Quick Paintings On Infinite Painter. In The Second Version I Added Some Giant Lovecraftian Jellyfish

I just could your Dreamer stuff and I absolutely love it as a fan of the Carcosa mythos and SCP. My question is, what are some of the differences between Carcosa as and Allagada in this world, as one is very inspired by the other?

I am so happy you like it! I'll try to do my best to answer your question.

When I started the project I knew that I wanted to include both Alagadda and Carcosa, despite their strong similarities (I just had to paint them both, their aesthetic is just so perfect), so I ended up making some... bold choices in the matter of worldbuilding.

Carcosa exists as the lost city from the "King in Yellow". Once a thriving metropolis ruled by the sister-queens known as Cassilda and Camilla, now it's the place where Hastur lies dead-dreaming like the other Great Old Ones.

Alagadda has no direct ties to the Great Old Ones, nor with the Outer Gods, though it still is part of the Dream of Azathoth (or rather its equivalent in this story). It is an inversion of Carcosa in many ways, its mirror image. Alagadda was created (I think I borrowed the idea from Theology of a Snake, by Sunnyclockwork) when a man tried to reach apotheosis under the guidance of a mysterious entity, but was tricked and failed, becoming a negation of godhood, a "god-shaped hole". Everyone else paid the price, of course. Through this failure and from the binding of this Anti-god, Alagadda became what it is now, the city of Alchemists. Alagadda is to Carcosa something like what antimatter is to matter. The Great Old Ones and the Outer Gods cannot enter its dimension because it would mean mutual destruction.

One of the main themes of this project is the struggle between the overwhelming forces of the universe and the desire of mortals to become their own gods in order to free themselves. Carcosa and Alagadda in a way represent a worst case scenario for both sides.

Carcosa is now mainly uninhabited. Only the servants of the King in Yellow, and what remains of the fallen dreamers the King snatched from the Dreamlands remain (there is a reason why the Great Old Ones are kidnapping dreamers, I swear). It is visited still, by madmen and artists, that chase it in their dreams. Most of those who reach it never leave. Those who manage to return are broken. Mortals were never made for godhood.

Alagadda is as we see it in the SCP article by Metaphysician, but there are some changes that I had to make for the sake of the story, for example when the Dreamer first arrives at Alagadda, the Black Lord hasn't been banished yet. I and @amyma-ymamy also made up quite a lot of random lore to try and pull off some Alagaddan politics (because politics is fun).

I hope this makes some kind of sense, because the whole thing is still a work in progress.

(Also apologies for any spelling mistakes or weird syntax, English is not my first language.)

I downloaded the book Unhumans: The secret history of communist revolutions (and how to stop them) by Jack Posobiec. (Thanks oceanofpdf.) This is the book that the current USA Vice President wrote a blurb for, so I expected it to have its finger on the pulse of the current fascist ideology in USA.

The thesis is like this: Communists, leftists, progressives, and revolutionaries in general are "unhumans:" zombie-like, hollow shells of people with rabies-style senseless violence and hatred toward civilization and order.

The book proposes essentially that leftist ideology is worthless to engage with, because it does not exist. The Left is purely driven by hatred and jealousy of people it characterizes as oppressors, and this manifests in a completely nihilistic urge to kill and destroy.

The book opens with this melodramatic meditation on Darkness and Light, the opposing forces of beauty, truth and goodness versus ugliness, lies and badness. These "good" and "bad" forces are eternal, and the "bad" force is kept in check by "civilization."

"Communism" is a manifestation of the "bad" force. Key to the book's argument is an apparent presumption that human society is meritocratic. Though the book acknowledges that yes, Russian peasants had miserable lives and good reason to be resentful towards the tsar, it seems to show that people who revolt against "oppressors" or the more powerful are acting according to the "bad" force, by seizing power through violence rather than "earning" it.

I don't think the author is saying that all human societies have had merit-based systems of upward social mobility; I think he just thinks that seizing power or property through revolt and societal upheaval is always bad because it isn't "earned," regardless of whether a mechanism to "earn" exists.

Which is where we get to the weird part. Much of the book is a retelling of history, specifically various revolutionary movements including the French, Russian, and Haitian revolutions and the end of apartheid in South Africa.

The author seems to characterize revolutionary movements as generally bad. "Well, how was the American Revolution different?" one wonders. The book doesn't answer this at length. In fact, it doesn't have a chapter or subchapter dedicated to the American Revolution the way it does with other revolutions.

Here is a quote from page 31:

...this ubiquitous belief that no one culture or society is better than another so can’t we all just get along. And yet no country or people on earth lived in such a way naturally for all of history. When mass migration dilutes and unbalances a shared culture, there is one force alone powerful enough to hold it all together: an all-powerful state at the center. Only great empires have maintained multiple ethnic groups living within their borders simultaneously, keeping everyone in line with the overwhelming power of the emperor’s unyielding hand. These were not republics with civil liberties and equal standing for all classes. It is unlikely a republic could exist in such a condition.

From here, he explains that white Americans share a common culture because they all assimilated into an American culture derived from "western civilization", and then swerves into talking about how George Floyd died from a drug overdose actually and bringing in illegal immigrants is a communist plot to tear America apart.

He does not appropriately deal with the shocking meaning of his argument: that a multi-ethnic or multi-cultural nation cannot exist without authoritarian tyranny. This is an amazing departure from the fundamental narrative of the USA's values (whether that narrative is true or not).

By his own admission, either the USA must cease to be a democracy and become an authoritarian autocracy, or the USA must get rid of everyone who isn't a single race, ethnicity and culture, and both of those things are fundamentally contradictory to the Constitution and arguably to the conception of the USA.

The book's proposals for "what to do" to defeat the "unhumans" are pretty anemic and in line with what conservatives are already doing. Unhumans is nothing new in terms of racism and white supremacist ideology; it keeps these things implied in its warped idea of history and the core concept of total dehumanization of anyone and everyone left of hunting the homeless for sport. The book explicitly states that it does not advocate violence, and also explicitly states that this is to prevent "leftists" from using that as a criticism against the book.

I think the author genuinely could be against violence, or at least any violence that isn't directly carried out by the state, but he is also overwhelmingly clear that being a "leftist" is essentially rabies: "leftists" have ceased to be human, they hate all that is human and all that is good, and they systematically work toward destruction as an end in itself.

Unhumans has simple ideas and simple writing, almost to the point of being condescending. It reads like children's books written by adults who are out of touch with children's intelligence and ability to think for themselves. Its worship of Elon Musk as one of the "great men" of history leads to some hysterically funny lines. But I'm afraid it would seem like a great book to someone who doesn't read books.

The first chapter, in particular, is perfectly formulated to appear grounded in wisdom, history and fact to someone who hasn't read anything since high school. It uses a lot of famous quotes on government and democracy, and cites Aristotle and other "big names" in Western thought.

But it doesn't want to introduce its readers to new ideas: it repeatedly urges readers to listen to their automatic and instinctive reactions to the text, saying "You're right" or "You're onto something." It reassures readers of what they "already know," telling them that their gut feelings are correct and any information that might have caused them discomfort or dissonance is part of the communist plot.

I'm not sure what conclusions to draw from all of this. I'll have to think about it more.

Rumors of his death were much exagerated. 1hr sketch. May finish it decently in the future

"Lord Tytos Blackwood met him in the outer ward, mounted on a destrier as gaunt as himself. Very tall and very thin, the Lord of Raventree had a hook nose, long hair, and a ragged salt and pepper beard that showed more salt than pepper. In silver inlay on the breastplate of his burnished scarlet armor was a white tree bare and dead, surrounded by a flock of onyx ravens taking flight. A cloak of raven feathers fluttered from his shoulders"

Luthien Tinuviel, one of my favorite badass ladies in the Silmarillion.... this is only the basic greyscale-ish stage, and I still have to put in the background, colors, light and a billion billions details , but I still like how this is turning out.

House Martell. New ASOAIF fanart for Great Houses.

Mindless ASOIAF doodles. 15yo sadboy Rhaegar, Aerys Targaryen wandering the halls in nightclothes because evil prophetic dreams tm are driving him insane (literally), a very uninpressed 15yo Arthur Dayne as a squire (sometimes I headcanon him as Barristan s squire. If only to make so that sadboy R. had a friend before 20). I think I'll do some fun illustration with these three as soon as I choose the definitive design.

Imagine having The Beatles sing you to sleep.

The first meeting of Aro and Carlisle Cullen, inspired by "the surrender of Breda" by Velàzquez.

It's a work in progress and I am not sure this is the way I evision the characters, but I like it quite a lot.

I blame (thank) @thecarnivorousmuffinmeta and @therealvinelle and their lovely metas and fics for turning me, a diehard twilight hater, in a Aro/Carlisle fan.

@s4dr4cc00n this Is the screenshot, I apologize for the delay🙃

One of the most unhinged couples in rock history.

JohnandYoko from a screenshot of "Get back" where they looked VERY cryptid-like.