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Posted on 2020-12-08 23:49:17 by tangerine
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tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:51:31 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
https://desuarchive.org/trash/thread/34545144#34608342
tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:51:43 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
>"Do you not fear the darkness?" the voice asked.
>It sounded from before and behind them, as if at once from a great distance and from within. Acomys had never heard such a voice. It made the fear flutter in his chest; but he was proud and confident, and he gripped his scythe tighter in his paws.
>"For what should we fear?" He demanded. "Our blades are sharp and our cloaks are warm. Our tools have made us masters of this valley."
>"You forget the way of things," the voice told him. "What use is a blade against something you can't see?"
>Then a wind rushed down the stone mountain, so ferocious that Acomys cowered in the rocks and hid his muzzle. When he dared to look out again, his companion Kivumys was gone, vanished without a trace.
>Now the terror seized Acomys, and he turned to escape back down the mountain and into the trees and grass of the valley, where it was safe.
>But as he leapt from rock to rock and scurried between the boulders, the wind bit at him and made his limbs leaden and slow. He began to falter.
>"No borrowed warmth can stand against the cold forever," the voice said.
>Acomys came to a narrow defile in the rocks, where the way was blocked.
>He turned and demanded, "Show yourself!"
>"As you wish," the voice on the cold wind replied.
>The clouds in the sky cleared away from the moon, and Acomys beheld in horror the shattered mountain rearing above him, and the field of bleached mouse bones that made up its slopes.
>And when he made to flee, there lighting before him on a low branch across the path was the nightmare visage of Nyctea.
- Even in modern examples, there is little evidence that avian intelligence approaches that of mammals.
- While Nyctea's depiction here is mythological, cultural taxologists believe his characterization mirrors important existential pressures of the time.
tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:51:59 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
>"This is my domain," the owl told him, and spread his wings to cover the whole sky. His eyes became two silvery stars. "This is the great and terrible secret that you were never meant to see."
>The wind rushed again and Acomys was pinned in the dirt by razor talons, far more fearsome than any reaping tool.
>"You forget your place," Nyctea said. "You flout the laws I set your forebears."
>"Great Owl," said Acomys, "Spare me! Let me go, and I will agree to your laws."
>"My laws were set far before your time," Nyctea replied. "They were fixed, to be as the sun rises in the day, and the moon in the night. They were never to be broken. And yet here you are."
>"Please, Great One." Acomys threw away his scythe in appeasement. "Set me free, and I will never leave home again."
>"Indeed, you will not." Nyctea released him, but his talons caught and shredded the cloak from Acomys' shoulders. The cold bit into his fur at once, and he began to shake.
>"Surrender my gifts, and I will release you," the owl told him. "Surrender my gifts, and I will let you live, to bear a message to your kin. Our pact is ended. Never again will you quest beyond the smallness of your world, lest I hunt every last one of you to the ends of this earth."
>And with that warning, Nyctea took to silent wings and vanished forever into the dark.
- A story like this one was likely a teaching tool or cultural codification about the risks of overexpansion.
- Cultural taxologists believe it served as a warning of the inherent risks in moving too far from an established enclave. Variants of the story among other Myomorpha subfamilies emphasize the impact of inclement weather, immediate shortages of food or shelter, or indeed encounters with other predator species: all of these were significant threats to small mammals at the time.
tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:52:07 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
>Acomys returned to his enclave without any of the great owl's gifts, and told his kin what he had experienced.
>The story he shared caused a great fear among them: a fear of Nyctea, and a fear of Acomys himself.
>They fell to argument and bitter disagreement. Some refused to relinquish the gifts that had brought them such plenty and comfort. Others threw down their tools and gave up the blessings they had enjoyed, in fear of what terrors the Great Owl might visit upon them.
>And in the hard days of winter that followed, when food was once again scarce and the cold stole in, most blamed Acomys and his tidings. This brought him great sorrow and guilt, until one day he despaired and denied Nyctea's last decree.
>He left the enclave in winter's long night, without tools or food to survive the journey.
>And like all those that ventured out into the dark from that day forward, he never returned.
- Notably, warning stories among Myomorpha in general and concerning Acomys in particular declined almost immediately in the congrecene. Experts agree that the ensuing social and evolutionary changes across all of Mammalia rendered old warnings less critical.
The Acomys myth in this exhibit is based on the Musser Translation. Scholarly consensus is that is the most accurate extant version of the earliest Myomorpha texts.
Imagery is from the Darfish Pliocene Collection and the Castell Stone.
This exhibit is made possible through a grant from the Zootopia Metropolitan Scientific And Cultural Development Fund.
The Zootopia Natural History Museum would also like to thank:
The Curators
Zootopia University department of congrecenic taxology
The Darfish Foundation
Arthur Hafner and Merrriam Light, Rodentia Science Directorate
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:49:17 by tangerine
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4 comments (0 hidden)
tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:51:31 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
https://desuarchive.org/trash/thread/34545144#34608342
tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:51:43 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
>"Do you not fear the darkness?" the voice asked.
>It sounded from before and behind them, as if at once from a great distance and from within. Acomys had never heard such a voice. It made the fear flutter in his chest; but he was proud and confident, and he gripped his scythe tighter in his paws.
>"For what should we fear?" He demanded. "Our blades are sharp and our cloaks are warm. Our tools have made us masters of this valley."
>"You forget the way of things," the voice told him. "What use is a blade against something you can't see?"
>Then a wind rushed down the stone mountain, so ferocious that Acomys cowered in the rocks and hid his muzzle. When he dared to look out again, his companion Kivumys was gone, vanished without a trace.
>Now the terror seized Acomys, and he turned to escape back down the mountain and into the trees and grass of the valley, where it was safe.
>But as he leapt from rock to rock and scurried between the boulders, the wind bit at him and made his limbs leaden and slow. He began to falter.
>"No borrowed warmth can stand against the cold forever," the voice said.
>Acomys came to a narrow defile in the rocks, where the way was blocked.
>He turned and demanded, "Show yourself!"
>"As you wish," the voice on the cold wind replied.
>The clouds in the sky cleared away from the moon, and Acomys beheld in horror the shattered mountain rearing above him, and the field of bleached mouse bones that made up its slopes.
>And when he made to flee, there lighting before him on a low branch across the path was the nightmare visage of Nyctea.
- Even in modern examples, there is little evidence that avian intelligence approaches that of mammals.
- While Nyctea's depiction here is mythological, cultural taxologists believe his characterization mirrors important existential pressures of the time.
tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:51:59 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
>"This is my domain," the owl told him, and spread his wings to cover the whole sky. His eyes became two silvery stars. "This is the great and terrible secret that you were never meant to see."
>The wind rushed again and Acomys was pinned in the dirt by razor talons, far more fearsome than any reaping tool.
>"You forget your place," Nyctea said. "You flout the laws I set your forebears."
>"Great Owl," said Acomys, "Spare me! Let me go, and I will agree to your laws."
>"My laws were set far before your time," Nyctea replied. "They were fixed, to be as the sun rises in the day, and the moon in the night. They were never to be broken. And yet here you are."
>"Please, Great One." Acomys threw away his scythe in appeasement. "Set me free, and I will never leave home again."
>"Indeed, you will not." Nyctea released him, but his talons caught and shredded the cloak from Acomys' shoulders. The cold bit into his fur at once, and he began to shake.
>"Surrender my gifts, and I will release you," the owl told him. "Surrender my gifts, and I will let you live, to bear a message to your kin. Our pact is ended. Never again will you quest beyond the smallness of your world, lest I hunt every last one of you to the ends of this earth."
>And with that warning, Nyctea took to silent wings and vanished forever into the dark.
- A story like this one was likely a teaching tool or cultural codification about the risks of overexpansion.
- Cultural taxologists believe it served as a warning of the inherent risks in moving too far from an established enclave. Variants of the story among other Myomorpha subfamilies emphasize the impact of inclement weather, immediate shortages of food or shelter, or indeed encounters with other predator species: all of these were significant threats to small mammals at the time.
tangerine
Posted on 2020-12-08 23:52:07 Score: 0 (vote Up/Down) (Report as spam)
>Acomys returned to his enclave without any of the great owl's gifts, and told his kin what he had experienced.
>The story he shared caused a great fear among them: a fear of Nyctea, and a fear of Acomys himself.
>They fell to argument and bitter disagreement. Some refused to relinquish the gifts that had brought them such plenty and comfort. Others threw down their tools and gave up the blessings they had enjoyed, in fear of what terrors the Great Owl might visit upon them.
>And in the hard days of winter that followed, when food was once again scarce and the cold stole in, most blamed Acomys and his tidings. This brought him great sorrow and guilt, until one day he despaired and denied Nyctea's last decree.
>He left the enclave in winter's long night, without tools or food to survive the journey.
>And like all those that ventured out into the dark from that day forward, he never returned.
- Notably, warning stories among Myomorpha in general and concerning Acomys in particular declined almost immediately in the congrecene. Experts agree that the ensuing social and evolutionary changes across all of Mammalia rendered old warnings less critical.
The Acomys myth in this exhibit is based on the Musser Translation. Scholarly consensus is that is the most accurate extant version of the earliest Myomorpha texts.
Imagery is from the Darfish Pliocene Collection and the Castell Stone.
This exhibit is made possible through a grant from the Zootopia Metropolitan Scientific And Cultural Development Fund.
The Zootopia Natural History Museum would also like to thank:
The Curators
Zootopia University department of congrecenic taxology
The Darfish Foundation
Arthur Hafner and Merrriam Light, Rodentia Science Directorate
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