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Bizarro World History 101: Monster Origins
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<blockquote data-quote="demiurge1138" data-source="post: 1122366" data-attributes="member: 7451"><p><strong>Part 2: Formorian - Nymph</strong> </p><p></p><p>Formorian: The misshapen giants of Dungeons and Dragons are actually close to their legendary ancestors. The original formorians were Celtic giants who were transformed into monsters by the firbolg (also a Dungeons and Dragons giant). They demanded tribute from the human tribes who lived near their demands, and waged war on tribes that wouldn’t pay, They had several leaders over the ages, including Balor of the Baleful Eye (q.v.), and could mate with human women and produce offspring.</p><p></p><p>Ghast: The ghast is the creation of famed horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. In his short novella, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, the ghasts are horrible leaping creatures that hunt in packs and are enemies of the gugs, massive four-armed giants. Since the story also features ghouls, and the name ghast was probably conceived as a parallel, the ghast became a more powerful version of ghoul in Dungeons and Dragons.</p><p></p><p>Ghoul: These eaters of the dead were originally, in the folklore of Arabia, a degenerate species of djinn without as much magic as their kin. Ghouls were still deadly, though, especially to those who interrupted them in their consumption of flesh taken from new graves, their favorite food. H.P. Lovecraft then transformed the ghoul into a hideous breed of corpse eating undead traversing the boundaries of dream in the short stories Pickman’s Model and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. The ghoul of Dungeons and Dragons is most likely based on Lovecraft’s ghoul.</p><p></p><p>Giant, Frost and Fire: The frost and fire giants are derived from Nordic mythology, as are many other Dungeons and Dragons races. The fire giants, were the lords of Muspelheim, the land of fire. Their lord was Surtur, who was destined to destroy all the world in Ragnarok by fire. The fire giants were brutal and cruel, and plotted against both the gods and the frost giants. The frost giants of Jotunheim were even crueler, and hated the gods for killing Ymir, the first giant, in order to create the universe.</p><p></p><p>Gnoll: Although gnolls are hyena-men, the name comes from the combination of “gnome” and “troll”. I just thought this was important.</p><p></p><p>Goblin: Goblins were originally a malicious form of fey, but Tolkien adapted them into evil subterranean humanoids for his book The Hobbit. The goblins of Dungeons and Dragons, including their tendency to take slaves and preference for wolves and wargs/worgs as mounts, are directly stolen from Tolkien. See orc.</p><p></p><p>Golem: The only actual golems were made of clay. The secret to creating these creatures was fiercely guarded by rabbis, who would build golems in times of crisis in order to provide labor and protection. The golems were prone to going berserk, however; if this happened, the only way to stop the monster was to partially erase the inscription on the construct’s forehead, from emat (truth) to mat (death); this would cause the monster to crumble to dust.</p><p> The other golems in Dungeons and Dragons have disparate origins. The flesh golem was almost certainly inspired by Frankenstein, and the iron golem is reminiscent of Talos, the guardian statue encountered by Jason. Talos, being made of iron and bronze, had the ability to conduct heat; he would sit in a bonfire when he saw a ship, and then hug and burn to death anybody who came ashore.</p><p></p><p>Gorgon: The gorgon is the not-so-natural evolution of Hetrodous’ catoblepas (q.v.). Edward Topsell, in his natural history, gave the catoblepas scales and deadly breath that could petrify enemies, and called it the gorgon in honor of Medusa and her sisters.</p><p></p><p>Griffin: This famous eagle-lion hybrid can be traced back almost 5,000 years to Mesopotamia and Scythia, making it one of the oldest commonly recognized mythical beasts. Some anthropologists have theorized that the griffin was inspired by skeletons of the dinosaur Protoceratops; the dinosaurs’ remains could conceivably be found in the deserts of Mesopotamia, and its combination of a hooked beak and powerful legs is evocative of both eagles and lions.</p><p></p><p>Halfling: The halflings are another direct steal from the works of Tolkien. The name halfling is generic enough that TSR could get away with using it, as opposed to the name hobbit, which Tolkien popularized (hobbits were originally yet another fey creature).</p><p></p><p>Harpy: The harpy in Dungeons and Dragons is a hybrid of the original Greek harpy and siren. The harpies were hideous birds with the heads and arms of women, who were sent to torment the blind king Phineus, who displeased the gods, by contaminating his food before he could eat. They were dispatched by Jason, who pitied Phineus. The Sirens were another type of bird-women, whose song was so alluring that men would leap off their boats and into their arms, upon which the Sirens would kill and eat them.</p><p></p><p>Hell Hound, Shadow Mastiff and Yeth Hound: These three infernal canines are all descendants of the black dogs of British folktales. Either faerie creatures or instruments of the Devil, black dogs were spectral hounds who would torment humans. Seeing one was considered to bring bad luck, and actually meeting one’s gaze meant certain death. Various types of black dogs were capable of flight, teleportation, breathing fire and other strange and frightening abilities.</p><p></p><p>Hippogriff: The hippogriff (half griffin, half horse) is derived from the novel Orlando Furioso. In it, the wizard Atlantes captures a hippogriff as a steed. Since the griffin and the horse were considered to be mortal enemies, an aphorism (and the inspiration for the hippogriff) in Latin for the impossible was “to cross griffins with horses”. </p><p></p><p>Homunculus: The familiar created by alchemy was actually considered to be real at one point in history, during the high point of the alchemical trade. Homunculuses were originally stunted little men who could not survive outside of water for long, and were created using blood, semen and various other chemicals and secretions. The alchemist Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein actually “created” ten homunculuses in the late sixteenth century; what they actually were remains unknown to this day.</p><p></p><p>Hydra: The hydra (a massive draconic creature whose multiple heads have the annoying tendency to grow back) was originally a creature of Greek origin. The Hydra (there was only one) haunted the swamps of Lernaea, and the hero Herakles was sent to kill it as one of his ten labors. Every time he would crush one of its heads with his club, two more would grow back. Eventually Herakles had his torchbearer Iolaus cauterize the heads before they could grow back, and then he cut off its central head (which was immortal) and buried it. Since Herakles had assistance, this labor was not counted as the ten he needed to complete as penance. Unlike the Dungeons and Dragons hydra, originally the creature had poisonous breath and blood, and arrows dipped in the Hydra’s venom factor into several of Herakles’ other adventures.</p><p></p><p>Kobold: The original kobolds were yet another fey race, and a particularly disruptive one. According to German mining lore, the kobolds would steal all of the iron from mountains and replace it with their own bluish, weak metal. This metal was then found by the aggravated miners, who named it cobalt. Kobolds are one of the Dungeons and Dragons creatures to change the most after they have been adopted into the game; originally the kobolds were doglike, but now they are reptilian.</p><p></p><p>Kraken: The kraken was the Norse exaggeration of the giant squid. In real life, the giant squid is monstrous, growing to 60 feet long from tentacle to the tip of the mantle. In sailor’s tales, the kraken could grow to be miles wide, and it was fond of eating sailors it had pulled from ships. The kraken liked to bask on the surface of the ocean, and tales were told of ships that had landed on krakens and sailors who had camped on them before realizing that they were alive. </p><p></p><p>Lamia: The lamia of Dungeons and Dragons is fairly similar to the lamia of Greek traveler’s tales and myths. Both are human-animal hybrids that drain the life from travelers they lure to them in human guise. Like many Dungeons and Dragons adaptations, however, the lamia is far more magical then its historical counterpart. Also, the lower half of the Greek lamia was more flexible then the lion-like DnD version; Greek lamias could have the bodies of lions, serpents or jackals. The first Lamia was one of many consorts of Zeus, who was transformed by Hera in a fit of jealousy. The lamia was "verified" by Hetrodotus' reference to it living in Ethiopia, and by the Middle Ages, they were an entire species of monsters. </p><p></p><p>Lammasu: The lammasu in Dungeons and Dragons (winged lion with a human head) is very similar to its Babylonian ancestor. The predominant difference, however, is that in Babylonian traditions, the lamassu (the Babylonian spelling) was always female; they were the counterparts of the always male shedu. Also of note are the five-legged sculptures of shedu; this feature was incorporated into the 3rd Edition shedu. This was a trick used by Babylonian sculptors to produce the illusion of three dimensions, much like the sideways torsos in Egyptian paintings.</p><p></p><p>Lich: The word “lich” is Old English for “body”, and later took on the context of the dead body or corpse. How it became applied to a type of undead is not difficult to determine.</p><p></p><p>Lycanthropes: This could be the basis for an essay in and of itself. Every culture has legends of men that can turn themselves into animals. The most famous is, of course, the werewolf. The werewolf can be dated back to Greek and Roman times, where it was believed that the first werewolf was Lycaeon, who sacrificed his son to Zeus and was turned into a wolf as punishment. The affliction of lycanthropy, and the categorization of lycanthrope are named after him. The common belief that werewolves could only be harmed by silver is younger, dating to medieval times, when silver was considered to be a sacred metal. The belief that a werewolf transforms on the full moon is a Hollywood invention.</p><p> The term “were-__” is used to describe lycanthropes because “were” was an old English word for “man”. Also of note is lycanthropy as a psychological affliction. This mental illness is categorized by the sufferer believing themselves to be animals and acting like them. During the Middle Ages, many people were put to death for being werewolves and killing and eating children, women and livestock. Some of these cases were certainly frame-jobs, but others of them might have been due to actual serial killers, and a few of them might be attributable to actual cases of lycanthropy.</p><p></p><p>Manticore: The manticore of Dungeons and Dragons is far more homogenized than the historical manticore. The name comes from the Persian “mardkhora”, which means “man-slayer”, and the beast may be an exaggeration of traveler’s tales of the tiger. The manticore was said to have the head of a human with a red face and three rows of teeth, the body of a lion and a tail covered in spines (sometimes, the tail is that of a scorpion). The creature fed solely on human flesh, and killed by shooting its toxic spines out of its tail like darts.</p><p></p><p>Medusa: The Medusa (like so many creatures translated into Dungeons and Dragons from Greek myth, she was originally unique) was the third Gorgon, and the only one who was mortal. The Gorgons were beautiful women; so beautiful, in fact, that Poseidon was so overcome with lust that he seduced Medusa and had sex with her in a temple to Athena. Enraged, Athena transformed Medusa and her sisters into hideous creatures with tusked mouths, bronze wings and claws, and snakes for hair. Medusa was so ugly that her gaze could turn anyone who saw it into stone. Perseus was forced to slay the Medusa for King Polydectes, and he did so with the help of Athena, Hermes and a mirrored shield.</p><p></p><p>Merfolk: Mermen and mermaids (merfolk being the PC modification for 3rd Edition) were originally creatures of terror, not of children’s tales. Only in Scandinavia were the mer-beings viewed with sympathy. Mermen were blamed with sinking ships and causing storms, and mermaids lured men to their deaths with their beauty and singing, much like the Sirens (see harpy). Recently, cultural anthropologists have declared that mermaids were based of sighting of dugongs and manatees, but not only do these tales not come from areas frequented by sea cows, it would be difficult for even the loneliest sailor to mistake a manatee for a beautiful mermaid.</p><p></p><p>Minotaur: The Minotaur, whose true name was Asterion, was the son of Queen Pasiphae and the Bull of Crete, conceived in an act of lust. Minos, Pasiphae’s husband, was horrified, and imprisoned his “son” in a massive labyrinth built by Daedelus, his court architect and inventor. Even more horrifying then the Minotaur’s bull-headed appearance was his cannibalistic nature, and Minos demanded seven virgins as tribute from Athens every year in order to feed him. The hero and god-son Theseus arranged for himself to be selected for the lottery in order to slay the Minotaur and end the sacrifices, and seduced Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, who gave him a ball of string which he used to trace his path through the labyrinth. In some versions of the tale she smuggles him a sword; in others Theseus kills the Minotaur in his bare hands.</p><p></p><p>Naga: The naga of Indian lore was rather different then the human-headed snakes of Dungeons and Dragons. The nagas were semi-divine beings who were serpentine from the waist down but human from the waist up. They could assume serpent form, and the most powerful ones had multiple heads. Most were benevolent and served the gods, but some were malicious and conspired against them. The evil nagas, and their appearance, was probably formative in the concept of the yuan-ti.</p><p></p><p>Nymph: The nymphs are yet another Greek supernatural being; they were the daughters of river gods and the guardians of sacred areas of natural beauty. Despite their beauty, most nymphs were celibate, and many tales of the nymphs involve them turning themselves into trees and other vegetation in order to avoid sex (often with Apollo or Pan). The nymphs of Dungeons and Dragons are unique in their painful (and originally, deadly) beauty.</p><p></p><p>Demiurge out.</p></blockquote><p></p>
[QUOTE="demiurge1138, post: 1122366, member: 7451"] [B]Part 2: Formorian - Nymph[/B] Formorian: The misshapen giants of Dungeons and Dragons are actually close to their legendary ancestors. The original formorians were Celtic giants who were transformed into monsters by the firbolg (also a Dungeons and Dragons giant). They demanded tribute from the human tribes who lived near their demands, and waged war on tribes that wouldn’t pay, They had several leaders over the ages, including Balor of the Baleful Eye (q.v.), and could mate with human women and produce offspring. Ghast: The ghast is the creation of famed horror writer H.P. Lovecraft. In his short novella, The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath, the ghasts are horrible leaping creatures that hunt in packs and are enemies of the gugs, massive four-armed giants. Since the story also features ghouls, and the name ghast was probably conceived as a parallel, the ghast became a more powerful version of ghoul in Dungeons and Dragons. Ghoul: These eaters of the dead were originally, in the folklore of Arabia, a degenerate species of djinn without as much magic as their kin. Ghouls were still deadly, though, especially to those who interrupted them in their consumption of flesh taken from new graves, their favorite food. H.P. Lovecraft then transformed the ghoul into a hideous breed of corpse eating undead traversing the boundaries of dream in the short stories Pickman’s Model and The Dream-Quest of Unknown Kadath. The ghoul of Dungeons and Dragons is most likely based on Lovecraft’s ghoul. Giant, Frost and Fire: The frost and fire giants are derived from Nordic mythology, as are many other Dungeons and Dragons races. The fire giants, were the lords of Muspelheim, the land of fire. Their lord was Surtur, who was destined to destroy all the world in Ragnarok by fire. The fire giants were brutal and cruel, and plotted against both the gods and the frost giants. The frost giants of Jotunheim were even crueler, and hated the gods for killing Ymir, the first giant, in order to create the universe. Gnoll: Although gnolls are hyena-men, the name comes from the combination of “gnome” and “troll”. I just thought this was important. Goblin: Goblins were originally a malicious form of fey, but Tolkien adapted them into evil subterranean humanoids for his book The Hobbit. The goblins of Dungeons and Dragons, including their tendency to take slaves and preference for wolves and wargs/worgs as mounts, are directly stolen from Tolkien. See orc. Golem: The only actual golems were made of clay. The secret to creating these creatures was fiercely guarded by rabbis, who would build golems in times of crisis in order to provide labor and protection. The golems were prone to going berserk, however; if this happened, the only way to stop the monster was to partially erase the inscription on the construct’s forehead, from emat (truth) to mat (death); this would cause the monster to crumble to dust. The other golems in Dungeons and Dragons have disparate origins. The flesh golem was almost certainly inspired by Frankenstein, and the iron golem is reminiscent of Talos, the guardian statue encountered by Jason. Talos, being made of iron and bronze, had the ability to conduct heat; he would sit in a bonfire when he saw a ship, and then hug and burn to death anybody who came ashore. Gorgon: The gorgon is the not-so-natural evolution of Hetrodous’ catoblepas (q.v.). Edward Topsell, in his natural history, gave the catoblepas scales and deadly breath that could petrify enemies, and called it the gorgon in honor of Medusa and her sisters. Griffin: This famous eagle-lion hybrid can be traced back almost 5,000 years to Mesopotamia and Scythia, making it one of the oldest commonly recognized mythical beasts. Some anthropologists have theorized that the griffin was inspired by skeletons of the dinosaur Protoceratops; the dinosaurs’ remains could conceivably be found in the deserts of Mesopotamia, and its combination of a hooked beak and powerful legs is evocative of both eagles and lions. Halfling: The halflings are another direct steal from the works of Tolkien. The name halfling is generic enough that TSR could get away with using it, as opposed to the name hobbit, which Tolkien popularized (hobbits were originally yet another fey creature). Harpy: The harpy in Dungeons and Dragons is a hybrid of the original Greek harpy and siren. The harpies were hideous birds with the heads and arms of women, who were sent to torment the blind king Phineus, who displeased the gods, by contaminating his food before he could eat. They were dispatched by Jason, who pitied Phineus. The Sirens were another type of bird-women, whose song was so alluring that men would leap off their boats and into their arms, upon which the Sirens would kill and eat them. Hell Hound, Shadow Mastiff and Yeth Hound: These three infernal canines are all descendants of the black dogs of British folktales. Either faerie creatures or instruments of the Devil, black dogs were spectral hounds who would torment humans. Seeing one was considered to bring bad luck, and actually meeting one’s gaze meant certain death. Various types of black dogs were capable of flight, teleportation, breathing fire and other strange and frightening abilities. Hippogriff: The hippogriff (half griffin, half horse) is derived from the novel Orlando Furioso. In it, the wizard Atlantes captures a hippogriff as a steed. Since the griffin and the horse were considered to be mortal enemies, an aphorism (and the inspiration for the hippogriff) in Latin for the impossible was “to cross griffins with horses”. Homunculus: The familiar created by alchemy was actually considered to be real at one point in history, during the high point of the alchemical trade. Homunculuses were originally stunted little men who could not survive outside of water for long, and were created using blood, semen and various other chemicals and secretions. The alchemist Count Johann Ferdinand von Kufstein actually “created” ten homunculuses in the late sixteenth century; what they actually were remains unknown to this day. Hydra: The hydra (a massive draconic creature whose multiple heads have the annoying tendency to grow back) was originally a creature of Greek origin. The Hydra (there was only one) haunted the swamps of Lernaea, and the hero Herakles was sent to kill it as one of his ten labors. Every time he would crush one of its heads with his club, two more would grow back. Eventually Herakles had his torchbearer Iolaus cauterize the heads before they could grow back, and then he cut off its central head (which was immortal) and buried it. Since Herakles had assistance, this labor was not counted as the ten he needed to complete as penance. Unlike the Dungeons and Dragons hydra, originally the creature had poisonous breath and blood, and arrows dipped in the Hydra’s venom factor into several of Herakles’ other adventures. Kobold: The original kobolds were yet another fey race, and a particularly disruptive one. According to German mining lore, the kobolds would steal all of the iron from mountains and replace it with their own bluish, weak metal. This metal was then found by the aggravated miners, who named it cobalt. Kobolds are one of the Dungeons and Dragons creatures to change the most after they have been adopted into the game; originally the kobolds were doglike, but now they are reptilian. Kraken: The kraken was the Norse exaggeration of the giant squid. In real life, the giant squid is monstrous, growing to 60 feet long from tentacle to the tip of the mantle. In sailor’s tales, the kraken could grow to be miles wide, and it was fond of eating sailors it had pulled from ships. The kraken liked to bask on the surface of the ocean, and tales were told of ships that had landed on krakens and sailors who had camped on them before realizing that they were alive. Lamia: The lamia of Dungeons and Dragons is fairly similar to the lamia of Greek traveler’s tales and myths. Both are human-animal hybrids that drain the life from travelers they lure to them in human guise. Like many Dungeons and Dragons adaptations, however, the lamia is far more magical then its historical counterpart. Also, the lower half of the Greek lamia was more flexible then the lion-like DnD version; Greek lamias could have the bodies of lions, serpents or jackals. The first Lamia was one of many consorts of Zeus, who was transformed by Hera in a fit of jealousy. The lamia was "verified" by Hetrodotus' reference to it living in Ethiopia, and by the Middle Ages, they were an entire species of monsters. Lammasu: The lammasu in Dungeons and Dragons (winged lion with a human head) is very similar to its Babylonian ancestor. The predominant difference, however, is that in Babylonian traditions, the lamassu (the Babylonian spelling) was always female; they were the counterparts of the always male shedu. Also of note are the five-legged sculptures of shedu; this feature was incorporated into the 3rd Edition shedu. This was a trick used by Babylonian sculptors to produce the illusion of three dimensions, much like the sideways torsos in Egyptian paintings. Lich: The word “lich” is Old English for “body”, and later took on the context of the dead body or corpse. How it became applied to a type of undead is not difficult to determine. Lycanthropes: This could be the basis for an essay in and of itself. Every culture has legends of men that can turn themselves into animals. The most famous is, of course, the werewolf. The werewolf can be dated back to Greek and Roman times, where it was believed that the first werewolf was Lycaeon, who sacrificed his son to Zeus and was turned into a wolf as punishment. The affliction of lycanthropy, and the categorization of lycanthrope are named after him. The common belief that werewolves could only be harmed by silver is younger, dating to medieval times, when silver was considered to be a sacred metal. The belief that a werewolf transforms on the full moon is a Hollywood invention. The term “were-__” is used to describe lycanthropes because “were” was an old English word for “man”. Also of note is lycanthropy as a psychological affliction. This mental illness is categorized by the sufferer believing themselves to be animals and acting like them. During the Middle Ages, many people were put to death for being werewolves and killing and eating children, women and livestock. Some of these cases were certainly frame-jobs, but others of them might have been due to actual serial killers, and a few of them might be attributable to actual cases of lycanthropy. Manticore: The manticore of Dungeons and Dragons is far more homogenized than the historical manticore. The name comes from the Persian “mardkhora”, which means “man-slayer”, and the beast may be an exaggeration of traveler’s tales of the tiger. The manticore was said to have the head of a human with a red face and three rows of teeth, the body of a lion and a tail covered in spines (sometimes, the tail is that of a scorpion). The creature fed solely on human flesh, and killed by shooting its toxic spines out of its tail like darts. Medusa: The Medusa (like so many creatures translated into Dungeons and Dragons from Greek myth, she was originally unique) was the third Gorgon, and the only one who was mortal. The Gorgons were beautiful women; so beautiful, in fact, that Poseidon was so overcome with lust that he seduced Medusa and had sex with her in a temple to Athena. Enraged, Athena transformed Medusa and her sisters into hideous creatures with tusked mouths, bronze wings and claws, and snakes for hair. Medusa was so ugly that her gaze could turn anyone who saw it into stone. Perseus was forced to slay the Medusa for King Polydectes, and he did so with the help of Athena, Hermes and a mirrored shield. Merfolk: Mermen and mermaids (merfolk being the PC modification for 3rd Edition) were originally creatures of terror, not of children’s tales. Only in Scandinavia were the mer-beings viewed with sympathy. Mermen were blamed with sinking ships and causing storms, and mermaids lured men to their deaths with their beauty and singing, much like the Sirens (see harpy). Recently, cultural anthropologists have declared that mermaids were based of sighting of dugongs and manatees, but not only do these tales not come from areas frequented by sea cows, it would be difficult for even the loneliest sailor to mistake a manatee for a beautiful mermaid. Minotaur: The Minotaur, whose true name was Asterion, was the son of Queen Pasiphae and the Bull of Crete, conceived in an act of lust. Minos, Pasiphae’s husband, was horrified, and imprisoned his “son” in a massive labyrinth built by Daedelus, his court architect and inventor. Even more horrifying then the Minotaur’s bull-headed appearance was his cannibalistic nature, and Minos demanded seven virgins as tribute from Athens every year in order to feed him. The hero and god-son Theseus arranged for himself to be selected for the lottery in order to slay the Minotaur and end the sacrifices, and seduced Minos’ daughter, Ariadne, who gave him a ball of string which he used to trace his path through the labyrinth. In some versions of the tale she smuggles him a sword; in others Theseus kills the Minotaur in his bare hands. Naga: The naga of Indian lore was rather different then the human-headed snakes of Dungeons and Dragons. The nagas were semi-divine beings who were serpentine from the waist down but human from the waist up. They could assume serpent form, and the most powerful ones had multiple heads. Most were benevolent and served the gods, but some were malicious and conspired against them. The evil nagas, and their appearance, was probably formative in the concept of the yuan-ti. Nymph: The nymphs are yet another Greek supernatural being; they were the daughters of river gods and the guardians of sacred areas of natural beauty. Despite their beauty, most nymphs were celibate, and many tales of the nymphs involve them turning themselves into trees and other vegetation in order to avoid sex (often with Apollo or Pan). The nymphs of Dungeons and Dragons are unique in their painful (and originally, deadly) beauty. Demiurge out. [/QUOTE]
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