The Asari Mahabharata
anonymous
December 11 2012, 06:40:53 UTC
This anon would love to see a Mahabharata-style epic about the mythic origins of the primordial asari republics.
Demigod daughters of the ancient asari goddess, Kurinth, Tevura, Janiri, Piares, whatever. Warriors and poets, sisters and rivals--founders of the great poleis. Fighting to claim their destiny and birthright as the rightful rulers of Thessia.
I want the most gratuitous and over-the-top pulp your devious mind can conjure. Magical spears. Invincible steeds. Mysterious prophecies. Miracles and omens. Priestesses philosophizing on mountaintops. Harrowing quests of both body and spirit.
Make it bloody: chopping off heads, hamstringing entire city-states, salt sown into the earth, slaughtering the first born, you name it.
Make it erotic: topless blue breasted Asari everywhere, harems, consorts, body-slaves, orgies with Janiri and Tevura themselves, this is a kink meme--you know what to do.
Give me a devious Ardat-Yakshi villainess sitting on a throne of skulls, fucking to death the nubile maidens who have been offered up as virgin sacrifices, terrifying the land and its people with an outstretched hand and eyes black as pitch.
Seriously, I will help co-write it, I want it so bad, but I'm currently in the middle of another massive project. If someone does this, I...I will give you teh babies. ALL OF THEM.
Re: The Asari Mahabharata
anonymous
December 15 2012, 01:56:41 UTC
I love this prompt. So much.
I really want to fill this but it might take a bit before I've got enough done to start putting it up. So if another anon wants a crack at it I will give them SO MANY COOKIES
The Emathiapania (The Motherhood of Pania)
anonymous
December 17 2012, 07:55:23 UTC
OP here, to the anon who said they're gonna start filling this OMG I LOVE YOU SO SO MUCH. SERIOUSLY. Can not fucking wait for you to start posting--let me live to see my dream of an all-killing-all-fucking-blue-boobie-bouncing Robert E. Howard/John Norman asari sword and planet fest--only with less sexism (kinda). So to hold us all over, I took a stab at it cause the idea wouldn't leave me the fuck alone. So I give to you...
And Abridged Version of the Enluula Nerish (The Founding Cycle), section from the The Emathiapania (The Motherhood of Pania):
Hear me, oh, muses, handmaidens of lovely Athame, bless this night, bless this assembly, and this your humble servant, so we might glorify your name for a thousand and one generations to come, till Kralla’s black fingers darken the skies, stretching forth to devour maiden, matron and matriarch alike.
I sing of the mighty Pania, consort to the goddesses, noble founder of Armali, the first and greatest of poleis, mother of the five zaffre sisters--half mortal, half divine.
I sing of these, her honored daughters, earthly counterparts of their heavenly fathers. Their rivalry matched only by their love for one another.
Listen, and you will hear, how when in their prime, the five Princesses were exiled through trickery and robbed of their thrones. How the first city suffered calamity at the hands of vile Moggdra, the Void Eyed Queen, and how civilization was nearly extinguished before it ever began.
I tell us the tale, the great and terrible tale, so that we might never again court the yoke, and bow our neck to tyrants.
When the world was young, and sky not yet named, there lived a maiden on the waters edge in the land of knotted trees. She was wild and beautiful, but she was also wise and generous, peerless among all Thessia’s children. Her songs could soothe the colicky of babes to the fiercest of demons, so lovely were her voice. Many longed to be the father of her daughters, but she refused them all. Everyday a new suitor would arrive, seeking her companionship. And each day she would best them, in either combat or wits. They would fall at her feet, and kiss the hem of her skirt, pleading with her to take them as her consort.
But her reply always remained the same: “No, I will not.” She would say. “For I am Pania the many splendored! And I stand alone!”
Decades past, yet none could sway the most excellent voiced maiden. Until a day when one of her admirers sought assistance from on high. Lovesick and forlorn, she beat her breasts and beseeched the forever maiden Tevura--youngest of the goddesses, and closest to mortals--to hear her plea and aid her in winning Pania’s hand.
Tevura heard the scorned girl’s mournful cries and, curious, came down to see what was the matter. She raised herself from her lover’s thighs, and gathered the grieving girl who had invoked her name into her arms.
“Why do you weep, young one?” The thrice adroit patron asked. “Come, tell me what troubles you, and in my dark eyes you will not wail in sorrow.”
“O, radiant Tevura, most excellent of lovers, silver-tongued wanderer of the world who blesses us with her gifts of passion! All drink deep of your generosity, but there is one who knows not of your boundless glory. For she has sealed her heart and will yield to none.”
“Poor girl!” Tevura laughed, “Such a wretched existence must not be allowed to stand! I will go down to warm her body and melt her cold heart. So shall the goddess of love teach love to the unbelieving.”
Then Tevura, the eternal maiden, went down to the land of knotted trees, in search of Pania, the asari who had forsaken companionship.
She found her, sleeping beneath the daphnic tree, resting in its cool shade from the midday heat. Her brow relaxed and peaceful in slumber.
Re: The Emathiapania (The Motherhood of Pania) 2/2
anonymous
December 17 2012, 07:57:59 UTC
Upon seeing the beauty, Tevura fell immediately in love. For in all her wanderings, never had see seen such a creature. The Ever Maiden desired Pania greatly, and, impatient with lust, leaned down and kissed her dark purple lips.
In sleep, Pania, the many splendored’s body responded to the great love goddess’s touch. She arched upwards into expert hands, breasts heaving. And Tevura, overcome with need, reached out to embrace the maiden who had hardened her heart.
Pania startled awake at Tevura’s bold action, and she struck her across the mouth. “Such arrogance!” cried Pania. “I will not embrace you, no more then I would embrace any other suitor! Do you think that because you are a goddess I will simply lie upon my back and fall into your dusky eyes?”
And Tevura the wayfarer, swift-tongued orator of the road, was speechless. Never before had anyone refused her advances. Understood she now, her war maiden sister’s passion of the hunt, the trill of pursuit.
“If you will not have me, Pania many splendored, then tell me, how is it that I may become closer to you?”
Pania considered this, and replied, “I will not be your lover, but I will be your friend. And you may travel the world by my side, so long as you wish.”
So for many years, Pania and Tevura travelled the rivers and roads together, seeking adventure, from the highest mountains to lowest of desert valleys. Until at long last, one night while they sleep side by side beside the campfire, Tevura turned to Pania and said:
“I wished to conquer you, but instead you have conquered me. If you will not have me, then I must leave your side, For my soul breaks so long as I am in your presence, and you are not mine. For I love you deeply, and wish only to see you happy.”
Awed by the rakish goddess’s humility, Pania at last accepted Tevura, embraced her into her bosom, and came to know what was in her heart.
And where they once travelled as friends they now travelled as companions, until at long last, Pania came to rest at the side of the grazing hill, where she allowed the maidens of the village to remove the calluses of her feet.
But Tevura the wayfarer could not stay in one place for long, for while she was ever young, she was ever restless. The goddess and her mortal lover parted, heart-broken, but with neither ill-will nor malice. She could not swear she would return, for prophecy was the domain of her eldest sister, but if fate deemed their paths should cross again she would weep with joy.
The night before Tevura was to leave again for the winding road, Pania embraced her lover once more, and wrote within herself all that which she felt and adored of the Ever Maiden.
So it came to past that Pania the excellent voiced birthed the first of her five daughters. She called the child Kalkedah, and like her father, she was clever and mishievous, and all the maidens and matrons of the village adored her.
For a time, Pania, the many splendored, now Matron, lived with her daughter in the village. Under her watchful eye and steady hand, she guided the people, and they grew ever more numerous and prosperous. Until a year came when misfortune was visited upon them in the form the storm-bringer Janiri, Death’s bright twin. And mighty Pania was once more called to stand for her people.
[End Excerpt]
Contemporary 12-Year Old Translation:
Inconsequential character in poetical epic who clearly thinks this is her story: Teruva! I’m butt hurt and need a hug! Teruva: Awww, you’re so woobie! Come here and let me fuck it better. Inconsequential whiny character: This virgin bitch just broke my heart! Teruva: Virgin bitch you say? Challenge accepted! With my magical vagina I shall cure her of her frigidity! Inconsequential character: But, wait...I thought...you... Teruva: Huh, did somebody say something? Inconsequential character: Oh, never mind. I’m pretty sure I’m just a plot device.
Later...
Teruva: Holy shit-kicker fuck balls! You’re wicked hot! Pania: Harassment isn’t something society recognizes yet, but if it did, you’d be doing it. Teruva: But...my magical vagina...! Pania: ...has been friend-zoned. Teruva: Damn it.
Re: The Emathiapania (The Motherhood of Pania) 2/2
anonymous
December 17 2012, 14:51:25 UTC
This is fantastic! It really reads like an ancient text, and I could weirdly see it as an actual part of ancient asari religion. What would it take to convince you to continue this, OP?
Long winded response is loooooooooooong!
anonymous
December 18 2012, 06:01:40 UTC
That other project I mentioned sucks away all my attention, so I’m not sure how much time I could devote to this :( Besides, this flowery Proto-Indo-European style knock-off is not nearly awesome enough for all the sex and violence :)
I’d need to create some sort of framing device, and what I’d end up doing is writing up a huge piece that examined the socio-political dynamics of the asari republics that was vaguely hinted at in game, and extrapolate outwards from there using religion as the lens.
I’d want to explore how the religions changed and adapted to the presence of the Protheans (my headcanon is that the shift to Athame worship as a monotheistic religion is directly tied to the Prothean arrival, cause, well, there is a precedent for that--the colonizer will always hijack the religious values, stories, and structures of the colonized, either devaluing them, reconstructing them to fit their views of what is socially acceptable, or silencing them entirely. For examples, see the Mesoamerican beliefs and the arrival of the Spaniards, or hell--since we are referencing the Mahabharata--the strategies used by British rule to divide and conqueror using the “weird and backwards local faith” to justify themselves). How that Prothean colonialist attitude they brought was internalized, by all appearances (considering the culture and economic monopoly they have), Armali, and how that affected the republics pre- and post-Citadel. It would also allow me to deconstruct some very real issues I saw in Western South/South East Asian academia, which often leans towards some disturbingly Imperialist/Orientalist tendencies (please don’t ask me why I’d dredge this up in a goddamn fanfic, let’s just chalk it up to I’m crazy and leave it at that, yes?).
Like when Javik is going all, “WE TAUGHT YOU HOW TO FEED AND CLOTHE YOURSELVES, FUCKIN’ SAVAGES!”
No, Javik, sweetie, you taught them how to feed and clothe themselves like Protheans. Which is of course the only acceptable way to feed and clothe oneself, right, Javik?
“Oh, asari have finally mastered written language.” Well, why the fuck would they need too?! You got a thousand year old history book that you can just walk up to and ask, right fucking there!
Basically, much like the Mahabharata or the Ramayana, which are every inch a part of a living tradition, I figure that the asari/turians/salarians/all the other little aliens, have religions that are likewise exoticized by their dominate cultures (except the Quarians. The Quarians are more or less Jews and let’s not even try to pretend otherwise). I would want to write something that acknowledged that, instead of making something fun.
*sigh* So, this is also why I desperately hope the above anon fills this prompt, cause seriously, who the fuck cares about all that? I just wanna see asari warrior women fighting, fucking and generally being awesome! Tevura the pimp! Vylius the trickster, and Kralla the demoness! Piares returning the dead to life! GIMME GIMME! ERRMAGAHHHH!” *splooging everywhere*
Demigod daughters of the ancient asari goddess, Kurinth, Tevura, Janiri, Piares, whatever. Warriors and poets, sisters and rivals--founders of the great poleis. Fighting to claim their destiny and birthright as the rightful rulers of Thessia.
I want the most gratuitous and over-the-top pulp your devious mind can conjure. Magical spears. Invincible steeds. Mysterious prophecies. Miracles and omens. Priestesses philosophizing on mountaintops. Harrowing quests of both body and spirit.
Make it bloody: chopping off heads, hamstringing entire city-states, salt sown into the earth, slaughtering the first born, you name it.
Make it erotic: topless blue breasted Asari everywhere, harems, consorts, body-slaves, orgies with Janiri and Tevura themselves, this is a kink meme--you know what to do.
Give me a devious Ardat-Yakshi villainess sitting on a throne of skulls, fucking to death the nubile maidens who have been offered up as virgin sacrifices, terrifying the land and its people with an outstretched hand and eyes black as pitch.
Seriously, I will help co-write it, I want it so bad, but I'm currently in the middle of another massive project. If someone does this, I...I will give you teh babies. ALL OF THEM.
Reply
I can't offer babies, but I can offer cookies. Really, really good cookies.
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
Reply
I really want to fill this but it might take a bit before I've got enough done to start putting it up. So if another anon wants a crack at it I will give them SO MANY COOKIES
Reply
And Abridged Version of the Enluula Nerish (The Founding Cycle), section from the The Emathiapania (The Motherhood of Pania):
Hear me, oh, muses, handmaidens of lovely Athame, bless this night, bless this assembly, and this your humble servant, so we might glorify your name for a thousand and one generations to come, till Kralla’s black fingers darken the skies, stretching forth to devour maiden, matron and matriarch alike.
I sing of the mighty Pania, consort to the goddesses, noble founder of Armali, the first and greatest of poleis, mother of the five zaffre sisters--half mortal, half divine.
I sing of these, her honored daughters, earthly counterparts of their heavenly fathers. Their rivalry matched only by their love for one another.
Listen, and you will hear, how when in their prime, the five Princesses were exiled through trickery and robbed of their thrones. How the first city suffered calamity at the hands of vile Moggdra, the Void Eyed Queen, and how civilization was nearly extinguished before it ever began.
I tell us the tale, the great and terrible tale, so that we might never again court the yoke, and bow our neck to tyrants.
When the world was young, and sky not yet named, there lived a maiden on the waters edge in the land of knotted trees. She was wild and beautiful, but she was also wise and generous, peerless among all Thessia’s children. Her songs could soothe the colicky of babes to the fiercest of demons, so lovely were her voice. Many longed to be the father of her daughters, but she refused them all. Everyday a new suitor would arrive, seeking her companionship. And each day she would best them, in either combat or wits. They would fall at her feet, and kiss the hem of her skirt, pleading with her to take them as her consort.
But her reply always remained the same: “No, I will not.” She would say. “For I am Pania the many splendored! And I stand alone!”
Decades past, yet none could sway the most excellent voiced maiden. Until a day when one of her admirers sought assistance from on high. Lovesick and forlorn, she beat her breasts and beseeched the forever maiden Tevura--youngest of the goddesses, and closest to mortals--to hear her plea and aid her in winning Pania’s hand.
Tevura heard the scorned girl’s mournful cries and, curious, came down to see what was the matter. She raised herself from her lover’s thighs, and gathered the grieving girl who had invoked her name into her arms.
“Why do you weep, young one?” The thrice adroit patron asked. “Come, tell me what troubles you, and in my dark eyes you will not wail in sorrow.”
“O, radiant Tevura, most excellent of lovers, silver-tongued wanderer of the world who blesses us with her gifts of passion! All drink deep of your generosity, but there is one who knows not of your boundless glory. For she has sealed her heart and will yield to none.”
“Poor girl!” Tevura laughed, “Such a wretched existence must not be allowed to stand! I will go down to warm her body and melt her cold heart. So shall the goddess of love teach love to the unbelieving.”
Then Tevura, the eternal maiden, went down to the land of knotted trees, in search of Pania, the asari who had forsaken companionship.
She found her, sleeping beneath the daphnic tree, resting in its cool shade from the midday heat. Her brow relaxed and peaceful in slumber.
Reply
In sleep, Pania, the many splendored’s body responded to the great love goddess’s touch. She arched upwards into expert hands, breasts heaving. And Tevura, overcome with need, reached out to embrace the maiden who had hardened her heart.
Pania startled awake at Tevura’s bold action, and she struck her across the mouth. “Such arrogance!” cried Pania. “I will not embrace you, no more then I would embrace any other suitor! Do you think that because you are a goddess I will simply lie upon my back and fall into your dusky eyes?”
And Tevura the wayfarer, swift-tongued orator of the road, was speechless. Never before had anyone refused her advances. Understood she now, her war maiden sister’s passion of the hunt, the trill of pursuit.
“If you will not have me, Pania many splendored, then tell me, how is it that I may become closer to you?”
Pania considered this, and replied, “I will not be your lover, but I will be your friend. And you may travel the world by my side, so long as you wish.”
So for many years, Pania and Tevura travelled the rivers and roads together, seeking adventure, from the highest mountains to lowest of desert valleys. Until at long last, one night while they sleep side by side beside the campfire, Tevura turned to Pania and said:
“I wished to conquer you, but instead you have conquered me. If you will not have me, then I must leave your side, For my soul breaks so long as I am in your presence, and you are not mine. For I love you deeply, and wish only to see you happy.”
Awed by the rakish goddess’s humility, Pania at last accepted Tevura, embraced her into her bosom, and came to know what was in her heart.
And where they once travelled as friends they now travelled as companions, until at long last, Pania came to rest at the side of the grazing hill, where she allowed the maidens of the village to remove the calluses of her feet.
But Tevura the wayfarer could not stay in one place for long, for while she was ever young, she was ever restless. The goddess and her mortal lover parted, heart-broken, but with neither ill-will nor malice. She could not swear she would return, for prophecy was the domain of her eldest sister, but if fate deemed their paths should cross again she would weep with joy.
The night before Tevura was to leave again for the winding road, Pania embraced her lover once more, and wrote within herself all that which she felt and adored of the Ever Maiden.
So it came to past that Pania the excellent voiced birthed the first of her five daughters. She called the child Kalkedah, and like her father, she was clever and mishievous, and all the maidens and matrons of the village adored her.
For a time, Pania, the many splendored, now Matron, lived with her daughter in the village. Under her watchful eye and steady hand, she guided the people, and they grew ever more numerous and prosperous. Until a year came when misfortune was visited upon them in the form the storm-bringer Janiri, Death’s bright twin. And mighty Pania was once more called to stand for her people.
[End Excerpt]
Contemporary 12-Year Old Translation:
Inconsequential character in poetical epic who clearly thinks this is her story: Teruva! I’m butt hurt and need a hug!
Teruva: Awww, you’re so woobie! Come here and let me fuck it better.
Inconsequential whiny character: This virgin bitch just broke my heart!
Teruva: Virgin bitch you say? Challenge accepted! With my magical vagina I shall cure her of her frigidity!
Inconsequential character: But, wait...I thought...you...
Teruva: Huh, did somebody say something?
Inconsequential character: Oh, never mind. I’m pretty sure I’m just a plot device.
Later...
Teruva: Holy shit-kicker fuck balls! You’re wicked hot!
Pania: Harassment isn’t something society recognizes yet, but if it did, you’d be doing it.
Teruva: But...my magical vagina...!
Pania: ...has been friend-zoned.
Teruva: Damn it.
Reply
Reply
I’d need to create some sort of framing device, and what I’d end up doing is writing up a huge piece that examined the socio-political dynamics of the asari republics that was vaguely hinted at in game, and extrapolate outwards from there using religion as the lens.
I’d want to explore how the religions changed and adapted to the presence of the Protheans (my headcanon is that the shift to Athame worship as a monotheistic religion is directly tied to the Prothean arrival, cause, well, there is a precedent for that--the colonizer will always hijack the religious values, stories, and structures of the colonized, either devaluing them, reconstructing them to fit their views of what is socially acceptable, or silencing them entirely. For examples, see the Mesoamerican beliefs and the arrival of the Spaniards, or hell--since we are referencing the Mahabharata--the strategies used by British rule to divide and conqueror using the “weird and backwards local faith” to justify themselves). How that Prothean colonialist attitude they brought was internalized, by all appearances (considering the culture and economic monopoly they have), Armali, and how that affected the republics pre- and post-Citadel. It would also allow me to deconstruct some very real issues I saw in Western South/South East Asian academia, which often leans towards some disturbingly Imperialist/Orientalist tendencies (please don’t ask me why I’d dredge this up in a goddamn fanfic, let’s just chalk it up to I’m crazy and leave it at that, yes?).
Like when Javik is going all, “WE TAUGHT YOU HOW TO FEED AND CLOTHE YOURSELVES, FUCKIN’ SAVAGES!”
No, Javik, sweetie, you taught them how to feed and clothe themselves like Protheans. Which is of course the only acceptable way to feed and clothe oneself, right, Javik?
“Oh, asari have finally mastered written language.” Well, why the fuck would they need too?! You got a thousand year old history book that you can just walk up to and ask, right fucking there!
Basically, much like the Mahabharata or the Ramayana, which are every inch a part of a living tradition, I figure that the asari/turians/salarians/all the other little aliens, have religions that are likewise exoticized by their dominate cultures (except the Quarians. The Quarians are more or less Jews and let’s not even try to pretend otherwise). I would want to write something that acknowledged that, instead of making something fun.
*sigh* So, this is also why I desperately hope the above anon fills this prompt, cause seriously, who the fuck cares about all that? I just wanna see asari warrior women fighting, fucking and generally being awesome! Tevura the pimp! Vylius the trickster, and Kralla the demoness! Piares returning the dead to life! GIMME GIMME! ERRMAGAHHHH!” *splooging everywhere*
Reply
If you managed to get out more epic poetry please share it, the snippet you put up was fabulous and the explenation of the ideas just as much so!
Reply
Sci-fi often takes on huge moral issues, so why shouldn't fanfic of a sci-fi game?
Reply
Reply
Reply
Leave a comment