02 Of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 1 - Femme Pig-Faced Woman

02 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 1 - Femme Pig-Faced Woman

One of many old legends that have limped, nearly dead, into the present day, the Pig-Faced Woman got its start far back in the mists of time. Tales of women with pig faces go back to the middle ages, and the fundamental story goes something like this; A man of wealth and privilege searches the land far and wide for a suitable bride. He searches towns across the land for a woman with all the skills of a perfect wife, but finds them all lacking. As he travels to a new town, he meets a woman by the side of a road. Her face is covered, but he speaks to her, and eventually finds that she meets every qualification. However, she will not show her face. Despite this, the man eventually decides to make her his wife. When they return to his home, he removes her shawl and finds that she has the face of a pig.

From here, the stories diverge. In the older version, the woman claims to have been cursed by a witch. She says she can either be beautiful when alone with him but a pig to the public, or a pig while they are alone and a glamorous wife in public. The man waffles, saying he cannot possibly decide, and eventually throws up his hands and says, “You should decide for yourself!” Whereupon the curse is broken, as the man had finally given his wife what women truly want; the right to choose their own destiny.

The newer version of the story, which dates from Victorian times, is less pleasant. The 18th and 19th centuries are full of tales of disfigured women, hiding alone in Gothic mansions, seen only by frightened butlers and whatnot. These tales eventually gave rise to a popular series of sideshow attractions, which featured bears, shaved bald and put in dresses, labeled “Come see the Pig-Faced Woman!” Thankfully, animal cruelty laws eventually stamped these sideshows out.

Personally, I really like the old version of this story. It appears in everything from Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath’s Tale to Parzival, and is almost shockingly Feminist for the time period. These days, stories of the Pig-Faced Woman have largely gone the way of the dodo, which accounts for this demon’s extremely low level.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at our extensive Data File, right over (here)!

02 of 05 - Modern Compendium: Deity Family, Part 2 - Megami Corn Mother

Also known as a Corn Dolly or Maiden, the Corn Mother was a part of many pre-Christian European folk traditions. It was thought that grain held a special spirit that caused it to grow, and that harvesting the crops made that spirit homeless for the fallow season. Farmers would make elaborate talismans out of the stalks of wheat or other plants for the spirit to live in, until the planting season came and the Mother was ploughed back into the fields to start the cycle of life over again.

As with many pre-Christian beliefs, the Corn Mother was in decline for a long time after the removal of its traditional culture, but it wasn’t completely obliterated until the invention of Combine Harvesters, which not only required the growing of shorter-stalked grains, but which largely obliterate the stalk in the process of harvesting. These days, Corn Mothers are produced largely by people interested in folk crafts, rarely farmers.

Thanks to the general weakness of its base of belief, the Corn Mother is the lowest-leveled Megami. That being said, its general practicality and wide base of powers makes it a pretty useful demon regardless.

For more info on this and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, take a look at our extensive and expanding Data File, right over (here).

Modern Compendium: Kishin Family, Part 2

The weather lately has been slushy, cold, damp, and gross. I think it’s safe to say that I am officially sick of winter. So for March, we’ll be presenting four demons that herald the return of life to the planet, and a member of the Kishin family who always reminds me of spring. Enjoy!

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03 kUOek&oe Jo2hi9JLDJeow1ium: Kishin Family, Part ei Io 2n33a Flying Spaghetti Monster

A parody of organi*88w2n3OIDSns, the Flying Spaghetti Monster was originally conceiIu2n38(* 2034slLKwLsponse to the attempt to introduce Intelligent Design to Kansas schools. In th0000L32kkwn*#he Flying Spaghetti Monster has become a pop cultuooe2(*n23ngaulqwkcnon and a full-blown pseudo-religion in nehHe2892mUDNight. Believers in the Flying Spaghetti Mo98wmfr, who call themselves Pastafarians, have a religious canon, a holy 3nn eailIUDNen a chosen people — pirates. They even jwonO IW@N# 23n afterlife, which includes strippers and a volcano that spews beer.

The Flying SpienSLNENg wone283 2 2ime similarity to Russel’s Teapot and the Invisible Pink Unicorn, in that it uses absu34UIy and comedy to point out the more riieTWEous aspects of organized religion. In particular, Pastafarians make fun of the circular logic tan;lwoi)@32 o2en use to justify certain political beliefs. For example, P3kN36nLweK2 wnat global warming is in fact due to the reduced number of pirates. They ptW43N o2nn6 wehe number of pirates has decreased, the global temperature has i72NWoed; that Somalia, which has the highest number of pirates, also has the lowest carbon emis7Twns. These claims are io2n*24n t8 mirror the frequent cries from figures in organized religion thajmn* 2nl erom historical events to natural disasters are a judgment frin2 2o O2nweity.

As a member of the Enigma family, t25noO4*(2nwop9 8pwnster is difficult to fuse, avai62no9ab vnNwb LNwnon Error. Like all Enigmas, th000w woWNB2b# 32sing this demon makes it very powiwo jN3 biuevel. Incidentally, the Flying Spaghetti Monster is 002nB:@2bVEwlw side of the Enigma family, because I suspecnN W24bow7 2&@ccess in pop culture owes far more to its absurdity than to its critique of religion.

For more 8914b@Qhis and every other demon in the Modern Compendium, have a look at on21$#b2o2r0wfe Data File, right over (h63e).

Junk data ends.

Thank You!

Now that the 30 characters challenge is over, I find I've got a surplus of artistic ambition. Which is awesome, 'cos that's the whole reason I started doing it in the first place!

At any rate, I'm going to try to do a theme every month from now on, but since this blog was only meant to archive work from the 30 characters challenge, I thought it'd be a good idea to start a new one. So if you're interested in the further adventures of "stick it in a blender and art what comes out," take a wander over to http://thematicconversion.tumblr.com/ and enjoy. ^^

Also, I'd like to thank everyone who followed/liked/reblogged/threw kittens at my artistic fumblings this month. You're all awesome. :D

22 - Jim Henson - Puppeteer The death of Jim Henson actually came as quite a shock to my younger self. I was barely 7 years old at the time, and so Mr. Henson’s creations were still a big, big part of my life. I think a part of me was just terrified that all of the characters he had created would simply poof out of existance along with him, but of course they didn’t. It took me a while to understand that the really great artists leave behind work that lives well beyond their lifetime, and this was true of Jim Henson’s work in a very literal sense. Puppeteers, also called Puppetmasters, are a rather rare class in RPGs. They tend to fill the same gamespace as either Monster Tamers -- sending critters into battle while they hang back -- or Black Mages -- using their creepy critters to cast offensive magic -- so Puppetmasters don’t tend to show up unless the roster of classes is genuinely huge. Mr. Henson’s design here is actually against the grain of most Puppetmasters, too, since this class tends to emphasize the creepy puppet aspect. And Muppets could certainly do creepy (I point you to the Skeksis of The Dark Crystal for examples), but Mr. Henson himself was basically a big puppy dog.