Invocation of Aries
Spring is here.
New year. New season. New cycle. New start.
Spirit of Aries, cardinal flame, I invite you to make your mark upon me, to empower and impassion, to see the possible as possible, to look at what is not and imagine what could be.
Xalki, caster, thank you for sharing space in your foundry. Your work is aspirational, your pieces a source of wonder. May my own efforts delight and inspire others as yours have touched me.
The Work Continues.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery Can I ask questions about some of the content here? :)
Invocation of Aries
@indi Of course.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery So, "Xalki" sounds like it's referencing calcination, but here seems personified? I have found that there is a Hephaestus epithet "Χαλκεύς" which actually seems to refer to copper and now I'm just here boggling over the apparent similarity between that and calcine, even knowing the latter via calx and wondering if these are false cognates or there's just some strange deep PIE route between them.
Invocation of Aries
@indi Xalki is... a personal goddess? So, at some point I should write this up in long form, but I had a pretty deep trip after reading a bunch of stuff about Greek myth and envisioned a trans narrative around Hephaestus -- maker of female forms, "disfigured," delicate soul with emotional trauma, artisan in ways other gods weren't, at the time -- that's been slowly reworking my ideas about the rest of the gods.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery I'd be VERY interested to hear more, since this sounds like it relates to some of my deity explorations too.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery And per the name and such, I take it everything I mentioned in my ramble was not news to you, and you found the same little fascinating linguistic rabbit hole as well?
Invocation of Aries
@indi "Χαλκεύς" means "coppersmith," and was one of [Hephaestus'] unquestioningly positive epithets, a recognition of [his] craftwork. Wiktionary says "etymology uncertain" for χαλκός (https://en.wiktionary.org/wiki/%CF%87%CE%B1%CE%BB%CE%BA%CF%8C%CF%82#Ancient_Greek) and I haven't done enough scholarly diving to assert any deeper links.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery Yeah, found that and then from the other end calcination -> calx -> greek khalix (presumably Χαλιξ), "small pebble" (ref: http://www.etymonline.com/index.php?term=chalk) and then I wondered if we're into false-cognate territory or something deeper about the places that copper was found, or the appearance of the ore.
Invocation of Aries
@indi I'd need about ten years to go do deep linguistic research to find out. I mean, I'd love to know; it's a fascinating question, but in the meantime, I'm content drawing on the false-cognate in a literary sense, drawing on my other tradition, and using it because it carries the right mouthfeel, even as I note "this is fictional; do your homework" in the sidebar.
"Real mages hate her! Discover her One Weird Trick that shaves years off of her initiatory dissertations!"
Invocation of Aries
@indi Ideally I would be writing it as Χάλκη, but I struggle with the sense that I don't speak enough Greek to justify the pretension and I don't have enough Sofi finished to do the whole thing in my own conlang. So, I compromise.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery Also, playing catch-up here (this post is what reminded me to talk about gods more broadly, since you reminded me here how much more coplex Hephaestus is than just 'forge-god' (as you clearly know too)) -- Remind me please sometime to tell you about one of the Wanderer-Gods I'm starting to learn about now, the Sculptor-of-Pieces. It sounds like there might be a lot of commonalities here.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery (And I know, just because I said 'wanderers,' that you're already getting revved up to come up with planetary associations. ;))
Invocation of Aries
@indi **laughs** To be fair, I've been thinking about how mine map in that fashion. Kind of hard not to at least wonder how the overlaps work out. :)
Invocation of Aries
@indi I look forward to hearing about that one, and sharing my own thoughts on it all.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery Also maybe you can help me get astronomy to work in Downwarp. ;)
Invocation of Aries
@indi See, I'd think astronomy in Down would be based on the signal towers on the skyscrapers, and which ones are one or off at any given time. Planes and satellites as the new comets, visibly moving lights in the sky bringing change with them. The stars -- bright lights in the sky -- work against any backdrop. =n.n=
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery Yeah, the signal-towers thing has occurred to me too. Definitely feels like it's missing a moon though.
Invocation of Aries
@literorrery Sorry, that got a bit off-track. c.c; Um. Actual question being, are you starting to do entity work, and is Xalki a previously-attested one under a new name, or a discovery/formation of yours? :)