanity, as Dasein would say. Then later realizing the only way to save the Spiral was for them to forgo their sense of self importance, work together, and literally combine their powers.
Arc 4 - Dasein's arc, explores what we should do with our egos. Meaning, he began developing a sense of self, then had to figure out what to do with it. Once one touches the infinite void of nothingness, and returns back to the material world a question then arises: "What do I do with my sense of self, and what is my purpose?" This is the question Dasein has to answer, with various themes of ego staying consistent throughout.
One of the first things Dasein did was give himself a name: Dasein, because he believed (and the Old One also believed) that in design is purpose. With the Old One specifically saying that "Life without purpose was empty and existence without meaning was wasteful."
This mindset goes against what mysticism stands for, but here Dasien is still learning, and trying to integrate himself into the Everything, and give himself purpose. (We'll get more into why the Old One and Dasein were incorrect later.)
At the end of Lemuria we find out the world synthesiser can not only rend worlds, but turn nothing into something, and later in Novus, Dasien has the ability to manifest things out of the nothing-ness. In Mysticism, it's called exactly that: manifestation.
Everything we believe tells us that it's impossible to create something from nothing but in Mysticism tells us that's exactly what we can do. And not only can you create something from nothing, but that creation is easy. In fact, mysticism teaches that manifestation, is actually effortless. As such, the people living on Dasein are able to create things unconsciously, and the world effortlessly bends to the desires of the people living on him. Like when Monsignor Del Mont led his people in prayer and the banana trees grew back instantly. Prayer is, after all, just another form of manifestation.
Back to that question: What do we do with ourselves and our egos? Well the Novus plotline gives us a great example of what NOT to let our egos become - cleverly using the diplomats, cabal members, and the Manticore to showcase vanity. Similarly to arc 3, everyone believes that their way is the best way. No one wants to listen, no one wants to include others into their plans, everyone wants everyone else to submit to their whims. Literally colonizing Dasein's mind, body, and spirit. Overinflated egos, and bearing such a high sense of self importance is antithetical to the void. And this is symbolically shown with how much their egos repulsed Dasein, making him want to retreat back to nothingness. Ego is fundamentally incompatible with the void.
After experiencing the void, many mystics struggle with daily life. How can one go back to the human experience after experiencing the infinite awareness of the void? This was the struggle Dasein faced trying to re-integrate himself into the void.
Later in Wallaru, is where we get the ultimate lesson in mysticism. The answer to the question: "What do we even do here?"
Mysticism, teaches us to become the bridge between the void and real life. You come to the highest realization: your job is not to escape the world, but to walk through it knowing you are free. This is the lesson Dasein had to learn at then end of Wallaru.
If you haven't, I implore you to watch the final quest in Wallaru, because it's the ultimate lesson in Mysticism. Mysticism is all about "Being" (that is also why it's called the 'I Am' state). If you read the dialogue, you can see how many times the phrase "I am" appears in Dasein's arc. This is why The Old One and Dasein where incorrect about life needing purpose. Being is all there is, and Being is all there ever will be.
Life, mercifully offers us nothing (and yes, it is a mercy). NO intrinsic meaning, NO intrinsic purpose, and that's life's greatest yet, most misunderstood gift. And what do we get?: True freedom. Remember the point of building something out of nothing? Because life offers us nothing, we create our own designs. That is Mysticism's final teaching: Not to detach from life, but to live it with absolute freedom.
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genuinely I hope that ravenwood academy game they are cooking up does well. I hope it does well enough to make KI consider making more games in the universe. There are so many corners of the spiral and things they could expand on in more focused games.
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I know Abner is a tutorial character but the only time he is ever talked about is to make fun of him for being in a wheelchair and people talking about how he "shouldn't be in one" because Life wizards "should be able to fix him".
Which is fucked up I think.
*jumps up and down waving my hands and yelling in a crowd* DISCORD WAS NEVER MEANT TO REPLACE FORUMS AND WIKIS!!! IT'S JUST EMBELLISHED CHATROOMS WITH MULTIPLAYER GAMING FEATURES AND LOOTBOXES AND SHIT!!! PLEASE PUT FAQS AND MESSAGE BOARDS OR AT LEAST A DIRECT EMAIL-BASED SUPPORT SYSTEM ON YOUR WEBSITE!!! 1GB NEOCITIES DOMAIN ZERO DOLLARS
Honestly since it’s FTUE hating hours, every time I introduce wiz to my friends I have to stand there like “this is not the intro that captured my heart as a kid. This isn’t how it went.”
So like. If we could have it back so I don’t look like a freak for caring—
Sorry I wanted to reblog with your tags.
I think the thing is, I don't have many true like, dealbreakers or things that will turn me away from a story. I really don't make a distinction of "good writing choice" vs "bad writing choice", nearly any choice taken can serve a purpose and my critiques come from my personal opinion on if those choices serve the narrative or not, if I think the way the story is going is thematically consistent, all of that.
So the one thing I cannot stand, the ONE choice a story could make that upsets me, is when it betrays its own themes, undercuts itself, and worse, MOCKS ME FOR CARING. And that's the thing about the FTUE storyline. It mocks me for caring! It feels like a parody of the original story, both trying to bait me with nostalgia and in the same breath making fun of me for ever thinking it was that serious. And that's the thing, I feel like the FTUE was trying to be funny because they felt like they couldn't onboard new players with 2008 sincerity. Times had "changed" and they needed to prove they were "in on the joke" about how silly their setting was.
The people who would feel welcomed by the irony aren't players who will stay for the long run, because a story inevitably asks you to care. Trying to be "in on the joke" so people don't get bored won't help you.
this is what I hate about new media that rehashes older IPs. That stupid ironic humour that's like a wink and nudge to the audience: "This is kinda cringe right guys?" in order to reassure their audience it's ok to actually like this "cringe" thing. Its a cowards approach to storytelling. It only shows a writer that's scared of being genuine and vulnerable.
I hope this Ahmarra place is a part of Jackie's world because I wanna see her "native american" inspired world so bad. I know it's not but I hope I'm wrong. 🥲
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All my ideas come from wizard101 because I've yet to ever be able to enjoy a game like 2008 to 2022 wizard101 to date. It's actually a really bad and painful existence to not have found my thing again since my wizard101 obsession.
It's actually very painful because with the community and management going down hill I've basically been left with an empty heart. Oh my shart
It's actually just hurting to find something I mildly like and realize I'll never like it for the decades onward I did wizard101, mostly because my attention span got murdered by the pandemic
I think Ahmarra does have something to do with Bartleby's Eternal Spring water. Ahmarra looks like it's part of Emperya, where the First World started. Ahmarra might be a reference to the Amharic language the Ethiopians speak. This is where the Blue Nile is found, which is considered sacred water, and the source of which is believed to be linked to heaven.
Does jumping in the Eternal Spring water take you to Ahmarra??? Is the where all water to the Spiral flows from? Exciting thoughts!,🤗🤗🤗
Bartleby get his eye of the future stolen (probably by Miranda). I think this because theyre constantly saying things along the lines of 'blinding Bartleby'. However this will overall end up NOT being a bad thing, unlike when the eye of history was stolen. Bartleby will finally have relief from the cruel weight of certainty, and the freedom that comes with uncertainty. Staying in the present, looking towards an unknown future, just like mortals.
Following this, the wizard regains their own will outside of Bartleby. They (yw) can see the dreaming. Yw can see past the walls of causality, unlike Bartleby, who can only see causality. They see the window of freedom: the "what ifs" and the "what could've been" are actually tangible outcomes.
Miranda, will learn that trying to give Earth magic in order to save it is a fruitless endeavor. Why? Because the Spiral literally has magic and still suffers from the exact same problems Earth does. War, imperalism, commodification/capitalism, maniacs in high positions of power trying to decide everyone else future without them. So what would giving Earth magic change? In fact she literally acknowledges that the Spiral and Earth are similar (and indicated whoever created the Spiral must've took some inspiration from Earth.) So imo, giving Earth magic wouldn't help solve all their problems.
Following that, realizes being a dream isn't all its cracked up to be. Why? Dreams can cause people to act, but dreams are not action itself. You can't stay dreaming forever, you have to actually get out there and do something about it. Can she truly manifest her will into the real world if she herself is intangible? Or will it constantly be flights of fantasy with no tangible motion? Hmm... 🤔
Following that she realizes that in order to Earth to save itself, we the inhabitants, need to willingly cooperate to make it a better place.
Following that, Miranda gets her therapy reckoning because it's obvious she's a loner and has trouble working WITH others. Will stop using people as a means to an end because a willingness to cooperate with others is what actually makes things better. This is a theme shown constantly throughout the game. The wizard is, and was never truly alone. They've always had someone guiding them, helping them, or working together with someone to accomplish a goal.
Dasien's entire character is textbook mysticism. I wanna talk about it so badly but I don't think anyone else studies the occult. I fear this might be too niche even for Tumblr???
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I like to headcanon that yw was actually baptized in the Spring Eternal, and that was the moment yw was actually christened Scion of Bartleby, but KI couldn't be too on the nose with the religious refrences.
You telling me they just lit some leaves on fire, a door opened, and boom Scion? Come'on man its supposed to be a ritual.
Like there had to have been a moment where yw drank from the Springs Eternal. Or they jumped in it as a symbolic "rebirth".
This definitely happened but was snubbed. I'm so confident I just wanna go ahead and say it's canon honestly.
YES...SHES A KID! WHO WAS ISOLATED IN ONE OF THE FURTHEST WORLDS OF THE SPIRAL, THAT WANTED ADVENTURE, AND WAS FULL OF ADMIRATION FOR THE WIZARD BECAUSE YOU BASICALLY SAVED HER FROM LIVING A MUNDANE LIFE IN WHATS BASICALLY THE ARCTIC, AND WANTED TO BE A HERO JUST LIKE YOU, BUT HAD TO GROW UP FAST JUST LIKE THE WIZARD! SHE'S YOU!!! SHE COMES OFF AS TRYING TO HARD BECAUSE SHE IS!!!! SHE CARES WHAT YOU THINK ABOUT HER BECAUSE YOU'RE HER IDOL AND SHES TRYING TO IMPRESS YOU!!