u/SpectrumDT

I recently watched Maul: Shadow Lord.

I notice that Maul is very outraged about being betrayed, and that he is constantly trying to make deals and alliances. This gives the impression that Maul is very concerned with honesty and loyalty.

In the series Maul is also mostly honest. He does not lie nor overtly betray anyone. (He subtly sabotages >!Daki during the fight in the final episode, which arguably counts as a betrayal, but does not obviously violate the deal that Maul has with Daki (which boils down to "escape together").!<)

I do not remember Maul's personality super-well from Clone Wars or other media. What is he like in general on this point? Is he mostly honest albeit evil, or do we see him lie and betray his allies elsewhere?

I asked an LLM. It said "no, Maul is not a man of his word", but the examples it gave looked like hallucinations to me, so I do not trust it. I would like some human opinions.

• There is no I in "team".
• I before E except after C.

I used the Waking Up app briefly a few years ago. I did not love it in general, but one thing I did like about it was the "moments" - mindfulness reminders that would pop up at random, accompanied by some helpful words.

Can anyone recommend another app that has something similar?

The key feature here is that the reminder is NOT just a fixed message, but a new one each time. That makes them much more impactful for me. If the mindfulness reminder that pops up is always the same, it becomes very easy for the mind to tune it out.

Thanks! :)

I am looking for albums with a collection of duets by a bass and another male singer. I have two:

• Samuel Ramey and Thomas Hampson - No Tenors Allowed.
• Ildar Abdrazakov and Rolando Villazón - simply called Duets.

I can find a few tenor/baritone duet collections, and plenty with a bass and a woman. But can you recommend me any other collections specifically with a bass and another male singer?

It does not have to be the same two singers on the whole album. A collection of duets with different singers is also acceptable.

Thanks!

Most of the named Noldor who left Aman eventually died in Middle-Earth (not counting Finarfin's host who turned back after the Kinslaying at Alqualonde).

This includes Fëanor and all of his sons save Maglor (whose fate is unknown), Fingolfin and all of his children, and the sons of Finarfin.

In the published Silmarillion, Idril returned to Valinor with Tuor some time near the end of the First Age. And at the end of the Third Age or the beginning of the Fourth, Galadriel sails west.

These are the only named Noldor I know of who returned alive from exile. I do not count Celebrían nor Elrond - they were both born in Middle-Earth; they did not leave Aman.

(Of course Círdan and Celeborn do not count either; they were Sindar and never came to Aman in the first place.)

Glorfindel is a candidate. He was slain in exile during the First Age but was re-embodied and came back to Middle-Earth during the Second Age. He presumably sailed west at some point, but nothing is known.

Are there any others that I have forgotten or do not know about?

Early drafts also count.

In pre-modern times, disease was often attributed to demonic beings and/or sorcery. "Witches" were often suspected of bringing disease upon their enemies, and "a pox on you" is a well-known curse.

I have not seen much fantasy fiction that explored this. In some worlds, evil magic poisons the environment as an accidental side effect (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons: Dark Sun or the undead blight in Warcraft III), but I don't remember any stories where sorcerers deliberately call down disease upon their foes.

(Stephen Marley's Spirit Mirror has creatures that cause "disease" with their touch, but this kills the victim in minutes, so it feels more like poison than disease.)

One obvious reason is that it's difficult to turn this into a good story. The ability to cause disease is difficult to balance - it is either highly un-dramatic or super-overpowered, depending on the limitations. But the parallels with real religion and folklore makes it feel evocative. I am interested in seeing this explored more.

Have any of you explored this in your worlds? Or can you cite any examples from published fiction?

This is a question that I started thinking about recently which I do not think I have seen addressed in any fiction or role-playing game I have read.

Human dwellings have always attracted vermin and other animals. Rats, mice, and flies come to feed on stores of human food. These in turn attract predators like cats, snakes, and spiders. (These predators are effectively symbiotes that help humans get rid of their parasites, whether the humans appreciate them or not.) Many other small animals seek shelter from their own predators in human houses, such as pillbugs.

In J.R.R. Tolkien's The Hobbit (which I read recently for my son), the lair of the dragon Smaug is described as completely still and lifeless. This seems odd to me. The lair is huge. Even if there is no fresh food (Smaug can apparently sleep for decades without eating), there is bound to be something that living things can eat. The dragon can of course kill vermin with fire, but they are bound to return, and to keep a great lair completely clean would entail a lot of effort for a lazy dragon.

A possible explanation is that Smaug's great spiritual power and evil instills such terror that even pillbugs dare not enter his lair.

That explanation works well in Tolkien's world. But there are many other fantasy worlds where dragons without such a spiritual presence dwell in caves and ruins and other lairs. (Dungeons and Dragons is an obvious example.) Yet I do not recall any books that have explored what vermin might live in dragon lairs.

A dragon might of course have minions or allies, but in this post I am more interested in "dumb" beasts - be they natural or supernatural, parasitic or symbiotic.

I am sure many of you in this sub come up with dragon stories and worlds of your own. Have any of you addressed this question in your worlds? :)

Today my wife told me about an episode where she and our 5-year-old son met a blind man on the bus, and our little guy went: "Mom, I think that man is blind!" He kept talking about the blind man, and my wife got more and more embarrassed and tried to get him to stop.

She used the argument: "What if people did it to you? What if they went 'look at that kid; he looks Chinese'? How would you feel about that?" (Our son is half Chinese.) He thought about it and said: "I would be OK with that." I think I would also be OK with it, but I am not the average person.

I would like some opinions from actual people with (visible) disabilities: How do you feel when children talk about you? What would you prefer the parents to do, if anything?

Thanks in advance!