#damla

(don’t mind the proper punctuation i just wanted my writing to be a bit more readable oops)

The place where my OCs reside is a purgatory-like place called Grahana, which is the Sanskrit word for ‘eclipse’. Grahana is one of eight realms that make up an afterlife, where each realm is named after the Sanskrit terms for the celestial bodies (partially based on Buddhist and Hindu concepts since they’re common religions in Southeast Asia!).

As the realm closest to the living, it’s considered the lowest rung of the eight realms among the various beings that inhabit these realms, hence earning a name that doesn’t correspond to any of the seven days of the week.

The humble, village-like court is lorded over by a four-armed buffalo spirit named Damla. Grahana’s local culture is generally based on precolonial SEA, so it’s populated by a lot of animal spirits, which, in the eyes of the higher human deities, are considered to be of a lower class. Having existed since time immemorial, the animal spirits come with a more pure viewpoint of the world, including things related to romance.

With no external human influence, the animal spirits in Grahana do not see anything wrong with queer romance or queer identities. You love your friends, and some others you love more, is how they think. Elsewhere though, in a bid to imitate and please their human overlords, the animal spirits take on more conservative beliefs. Something something missionaries, something something colonialism. (as for why the animal spirits have human bodies--for most of them, it's less bootlicking and more the allure of Opposable Thumbs.)

As a result, for the three humans stuck there, two of whom have completely no idea what a Pride Month™ even is, Grahana is the safest place they’ll ever find themselves in.