#astral self

a way of the astral self monk, who is an amputee.

"Who is the third who walks always beside you? When I count, there are only you and I together But when I look ahead up the white road There is always another one walking beside you"  -- The Waste Land by T. S. ELIOT

Description:

A strange occurrence often happens to people engaged in an adventurous activity or who fall victim to an unfortunate circumstance. They find themselves with a companion whose presence would typically be impossible. Usually, the person is at a critical moment in a life-or-death situation in an extreme and unusual environment. When they are weakened and dying from exposure, suffering privation of sustenance, lost and alone, when they are about to lose all hope and accept their demise, that’s when this otherworldly friend suddenly appears to render aid and encouragement, giving them a superhuman will or strength to survive. Psychologists label this a “sensed presence experience” but are at a loss for a simple explanation. These presences may be seen, heard, and sometimes even touched. They appear in dire situations to people from all walks of life. They may materialize as a known friend, a deceased relative, a religious figure, or an indeterminate benefactor. Still, whatever their form, there is no doubt to the one in danger that this being is real and there with them. Although this sensed presence appears most often to mountain climbers, sailors, divers, and polar explorers, it can also happen to astronauts, prisoners of war, and disaster survivors. One of the most intriguing aspects of the sensed presence experience is that the ethereal saviors aren’t just there to provide comforting words; they actually help with knowledgable advice or guidance or can even seemingly take over the actions of the afflicted – whatever is necessary to increase the odds of survival. Join us as we explore a phenomenon more common than you might think, a syndrome also known as the “Third Man.”

Reference Links:

“The Sensed Presence as a Coping Resource in Extreme Environments”

by Peter Suedfeld & John Geiger. From Miracles: God, Science, and Psychology in the Paranormal on Omnilogos.com

“The Sensed Presence as A Coping Resource in Extreme Environments” on the Julian Jaynes Society website

“How does our understanding of the sensed presence phenomenon in extreme settings change the way we talk about so-called mental ‘illnesses’ in daily life?” by Blaise Cottingham on Medium.com

Angels of Mons on Wikipedia

Vincent Lam

“Extreme environment” on Wikipedia

King Nebuchadnezzar from Daniel 3:24-5 on BibleGateway.com

The Savage Curtain episode of the original Star Trek series

“Charles Lindbergh and the Third Man Factor” on Theresa's Haunted History of the Tri-State blog

Poet, memoirist, and songwriter Mary Karr

“The Liars’ Club” by Mary Karr

Kanchenjunga, the world’s third highest mountain, on Britannica.com

“Wilson,” the volleyball from the motion picture Castaway

“Ernest Shackleton's Crew of the Endurance – Imperial Trans Antarctica Expedition 1914 -17” on CoolAntarctica.com

Husvik, the former whaling station on the north-central coast of South Georgia Island, Antarctica

Elephant Island, Antarctica

“Excerpt: The Voyage of the James Caird by Ernest Shackleton” from the American Museum of Natural History website

Alfred Lansing

Caedmon, widely considered to be the world’s first audiobook and launch of the spoken word industry

“The Waste Land” by T. S. Eliot on Project Gutenberg

Stromness, South Georgia

Sir Ernest Shackleton and T S Eliot’s ‘third man’ from the Royal Scottish Geographical Society

The Waste Land Part I – The Burial of the Dead from the Poetry Archive

The Waste Land from The Poetry Foundation

“T. S. ELIOT SAW ALL THIS COMING” from The Atlantic

The Waste Land on Wikipedia

Jane S. P. Mocellin and Peter Suedfeld’s research on behavior in extreme environments from ResearchGate.net

“Shackleton's whisky returned to Antarctic hut” on CBC.ca

“Spirits of the South Pole” from The New York Times Magazine

“Wild Survival Story About 1983 Rockies Alpine Avalanche” – the story of Jim Sevigny and Richard Whitmire

Distance Line for cave diving

“UK scientist has her lab in underwater caves” – Stephanie Schwabe article from the Lexington Herald-Leader

Kendal Mint Cake on Wikipedia

Romney’s Kendal Mint Cake on Amazon

Reinhold Messner

“The Unauthorized Biography of Reinhold Messner” music album by the band Ben Folds Five

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CREDITS:

I'll be honest: Ravnica has always fascinated me. I was a high schooler when the first set came out, and I was immediately consumed creating characters for the setting. Now that we've actually received my long-awaited crossover, I thought it would be nice to write a love letter to the setting in the form of another Backgrounds with Class series. After all: some guilds have natural class choices tied in, from a conceptual standpoint. Boros and Fighter, Izzet and Wizard, Selesnya and Druid. But guilds aren’t class-restricted, and so I wonder what it would look like if you paired every class with every guild background, even the ones that seem at odds, like Izzet and Barbarian, or Gruul and Artificer.  So I thought about it, and this is what I came up with.  Some character concepts for each class, and each Guildmaster's Guide to Ravnica background for each class.

The Selesnya Initiate Artificer has kept an ear to the Selesnya’s Worldsong since she was young.  As a mason and sometime healer for the Conclave, she’s not as attuned to the song as some, but her ear is still beyond reproach in some ways; one day, as she was putting the final touches on a life-sized wolf carving, it begun to sing the song of all living things, and came to life under her hand.  Now convinced this can’t be the only time this has happened, she roams eagerly, listening for more stone that sings with life.

The Selesnya Initiate Barbarian has always been...excitable.  Not well-suited for guard duty, meditation, or tending gardens, this centaur has instead put his overflowing font of energy into training to become a ledev guardian.  His dream is to run the roads on his own, spreading the joy and passion of the Conclave's Worldsong to all who will listen and take that righteous ecstasy as a weapon to those who wish harm to his fellow travelers.

The Selesnya Initiate Bard has always been fascinated by dryads and their ways- after all, sharing a soul with a tree is such a foreign thing to one only of the flesh.  Ever since he was young, he has sought after them and their ways, and eventually met forbearance in a charitable soul who took the time to explain to him not just the way she and her tree were connected, but how all life was in the Worldsong of the Conclave.  Ever since, he's taken it on himself to sing it aloud- such that those who do not know it by heart may hear the call and, perhaps, become one with the Conclave he loves.

The Selesnya Initiate Cleric is a pacifist by nature, and the blessings he finds pursuing the worship of Ravnica’s own natural life have not changed that.  Far from opposed to combat in defense of the helpless or the Conclave, he instead prefers to incapacitate his foes by nonlethal means, or by placing them in positions that they must hurt themselves to harm others.  Every time he sheds blood aggrieves him, but the lesson is slowly coming to him that sometimes nature is as red in tooth as it is green as leaves.

The Selesnya Initiate Druid wasn’t born, they were awakened.  Pulled from a place of rest for defense against a Gruul raid on Selesnyan holdings, they did not lie back down and return to being inanimate dirt.  Instead, they’ve remained awake and surprisingly self-directed, volunteering in the vernadi gardens and fields to commune with the plants.  As a living patch of grassland, they’ve proved to have an intuitive grasp of the land’s needs and will, and have become a personage of importance for the other initiates.

The Selesnya Initiate Fighter was a cadet in the Boros Legion whose sergeant was a bully.  Sickened by his exposure to the abuse of authority in so crude a figure, he left for the Conclave.  There, his training was more evenly supplemented by a sense of community and fairness that left little room for the kind of deliberate fear-mongering he saw.  Now he trains in maneuvers as part of a unit, enabling his allies and striking with precision and teamwork unlike that the Legion showed him.

The Selesnya Initiate Monk was trained by a ghost.  Her mentor, one of the ancient Quietmen of the Conclave, was once an extension of the Worldsong’s will, a weapon in body alone and a witness for the Conclave’s parun.  They were supposed to be destroyed, after their treachery during the Decamillenial almost led to Mat’Selesnya’s destruction.  Forced to keep her master’s secret while balancing the needs of the Conclave, she finds a growing tension within her, a tension that only violence has helped resolve- hardly the attitude of one nominally seeking peace of mind.

The Selesnya Initiate Paladin was brought up in the Conclave, but over the last few weeks, starting with a friend leaving the guild in favor of the Boros Legion, he’s started to doubt.  Is this really the life for him?  What other paths might he pursue?  Surrounded by the comraderie of other squires and soldiers, the only time he really feels the Worldsong is in battle, fighting along like-minded souls.  With the day for his oath drawing near and his meditations bringing him no feeling of welcoming, doubt and curiosity might form the wedge that splits him off from the Conclave too.

The Selesnya Initiate Ranger is, like many of the Conclave’s dryads, not actually bound to the tree that she calls her heartwood and home.  Free-roaming and imbued with a greater-than-average share of her people’s magic, she wanders the roads as a ledev trainee, a gifted traveler and guardian of those who travel Ravnica’s highways.  Trostani herself oversees the promotion of ledev guardians from among the Selesnyan cadets, and she yearns for the recognition of this most elder of her kind.

The Selesnya Initiate Rogue serves as one of the Conclave’s covert investigators.  An odd pursuit for a vedalken, but one they take to with relish.  Part of their community as much as or more than any other, they don’t take their training as an investigator as a way to stay separate, but a way to stick together to their friends.  Picking up on the subtle clues of when someone is not at their best or may be hiding a danger to the conclave and licensed to pursue the investigation where they wish, they serve covertly as an in-house problem solver at worst and a counselor and therapist at best.

The Selesnya Initiate Sorcerer’s family has always been rumored to have some connection with the boros legion’s angels.  Certainly her statuesque beauty supports this notion, but the true testament is her sorcerous powers.  A gift of the celestial blood running through her veins, they’ve proved valuable on more occasions than not, as she lays hands on soldiers protecting Selesnya interests and blesses them before battle.  She is proud of her power, and those elder around her murmur that she has real potential as an evangel or hierarch someday…if she can reign in her ego.

The Selesnya Initiate Warlock is fortunate enough to have a direct connection with Trostani herselves.  Having sworn herself to their personal service, she benefots from a taste of their fey magic- a taste she hopes one day to grow into a glut.  Her aspiration is nothing less than to become Trostani’s rightmost hand.  She has a long way to go, but the tiny wooden drake that clings to her is proof she has the talent to bring life to the lifeless, demonstrating her aptitude with Trostani’s gifts.

Source details and larger version.

wildhunt shifter / astral self monk / male

“ Ethereal, Wise, Fatherly " 🏆

Two take on u/lurkergrill69's astral self monk Albiessa, for r/characterdrawing