#titanism

 “We begin each cycle confronting this:

A curse that is a gift, our living form.

We process sorrow and we process bliss

in shadows so cold, in the light so warm.

The shape of ourselves, we’re given no choice

But to determine for ourselves its ultimate state.

Molding our muscles and honing our voice,

Armed with our will against shackles of fate.

Choose some to approve, others to condemn,

These gifts we’re given on the day we’re born.

Will you take them, or will you reject them?

Each action we take is a vow so sworn.

Whether flesh or earth, decay or machine

Harmony yet lies somewhere in between.”

>End Recitation

Bolloi Masculinity

~Seacar14

One of the big discussions in recent years has been about the concept of "Strong Female Characters" and "girlbosses." People argue about whether or not they're realistic, if they are actually empowering to female audiences, if they are are feminist, if they're pseudo-feminist pandering, if they're shallow and simply toxic masculinity with a female face, if it even matters as long as they're fun, and so on

Bollois decidedly do nothing to further that debate.

From the outset, on a purely physical level, bollois are the spawn of bioengineering, much like all Yabans, and while their roots may be in the Getabaru-Saiyans, bollois are not quite equivalent to Saiyan women since, on a pure secular level, male and female Yabans are already much denser and heavier than an equivalently sized human or Getabaru-Saiyan, on top of their very biology and psychology being engineered towards combat. An average secular bolloi— that is completely unsparked with chi— is still much stronger than the average man.

But even if you discount their pure biology and energy, bollois are still different from the "Strong Female Character™" archetype in other ways. For all the chuds and reactionaries talk about girlboss action-oriented women as being "men with boobs," when you compare them to bollois, it becomes very clearly obvious that they are still written with feminine or at least female-oriented conventions in mind. Simply being strong, or strong-willed, being "Lad-ettes" or "tomboys", does not quite bring you to the level of bollois and vroda kvltvr.

Bringing this up again:

Originally way back in 2018, I decided bollois were "hypermasculine" just because they liked fighting and proving themselves in battle, and in retrospect those early bollois were pretty much exactly like the Strong Female Character™ archetype and not the "Literally Men with Boobs" they are now. I pretty much had 100 different rules for bollois for why they Aren't Like Other Girls and are boyish and badass fighting femmes; nowadays, I just have five vague rules that work a hundred times better: "Aromantic as a rule," "No culture of vanity," "No culture of protection," "Lack feral maternalism," and "Have little intrinsic worth"

I was writing up an explanation earlier, but got distracted. However, a comment on DeviantArt got me back on track, so here we go:

Aromantic as a rule: Probably the single biggest culture shock humans have with bollois is just how little they regard romance. For us humans, this is basically a "no-no" when it comes to female characters, because we almost always view female characters and femalehood in general through the lens of romance. I mean think about it: besides the Venus symbol (♀), what symbol do we most often use in association with girls and women? The Valentine's heart.❤️ We tend to view women as sex objects. We tend to view women's issues as issues of love and relationships first and foremost. We expect girls and women to grow up idealizing marriage. When female characters are introduced into a story, the question of romance and shipping almost immediately follows. There are genuinely a lot of people who cannot dissociate "female" from "love interest." So for a female character to not be involved with anyone romantically or even have any romantic interests definitely goes against the grain.

What's especially funny about this is that Dragon Ball allegedly claims Saiyans don't care for romance, but has literally never followed through on that with the only exception being Son Goku himself. It's a pure background detail that's widely accepted, but at least after the original Bardock special (where Selypa didn't get enough screentime to be romance-baited in the first place), whenever a female Saiyan is introduced, the question of romance is immediately raised. Gine? Just so happened to be a "rare" example of a loving, romantic Saiyan. Caulifla and Kale? Almost as soon as they're introduced, the question of romance with Cabba is brought up (though admittedly shot down). Heck, most recently in the Bardock DLC of Kakarot, guess what Selypa's missions focus on? You guessed it: romance. I think Toriyama had it in his head that Saiyans don't care for romance because Goku doesn't, but he and Toei are too traditionalist in mindset to actually carry through with that in the series proper. They're actually incapable of telling stories involving female characters that don't involve romance. Except the Kaios, I think. I don't think the female kaioshins have ever been romance-baited.

[In retrospect, this was a bit asinine to describe, as we barely ever see female Saiyans at all. Honestly not too sure what exactly I was talking about here with the Saiyans besides nitpicking like a monkey]

So to that end, bollois actually not caring about romance can come off as weird and even disappointing to people. There might be a propensity to think that a female character who isn't into romance was simply hurt or is hiding her true self, or even that they just haven't found Mr. or Ms. Right just yet, so genuinely lacking any interest is definitely not common. Them being estrous certainly pushes that to its limit.

No Culture of Vanity: It may be "problematic" to say this among certain people, but there's no lie in saying that women are generally more interested in their appearance and matters of beauty. And this is culturally reinforced, we almost always tend to compliment women on their appearance and reinforce their sense of vanity as often as possible, something rarely done for men. Heck, "Beauties" is a somewhat common alternative for "women." The very names we give girls reflect "beauty" or "delicacy" or "gentleness." (If you're a girl, look up the meaning of your name; more often than not, it's a name reflecting appearance or femininity). Especially in the West and Far East, we actively expect women to wear make-up, get plastic surgery, and just generally look as cute and presentable as possible. And even if they don't do this, we still reward them with compliments.

Bollois don't have that, nor do they get that. The most a bolloi will get in terms of comments on her appearance on any random day, even surrounded by nagois, might be "You look like shit." They have zero expectation of being complimented, and very little in the way of beautification.

No culture of protection: In modern times, we like saying that women are capable and independent and strong, but let's be perfectly honest, that culture of chivalry didn't simply die out in a few decades any more than racism did. We still very widely view girls and women as vulnerable and in constant danger. There's still an overwhelming, unstated expectation that men should never hit women under any circumstance, that girls are inherently more delicate, and that women should stay out of dangerous situations. This also goes that girls are less culpable for their decisions and shouldn't face the same consequences as boys for the same offenses, which goes as far as believing that only men can be truly evil; women are only made to do evil by evil men. But it's even as simple and innocent as punishing a boy more harshly when he and a bunch of girls do something wrong.

Again, bollois don't get off that easy. In other words, there's no cultural belief that bollois need to be protected more than nagois or are less capable of handling themselves and thus should be insulated from danger, peril, and hardship. There is no belief in the idea that bollois are more delicate and fragile. And this goes the other way as well. A human girl holding her own at a challenge, getting through a tough situation, and matching or even overcoming the boys will be celebrated as an example of girl power. A bolloi displaying such competency proves nothing and earns no similar praise. At least among Yabans.

Lack feral maternalism: Among humans, we view motherhood as the highest and most powerful expression of femininity to the point many women are shamed for not getting married or bearing children, certainly far more than men are for not being fathers. In fact, we tend to view motherhood as so central to a woman's life that a lot of the more conservative and traditionalist mindsets say that a childless woman is the unhappiest woman. Also notice that a lot of the "good" strong female characters that are defended by people who otherwise chastise Strong Female Characters™ are described as being "motherly."

Bollois can certainly be mothers, but they lack a lot of the nurturing, motherly instincts we find intrinsic to mature femalehood. A bolloi is basically a mother for the first year, and then a female father for the rest of her child's life. And of course you have yenois further complicating matters, which is no better represented than with....

Have little intrinsic worth: It's a cold fact every man must face in his life: that he is an expendable human compared to a woman. This is very widely reinforced in society, no better summed up than in the saying "women and children first." This is very closely related to the "culture of protection" I mentioned above. A hundred thousand men can die and be overlooked, but the death of a single woman is a horrific tragedy worth special notice and attention. There's an old sexist saying that goes that "Women are, men must become." Which is to say that a woman can simply be pretty to win at life, but a man is worthless unless he accomplishes something.

Bollois don't really get this. Since they still have wombs, they're surely seen as being worth more than a man, but then you run into the issue of yenois, the primary "breeder" sex among Yabans, and thus the sex with the most "intrinsic" worth. Bollois are raised basically with the expectation that they're disposable extraneous grunts. A bolloi who wants to be worth anything has to actually achieve something.

So when you combine all this together, you wind up with a sex that doesn't really care for romance, cares virtually nothing for beautification, is treated harshly and without comfort in life, has little in the way of a nurturing motherly spirit, and can only be considered worth anything if they make something of themselves. This all sounds very similar to how we traditionally treat and view men in the world, so no wonder bollois go beyond simply being "Strong Female Characters™".

These are fundamental cultural expectations that you can't simply erase just by making a female character strong, aggressive, muscular, tough, headstrong, and independent. They inform just about all of our more subtle creative decisions, even our unconscious ones. In fact, this is a big reason why I went with nonhuman creatures in the first place: even if you disregard biological nature affecting behavior and psychology, it is almost completely impossible to create a female human character with the same socio-cultural traits of a bolloi (unless she's from an alien world or some bizarro alternate history). This is because there is no culture on Earth (as far as I know) that comprehensively raises women the exact same as men on such a profound and all-encompassing level that these traits will not appear. Indeed, because there is no dedicated third "dominant breeder" sex among humans, it is actually impossible on some level for Earthling women to be like bollois because we place such high value on the ability to bear children.

Simply being a tomboy or a Butch lesbian or a turbo-Ladette is not the same. This isn't about your personal decisions and lifestyle choices. It's about the entire society in which you live that molds you every second of every day of your life, whether you realize it or not.

Thus, it can be a massive culture shock for bollois to come to Earth and suddenly be treated like the girls they are. Yulaan, for example, has quite literally never been complimented on her appearance in her life. She goes to Earth-Prime, and all of a sudden, you've got all these people calling her "cute" and "sexy" and wondering if she's going to find a boyfriend (or girlfriend?) and calling her hair a "perpetual bad hair-day" and so on. You have some celebrating how much she's a badass and a strong independent girl who can handle herself, which to Yulaan seems like needless aggrandizing flattery.

It's like, imagine if some really macho gangster/mafioso, Yakuza member, whatever, imagine they go to another planet where men are treated like princesses and are widely viewed as a beautiful, elegant, and romantic sex. Probably wouldn't know how to react, would he? That's Yulaan.

And do recall the kagoras.

Planet Vegeta likely would not see anything like the vroda kagora, as the Vegetan women seem to be more in line with "strong-willed and often physically super-strong women" as opposed to bollois.

~PajamaJames

An infographic about the city of Atomsk on Planet Kollidor, starring the Titanist teacher and martial arts master Amota Kundorog

Atomsk is renowned on Kollidor and off-planet alike as one of the great landmarks of this particular stellar system, though tourism is discouraged unless you're simply coming to watch one of the many blood-fights taking place.

Atomsk is not a very welcoming place on any given day, and never was supposed to be much more than a hive of villainy and evildoers.

The original inciting idea for Atomsk dates back to 2015 around the time of the proto-Yabanverse, when I imagined the idea of what cities and cultures on Planet Vegeta might be like and inevitably came upon the idea that, if Saiyan women were so strong-willed and allegedly mighty, surely Saiyan Amazons had to exist in no-small number (respective to the small population of Saiyans, that is) and they must have formed their own spaces. Indeed, while I did not like Gine very much, one thing many people oft overlook about her and the implication of Saiyan non-combatants is that it appears that Saiyans are not leisurely like humans (or Tsufruians). Saiyans did not have air-travel, mini-malls, or cappuccinos— Gine, despite being a complete weakling, still seemed to be part of the Vegetan proletariat, suggesting that if nothing else, Saiyans were almost entirely segregated between workers and warriors with no other real definable classes— there didn't seem to be artisans, consumers, farmers, etc (then again, Toriyama never concerned himself with worldbuilding, so that might just be the implication). Either way, the point I took away was that if Saiyan women were indeed generally weaker than Saiyan men and less cut out for combat as Toriyama seemed to imply, that still meant they were almost entirely laborers, and not even service or professionals like we tend to view human women as being, but rather legitimately heavy laborers much like blue-collar men.

Of course, again, there is no actual evidence of this, only headcanon, but like with so many other ideas, I ran with this for the Yabans to create bollois (whose name literally stems to "industrial/heavy laborer person"). Heavy/blue collar laborer culture tends to share many similarities across the world, being very macho and tough, so that bled into those early ideas for bollois as well, leading directly to the current conception of them. And a side effect of that was the idea that bollois would be the primary builders of whatever cities were on the otherwise primeval, ultra-ultraviolent planet of Kollidor, and if that was the case, it just felt natural for some kind of "Martian Rome" aesthetic for them.

The general rule of thumb that "if bollois were male, we'd call this for what it really is" remains in play here. Atomsk being the "Anti-Themyscira" doesn't mean it's a rival city-state to Themyscira or anything, but that its context and values contrasts so sharply with Themyscira that it shows the difference in mindset between bollois and women.

1. titanism w/ your old droog (9/10)

2. iron mic (8/10)

3. 4 matic (10/10)

4. love n hate (8/10)

5. job well done w/ your old droog (9/10)

6. countless nights endless days (7/10)

7. 61 in a game (5/10)

8. checkers w/ your old droog (10/10)

9. owj (8/10)

10. stay down till you come up (3/10)

11. drivin me crazy (8/10)

12. tha last shot (7/10)

ranking: B+ tier

a great album from tha god fahim

if you like: ankhlejohn, crimeapple, elcamino, camoflauge monk, flee lord, hus kingpin,

Titanism 101

The titanic orientation of our contemporary humanity is a theme continually referred to and explained by Ernst Jünger and his brother Friedrich Georg. It might be useful to readers to have their vision applied in simple form to a few concrete aspects of our modern world.

According to one interpretation, the etymology of the ancient Greek word "titan" expresses the notion of an "over-stretcher" or over-extender. This expresses the titans' lack of a sense of measure when it comes to expressing power. Put in Nietzsche's terms, titans are motivated by a blind and insatiable will to power: always more to the point of extreme, without a conception of balance, of a point of sufficiency or equilibrium that can be reached and then maintained over time. The gods, who the titans periodically overthrow and briefly manage to keep out of the picture, represent this sense of balance and equilibrium.

It is already clear from this description how civilization in the last couple of centuries has become ever more titanic, beginning in the west but now reaching global extension. According to Jünger, our period is the next return of the titans after that of Imperial Rome. I believe we are slowly starting to understand the dangers of titanic arrogance in man and, at least theoretically and in restricted circles, contemplating a retreat from its unsustainable, inescapably catastrophic approach to existence and also the manner in which the next phase may emerge, a return of order-restoring "gods".

Here then are some superficially explained examples of titanism as it presently manifests.

Economic growth, environmental rape, unhappiness

Along with the intrinsically connected theme of the environment, the stagnant economy is the crisis of the day in the US and Europe, that is, in the titanic avant-garde of our world. It has long been taken for granted that nothing is more important to human welfare than continuous, unlimited economic growth, that higher GNPs and incomes are the critical measures of a country's all-significant entry into modern times and indeed measures of its citizen's physical wellbeing and even happiness. Given this assumption, there is no limit to the level of wealth to be achieved - this is most apparent in the richest western countries where a higher level of material comfort can hardly be imagined, yet growth is still the obsession. Indeed, a vicious circle of ever-intensifying, futile effort is created in this cul-de-sac: as the elusive happiness promised by politicians and scientists remains always around the next corner, behind the next technological improvement or economic upswing, we grow more and more desperate and run even faster down this alley, at whose end not salvation but spiritual and environmental catastrophe await us.

At some point, we titanic westerners also seek patronizingly to aid the "underdeveloped" world with our superior knowledge, though the process actually resembles more an infection of the innocent with our poison, with the seeds of discontent. If such initiatives seem (naively) well-meaning, at a deeper level they function for us as a necessary distraction from our spiritual desperation at the dilemma of "where to go now, now that we have everything and are more miserable than ever."

It may seem that there is no more to criticize in these material ambitions than their futility in providing happiness - given a basic level of comfort and sustenance, happiness is only ever a product of inner harmony and meaning, and not physical luxury. But in fact they bring serious material dangers with them, since economic growth at all costs entails a constantly increasing consumption of energy and natural resources (see F.G. Jünger's The Failure of Technology), to the point of environmental bankruptcy and nest-spoiling. Enter our environmental crisis, nothing more than the inevitable consequence of titanic over-extension and lack of measure. The tragedy here is that titans - we - do not learn through experience, we simply become its victims: we only stop when self-provoked catastrophe stops us dead in our tracks. From Ernst Jünger´s Aladdin's Problem: "We will either be saved by the poet or by fire".

But even the worst imaginable environmental catastrophe would not be the most tragic result of our titanic pretensions: the real tragedy is that they distract us from the spiritual efforts to be made in our personal lives and therefore lead to increasing inner poverty, personal meaninglessness and unhappiness. We put all our hopes in a material salvation and forget the fundamentally spiritual, internal basis of all deeper fulfillment. Indeed, those on the cutting edge of titanism, our wealthy western countries, are undoubtedly not the richest in happiness, and they are almost certainly the most spiritually bankrupt. Aladdin's Problem, "Soon there will be nothing left but the sound of Sheol".

Science

From being a source of spiritually meaningful knowledge in ancient times, science has been degraded by our titanic culture into a mere tool for driving economic growth and invention for its own sake, that is to say, science has been degraded into technology and an insatiable amassing of knowledge. Most scientists would be surprised to hear of times when science sought an absolute knowledge that had spiritual meaning for people, that aided them to achieve inner happiness and not merely physical comfort.

For today's titanic science is interested in knowledge only to the degree that it increases worldly or material power, or, when that is not applicable, as in astronomy for example, that is provides egotistical self-gratification, material to lord it over other titans involved in the same race to nowhere - by the very nature, Titans are competitive. (A low level expression of this is the curious pride the man on the street feels in his knowledge of trivia, which is absolutely useless in every sense except as a potential competitive measure: "I know more than you" - however useless such unintegrated abstract knowledge is.)

This titanic faith in technological science as a cure-all whose saving power always lies tantalizingly around the next corner, with the next technical innovation, is not just arrogant or naive, it can also be deadly; for invention per se has no preference for good or evil ends, and, in an age of spiritual decline, the latter may even emerge more readily than the former. Moreover, when the accidents inevitably happen, they take on technically-empowered proportions: the sinking of the Titanic was an early sign, one with unique symbolic value, but many others have since taken place, including for instance the technical ability of the Nazis to kill and dispose of human beings so efficiently. In this respect, we can only thank our lucky stars that the atomic machinery has never really gotten out of our control.

Art and Culture

As F.G. Jünger points out in The Failure of Technology, titans are incapable of art since they lack its basic prerequisites, a sense of measure. In fact, contemporary art limits itself, with rare exceptions, to pure innovation, novelty, and more often than not has a quite abhorrent effect by its disproportions. Like everything titanic, it aims at a dynamic effect, to be didactic or pornographic, to attract or repel - it has no understanding of the stasis that true art evokes (a la Stendhal effect).

If it has a genuine purpose in the greater process, which surely it does, then for the moment at least, it must be that of the compost heap on which the old used-up forms of old are decomposed and from whose rich substrate new forms can one day sprout. But let us be objective about which stage we are at now - when the new forms emerge, it will already signal the end of the titanic period.

As Ernst Jünger points out in Aladdin's Problem, human culture as such cannot be developed in a titanic society, since culture is based on our treatment of the dead and titans are patently not interested in the dead or anything that has to do with the past and with tradition - they only want to express power and that implies a break with static models of the past;  they live with an existential centre of gravity in becoming and not being. The continuity and being-beyond-time implied by remembrance of the past, by graves and cults of the dead is of no interest or meaning to them.

In this same book, Ernst Jünger speculates that the emergence of a new cult of the dead will be a sign that culture can take root again - and we add that this will necessarily also mark the death throes of our present titanic phase.

"Extremism"

In the essay "Mut und Übermut" from Das Abenteuerliche Herz (2nd Edition), Ernst Jünger speaks of having lost his taste for certain words combined with the prefix "super" (über). As he explains, this prefix has a strong connotation of will power, a belief that the supreme achievement comes from the most intense application of will, and not wisdom - that is, as a result of titanic effort.

(Aside: the fate of the Superman actor Christopher Reeve may be another foolishly clear sign from Cassandra of the destiny of titanic mankind, similar to that other prophecy of hers which Jünger regularly mentions, the sinking of the unsinkable Titanic.)

The trend towards the superlative, in words and actions, has only progressed since that essay was written - today I would suggest that the equivalent word, the appropriate one for the next stage in the pursuit of more, is the adjective "extreme". "Super" has lost its power and now we are forced to use the next and last possibility, the extreme. Thus, in the media, in the lifestyles and productions of the west, we see this word appearing everywhere: extreme sports, extreme sex, extreme nutrition, extreme technology, extreme performance, my toothpaste is even called "extreme mint"!

A seemingly trivial social development that is in fact a frightening omen for our titanic civilization - because the extreme of any linear development (i.e one that does not follow or believe in cyclical patterns) must represent the last stage. There is nowhere to go after this word appears, there can be nothing beyond the extreme, except a precipitous plummet from the cliff we have so fanatically scaled.

Salvation?

This end must logically come, to some unknown degree catastrophically, even if in reality the meta-historical processes involved are not linear but cyclical, so that "the end" is actually only the low point that marks the beginning of a new cycle. Our titanic will power is such that it will drive us to that end without slowing down, and it will thus be more or less disastrous in a material sense. If this much is clear, then the only real task we have today is not to attempt a redemption of the material state of affairs, whose fate is essentially sealed, but rather to prepare spiritually for a passage through the curtains of fire and for the new world that must born on the far side.

In this respect, it may be we in the west who have the main role, for he who leads the way into the pit or cul-de-sac of material power will also be the one who first realizes its futility and so finds the way out.

Ernst Jünger often said that although he might be a pessimist in the short term, "ultimately" he was an optimist. The gods always return - at some point. He ascribed the 21st century to the titans, the 22nd to the gods - for myself, I am not sure that things can last that long.

My first real worldbuilding post.

The Yanus Protocol an agreement between church and state. Originally between Froturn and the Church of Titanius, but later Etrand and Artaburro signed it too. Basically, it states that the Church and the state have their own laws and judge people accordingly on their property, and they shouldn't disturb each other.

Case A: The King of Froturn wants someone executed for treason, but the Church defends the person as innocent. The Church puts the person under its defense, which can mean one of two things: either house arrest in a church/chapel/cathedral or a monastery (in Church property, basically), or exile to a Titanist country with a more religious king... like Etrand.

Case B: The Church condemns someone as a heretic or apostate. The King of Froturn chooses to defend the person as innocent, granting the person immunity from the Church's judgement... in Froturn. The person is then forbidden to enter Church property, and if he goes to a Titanist country with a more religious King - like Etrand - the best case scenario is him getting deported back to Froturn.

Or alternatively, the Church and the state could just make a compromise on the fate of the condemned. More often than not, this happens.

If the Church takes a condemned - condemned by the King - person under its protection, the King doesn't dare to use his soldiers to knock down a monastery's door and kidnap the condemned person, because... that would be a huge scandal resulting in the King's excommunication, massive rebellions, etc.

Likewise, if the King gives someone immunity from the Church’s judgement, and that person travels to a Titanist country with a more religious King, the religious King doesn't usually have that traveller judged by the Church’s laws (executed/imprisoned), because that would cause a diplomatic incident. Instead, he just has the person deported back to the less religious King’s country.

http://ways-of-darkness.sonck.nl/Yanus_Protocol

I think this system is a good system, and is a much better way of separating Church and State than in real-life, where the state keeps pointing a gun at the church, while the church keeps bitching and moaning.