Backerkit has a new fun thing called Community Achievements, and we're tapping it when we reach 3,000 backers for a live reading session over on my Instagram! When we hit 3,000 backers, I'll announce in an update when the readings will take place, and probably break it up in two sections throughout the day for a couple hours each, so that people in various time zones can still take part.

The readings will be general for the world, or for whoever asks in the Instagram live!

You can follow the Publishing Goblin IG ahead of time here: https://www.instagram.com/publishinggoblin/

Seven lore time! I hold an MFA in Poetry from Columbia College Chicago, but I had other academic aspirations at one point in time (and still kind of do!). When I applied for Master's programs originally, I applied to schools for Poetry and Fiction writing, but I also applied to schools for Religious Studies and Cultural Anthropology. I have long been fascinated by the place myth, folklore, faith, and religion hold in our lives. You can see this clearly in the Alleyman Podcast, where I explore my desires to study modern myth through Doctor Ala Okoye. So I'd like to share a little about one of my favorite strangenesses of modern religions. Ha-Satan, the Accuser.

In Judaism, there was (and is) no Hell, nor a Devil. Many cultural factors helped form this demon over time in Abrahamic tradition leading up to Christianity's take on the tradition. Of note, during the Jewish exile to Babylon, they interacted at length with Zoroastrians, who had a clear good god and an evil god. It's not hard to imagine how the Jewish people may have been interested in this idea-- as it stood, this was their second exile and it was hard to keep faith when you believed your god did all things-- good and bad-- when you, the chosen people, were exiled from your city yet again. This being as the one who evil comes from was a helpful way to place blame of evil somewhere other than your beloved lord.

If we look into the old tales of satan, we find ha-satan. Literal translation as: The Accuser. Satan was not in opposition to God, but actually acted as God's accuser, testing and accusing man, holding them to their word and faith. At times the angel went too far, but never was it done in his own desires, he always worked on behalf of God. Who exactly Satan was, as an angel, is a hard thing to track. Fallen angels are named in some books and not others-- apocryphal texts with names like Sataniel-- and even the fall of Lucifer is unclear in the bible, as the passage most often referred to as relating to the fall isn't actually about that at all.

But I've always thought of this strange figure of ha-satan-- the accuser. One who accused on behalf of his lord, who crafted trials and questions to keep people on the right path, and all the mess that came after, until his accusations were mistaken for cruelty by an evil demon meant to torture us. Satan has often been viewed as a strange, tragic figure for this long path of his myth, from angel to forsaken demon, and the actual background is so much messier still.

(People can fact check me if they desire, it's been about a decade since I wrote a paper on the topic, and I'm definitely waxing poetic!)

So from the winding halls of collective cultural myth and faith, coming to accuse us to test our strength of will, never to damn us or harm us, comes The Accuser, lord of the Obstacles die.

In the next update, I'll be sharing a fun new poll, another fun new backerkit feature, of who y'all would like to see on the new cover for the dice set! We were going to just make the cover and show it by now, but czarfunkle actually thought it would be fun to do a poll after more lords were done and revealed, and I agree. So in the next update, I'll include a poll with a list of the lords shown thus far and we'll see by vote who all we want to see on the cover! I will likely include the most voted for on the front, and the second most on the back cover, just so no one feels left out!

Note that we are looking to have multiple lords on the cover, so no worries, it won't just be one of the 21! : )

Talk again very soon!
your Pub Gob,
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